GPU for a 5K monitor (Dell UP2715K)

[LostVector]

Hello,

I have a MacBook Pro Retina 15" with the R9 m370x and a Dell UP2715K.
And I have a eGPU (GTX 980 TI) under macOS Sierra 10.12.1 and it works fine.

And yes I have to start the Mac without the Dell 5K and start the display when it boots up.

Best regards

Wow thanks for the info guys! So this points to a few things ... it's not just a simple bug in the operating system or nVidia web drivers. Might be a specific hackintosh setting we have yet to discover or even something hardcoded in about the UP2715K (since I can't get it to work on my z27q). Getting more and more tempted to try that monitor...

 

[LostVector]

I just got my Dell UP2715k and I got it to work in 5k. I am ecstatic!

I am using the iMac 14,2 system definition with dual GTX 980 Ti's. Not sure it matters.

Like others said, you must power the Dell on only after the system is fully booted to at least the login screen. It is OK to have another monitor attached when you boot.

nv_spanmodepolicy=1 is necessary and must be enabled in the boot args via Clover or your own editing. It is not set directly into NVRAM as a separate variable like nvda_drv is in Sierra.

If you have sleep working already, wake appears to maintain 5k resolution without any issues. Also good.

There is definitely something wrong with HP Z27q support and I can't figure out what it is. Nothing I do with that monitor works to get it into 5k mode, and whatever switch is flipping when the Dell starts working does nothing for the HP. I suspect there is something hard coded in the nVidia drivers for the Dell. Oh well. It's still a serviceable secondary 4k monitor for the time being.

 

[marcomk]

Have 2 issues with the monitor:
1) I need to start macOS with the monitor off (the computer reboot constantly otherwise)
2) I have no audio on the monitor

The fact that I have to boot with the monitor turned off is not really a problem, but the missing audio is.

In case you haven't fixed your audio yet
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/new-automatic-hdmi-audio-script-released.184867/

 

[mathgeek]

Were you ever able to get this to work under Sierra so that the system wakes up again after the monitor goes to sleep? I am having problems getting this working with my system set as SMBIOS iMac17,1 but will try it as 14,2.

Crossposting from my other thread for other users seeking advice:

I bought an used GTX 970 (this one) for the time being, tested fresh and vanilla installs of 10.11.6 and 10.12 with Clover and it works *almost* out of the box with 5k.
SMBIOS iMac 14,2
nv_spanmodepolicy=1 kext-dev-mode=1

Only requirement: The monitor has to be off until OSX boots to the login screen. Powering the monitor on after complete boot shows correct 5k resolution.
If the monitor stays on during the boot process, OSX will recognize two separate screens.

I noticed that with 10.12, once the monitor goes to sleep, it doesn't wake up again, but the system is responsive. No such problem with 10.11. So I'll stay on 10.11 until Sierra has its bugs ironed out.

 

[LostVector]

I haven't found a way around this ... I think there's a crash in power management related to the nVidia drivers. Basically, you can't try to wake from display sleep or you'll kill the display drivers.

I have mostly worked around it by:

A. making sure the system sleeps when the display sleeps. Waking from system sleep seems to be fine.
B. making sure the screensaver kicks in before the system sleep. Because part of the system sleep is display sleep, if you try to "shake" the system out of it as it's going to sleep, you'll get the hang. This removes the temptation to do it at the wrong time.

 

[mathgeek]

I was able to make it work after cleaning up my configuration plist. Device looks great. Am now playing with Ouimeaux and LaunchAgents to get the monitor to automatically turn on when I restart the computer.

 

[XQC]

I was able to make it work after cleaning up my configuration plist. Device looks great. Am now playing with Ouimeaux and LaunchAgents to get the monitor to automatically turn on when I restart the computer.

Would be interesting, if you came up with a solution

I'm still on 10.11 btw. It works great.

 

[marcomk]

Would be interesting, if you came up with a solution
I'm still on 10.11 btw. It works great.

It would be useful (at least for me) to have some more details of the issues you all are experiencing and understand if they are tied to any particular configuration or hardware.
For me, adding nv_spanmodepolicy to boot arguments successfully enables 5k but also breaks sleep. With 5k, my system reboots at wake. Typing in Terminal:

pmset -g log | grep -i failure

I generally get this message:

Drivers Failure during wake due to PEG0()

Wake with 5k is mostly successful only if I switch off the monitor before sleep. However, display sleep always works fine for me.

Since the results of my tests were not entirely consistent lately, I'm currently working on a new setup. I will go back to the 5K sleep issue when I'll be sure that all the rest of my system is perfectly working.

 

[marcomk]

I haven't found a way around this ... I think there's a crash in power management related to the nVidia drivers. Basically, you can't try to wake from display sleep or you'll kill the display drivers.

Your issues are pretty different from mine. My sleep is broken but display sleep works fine. Can you describe your system?

 

[LostVector]

Your issues are pretty different from mine. My sleep is broken but display sleep works fine. Can you describe your system?

GA-Z170x-Designare, Core i7-6700k, 2 x GTX 980 Ti, 32GB RAM, macOS 10.12.3, iMac 14,2, darkwake=0, etc. etc. Tried to keep it very vanilla for best chance at compatibility.