Dell 5K + Sierra + 960 GTX = only headaches

[XQC]

Currently I am on Windows 10, and plan to switch back to Hackintosh once Nvidia releases the 1070 drivers.

However, I tried a fresh install with Sierra, the Dell 5K (UP2715K) display and a GTX 960, but I can't get it to work.
The 5K display requires two displayport connections. The monitor (or the OS?) merges the two signals to one display.
Everything works flawless with Windows 10, so it's not a hardware or connection issue.

What I get:
- (withouth tinkering) The display is recognized as two separate displays (iMac 14,1 or 14,2), resolutions 2560x1880 and 2560x1440
- (with tinkering) Black screen 9 of 10 times and one time it's actually working with the full 5120x2880 resolution (MacPro 6,1)

With tinkering I mean:
- Trying various SMBIOS MacbookPro to iMac to MacPro
- nv_spanmodepolicy 0 and 1
- AGDPfix
- Clover "on the fly" binary patch for the AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy.kext
- Mac Pixel Clock Patch (CoreDisplay)
- assigning the name GFX1 to GPU in ACPI tables
- Copying DisplayVendorID from other 5k monitors

I tried all possible combinations of these methods and also switched Displayports around, but I only get (a) two separate displays (b) 9 of 10 times a black screen and the one time it's actually working it is not reproduceable and pure luck (at least I know that it's working theoretically)

I read of a few people here who got this monitor to work in 5K, maybe someone can show me another direction?

 

[XQC]

(Edit: This post isn't relevant anymore, it works with another GPU - see following posts)

Didn't get any further but I noticed that the DisplayProductID file is ignored. The file was there from the beginning and in the
contents I can see, that it tells the OS to put the 2 signals together:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>display</key>
    <dict>
        <key>audio</key>
        <string>(1,1)</string>
        <key>backendtiming</key>
        <string>2560x2880@60</string>
        <key>frontendtiming</key>
        <string>5120x2880@60</string>
        <key>linkmode</key>
        <string>multi-cable</string>
        <key>overlay</key>
        <data>
        AP///////wAQrLZAUzQ0MC0YAQS1PCJ4IHIlrFAztyYLUFQAAAABAQEBAQEB
        AQEBAQEBAQEBAAAAEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA/wBGMUpDTTRCNzA0NFMK
        AAAA/ABERUxMIFVQMjcxNUsKAAAAEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAvgCAwzAIwkH
        B4MBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
        AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
        AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAcXATeQMAAwAUgG4BhP8T
        nwAvgB8APwtRAAIABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
        AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
        AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMeQ
        </data>
        <key>streamcount</key>
        <integer>2</integer>
        <key>tileinfo</key>
        <string>(2,1)</string>
    </dict>
    <key>productid</key>
    <string>0x40b6</string>
    <key>serial</key>
    <integer>1</integer>
    <key>vendorid</key>
    <string>0x10ac</string>
    <key>version</key>
    <string>1.3</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Why I think it is ignored:
Whether I delete this file or put just gibberish in it, it has no effect on the display.

Is there some command to check if the file is actually used?

 

[XQC]

Well, I made a "progress", of some sort... in a new attempt I forgot to switch cables from 1070 to 960.
And I was surprised that 5k works with 1070 basically out of the box with SMBIOS iMac14,2 without any further patches. But with the 1070 there's no acceleration yet.

So I guess I have more the reason to wait for Nvidia Pascal drivers.

I have no idea why the 960 refuses to work with 5k, since it works with Windows without problems.
Might be that the PCIe slot makes a difference.

 

[unklemac]

I just tried to install Sierra (I have a working Yosemite partition), and getting the same "splittet" single screen on my Dell 5k (up2715k).

Im running UEFI / Z87 / Nvidia970 GTX / iMac 14,2 setup.

Help us

 

[XQC]

Ok, so I made another test and changed PCI slots. Well, it makes no difference.

The results are always:
1 - GTX 960 (Nvidia driver) - Recognized as two displays or black screen.
2 - GTX 960 (no driver) - recognized as two displays
3 - GTX 1070 (no driver) - 5K without problems, but of course no acceleration.

I really hope that Pascal drivers and this 1070 will play nicely with 5K.

It's interesting, that you can already see the difference in Clover, the 960 displays a 1080p picture, whereas with the 1070 even Clover displays 5K.

I would guess, that there's somehow an incompatibility with my 960, the Nvidia drivers and 5K hackintosh setup.

The 960 is from Zotac, the 1070 from Palit.

 

[Fl0r!an]

I think the Sierra WebDrivers ignore boot flags (as nvda_drv=1 or nv_spanmodepolicy), but instead read them from NVRAM only. So I suggest to make sure that a) your NVRAM is functional and b) your NVRAM contains the necessary nv_spanmodepolicy=1 argument.
All other hacks should be uncessary, so I suggest to use a basic, well-tested setup (=> enable WebDrivers, use iMac14,2, disable InjectNvidia, nothing else).

Your finding regarding the GTX 1070 is very interesting as it means that NVIDIA has implemented two-cable 5K support in their EFI display driver. This is the basic driver which will be used by OS X when booting without a proper 3D driver (which doesn't exist for Pascal yet, as we all know).
It doesn't mean anything for a (possibly upcoming) Pascal driver & 5K support, those are different things.

Good luck!

 

[XQC]

I think the Sierra WebDrivers ignore boot flags (as nvda_drv=1 or nv_spanmodepolicy), but instead read them from NVRAM only. So I suggest to make sure that a) your NVRAM is functional and b) your NVRAM contains the necessary nv_spanmodepolicy=1 argument.
All other hacks should be uncessary, so I suggest to use a basic, well-tested setup (=> enable WebDrivers, use iMac14,2, disable InjectNvidia, nothing else).

Yes, I checked the NVRAM via terminal and Kext Utility, both nvda_drv and nv_spanmodepolicy were present.

I also tested many variations from vanilla OSX to various hacks such AGDPfix or renaming GPU, but the results were always the same: 960 shows 2 monitors, 1070 merges the two signals correctly to 5K.

In all these countless tries the 960 managed to display actual 5K like two times, but it was completely irreproducible.
So, it works in theory and the 960 shows 5K correctly on Windows, meaning it's not a hardware issue.

But I've given up at this point with the 960 and Sierra, I'll wait for pascal drivers now.

 

[nunziantimo]

You need to use these two boot flags:

nv_spanmodepolicy=1
nvda_drv=1

 

[unklemac]

XQC, if you get the time, try and see if the 5k on GTX 1070, has that infernal random mouse-pointer-error? I'd be interested to see if happens on a day of usage (Usually happens within 15min of use). Even if its not supported yet

 

[nunziantimo]

Yes, I checked the NVRAM via terminal and Kext Utility, both nvda_drv and nv_spanmodepolicy were present.

I also tested many variations from vanilla OSX to various hacks such AGDPfix or renaming GPU, but the results were always the same: 960 shows 2 monitors, 1070 merges the two signals correctly to 5K.

In all these countless tries the 960 managed to display actual 5K like two times, but it was completely irreproducible.
So, it works in theory and the 960 shows 5K correctly on Windows, meaning it's not a hardware issue.

But I've given up at this point with the 960 and Sierra, I'll wait for pascal drivers now.

Did you use these two boot flags?

nv_spanmodepolicy=1
nvda_drv=1


If this doesn't work, go back to El Capitan