Testing Thread: GeForce GTX 660

[minihack]

Switching of the cards is in the bios.

On my particular board (Zotac Z77) there is also a setting that by default is enabled "Detect non compliant device" (or something like that!) and that needs to be disabled.

I had an interesting situation where my DSDT that worked fine for my integrated graphics (and was needed) caused KPs on discrete graphics and, when I compiled a DSDT that was working for the discrete graphics, that DSDT would cause a KP for the integrated.....eventually I managed to compile a DSDT that worked for both sets of graphics.

The other thing that slowed me down was that my pre-existing 10.8.2 install had already had some incompatible installations (all sorts of Open CL/GL patches for my old 560ti) that meant it would white screen with the Nvidia 10.8.2 update and, despite me running the delta 10.8.2 update over the original and then installing the Nvidia drivers (again), it still seemed to have something that would cause a white screen whenever I tried to boot the 660.

In the end, the only way I could find to progress out of this was to use my clean install of 10.8.1, update that one to 10.8.2, install the new Nvidia drivers (before re-boot) and then do a system migration. It is a long way around, but eventually successful. These sort of problems of course would not happen in a new build......and I guess half a day trouble shooting is not the end of the world.

 

[Seahawk]

Good news for both. Congratulations

In my case i think to join to the club finally and will try the GTX 660, but starting from 10.8.2

In the UEFI Bios of the Asus, I have three options:

AUTOMATIC
IGPU --> for HD4000
PCIE --> for MSI Card

Try testing with IGPU 64 MB for installing the 10.8.2 drivers, and then restart the system and activate the PCIE mode to run the MSI card.

If all goes well, which I doubt, then automatically reboot and will active the automatic mode for switching between both.

Regards.

 

[mosser]

ahh i wanted to know if it could use os x feture to switch card depending on load.

 

[Seahawk]

It would be great but I think is not possible. Can only be done from the bios in theory.

There's a free application called gfxCardStatus but is only for macbooks.

 

[Jerime]

Anyone know which of the GTX 660's are the least noisy? I know that some have a 1 fan shielded cover, or open 2 fans. Just trying to make sure I get the right one.

 

[minihack]

MSI Twin Frozr is fairly quiet. I was impressed by the 560Ti Frozr I had before and the 660 seems similar.

Definitely not silent of course, but noise levels are acceptably low for me.

 

[mosser]

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I Can recommend the msi 660GTX TF it very quit under load in most games in Windows its like 40-50% fan speed and havenet seen temps above 55

 

[Jerime]

That was the one I was looking at. My current card; 6870, sounds like a jet engine in OS X (not in Windows). So hopefully there will be a noticeable difference.

 

[StevenPJ]

Got it all working nicely now I believe. I found out the SMbios I was using to achieve a lot of P states for the CPU was screwing up hardware acceleration. Did a clean install as I had quite a dirty system. Installed 10.8.2 and and 10.8.2 drivers, have a SSDT which kets me have 3 P states at 16x, 20x and 42x and no SMBios at all. Fixed the AGPM as well as it was coming up as an error in console. Going to try get some more P states soon but atm its all working nicely!

 

[hamiltus]

So could anyone with a z77-ds3h make a tutorial of how to move from HD 4000 to a GTX 660 on a hack pro with 10.8.2 already installed and with a MacPro3,1 definition and all without a reinstall ? Wondering whether or not I need to go through the MacPro5,1 hassle in order to get AGPM at 100%, etc.

Thanks !