Upgrade to a 960 from a 460 SE

[carltom46]

My 460 SE seems to be dying (screen full of artifacts on windows 10, el cap, and linux). I plan to upgrade to a 960, but will it be as simple as swapping the two cards? I've seen other threads where this turns out to be the case, but I want to make sure that it is just a matter of swapping out the cards in El Capitan 10.11.2. Also, is a 960 a good choice for El Capitan? My previous 460 worked perfectly with the default Apple drivers, and I hope this is the case with the 960. In all threads I've read, the answer seems to be yes, but I am asking here as I want the simplest upgrade experience possible (I'm not worried about Windows 10 or Kali Linux, just El cap).

 

[slim.jim]

My 460 SE seems to be dying (screen full of artifacts on windows 10, el cap, and linux). I plan to upgrade to a 960, but will it be as simple as swapping the two cards? I've seen other threads where this turns out to be the case, but I want to make sure that it is just a matter of swapping out the cards in El Capitan 10.11.2. Also, is a 960 a good choice for El Capitan? My previous 460 worked perfectly with the default Apple drivers, and I hope this is the case with the 960. In all threads I've read, the answer seems to be yes, but I am asking here as I want the simplest upgrade experience possible (I'm not worried about Windows 10 or Kali Linux, just El cap).

You need to make sure you have the Nvidia Web drivers installed for the GTX 960 to work properly. You can either install them while the 460 is installed and then swap the cards or you can install the 960 and boot with nv_disable=1 and install the drivers then. You will need to boot with nvda_drv=1 to use the web drivers.

The 960 is a great choice for El Capitan but it is NOT natively supported. None of the Maxwell based GPUs are (705/750ti, 950, 960, 970, 980, 980ti, Titan X).

 

[carltom46]

You need to make sure you have the Nvidia Web drivers installed for the GTX 960 to work properly. You can either install them while the 460 is installed and then swap the cards or you can install the 960 and boot with nv_disable=1 and install the drivers then. You will need to boot with nvda_drv=1 to use the web drivers.

The 960 is a great choice for El Capitan but it is NOT natively supported. None of the Maxwell based GPUs are (705/750ti, 950, 960, 970, 980, 980ti, Titan X).

Thanks, that is the type of answer I was looking for. I will install the web drivers to save me from having to do the nv_disable=1 step.

 

[carltom46]

Okay, I followed your steps, and installed the latest CUDA as well as the latest web drivers, and added the appropriate cards (I did this all with the 960). However, now when I boot in, my monitor simply turns off, and I can do nothing else. What should I do?

 

[P1LGRIM]

Okay, I followed your steps, and installed the latest CUDA as well as the latest web drivers, and added the appropriate cards (I did this all with the 960). However, now when I boot in, my monitor simply turns off, and I can do nothing else. What should I do?

Are you booting with nvda_drv=1 ?

How are you connected to your monitor ?

 

[carltom46]

Are you booting with nvda_drv=1 ?

How are you connected to your monitor ?

I have this card: http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5507#ov
connected via DVI-D, and was getting nothing. I then connected to DVI - I and got a signal. Then, I set InjectNvidia=false in clover and rebooted and now I can use either DVI port. There is a problem, though. Yesterday, I tried different solutions, and one of them was this first quoted post in this thread: http://www.tonymacx86.com/yosemite-desktop-support/161406-black-screen-after-10-10-3-update-6.html.
Basically, it said to go to "/System/Library/Extensions/AppleGraphicsControl.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy.kext/Contents/


In this file you look for Mac-F60DEB81FF30ACF6 = Config1 line and you replace it with Mac-F60DEB81FF30ACF6 = none". However, after I did that, now my graphics card's fan is constantly at 25 percent, and every couple of seconds, it ramps up to really high speeds. This is for as long as I am in OSX. I don't know if it was the above change or the fact that I installed the CUDA drivers at the same time, but I've since undone that change, ran kext utility to repair caches, and am having the same problem. Any ideas? (I am running kext utility by simply running it and letting it run to completion, I am not pressing anything).

Edit: this is weird, it is doing the same thing in Windows 10 now. Maybe it's because my case is open and my system fan is off as well as an extra fan I had directly in front of the cpu? Maybe I'm just forgetting, but the strange thing is the card wasn't behaving like this when I first installed it in Windows 10. However, I haven't done anything in OS X to modify the card's bios, so I guess the card just behaves this way.

 

[carltom46]

Seems like I'm not the only one with this issue: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/885022/geforce-900-series/new-gtx-960-fan-issue/

I followed that guide, updated to the F2-beta BIOS for the card in my Win 10 partition, and everything is working perfectly now. The BIOS release notes even say "adjusted fan profile" or something of that matter, so it does seem to be an issue with the default F1 BIOS.