- Available on select GeForce 8400 GPUs. Built for Microsoft® Windows Vista™: NVIDIA's fourth-generation GPU architecture built for Windows Vista gives users the best possible experience with the Windows Aero 3D graphical user interface, included in the new operating system (OS) from Microsoft.
- For the Mac User who wants to or are using a Nvidia GPU, we understand that you have a lot of questions. This post is for you. We have collated as many of the most common questions we got about the Nvidia graphics cards and brought them together in a single post.
View the latest GeForce product images, pictures, and PC application demos. Dec 06, 2016 Hey guys! In this video, I will show how to install an Nvidia graphics card in a Mac Pro. This demonstrates the process for a GeForce 700, 800, and 900. What To Do If GeForce 8400 GS Does Not Work Step 1 – Make Sure The Graphics Card Is Connected Properly If your are experiencing distorted graphics problems on your computer, you have likely not got the correct driver installed for the Nvidia Geforce 8400GS, or the device is not connected properly. To rectify this problem, the first step is to ensure that you have the card installed correctly.
Nvidia today announced the launch of its latest super high-end graphics card, introducing the new Nvidia Titan Xp.
The Titan Xp, which Nvidia calls the world's post powerful graphics card, features 12GB of GDDR5X memory running at 11.4 Gb/s, 3,840 CUDA cores running at 1.6GHz, and 12 TFLOPS of processing power.
Priced at $1,200, this year's Titan card is unique because for the first time, Nvidia is making it available to Mac users with new Pascal beta drivers (also available for the entire 10-series lineup) that are set to be released during the month of April.
Earlier this week, Apple announced plans for future high-end Mac Pro machines with better graphics capabilities, so that ultra high-end cards like the Titan Xp are already offering support is a good sign. The Titan Xp could also potentially be used with older Mac Pro machines and Hackintosh machines.
The Titan Xp can be purchased from the Nvidia website starting today.
The Titan Xp, which Nvidia calls the world's post powerful graphics card, features 12GB of GDDR5X memory running at 11.4 Gb/s, 3,840 CUDA cores running at 1.6GHz, and 12 TFLOPS of processing power.
Priced at $1,200, this year's Titan card is unique because for the first time, Nvidia is making it available to Mac users with new Pascal beta drivers (also available for the entire 10-series lineup) that are set to be released during the month of April.
Earlier this week, Apple announced plans for future high-end Mac Pro machines with better graphics capabilities, so that ultra high-end cards like the Titan Xp are already offering support is a good sign. The Titan Xp could also potentially be used with older Mac Pro machines and Hackintosh machines.
For the first time, this gives Mac users access to the immense horsepower delivered by our award-winning Pascal-powered GPUs.Housed in a die-cast aluminum body, the Titan Xp uses vapor chamber cooling technology. According to Nvidia, the graphics card offers up to three times faster performance than previous generation graphics cards, and it includes support for 'next-gen VR experiences.'
The Titan Xp can be purchased from the Nvidia website starting today.
Active1 year, 9 months ago
I don't know how to update Nvidia graphic card drivers on MacBook Pro Retina.
I have been a Windows user and a gamer for a long time where we expect frequent driver updates.
I have been a Windows user and a gamer for a long time where we expect frequent driver updates.
Nike sq driver. My expectations revolve around whether Nvidia releases graphic driver updates for Mac and how to check for pending updates.
Where can I see the versions of drivers on OS X?
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Abhimanyu AryanAbhimanyu Aryan94077 gold badges2020 silver badges3535 bronze badges
5 Answers
Apple makes its own drivers & they are included in the OS updates.
The way to be up to date on drivers is to always be running the latest OS.
There is debate over whether Apple make the entire driver set themselves, or just take NVidia/AMD's core code & add their own hardware/OS-specific code to it. The latter seems more plausible to me, but either is just speculation.
The end result, though, is that there are rarely issues with Apple graphics drivers & regular software or games; again speculation, but for games I imagine they write to a pre-defined rule-set, rather than try to constantly be pushing the boundaries.
As noted elsewhere, NVidia themselves make OS X drivers for Quadro cards but these are aftermarket cards anyway, not supplied in any Mac build option available directly from Apple.
Apple provides core drivers, currently up to OpenGL 4.1 or 3.3 - depending on your card, of course - plus legacy drivers for OGL 2.1 compatibility. Which one you get to use in any particular game etc is up to the writers of that game.
Traditionally, if your card has full OpenGL support for the first monitor, it will also have it on the second, unlike many PC cards with 'clipped' performance on the 2nd monitor.
After comments & other answers here…
NVidia do have their own release for certain Mac GPUs - this is the current driver as of December 2015
However, they are predominantly for the Quadro series of aftermarket cards rather than default cards supplied by Apple.
There is also support for some cards which have been legacied by Apple - namely the GeForce 680, 285, 120 & 8800
There is mention of beta support for some recent mobile cards, presumably as Apple are dropping legacy support on these in favour of AMD in the current lineup.
TetsujinTetsujinNVidia do have their own release for certain Mac GPUs - this is the current driver as of December 2015
However, they are predominantly for the Quadro series of aftermarket cards rather than default cards supplied by Apple.
There is also support for some cards which have been legacied by Apple - namely the GeForce 680, 285, 120 & 8800
There is mention of beta support for some recent mobile cards, presumably as Apple are dropping legacy support on these in favour of AMD in the current lineup.
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Besides the drivers that Apple bundles with OS X updates, Nvidia also provides their own driver updates for their GeForce cards — yes, even the 'mobile' cards that Apple puts in Macs. As far as I know, this is not true of AMD and Intel. In the case of your Retina MacBook Pro with an Nvidia card, there's beta support with Nvidia's latest drivers.
Nvidia's graphics drivers for OS X can be downloaded straight from their website, and as such they're sometimes called Nvidia Web Drivers. They're somewhat hard to find if you just go through Nvidia's driver search feature, but they're an easy find if you just Google 'Nvidia driver OS X' + your OS X version (e.g. 10.11.2).
For example, here is Nvidia's current (as of December 2015) driver for OS X El Capitan 10.11.2. As it says in the release notes, support for some newer models of iMacs and MacBook Pros with GeForce cards is in beta.
Note that I don't recommend installing Nvidia's drivers (especially beta ones) unless you know what you're doing, and you have a good reason to switch from the default (Apple-provided) ones that come with OS X. The default drivers are probably more thoroughly tested and stable, less likely to break your Mac, and are supported officially by Apple. If you do install the Nvidia driver, though, you'll always have the option to switch back to the default driver or even uninstall the Nvidia driver via System Preferences. You'll also be able to update the driver from there.
A good reason to try out Nvidia's driver might be if you use your Mac for gaming, or you run any other apps that use OpenGL. On my MacBook Pro with OS X 10.11.2 and an Nvidia GT 650m card, Cinebench's OpenGL test gives a very slight edge to Nvidia's drivers (~52 fps) vs. Apple's (~49 fps).
MacGamerMacGamer
To hazard an educated guess, I would say that driver updates are most likely rolled into Mac OS X version upgrades and point updates. If you're concerned about the updates available for your particular card, (especially if it is not original to the Mac you're using,) it behooves you to visit the manufacturer's respective web sites to check. You mentioned NVIDIA: here's the link to the drivers available for download. Looks like plenty of options for many operating systems. (Mac OS X NVIDIA drivers are only available for Quadro-series boards, tho'.)
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I'll set aside the why and answer some of the what:
- Open System Information and go to the software section. Click on Extensions and you can see all the hardware drivers as well as whether it is updated via Apple or via a third party.
- Apple updates all come from the
softwareupdate
command line tool. You can reset any ignored updates and then call for all updates to be listed with this compound command:softwareupdate --reset-ignored ; softwareupdate --list --all
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It looks like Apple doesn't really bother to update the graphics driver.. On a Mid 2014 MacBook Pro, running High Sierra, System Report tells me that the driver was last changed in October (so less than a month ago from when I'm writing this, roughly coinciding with the release of 10.13.1). However, the info text says the driver is based on Geforce 355.11, released in 2015.
I only realized all this because I had massive performance issues after the upgrade to High Sierra (with its brand new graphics subsystem, Metal2), so basically I wondered the same thing, 'Do I need to update the drivers?'. With the drivers from Nvidia it's now a lot smoother.
So to answer your questions (2 years later, but well):
- You find the version of the graphics driver under: Apple Menu > About this Mac > System Report > Software > Extensions > Geforce. But don't trust the date, check against the Geforce version.
- IMHO definitely install the latest Nvidia drivers, especially in High Sierra. Apple seems to touch them on the surface, but you will not get proper updates of the underlying driver.Installer Language Support: English (default), Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Japanese For Prolific USB VID_067B&PID_2303 and PID_2304 Only Includes Microsoft Certification Report, User Manual & CheckChipVersion Tool NOTE: • Windows 8/8.1 are NOT supported in PL-2303HXA and PL-2303X (End-of-Life) chip versions. • Run PL2303 CheckChipVersion tool program in Windows XP/Vista/7 to check chip version. Prolific usb to serial driver for mac. Refer to User Manual. Download Windows Driver Installer Setup Program (For PL2303 HXA, XA, HXD, EA, RA, SA, TA, TB versions) Installer version & Build date: 1.9.0 (2013-10-25) Windows XP (32 & 64-bit) WDM WHQL Driver: v2.1.51.238 () • Windows XP Certified WHQL Driver • Compatible with Windows 2000SP4 & Server2003 Windows Vista/7/8/8.1 (32 & 64-bit) WDF WHQL Driver: v3.4.62.293 ()• Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 Certified WHQL Driver • Compatible with Windows Server2008/Server2008R2/Server2012 • Driver also available via Windows Update (Vista, 7, 8, 8.1).
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