GFX Strings - DUAL CARDS - How To

[aquamac]

Hi amantheboy08,

A few things to check.

1. Did you put each card in your 2 pci slots individually and run GFX Strings to obtain the individual PCI addresses?

2. If your card shows up as "Display" then GFX Strings is not working for some reason. Do you have EFI v8, they will only work with v8.

3. Have you definitely deleted NVInject from your extensions folder, then repaired kext permissions - then deleted Extensions.mkext from System/Library.

You may want to get GFX Strings working on one card at the moment then make 2 individual strings 1 for each card, then amalgamate them together after.

Are your cards both 256 mb memory?

I am away at the moment so can only check the forums late at night or early morning.

Good Luck!

[amantheboy08]

ok all will follow all these steps and make sure they work

[geigertube]

aquamac,


Just wanted to say thanks very much for this great tutorial. Very clear and easy to follow.

Had a question, if I might.. Im trying this out on a P5W DH Deluxe, running 10.5.3, with a GeForce 7300GT in the first PCI-E slot, and a 7600GS (512MB) in the second. Everything works great, up until the very last bit of the booting process, where my two main screens on the 7300 will go blue, then the 3rd monitor on the 7600 turns on, and my wallpaper will show up on the two 7300 screens, but then everything stops. The mouse cursor shows up, and I can move it around on all three screens, and the startup seems to be continuing (I can hear various alerts from programs starting up), but that's it. When I pull the 7600 out, everything is back to normal. When I first booted, it only displayed the initial blue screen. The wallpaper showed up after I booted with -f -v.

Thought I'd see if you have any ideas before I just tried doing everything all over again on the chance that I messed up some step along the way. The 3rd monitor is a CRT I had sitting around, should that factor in at all.

Also, on the Darwin boot screen, when I was doing the boot on the 7600 in the 2nd slot, it said it was running 256MB instead of 512. I definitely had the correct memory code in the plist file.

thanks!

[aquamac]

Hi Geigertrube,

Always tricky to nail these things without being there if you know what I mean, but I would think, the best way to go about this is to get each card functioning properly in their respective slots, then amalgamate the plist file. So 7300 in slot PCIe slot 1, then 7600 in PCIe x16 slot 2. Double check everything inc ram quantity setting along the way.

[jessica]

I i followed everything you said and the cards shows up as nvidia 8800 gtx how ever i still dont get CE or quarts what do i have to do now to get this quarts extreme and CE working? thanks a bunch


hugs.

I have deleted everything in my Extension folder everything starting with NV*.*

I dont know what version of EFI i have or where to download a new v8 or how to update the EFi

went on google "EFI v8" all i found was spams from people saying thank for for the EFi but nothing on where to download it.

Also i have deleted the mkext file and also rebooted with the -F option aswell but still no CE or QE support.

I have also deleted NVDARAESman.kext as well was that a bad move?

It only works if i use one card only but doesnt work if i want to use Sli.

MY specs are 3Ghz 4 gig ram Striker Extreme mother board and 2 x nVidia 8800 GTX with 756 Meg Ram.


Do i still need to install nvinject or nvinstaller after all this to make Ci and Qe work?


What is the point of editing the pblist? what am i supposed to do with that plist i just edited? Where iam supposed to put the plist file you didnt tell us where to put that file.

[aquamac]

Hi Jessica and welcome to aquamac forums.

If you let me know your 2 PCI addresses, I will make the apple.com.boot.plist for you. You only need to delete nvinject or natit from your extensions folder, under no circumstances do you want to delete anything else. You don't need to put the in.plist anywhere, it is only a tool to make the apple.com.boot.plist.

EFI v8 is available from the irc.osx86.hu, you will need something like the program "conversation" for OSX to join. I think it is likely that you already have v8 anyway depending on what installation of OSX you have - kalyway?

Have to go now will check back later - by the way, getting nv chipsets working can be more difficult!

[b3r]

Hi Aquamac,

First, many thanks for all your work in developing support for all these video cards; really appreciate it man.

Second, I was hoping to run a problem I was having by you. I'm currently running a Kalyway install (10.5.2 Iso w/ EFI v8), that's been updated to 10.5.4. I'm currently running a 9800GTX, and 8600GT in two PCIx16 slots, both of which are displaying, though any display plugged into the 9800GTX is really choppy (8600GT displays just fine). It doesn't redraw windows unless I drag and window over it, and it struggles when windows are being moved around the display.

I went through your GFX Strings process, which is why I've been able to drive all three displays on the two cards. While trying to troubleshoot the choppyness issue on the 9800GTX card, I narrowed it down to one kext file that seems to be influencing it in some way - GeForece.kext. When I have it removed from the Extensions folder, the choppyness goes away but I loose QE/CI support. When I put it back in and boot with -f, QE/CI comes back but so does the chopyness.

I was wondering if you heard of anyone else having a similar issue, and if you have any pointers in dealing with this.

Many thanks,
-B

[aquamac]

Hi b3r and welcome to these forums.

Your problem is an unusual one. Have you tried reversing the cards positions to see if the choppiness changes to the 8600 GT? Does the problem still manifest itself if you use the other DVI port? I have not actually used different cards together before, but there is no reason why this should not work. What motherboard and chipset are you using?

Also, are you using the 10.5.4 kexts (not the ones I put up at Insanely Mac to make the card work with 10.5.2. 10.5.4 should support the card natively with GFX strings.

[b3r]

Thanks for the reply;

The machine is using a Intel P35/Intel ICH9R on a Asus P5K-E/WIFI-AP. I will swap out the cards tomorrow night to see if it's related to the slot (*crosses fingers* hopefully not - I hate RMAs).

Since 10.5.4 should support the cards natively, would I be correct in saying that I can delete the appropriate Ge*.kext and NV*.kext files and the graphics will function appropriately? I get the sense that I'm not understanding things properly

Here's the in.plist file that I drafted; do you see anything that's problematic? I notice that the only difference I see in the addressing of the PCIe card is the 'c' letter in one of the parameters. I did generate the address with the second card in the second slot without the primary card present in the first slot. I gotta say this stuff is so out of my league I can't separate the bear nuts from the buck wheat. Really do appreciate your help.

<?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>PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
<dict>
<key>@0,compatible</key>
<string>NVDA,NVMac</string>
<key>@0,device_type</key>
<string>display</string>
<key>@0,name</key>
<string>NVDA,Display-A</string>
<key>@1,compatible</key>
<string>NVDA,NVMac</string>
<key>@1,device_type</key>
<string>display</string>
<key>@1,name</key>
<string>NVDA,Display-B</string>
<key>@2,#adress-cells</key>
<string>0x01000000</string>
<key>@2,#size-cells</key>
<string>0x00000000</string>
<key>@2,compatible</key>
<string>NVDA,sensor-parent</string>
<key>@2,device_type</key>
<string>NVDA,gpu-diode</string>
<key>@2,hwctrl-params-version</key>
<string>0x02000000</string>
<key>@2,hwsensor-params-version</key>
<string>0x02000000</string>
<key>@2,name</key>
<string>sensor-parent</string>
<key>@2,reg</key>
<string>0x02000000</string>
<key>NVCAP</key>
<data>
BAAAAAAAAwAMAAAAAAAABwAAAAA=
</data>
<key>NVPM</key>
<data>
AQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==
</data>
<key>VRAM,totalsize</key>
<data>
AAAAIA==
</data>
<key>device_type</key>
<string>NVDA,GeForce</string>
<key>model</key>
<string>NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX DDL</string>
<key>name</key>
<string>NVDA,Parent</string>
<key>rom-revision</key>
<string>3172a</string>
</dict>
<key>PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1c,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
<dict>
<key>@0,compatible</key>
<string>NVDA,NVMac</string>
<key>@0,device_type</key>
<string>display</string>
<key>@0,name</key>
<string>NVDA,Display-A</string>
<key>@1,compatible</key>
<string>NVDA,NVMac</string>
<key>@1,device_type</key>
<string>display</string>
<key>@1,name</key>
<string>NVDA,Display-B</string>
<key>@2,#adress-cells</key>
<string>0x01000000</string>
<key>@2,#size-cells</key>
<string>0x00000000</string>
<key>@2,compatible</key>
<string>NVDA,sensor-parent</string>
<key>@2,device_type</key>
<string>NVDA,gpu-diode</string>
<key>@2,hwctrl-params-version</key>
<string>0x02000000</string>
<key>@2,hwsensor-params-version</key>
<string>0x02000000</string>
<key>@2,name</key>
<string>sensor-parent</string>
<key>@2,reg</key>
<string>0x02000000</string>
<key>NVCAP</key>
<data>
BAAAAAAAAwAMAAAAAAAABwAAAAA=
</data>
<key>NVPM</key>
<data>
AQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==
</data>
<key>VRAM,totalsize</key>
<data>
AAAAEA==
</data>
<key>device_type</key>
<string>NVDA,GeForce</string>
<key>model</key>
<string>NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT DDL</string>
<key>name</key>
<string>NVDA,Parent</string>
<key>rom-revision</key>
<string>3172a</string>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>

[b3r]

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! I FINALLY GOT IT WORKING!!!!!!

After countless reinstalls between Kalyway and Leo4All, I finally got QE and CI to work on my setup!!! I'm completely euphoric right now. Thanks Aquamac!

Here's what I did (EVGA 9800 GTX w/ 512MB, and 8600 GT w/ 256MB):

1) Leo4All - Vanilla 9.2 Kernel, NVidia 10.5.2 Kexts (nothing else), other drivers specific to my setup.
2) Update to 10.5.3 using Kalyway Combo Update
3) Did GFX Strings Procedure Exactly As Described by Aqua Mac

After booting up, I had QE and CI on both cards, and the displays running beautiful. I've done so many installs trying to make this work, and I think my mistake was selecting different NVInject drivers during the install. I think suggestion to others is to do a fresh install with *no* nvinject or natit drivers selected.

Thanks Aquamac for all your work on this stuff. Really appreciate it.

[tsm]

Great Thread. Although I need help

Followed the instructions and my other graphics card works, however it has not enabled the Quartz Extreme(not supported)although GL is.. I took out the 2nd card and just left the original card in and then remade a new string just for this card...thinking I could join the 2 later...but still no Quartz.
Any suggestions welcome.

I had originally the NVinject working with Quartz, but would not recognise the other card...so I thought I would give this a go.
1st graphics card PNY 7300GT 256mb, 2nd, Gigabyte 7300GT 256mb
Thanks !

Q6600
6gb ram
Asus p5w DH Deluxe
Kalyway

[tayl0r]

Very good thread. Following the instructions in the original post I was easily able to get my 2 NVIDIA cards to boot and spread my desktop across 4 monitors, but *without* QE acceleration.

I'm using a 7800 GT and an 8800 GT. The 8800 GT has 512 MB of ram and the 7800 GT has 256 MB.
I'm running Kalyway 10.5.5 with the ToH 9.5 kernel.
Motherboard is gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R

Anyways, if I install just one card at a time, they still do not work with QE acceleration.
Both cards at once, same thing.

The only way I can get QE acceleration to work is if I use NVInject 0.2.1 (latest version). The problem with that is that both cards do not work at the same time. It doesn't boot (hangs at loginwindow which it seems is very common).

I just cannot seem to get QE acceleration working without using NVInject 0.2.1. Here are the things I've tried:

* using EFI studio to get my EFI strings for the 2 video cards, then getting the PCI device locations, and building the plist with that data, then getting the hex string and pasting it into the boot plist. still no QE.

* tried NVInject 0.2.0 d/b "dual" - doesn't boot with both cards in, doesn't give QE with just 1 card in

Anyone have any ideas?

[indraganzo]

I am trying to run two cards( Nvidia 7600 GS and Nvidia 7300 GS ) on my hackintosh (Mobo: MSI 975x Platinum PU edition ) too ..
I have applied the strings for each pci-e with correct addresses..
when I plug just one card on any slot it works with no problems ( either primary slot or secondary)...
But when I plug both cards at the same time only the card in the primary slot works until the apple logo crashes .....
The card on the second Pci-e slot does not work from the beginning of the startup from the bios level...
What am I doing wrong??
is it smthng to do with the mobo?

I know from the posts that a lot of people run two graphic cards on their hackintoshes I just have to solve this too for my third monitor.
Please help

[aquamac]

indraganzo,

Can you copy your in.plist here. The PCI addresses should be individually made for each card as they will end up in their final resting place. Are you using 10.5.5?

[indraganzo]

Thnx for your response Aquamac,
I have edited this plist using your method.. then the plist was converted to hex and inserted into com.apple.Boot.plist file
when both cards are in I boot with -v and get no specific error message it crashes right after launching the loginwindow application.
and yes I am using 10.5.5

Here is my plist
<?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>PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
<dict>
<key>@0,compatible</key>
<string>NVDA,NVMac</string>
<key>@0,device_type</key>
<string>display</string>
<key>@0,name</key>
<string>NVDA,Display-A</string>
<key>@1,compatible</key>
<string>NVDA,NVMac</string>
<key>@1,device_type</key>
<string>display</string>
<key>@1,name</key>
<string>NVDA,Display-B</string>
<key>NVCAP</key>
<data>
BAAAAAAAAwAMAAAAAAAABwAAAAA=
</data>
<key>NVPM</key>
<data>
AQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==
</data>
<key>VRAM,totalsize</key>
<string>0x10000000</string>
<key>device_type</key>
<string>NVDA,Parent</string>
<key>model</key>
<string>nVidia GeForce 7600 GS</string>
<key>name</key>
<string>display</string>
<key>rom-revision</key>
<string>nVidia GeForce 7600 GS OpenGL Engine [EFI]</string>
</dict>
       <key>PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x3,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
<dict>
<key>@0,compatible</key>
<string>NVDA,NVMac</string>
<key>@0,device_type</key>
<string>display</string>
<key>@0,name</key>
<string>NVDA,Display-A</string>
<key>@1,compatible</key>
<string>NVDA,NVMac</string>
<key>@1,device_type</key>
<string>display</string>
<key>@1,name</key>
<string>NVDA,Display-B</string>
<key>NVCAP</key>
<data>
BAAAAAAAAwAMAAAAAAAABwAAAAA=
</data>
<key>NVPM</key>
<data>
AQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==
</data>
<key>VRAM,totalsize</key>
<string>0x10000000</string>
<key>device_type</key>
<string>NVDA,Parent</string>
<key>model</key>
<string>nVidia GeForce 7300 GS</string>
<key>name</key>
<string>display</string>
<key>rom-revision</key>
<string>nVidia GeForce 7300 GS OpenGL Engine [EFI]</string>
</dict>
<key>PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x1b,0x0)</key>
<dict>
<key>PinConfigurations</key>
<data>
</data>
<key>built-in</key>
<data>
AA==
</data>
<key>layout-id</key>
<data>
DAAAAA==
</data>
<key>revision-id</key>
<data>
AQAAAA==
</data>
<key>subsystem-id</key>
<data>
AqAAAA==
</data>
<key>subsystem-vendor-id</key>
<data>
WBQAAA==
</data>
<key>vendor-id</key>
<data>
hoAAAA==
</data>
</dict>
<key>PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x1c,0x5)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
<dict>
<key>built-in</key>
<data>
AQ==
</data>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>


by the way I tried nvinject 0.2.0 for dual cards (having device property strings at the same time), when booting with -v system recognized both cards through nvinject but can not start loginwindow app and exits due to a no server error.