All graphics driver updates come from Apple in macOS software updates so you really shouldn’t need to update them manually (the one exception is the Mac Pro which is the only Mac model to have user upgradeable graphics cards). I absolutely wouldn’t recommend doing this unless you know what you’re doing and confident in your ability to do so (that’s my disclaimer – if everything goes catastrophically wrong I cannot be held responsible). Even if you’re confident about updating manually think before you do it, is it really necessary? Apple optimise macOS and update the drivers themselves to deliver the most stable, safe operating environment for your Mac. Warning – Ever since updating to macOS Sierra 10.12 and the current 10.12.1, NVIDIA’s drivers are causing my Mac to kernel panic. If you choose to update PLEASE understand what you are doing and how to reverse it. This isn’t happening to everyone who updates but I’ve had others tell me it’s also happening to them.
The company needs to keep Mac driver development for new architectures alive regardless so that they can compete for future GPU contracts, meaning NVIDIA already has the drivers in-house, though. This week, NVIDIA released drivers for their line of 'Fermi' cards for Mac OS X. Besides supporting their new flagship Quadro 4000, these drivers support the GeForce GT 430, GTS 450, GTX 460, GTX 465, GTX 470, GTX 480. They also show increased OpenGL, Quartz Graphics, and User Interface performance for NVIDIA 2xx cards.
I suspect it has to do with the automatic graphics switching in 15″ MacBook Pros so you could try disabling this in System Preferences. If you’re inquisitive like me, and want to know which driver version your Mac is currently on from Apple, follow. If you are unable to boot your Mac to the desktop after installing this update you can roll back to Apple’s driver by doing a NVRAM reset. To do this make sure your Mac is off. Turn it back on and immediately hold down the following keys – CMD, Option (the Alt key), P, R.
Keep them held down until you hear the startup chime for the second time then let go. Apple have a support page about NVRAM here – Manual update Instructions:. Go to and select Quadro as the Product Type. Under the Product dropdown select one of the specific Mac ones, doesn’t matter which. Under the Operating System dropdown select which version of macOS you are using.
Under Recommended/Beta select All:. Click on the most recent driver that appears below the search field. You’ll be taken to the download page.
Note that only a few specific Mac Pros are officially supported. At the bottom of the Release Highlights tab you’ll see a list of the Macs supported in beta. If your Mac is not listed there, there will be no point in you performing this update:.
Download and install the update. You’ll be prompted to restart your Mac. Once restarted you should see a new little NVIDIA Driver Manager icon in the menu bar:. And in System Preferences you will see a new icon at the bottom: If you have a MacBook Pro and it has started suffering from since using the NVIDIA driver then disable automatic graphics switching in System Preferences. This will prevent your Mac switching back to the Intel graphics when it needs less graphics power.
I’ve found that this stops the kernel panics. It will mean that your battery will drain faster as more power is required for the NVIDIA GPU though. If after reading this you are only getting the option for Windows drivers on NVIDIA’s site then you are not following the instructions properly. Please click on the links I have provided and choose exactly what I have listed in the drop down fields.
Any and all feedback is welcome. I currently have the NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac. I attempted to manually update the driver earlier today. The download and installation went rather smoothly, and upon restarting I attempted to run NVIDIA Driver Manager. The program froze and I gave it a few minutes before attempting to force quit. That’s when it happened. A rather loud crackling sound began coming from the back of my iMac.
I checked to see what could be the cause and I immediately noticed my iMac was overheating. Before I could shut it down to let it cool off, a single spark came from the back of my iMac. Just seconds later, there were flames. My iMac was on fire. I ran into the kitchen to grab our fire extinguisher and fortunately was able to put out the flames. Luckily, no real damage was done to my iMac. I contacted Apple Support and they prompted me to contact NVIDIA’s support service.
I was surprised to hear from the support service that this was already a known issue with Apple products in particular, although they said it was uncommon. I am currently looking more into this issue. I advice all Mac users to be cautious when updating your drivers. I will update this if any new information arises.
I've got Windows 7 32bit running on Bootcamp, just upgraded to Mountain Lion after being on Lion on an early 2012 MBP. I've found out Bootcamp 4.0 only supports Windows 7 64bit. The biggest problem I had with Bootcamp and Windows before is that the Nvidia cards were never recognized by Windows so my gaming experience (which I primarily installed Windows for) didn't always work. Right now I've downloaded Tomb Raider 2013 for Windows, which doesn't work because of the Nvidia problem in Windows 32bit - I can't update the drivers since Windows won't admit I have such a graphics card in the first place.
I've got Windows 7 64bit in my Amazon shopping cart and have put the latest drivers on CD via Bootcamp, but before I purchase the $90 OS I want to ask - does this latest version of Bootcamp solve the nvidia issues? I don't want to spend the money if it makes no difference. I just want to check if you're aware that Apple supplies all the Windows drivers for the systems that it officially supports under Boot Camp. The drivers are not, to my knowledge, included in the Boot Camp software itself. The Boot Camp 4.0 software is nothing more than a control panel that installs on your Windows partition. The drivers are sourced separately. If you're having trouble getting the Nvidia driver, it causes me to wonder if you have any of the other drivers from Apple.
For example, do you have the proper driver to make your trackpad work correctly? Yes, everything else runs in Windows. Trackpad, cd drive, etc. It just doesn't recognize that I have an nvidia card. Initially under device manager Windows said I had a generic VGA card, I downloaded drivers again and installed them, now strangely no graphics card shows up at all.
Whenever I try to install Nvidia drivers from Nvidia itself the installer tells me it can find no compatible hardware, and cancels the installation. I want to know if I'll have the same problem with Windows 64bit and Bootcamp 4. I've got Windows 7 32bit running on Bootcamp, just upgraded to Mountain Lion after being on Lion on an early 2012 MBP. I've found out Bootcamp 4.0 only supports Windows 7 64bit. The biggest problem I had with Bootcamp and Windows before is that the Nvidia cards were never recognized by Windows so my gaming experience (which I primarily installed Windows for) didn't always work.
Right now I've downloaded Tomb Raider 2013 for Windows, which doesn't work because of the Nvidia problem in Windows 32bit - I can't update the drivers since Windows won't admit I have such a graphics card in the first place. I've got Windows 7 64bit in my Amazon shopping cart and have put the latest drivers on CD via Bootcamp, but before I purchase the $90 OS I want to ask - does this latest version of Bootcamp solve the nvidia issues? I don't want to spend the money if it makes no difference. I'm near crying.
I went through the trouble of upgrading to 64 bit, twice, installed the latest drivers from Bootcamp Assistant.STILL Windows can't find my Nvidia graphics card!! It still thinks I don't have a graphics card at all, just the Intel Graphics Family! What's strange is that I opened up the Bootcamp CD to figure out what's going on, the Nvidia drivers are there, but when I open them and hit setup.exe, the Nvidia installer starts and then tells me that I don't have any compatible hardware. So it's not that Bootcamp doesn't have the drivers, it's that Windows refuses to accept them since it thinks I have no graphics card. I have no idea how to fix this. I can't be the only person who has had this problem.
Please, someone try to help. I've already reinstalled Windows since I was having an unrelated problem. I'm using a late 2011 MacBook Pro with OS X Mountain Lion.
The graphics card is an Nividia GeForce 650M which I don't know how to access or update in OS X. The Windows version I've installed is Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. I downloaded the latest drivers using Bootcamp, and Windows installed them, but when it came to the Nvidia graphics installer it keeps saying it can find no compatible hardware. I tried Bootcamp 5 just for the hell of it and it doesn't work on my machine. I've deleted the Nvidia drivers which were there initially and didn't work using Driver Fusion, now I don't know where to go from here. Some proffered solutions I've come across are: 1.
Doing something with Driver Fusion. I'm not sure what, it seems unless I shell out $60 all Driver Fusion will do is delete my current drivers and tell me how really, really amazing Driver Fusion Premium is. Go to laptopvideo2go.com and download the latest Nvidia drivers along with a modified INF file. Not sure how to install the file. Whenever I try to install the drivers where I right now, every time, the Nividia driver installer says it can find no compatible hardware. Even going to Setup in the Nvidia folder on the Bootcamp CD says the same thing. So it seems Bootcamp DID install some Nividia drivers, or at least tried to, but the graphics card isn't recognized by Windows and Nvidia won't let drivers install unless it finds compatible hardware.
Okay, I've gotten a few clues. I opened up the Bootcamp CD and went to open the NVProgessSetup file in the Nvidia drivers folder. That started to install. It then said it was installing the display driver, then, while it tries to install, it says 'You are running a 32 bit version of Nvidia uninstaller on a 64 bit system. Wrong version of uninstaller. Uninstaller exits now.' It suggests I install manually but I don't know how to do that.
I'll be damned if at some point a window popped up with some kind of hardware compatibility issue with a little yellow triangle with an exclamation point inside, but I can't remember how to get that to show up again. Going to 'setup' further down in the Drivers file brings me to another installer that is for the 64 bit version of Windows 7, but that one again says it can find no compatible hardware. I'm having the same problem. This is a huge pain in the ass. I really hope I can fix it, since I was hoping to play some games on this thing.
So, I definitely.do. have the NVIDIA GT 650M as I just bought my Macbook last week (September 2013). But Windows can't see my video card, and my symptoms are pretty much exactly as Sage as described. Installing the latest drivers from NVIDIA website always fails since it can't find compatible hardware. The drivers in the Bootcamp 5 folder also fail with the 'try a manual installation' error (expect that instead of complaining about 32b/64b, as in Sage's case, mine just says that it experienced an error).
I have no idea what to do now. Click to expand.Hi given what happened to the OP's case, I think we probably need more hard evidence than your claim. When you are in the OS X Finder, click 'Go' in the menu, then select 'Utilities'. In the Utilities window, find the 'System information' icon and double click to launch it. Then select 'Graphics/Displays' on the left column, it will show you the GPU information.
Please report back what you got there, and that's how the system software identifies your graphics chipset. Post a screenshot if possible. I'm having the same problem. This is a huge pain in the ass. I really hope I can fix it, since I was hoping to play some games on this thing. So, I definitely.do.
have the NVIDIA GT 650M as I just bought my Macbook last week (September 2013). But Windows can't see my video card, and my symptoms are pretty much exactly as Sage as described.
Installing the latest drivers from NVIDIA website always fails since it can't find compatible hardware. The drivers in the Bootcamp 5 folder also fail with the 'try a manual installation' error (expect that instead of complaining about 32b/64b, as in Sage's case, mine just says that it experienced an error). I have no idea what to do now.