NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800

HowTo create Device Properties List for OpenCore

For example NVIDIA GraphicCards has been dropped from macOS since 12.+ Monterey. A bunch of prerequisite has to be fullfilled before NV graphicards can be used.

With legacy Nvidia GPUs, macOS has difficulties enabling acceleration due to many missing properties. To work around this, we can inject properties into IOService for macOS to easily interpret. In Opencore you can easily inject "Device Properties" using OpenCore Configurator or PropperTree.

Prerequisites :

• You have installed a running version of macOS <= 11.+
• Your GPU chip is either Fermi or older
  • Kepler and newer do not need Device Property injection
  • Info: please check your GPU chip here TechPowerUp Website
• You have to load .kext Lilu and WhatEverGreen Kernel Extensions.
  • To check this please use the following shell command by open a "CommandShellWindow". So make sure both are loaded in your EFI configuration.

kextstat | grep -E "Lilu|WhateverGreen"

• BootArgs for NVIDIA graphics adapter and how to use this inside Opencores EFI configuration.
  • If you get a blackscreen situation you can disable NVIDIA adapters using :

nv_disable=1

• Please note for NVIDIA webdriver usage nvda_drv=31 is obsolete. To use NVIDIA webdriver package please use the following NVRAM variable. You need to add NVRAM parameter to Opencore EFI config to enable the web drivers under: NVRAM/Add/7C436110-AB2A-4BBB-A880-FE41995C9F82.

  Parameter Name	Type	Value
  nvda_drv	Data	31

The usage of the NVCAP Property

• Description of NVIDIA NVCAP Bit Positions 01-20.

  Byte	Property	Description
  01	NVCAP Version	04 for 7 series and older, 05 for 8 series and newer
  02	Laptop with Lid	01 for true, 00 otherwise
  03	Composite	01 for S-Video, 00 otherwise
  04	Backlight	01 for Tesla V1 with Backlight, otherwise 00 for newer GPUs regardless of screen type
  05+06	TVDCBMask	00 00, relates to DCB entry 5
  07+08	Head0DCBMask	00 00, see below
  09+10	Head1DCBMask	00 00, see below
  11+12	Head2DCBMask	00 00, non-applicable for Fermi and older
  13+14	Head3DCBMask	00 00, non-applicable for Fermi and older
  15.	ScriptBasedPowerAndBacklight	00, only relevant for genuine MacBook Pros
  16	Unknown	0F for 300 series and newer, otherwise 07
  17	EDID	00
  18	Reserved	00
  19	Reserved	00
  20	Reserved	00

• Here're the ready to use Device Properties for a (Legacy) NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 graphics adapter.

  Parameter Name	Type	Value
  model	String	Quadro FX 4800 Mac
  device_type	String	NVDA,Parent
  VRAM,totalsize	Data	0000006000000000
  rom-revision	String	V7.01
  NVCAP	Data	05000100 00000300 3c000000 0000000f 00000000
  @0,compatible	String	NVDA,NVMac
  @0,device_type	String	display
  @0,name	String	NVDA,Display-A
  @1,compatible	String	NVDA,NVMac
  @1,device_type	String	display
  @1,name	String	NVDA,Display-B

• HowTo calculate the total size of graphiccard RAM (please open a ShellCommandWindow)

echo '(1024+512) * 1024 * 1024' | bc

• total result = 1610612736

echo 'obase=16; ibase=10; 1610612736' | bc

• total Size of VRAM = 60000000
• VRAM,totalsize calculation -> 0000006000000000

• for more Information please visit HowTo NVIDIA patching

  NVCAP total displayed Informations
  TV mask: 0x0
  Head 0 mask: 0x3
  Head 1 mask: 0x3c
  NVCAP: (20 Bytes value)
  05 00 01 00 00 00 03 00 3c 00 00 00 00 00 00 0f 00 00 00 00