Nvidia Titan X/Titan Xp – no boot screen

In a workshop filled with CMP 4,1 and 5,1 machines, technicians are pushing Windows 11 builds via OpenCore Legacy Patchers to squeeze life out of GPUs that aren’t natively supported by the latest Windows hardware stack. The aim is to get smooth acceleration and modern OS compatibility on machines originally designed for older software, using a UEFI-based boot chain.

Two GPUs are drawing the most attention: Nvidia Titan X and Titan Xp. Despite trying multiple boot configurations, including manual OpenCore selection and injecting Nvidia’s Graphics Output Protocol (GOP) into the pre-boot environment, there’s still no boot screen. In several test rigs, the Titan family simply won’t display a pre-boot image, and the system often powers off with a quick press of the power button before the OS loader takes over.

By contrast, the same machines happily boot Linux live environments from USB when the Titan cards are swapped for an AMD Radeon Vega 56 or 64. That stark difference signals a GPU- or firmware-level compatibility issue specific to the Nvidia cards, rather than a problem with the CMP hardware, the patcher, or the general boot sequence.

So what could be forcing this no-boot behavior on the Titan X/XP? A few possibilities are common talking points in this space. One is GOP support: some Nvidia GPUs ship with firmware that lacks a robust UEFI GOP, or requires a very particular GOP module to render the pre-boot image. If the VBIOS on the Titan cards doesn’t expose the right interface to the pre-boot loader, you’ll see a blank screen even when the OS itself can load once booted. Another factor could be missing or incompatible EFI drivers that the patcher expects to load before the OS, which can stall the boot process on these Nvidia GPUs even when Windows/Linux would otherwise run after booting.

For enthusiasts trying to salvage a Windows 11 setup on these Mac Pro-based machines, there are practical routes to consider. One approach is to keep the Titan cards for post-boot acceleration and rely on a different card that reliably presents a pre-boot display for the loader. Alternatively, testing with another GPU known to deliver a consistent pre-boot image can help verify whether the issue is GPU-specific or more systemic to the boot chain on these configurations.

In sum, the hurdle appears to be a compatibility gap between certain Nvidia GPUs from that era and the pre-boot sequence employed by OpenCore/OpenPatcher on older Mac hardware. As patcher and firmware ecosystems evolve—driven by community releases, new VBIOS dumps, and incremental improvements—solutions may emerge that restore a visible boot screen for the Titan X and Titan Xp. Until then, expect this to remain a niche puzzle that benefits from iterative testing with alternative GPUs and updated boot-time tooling.