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Hi,

I plan to buy a 2008 MacPro 8 cores. I have a ASUSTEK GF8800GTS 640Mb PCI-E video card in my PC and I wonder if it's possible to put this card in my future MacPro via a flash ? It's could help me to save few euros when buying my MacPro.

I precise that I want the GF8800 GTS to work well on macOS X. I don't plan to install windows on my macPro.

Bye

Ps : sorry french guys don't speak english very well :)
 
Hi,

I plan to buy a 2008 MacPro 8 cores. I have a ASUSTEK GF8800GTS 640Mb PCI-E video card in my PC and I wonder if it's possible to put this card in my future MacPro via a flash ? It's could help me to save few euros when buying my MacPro.

I precise that I want the GF8800 GTS to work well on macOS X. I don't plan to install windows on my macPro.

Bye

Ps : sorry french guys don't speak english very well :)

The answer is no the GTS that you have will not work in OSX. The core GPU is different (G80) vs (G92) of the GT. However you could use a flashed 8800GTS (G92) in the system typically those GTS cards have 512 meg of ram.
 
Hi,

thank you for your answer. If I really have to change my video card I prefer to buy the GF 8 inside te macPro.

Bye
 
I notice there is a 8800GT upgrade for older Mac Pros (2006), has anyone got a flash working for a PC version yet?


Cheers
A
 
Hi there,
i use a modified evga 8800 gts and it works flawless with a modified 8800 gt rom (same clocks as normal gts and naturally all shaders) but i have no success in vista64. I dont know what driver i can use. The newest nvidia doesnt work.
 
PNY 8800GT 64K ROM file

I don't do this kind of stuff often and made an error by attempting to flash the 64K version of the PNY 8800GT. The attempt failed and now I am betting that the card is messed.

I did step through the backup process but something isn't right as I cannot find the .rom file that should have been created. I was working with the software from a c: drive (a FAT32 formatted internal drive) so I expected the backup ROM to be saved there.

The NVFlash utility reported the error and aborted the flash but after a restart the card isn't driving my monitor. Is this card unsalvageable — regardless of whether I find a ROM file?

Thanks. Any help is appreciated.

it is 100% the Same Model N# , and it does not work ! in fact it is a 64k size eeprom see ( PMC Pm25LV512 2.7.-3.6V 64Kx8s ,page )

Type = nvflash --check you will see ! but you can send it back for refund so not harm done, only waste of time.
 
Hi. I've been trying to find a flashable 8800GT, as I understand there are some versions which will work, and some which won't. I've scanned the thread, and the newegg links all reference deactivated products. Can somebody please kindly point me towards a URL for a card that is flashable? I tried searching Newegg, but I can't seem to tell which cards have a 64k rom and which have a 128k.

Any help would be much appreciated

My other question is, is this card fully compatible will Mac OS X and parallels/bootcamp? I can't afford to buy this card through Apple.
 
NewEgg won't tell you what size the ROM is. Your best bet is an eVGA card. Not only do they have the best track record in this thread as far as I remember, but eVGA has a lifetime warranty which includes pretty much anything that doesn't involve you physically damaging the card.

My flashed eVGA 8800GT works perfectly in OSX and XP Pro via BootCamp. I've never bothered with Parallels/Fusion because for the performance hit and headaches involved trying to get something to work in a virtualized OS, you might as well just use BootCamp, take less than a minute to reboot, and get full performance with no headaches.
 
Recommended 8800GT

Hi. I've been trying to find a flashable 8800GT, as I understand there are some versions which will work, and some which won't. I've scanned the thread, and the newegg links all reference deactivated products. Can somebody please kindly point me towards a URL for a card that is flashable? I tried searching Newegg, but I can't seem to tell which cards have a 64k rom and which have a 128k.

Any help would be much appreciated

My other question is, is this card fully compatible will Mac OS X and parallels/bootcamp? I can't afford to buy this card through Apple.

Carbonatd. I purchased . It Flashed fine. One concern I do have is that I might be noticing some mild issues with the card under certain video situations. I can't seem to get the "Effects" in iChat during a video chat to preview. The video preview appears white. One of my 3D applications also seems to have an issue. Embarassingly, I cannot remember the specifics at the moment. I have not used the card under Bootcamp only VMware Fusion and Windows XP.
 
Sorry to bring this situation back up again guys but I have a question about this...
i've had: EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

For awhile now. This was the card that first few testers bought for the Mac Pro.
I was wondering if this card will work out if I just try to install Leopard on my mac pro.
I have the First gen Mac Pro 8 core 3.0GHz, Windows XP 64bit only.
I deleted mac osx because it wouldn't work with this card.

First question: Can I install Leopard on my Mac Pro without "flashing" my graphics card?

Second question: Is this card "flash"able?

Third question: Could you link me to the "flashing" direction? I've never done it before and I'd like to get a clear direction. I've been digging on the pages but I can't seem to find "THE ONE".


Thanks guys!
 
Flashing via Command Prompt under Windows XP

First I'd like to say Thank You to the people who provided the ROM image, the flashing instructions and the information about which cards work and which don't.

I'm happy to say that I was able to successfully flash the EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GT Graphics Card P/N 512-P3-N801-AR with the ROM provided in this thread and the card works great in both OSX and Win.
I did the flashing via Command Prompt under Windows XP, the whole process took only a couple of minutes and there was no need to make a boot disc, boot from a cd or a flash drive.
I simply installed the 8800 in the PCIE slot #2 and kept my 2600 in the slot #1 with the display connected to the 2600 I booted into Win XP and flashed the card after flashing I shut down the system removed the 2600 and put the 8800 in the slot #1.
 
8800 GTS Boot Camp Working MacPRO 08

Alrighty, I have had a silent voice here until this evening so I hope this helps alot of folks. I would also like to thank all the other fellas who have posted in the section to get the bios and get the know on cards.

I have the EFI64 ROM loaded and working on OSX, and up until this evening with no boot camp the black screen everyone has.

The solution:

Used a simple hex editor with copy / paste function to copy the x86 portion of the rom out of the EFI32 to the EFI64.

You will notice this when running nvflash --pciblocks
Adapter: GeForce 8800 GT (10DE,0602,10DE,057C) H:NRM B:01,PCI,D:00,F:00

The display may go *BLANK* on and off for up to 10 seconds during access to the
EEPROM depending on your display adapter and output device.

Identifying EEPROM...
EEPROM ID (C2,10) : MX 25L1005 2.7-3.6V 1024Kx1S, page
Reading adapter firmware image...
Location Size Type
000000:00E5FF 58880 x86
00E600:01EDFF 67584 EFI


If found out that the EFI bios started at: 0x0000E5F0 by reading my old original into a hex editor, this prompted me to do the swap. Orginally I was hexing stuff out of the 8800 GTS bios but whooped my card until I had a PC to flash it in again.

I will post this BIOS for users to use with apples default power and clock settings, and I will also post a new bios which restores your updated clocks to GTS speeds but using 8800GT firmware etc.

** Note if you would like to do a clean mod to your ROM you can paste out everything from 0x0000E5F0 to the top into a new file. NiBiTor will read this with 100% integrity.

Thoughts about why the original ROM didn't work, I think nvidia did something new to their G92 8800GT's that we don't know about for the new MP's. That being said the original 8800GTS I have was released sometime in Dec 07, the x86 portion of code for ROM on older Mac Pro's must be more suitable for the card. You will also notice that device ID's are 100% match the card now shows up as 8800 GT in Windows XP.

** Note this doesn't change a thing for G80 chipsets.

EFI64_8800GT_FACTORY is apple clock and memory speeds
EFI64_8800GT_CLOCK is original 8800 GTS clock and memory speeds.
 

Attachments

  • EFI64_MP8800GT_CLOCK.zip
    105.4 KB · Views: 425
  • EFI64_MP8800GT_FACTORY.zip
    105.4 KB · Views: 393
I have been running my flashed evga 8800GT since back in april I think with 100% success until recent. Well around mid september it started a slow death, locking up in OSX and also BSOD in windows. I know it's the card 100% since I tried the 2600HD back in the system with Zero lockups. I pulled the heatsink and used artic silver to ensure good contact etc just today and it locked up fairly quick. Funny thing is no video ram test (tech tool in OSX or others in Windows) finds a problem. Only locks random in both OS's and don't have to be playing games.

So I am on the fence. Finding another 8800GT to flash has not gone well. I thought of switching to an ATI3870... Well I have managed to locate at Tiger Direct the 8800GTS (G92) and thought of giving that a go. But again on the fence because I just know Apple will come out with a new card after Jan with new MP's!

OK done venting!:D

Update: Went with another 8800GT from Ebay and it was a refurb P/N 512-P3-N801-RX and it flashed no problem. Uptime now = 15:58 up 7 days, 8:13
 
8800 GTS no result

Successfully updated my GeForce 8800 GTS with "mp8800gt.rom". Nothing happened!

Still have black screen in Mac OS. Work fine on windows side, recognized as 8800 GT.

As well no result with logicdisaster's roms in #490 post.

First gen Mac Pro. Dunno exact manufacturer of video card but looks like this one.

Any suggestions?
 
You need "The Rominator's" rom listed in another thread. Ask and he will send it to you. Also, I think you need 32bit EFI, as you have a 1st gen MP.

Edit: umm I see you found that thread.
 
Hey logicdisaster,

Thanks for the tip on getting the 8800GTS 512 working in bootcamp. As soon as I'm off from holidays I'll give this a try on my 08MP. I currently have the same problem with the 8800GTS working in OS X but not bootcamp.
 
Windows issues with flashed 8800GT

I successfully flashed my eVGA 8800 GT 512-P3-N801-AR for my early '08 MP. And the card has been working fine under OS X. Unfortunately, when I dual boot to Vista 64 bit, the machine will freeze after a few minutes of operation with slightly corrupted video - as if maybe 5-10% of the pixels changed colors.

I switched back to using the ATI video card and Vista appears to be happy now. Any thoughts on how to go about debugging the issue with the flashed 8800GT under Vista?

Thanks,
Sam
 
Flash 64

Hey smchan,

Have you used the ROM that I have provided above? Or is it from somewhere else. Also, have you tried in safe mode uninstalling the 8800graphics driver from vista and reinstalling latest Nvidia drivers from web?

One other solution I heard from the EFI32 forum was use bleeding edge beta drivers under v64.

I am curious of this issue also, and I may load V64 just to find out more.

Cheers,

JT
 
Hey smchan,

Have you used the ROM that I have provided above? Or is it from somewhere else. Also, have you tried in safe mode uninstalling the 8800graphics driver from vista and reinstalling latest Nvidia drivers from web?

No, I used the mp8800gt rom that was posted earlier in this thread - around page 4 or 5. I'm happy to try the ROM you posted above and will also try a driver update.

Sam
 
Newer EFI64 ROM out.

There are a couple guys at Apple.com who are stating that their 8800GT for EFI64 has a dev id of 602.

Would be nice to get a copy of that.

FYI....using that one would fix the issues with 8800GTS 512 that necessitated the extreme measures someone went too to create a ROM that worked in Windows.
 
even if the 128k Rom ist Present, you just can´t use 1024MB Based 8800GT cards with the FLASH.

only 512MB possible.

for 1024MB Cards you have to write a complete New BIOS for the card.

OK, this is a bunch of Hooey...I have a 9800GT from BFG with 1 Gig of RAM running just fine with Mac 88GT ROM.

HOWEVER...it shows up as 512 Megs.

I have moved the straps and device id from PC ROM....is there a place where this RAM amount is an entry in ROM?
 
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