Flashing R9 280X for boot screens/PCI System Information

[sxiros]

Correct, you better do it this way now. And MUST NOT accidentally flash the good rom, that's your ultimate backup.

sorry for bothering you again, is there a howto , quide on how to build your own rom?

 

[h9826790]

Download this

View attachment fixrom.zip

And follow this

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/19497121/

P.S. this will make your card ident as 7950 in system report, but that's cosmetic, won't cause you any issue. If you want it to ident as 280X, you have to hex edit the rom image by yourself. That's already covered in the first page.

 

[sxiros]

Download this

View attachment 528978

And follow this

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/19497121/

P.S. this will make your card ident as 7950 in system report, but that's cosmetic, won't cause you any issue. If you want it to ident as 280X, you have to hex edit the rom image by yourself. That's already covered in the first page.

Thanks alot, i followed your guide and it worked like a charm
i need to test it now but atm it counts the right ram

Thanks again all in this forum for your great Help

 

[BillyBlue]

Hello everyone,
a few days ago I bought a Mac Pro 4,1 8-Core 2,26Ghz with a GeForce 120GT.

So I strongly need a better graphic-card

If I'm right, and please correct me if it's wrong, I've to do the following steps:


1) buy a Radeon R9 280X like:

- Gigabyte GV-R928XOC-3GD REV2
or
- MSI 912-V277-067


2) Flash the firmware of the new card with the ROM and instructions of https://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=20690204 with BootCamp (NOT in a VM)

3) Remove R17 to get full port-speed

4) Buy two(?) adapter-cable for power-connection to the motherboard.


After this I've got a R9 280x working at full speed in my Mac Pro?

If this is right: What flash-tool I should use and does I need a special Windows version or is Windows 8.0 ok?

Why do I need to flash it?

Does this solution works proper and stable?

And should I use slot 2 to give more room (heat) or is slot 1 ok?

Thank you



PS: Is it right that NVIDIA cards never need to flashed and they work in full port-speed if you're using the GeForce-Driver from the NVIDIA-website?

 

[Earl Urly]

4) should be put in between 1) and 2) or your card may not work

Read through the entire thread and count the number of complaints in regards to your 'proper and stable' comment then draw your own concussions.

ATIFlash is simple and works, it's mentioned throughout the thread.

Pretty much all your questions are answered by reading the ENTIRE thread

Go ask your last question in the nVidia thread, don't belong here.

 

[BillyBlue]

4) should be put in between 1) and 2) or your card may not work

Read through the entire thread and count the number of complaints in regards to your 'proper and stable' comment then draw your own concussions.

ATIFlash is simple and works, it's mentioned throughout the thread.

Pretty much all your questions are answered by reading the ENTIRE thread

I read the entire thread, but I just want to play it 100% safe so it would be nice, if some one can say yes/no to my questions

 

[Prazcon]

Hey guys!
I'm still having some issues, maybe you could help me out! I used the instructions to patch the rom and flashed it however when i then start Yosemite it still doesnt recognize the card. I'm using a Sapphire Vapor-X 3GB 280X. I even tried flashing the rom for the Sapphire Dual-X 280X, but still no result.

Hope you guys can help!

 

[BillyBlue]

Can someone tell me, which works more stable at all:


- Gigabyte GV-R928XOC-3GD REV2.0
or
- MSI 912-V277

?

A few days ago I tried a Gigabyte GV-R928XOC-3GD REV3.0(!) and my Mac Pro 4,1 crashes every few mins in Heaven Benchmark.

So I think the REV 3.0 takes too much power and I send it back.

It seems to be impossible to get a MSI V277-067 in Germany. I found only -053. Are there big differences?

So my question is: Which one of this both Gigabyte REV 2.0 oder MSI V277-053 would be the better choice to get a working/stable machine for Game-Development?

 

[MacVidCards]

Main issue with new cards is when they only have a single MDP or DP. These are for most part unusable.

 

[BillyBlue]

Main issue with new cards is when they only have a single MDP or DP. These are for most part unusable.

What does MDP/DP mean?

 

[crjackson2134]

What does MDP/DP mean?

Mini Display Port / Display Port

 

[Alex-IN]

I've spent the last hour combing through post-by-post looking for one.

UPDATE: ok, found one. Appreciate you egging me on to keep looking.

The ROM I made from your work is attached in case it helps others. Thank you so much!

The card I used:

MSI RADEON R9 280X GAMING 3G (TWIN FROZR IV, OC EDITION)
part number 912-V277-067 (on box)
EAN 4 719072 314026 (sticker on card)
UPC-A 8 24142 01599 5 (sticker on card)

Information on the EBC firmware attached here:

Subsystem ID: 0x2775
Device ID: 0x6798
PC BIOS (stock as shipped): 113-MSITV277MS.350 TAHITI B0 XTL C38650 GDDR5 3GB, BIOS Version 015.041.000.000.003435, ROM Revision 113-C3865001-TU5
Mac EBC EFI: (replaced stock UEFI): ATY,Hamachi, ROM Revision 113-E2080C-101, EFI Driver Version 01.00.624

are you try to change framebuffer to Futomaki?

 

[amigo74]

Today i have flashed a msi r9 280 without x with the mac efi bios.
First i changed the bios selector to position 2 : legacy modus.
Then backup the original legacy bios and then flash the msi r9 280 mac efi bios in legacy modus( bios position 2)
So i have a problem: Sometimes boot screen comes and sometimes no bootscreen.
When os-x yosemite is started there is always a screen.
I have made smc reset and pram reset.
I have attached the original msi r9 280 legacy bios.
Can anybody help and modify my original legacy bios ???
This card was tested on mac pro 2,1


Best regards

 

[h9826790]

Can anybody help and modify my original legacy bios ???

You may try this.

Notes:

1) I assume your device ID is 679a, I am too lazy to open the ROM and check it.

2) The card will ident itself as D700. Just a cosmetic thing, won't affect performance or stability.

3) The EFI version is "NOT-FOR-SELL". Just to prevent some non-responsible people steal this ROM, flash on other cards, without testing it, pretend they are expert, and sell it on the net.

 

[amigo74]

Does your card always show up the bootscreen ??
My card ist the same msi r9 280 without x 3g gaming and it sometimes not show up the boot screen ??
any suggestions ?
it was tested on a mac pro 2,1.

Thank you for the help. I've flashed the BIOS on my MSI R9 280 card with the ROM that Mr. Zarniwoop provided and it works great. Boot screens come up as hoped/expected.

I did go ahead and do the R17 resister removal as well, and am now receiving the 5.0 GT/s PCIe speed -- again, as hoped/expected.

I think I'm all set - thanks again.

Mark

 

[Childs]

I couldn't use the scripts for my rom since it kept failing:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "fixrom.py", line 110, in <module>
    op_rom.fix()
  File "fixrom.py", line 90, in fix
    self.data[-1] = chr(0x100 - sum)
ValueError: chr() arg not in range(256)

so I manually cut and paste the efi section into my rom. The one thing thats not working is the name. I changed it from '7970' in the efi part to 'R9 280x', but it still says '7970'. Any pointers?

 

[Childs]

I cut out the efi part from Zarnipoop's rom and pasted it in mine instead of MAC7970.ROM, and I get the right model number in About This Mac. I would like to know what needs to be changed though, simply because I spent too much time trying to figure it out. I spent an evening comparing hex dumps, and I don't even know what I'm looking for!

 

[chrisb42]

Thanks everyone for the valuable information in this thread and elsewhere. I managed (after some detours) to get my MSI R9 280x flashed and I have bootscreens now, but I do not get audio over HDMI or mDP. Running Yosemite on a MP4,1 flashed with the 5,1 firmware.

Anything that I'm missing or am I just out of luck?

 

[Earl Urley]

Check this Apple support note..

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204388

Does HDMI audio appear in Sound control panel?

 

[chrisb42]

No, the card doesn't show up in the Sound Panel in SysPrefs. An original 5770 does, however. Attached what my PCI information shows, which doesn't show an audio component unlike Mr. Zarniwoop's card shows.

I flashed the card several times, I used the rom he posted, created my own ones, so far no luck. Right now I'm using the latest software I could find posted in the MSI forums and then copied the EFI part from his rom into it. It works fine with bootscreens, but I have not been able to get the audio component yet.

 

[kennyman]

@chrisb42

Are you using the MSI Gaming 3G card?

 

[chrisb42]

@chrisb42

Are you using the MSI Gaming 3G card?

Yes I do. This is what's on the sticker on the card:

R9 280X GAMING 3G
S/N: 602–V277–28SB1311070639
EAN: 4719072 314026
UPC-A: 0816909 015997

 

[h9826790]

You need to install 3rd party kext to activate the HDMI Audio.

 

[kennyman]

Yes I do. This is what's on the sticker on the card:

R9 280X GAMING 3G
S/N: 602–V277–28SB1311070639
EAN: 4719072 314026
UPC-A: 0816909 015997

ok, I have the same card. Please post your card.rom, mine is using Elpida memory.

I have attached 351 from your link, please try it. You need to change .zip to .rom

BTW, Audio is here

 

[chrisb42]

ok, I have the same card. Please post your card.rom, mine is using Elpida memory.

I have attached 351 from your link, please try it. You need to change .zip to .rom

BTW, Audio is here

Thanks kennyman, I'm already successfully running 351 with EFI support for bootscreens, as mentioned above.

I read the thread about updating 4,1 MPs with the 5,1 firmware and how Apple's cards then supported audio as well, but I didn't realize that for flashed cards a kext was still necessary. Thanks for the link to the thread, installed and all good now!

Thanks everyone!