MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro 5,1 Radeon HD 7970 ports not working

[skyepn]

Hi everyone I'm still rocking a MacPro 5,1 with a Radeon HD 7970 that I bought off eBay a few years ago, it works great for work and some SD video editing and light gaming on the side.

I was updating my monitor setup and noticed a couple of the ports don't have any signal, marked below (lower DVI and HDMI ports).

Was it maybe flashed incorrectly? Is there any way to fix this? Really don't want to brick it as it's my work computer.

Currently shows boot screen fine, and I have it set up to dual boot into Windows. Should I check if those ports have signal when I'm in Windows where I can mess around with Catalyst Control Center?

Thanks

 

[Borowski]

If it is flashed with the "Mac-EFI", this is expected behaviour: The card ports do not match to donor (Sapphire HD7590 Mac Edition), some ports will loose function.

I wrote several days possible solutions for this problem here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...m-issues.2413627/?post=32800170#post-32800170

If the card isn't flashed, it won't have the bootscreen, but all ports should work fine from OSX 10.8.3 up.

Can you attach the romdump of the card?

 

[skyepn]

I see thanks... so boot screen or all ports, but not both.

How do I create a romdump? I searched but most links go to netkas which seems dead. GPU-Z on Windows?

From what I understand, I can get a 3rd monitor working if I use an active adapter on the 2nd MDP port.

Is that the best I can hope for? There's no MST Hub support in OSX right?

I believe this card is supposed to support up to 6 monitors.

Forgot to mention I'm on Mojave.

 

[h9826790]

ROM Revision 113-E2080C-101, it's flashed.

I see thanks... so boot screen or all ports, but not both.

Correct

How do I create a romdump?

Quite few software can do that in Windows. e.g. GPU-Z can dump the ROM, or AMDDVBFlash can also be used to dump the ROM.

From what I understand, I can get a 3rd monitor working if I use an active adapter on the 2nd MDP port.

If the 2nd mDP is working now, then you are correct.

 

[Dayo]

boot screen or all ports, but not both.

I suppose it is *NATIVE* boot screen OR all ports indeed but you might be able to use an *ALTERNATIVE* boot screen AND keep all your ports active instead. You can get an alternative screen via RefindPlus and/or OpenCore.

 

[Borowski]

All ports incl. bootscreen on all ports should work with GOPEnabler+GOP-image in videocard bios.

But this will make the card unusable with Mac Pro 1.1-3.1 and the empty space inside bios is limited. This will make the mod difficult in some cases.

I see thanks... so boot screen or all ports, but not both.

How do I create a romdump? I searched but most links go to netkas which seems dead. GPU-Z on Windows?

No, read above. And with a modified Mac-EFI bootscreen is also possible, not with all ports, but all will be usable under macOS (generic RadeonFramebuffer).

Dumping the rom with GPU-Z under Windows works good, if you have a Windows-machine or on the Mac, try it.

 

[skyepn]

VBIOS dump from CPU-Z attached

 

[Borowski]

Bad idea to put the binary to a textfile.

Please dump again, zip or rar the dumped biosfile and attach to message.

 

[Borowski]

I made a modded rom ready to flash under Windows. I took the cardbios from here: https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/131977/xfx-hd7970-3072-120715
Picture looks little bit different, but all IDs, version, compile date and signon-message match.

• Download the flashingtool AMDVBFlash v2.93 from techpowerup: https://www.techpowerup.com/download/ati-atiflash/
• Unpack all files into a new folder, name and location doesn't matter, e.g. in your user or desktop.
• Unpack also both files inside the attached file into the same folder
• run "flash.bat" as Administrator (right-click, "run as Administrator")
• Flashing process should work and end with prompt to restart the machine

What i changed:

• Usage of generic framebuffer instead of "Hamachi" personality should enable all ports under macOS
• changed in EFI the wrong sense- and hotplug-IDs; this might enable bootscreen on HDMI, but no guarantee. The working ports shouldn't be affected, the second DVI will still be disabled for bootscreen.

Please report if it is working or not.

 

[skyepn]

Just getting back to this after the holidays and it seems your modded rom attachment was deleted, sorry can you upload it again and I'll report back asap.

 

[skyepn]

I flashed your ROM and all ports work now thank you Borowski!!!

Boot screen on DVI-1. You are correct, boot screen does not show on DVI-2. I haven't checked HDMI on boot.

With both DVI ports in use, neither the MDP or HDMI ports have signal (the same as before), if I unplug one of the DVI ports the HDMI port works.

Will an active HDMI cable get the HDMI port working with a 3rd FHD monitor?
If I add two active MiniDP to HDMI adapters can I get up to 5 FHD monitors (all ports)?

Thanks again

 

[Borowski]

Can you please list (port after port, only 1 Display connected!) which are able to output:
- bootscreen
- under macOS

Bootscreen is only shown on one display, even if you connect more. When operating system and drivers are loaded, more than 1 display works.

With both DVI ports in use, neither the MDP or HDMI ports have signal (the same as before), if I unplug one of the DVI ports the HDMI port works.

If you have difficulties using both DVI ports under macOS, there is nothing to do with the ROM, it depends on the driver.

 

[skyepn]

Individual ports from top left to right as per photo in first post, only 1 display connected, with your custom ROM, booting MacOS 10.14:

Port - boot screen - login screen
DVI-1 Y Y
HDMI N Y
MDP-1 Y Y
MDP-2 Y Y
DVI-2 N Y

> If you have difficulties using both DVI ports under macOS, there is nothing to do with the ROM, it depends on the driver.

After boot, I can get two displays working on both DVI ports in MacOS (or any two ports as long as one is a "boot" port) no problem. I'm wondering if I can get more than two displays working, and on which ports (all five?) before I order adapters and monitors...

 

[Borowski]

It depends to needed resolution and connectors at your displays. It is always a good solution to avoid using adapters and to use the same protocol at GPU, connection and display.

One DVI is limited to single-link; if you need dual-link, you MUST use an active adapter from HDMI- or mDP-port(s) to DL-DVI. With passive adapters (only changing plug) it will be limited to SL-DVI.

mDP and DP are electrically identical, with cheap passive adapters can be adapted in both directions.

Unfortunately my programming skills are limited, don't know how to activate bootscreen on HDMI (this was my goal). No idea how to fix it, i can't find more instances for needed change of sense-ID.

 

[skyepn]

I'm just glad I can get signal on DVI-2 and HDMI now, thanks again

 

[Borowski]

👍
I could also try to activate bootscreen on second DVI instead of HDMI, what didn't work yet. For luck, the 2. DVI shares sense- and hotplug-IDs with the HDMI found on the original Mac-Edition card the EFI comes from, so only all encoder- and transmitter-IDs had to be changed.

This won't affect function under macOS or the bootscreen ability for the other connectors, but more than 4 bootscreen-working ports are nearly impossible due to only 4 dedicated ports inside the EFI.