Mac Pro - GeForce 7900GTX works in Boot Camp

[CyberDoberman]

Actually this is incorrect. The firmware update that was needed on the other systems (Macbook Pro, iMac) was independent of Bootcamp itself. In fact, Bootcamp required you to install that firmware before you could install Bootcamp. The firmware update is what allows you to boot Windows XP.

Ahh, Good Show.

 

[tobyg]

My Mac Pro should be in Monday. I have a 7800 GT (not GTX) I will try. Here's my thought:

A 7900 is not recognized at all. A 7800 GTX is recognized but doesn't work. Perhaps a 7800 GT will be recognized *and* work under OS X, because there is a native driver for it (since there are 7800 GT cards for the G5s, should be the same driver).

At any rate, this is good news indeed, and progress.

-timb

Actually, the card you'd probably have the best luck with is the 7600 GT. 7600 GT is based off of the same G73 core as the 7300 GT. Your 7800 GT is based off of the same core as my 7800 GTX, G70.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_NVIDIA_Graphics_Processing_Units

 

[aiongiant]

from the sounds of other post ive been reading around
that the problem is driver issues but the pc vid cards does work?
it's osx that doesn't have the proper drivers
but ive also read aroudn that someone has figured out how to get the x1900 pc vid card to work by editing some driver file?

i dunno OS X well enough but is it possible to install 3rd party drivers to OS X?

 

[timb]

Actually, the card you'd probably have the best luck with is the 7600 GT. 7600 GT is based off of the same G73 core as the 7300 GT. Your 7800 GT is based off of the same core as my 7800 GTX, G70.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_NVIDIA_Graphics_Processing_Units

Yea in terms of the core, that would be right. My thought was just having to do with driver version IDs. I was thinking maybe it's trying to load the GT drivers for the GTX and that's why you're not getting signal to the monitors. Though I can't imagine it would make that much of a difference. (GTX just being higher clocked and more ram than the GT.)

Either way, at least the system recognizes a 7800.

 

[chiamon]

How do u boot back to OS X if u installed win xp on another hard disk without using boot camp as the boot loader is only included with boot camp?

 

[tobyg]

How do u boot back to OS X if u installed win xp on another hard disk without using boot camp as the boot loader is only included with boot camp?

Reboot and hold down option. You will get a selection list of drives to boot from.

 

[jdwl]

This is how the osx86 guys get non-supported ATI cards to work - perhaps the same method with work with Nvidia cards:

3) Go to the Apple menu, select 'About this Mac' and click 'More Information' to bring up System Profiler. You need to locate the display adapter (graphics card) and find the Vendor ID and Product ID. Make a note of these.

4) Now go back to your Terminal session and type:
CODE
cd /System/Library/Extensions/ATIRadeonX1000.kext/Contents
emacs Info.plist


Find the line containing 'IOPCIMatch' (ctrl-S to search in emacs). The next line needs to be modified to contain your Vendor and Product IDs. Take the vendor id and product ids and combine them. For example, lets say the vendor ID is 1002, and your device ID is 71c2. You combine them to a string 0x71c21002 (the 0x just means its a hex value).

The line immediately after the one containing IOPCIMatch should contain your newly-created string. For example:
CODE
<string>0x71c21002</string>


Ctrl-X-C to exit, pressing 'y' to save the file.

Now type:
CODE
cd /System/Library/Extensions/ATIRadeonX1000GA.bundle/Contents/
emacs Info.plist


You should be able to find two lines which look something like this:

CODE
<key>100271C2-0000-0000-0000-000a27898d3e</key>
<string>100271C2-0000-0000-0000-000a27898d3e</string>


You need to modify these to match your Product and Vendor IDs. NOTE that the string is constructed the 'other way round' this time - ie its vendor first then product. (ie 100271c7, not 71c71002).

When you have modified the file accordingly, Ctrl-X-C, then y to save.

5) Now time to clean up and get ready to boot.

Type:

CODE
rm /System/Library/Extensions.mkext
rm /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache
diskutil repairPermissions /

edit - this info taken from http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=19806

 

[tobyg]

This is how the osx86 guys get non-supported ATI cards to work - perhaps the same method with work with Nvidia cards:

3) Go to the Apple menu, select 'About this Mac' and click 'More Information' to bring up System Profiler. You need to locate the display adapter (graphics card) and find the Vendor ID and Product ID. Make a note of these.

4) Now go back to your Terminal session and type:
CODE
cd /System/Library/Extensions/ATIRadeonX1000.kext/Contents
emacs Info.plist


Find the line containing 'IOPCIMatch' (ctrl-S to search in emacs). The next line needs to be modified to contain your Vendor and Product IDs. Take the vendor id and product ids and combine them. For example, lets say the vendor ID is 1002, and your device ID is 71c2. You combine them to a string 0x71c21002 (the 0x just means its a hex value).

The line immediately after the one containing IOPCIMatch should contain your newly-created string. For example:
CODE
<string>0x71c21002</string>


Ctrl-X-C to exit, pressing 'y' to save the file.

Now type:
CODE
cd /System/Library/Extensions/ATIRadeonX1000GA.bundle/Contents/
emacs Info.plist


You should be able to find two lines which look something like this:

CODE
<key>100271C2-0000-0000-0000-000a27898d3e</key>
<string>100271C2-0000-0000-0000-000a27898d3e</string>


You need to modify these to match your Product and Vendor IDs. NOTE that the string is constructed the 'other way round' this time - ie its vendor first then product. (ie 100271c7, not 71c71002).

When you have modified the file accordingly, Ctrl-X-C, then y to save.

5) Now time to clean up and get ready to boot.

Type:

CODE
rm /System/Library/Extensions.mkext
rm /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache
diskutil repairPermissions /

edit - this info taken from http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=19806

Yep, I'm fully aware of that menthod. Did it with my X1600 XT. But the entire reason to get a mac pro is to not have to hack at things like that. I'd rather have the fully supported 7300 GT for OSX and 7800 GTX for Windows. That's fine with me. I MIGHT try that someday, but for now, that is not a huge concern of mine.

 

[aiongiant]

Yep, I'm fully aware of that menthod. Did it with my X1600 XT. But the entire reason to get a mac pro is to not have to hack at things like that. I'd rather have the fully supported 7300 GT for OSX and 7800 GTX for Windows. That's fine with me. I MIGHT try that someday, but for now, that is not a huge concern of mine.

i do agree but i mean if i can have a 7950GX2 running both windows and mac withouth me having to switch my dual displays around all the better =)

 

[jdwl]

My thoughts exactly giant. I only have one display - so two cards is out of the question for me...

 

[^squirrel^]

My thoughts exactly giant. I only have one display - so two cards is out of the question for me...

You could always buy a monitor switch to flip between the Windows and OSX GPU's?

But yes i agree, it would be nice to have 2 cards installed one for XP and the other for OSX.

I've got to wait until next month before i order mine, so we've got until then to crack it!

I'm positive we'll be ordering some Macpros at work next week so i'll devote my lunch breaks to trying different PC GPU's and get to the bottom of this!

 

[chiamon]

Edit: Removed

 

[wizz0bang]

Edit: post deleted as requested.

 

[chiamon]

-

 

[ammon]

Enjoy reading, its long but worth ur time!

That was indeed quite long! But, WOW! I don't think I've seen as much information regarding the innards of the Mac Pro anywhere!!!

When it comes time to flash a PC card to run in the Mac Pro, go here

They have been flashing AGP/PCIE cards for the G5s/G4s for quite some time!


And now we know more abou the RAM heatsinks. Thanks a million!!!

 

[Hornblower]

I don't necessarily think the ATI cards are better quality then their PC counterparts. From Anandtech:

The Radeon X1900 XT used in the Mac Pro appears to have a 1.3GHz memory clock, which is slower than the 1.45GHz clock of the PC version. The core clock is also slower than the PC version at 600MHz, instead of 625MHz. Historically, ATI Mac Edition cards have always been clocked lower than their PC counterparts; ATI explained the reasoning behind this disparity as having to do with basic supply and demand. The demand for Mac video cards is lower than their PC counterparts, so ATI runs them at lower clock speeds to maintain their desired profit per card regardless of whether they are selling to Mac or PC markets.

It is possible that the Mac ATI card is quieter though, with a better cooling system. That would make it better to a lot of people.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Hmm, it seems then that the OEM video cards for the Mac Pro are totally dual-platform....this is a good thing folks. It leads me to belive that the video card manufacturers have already done the hard part.

I may be wrong on this, but my guess is that the ROM images can be dumped from the Apple OEM cards and flashed (as with previous flashing methods) to similar PC cards to get them running on the Mac. The difference now is that the flashed PC card will be dual platform compatible. The holy grail of flashing!

As a result many cards in, say, the X1900 family (X1900GT, GTO etc.) will probably work with the OEM X1900XT's ROM. Ditto the 7300 and Quadro (and in that case possibly some 7900 series cards?).

 

[tobyg]

Yes this is an interesting post and confirms one of my fears. The fact that when I put my 7800 GTX in and I don't even get the white screen during bootup tells me that I either need something in EFI or the correct firmware on my 7800GTX so the Mac Pro will even see the card during boot.

So worst case, we're looking at flashing cards again.

I may go pick up a cheap 7300 GT and see if I can flash that. Another curious thing i'm thinking about is if I got another 7300 GT, even unflashed, if it would work in SLI mode in XP. The 7300 GT that comes with the Mac Pro DOES have the SLI connector. XP keeps bitching to me about SLI being disabled when I have both my 7300 GT and 7800 GTX installed, and that's probably because they are two totally different cards.

 

[CyberPrey]

This is probably a silly question, but did you connect the SLI bridge?

 

[tobyg]

This is probably a silly question, but did you connect the SLI bridge?

Heh no. I wasn't going to try and do SLI between a 7300 GT and 7800 GTX. That just won't work.

 

[CyberPrey]

Technically, according to nvidia, it might.. but BOTH cards would work at the speed of the slower card....

Now, I have been known to be wrong though....

 

[omfgninja]

It is theoretically possible for a PCI Express graphics card to contain firmware for both Windows/BIOs and Mac/EFI but in reality this is unlikely given the extra expense to develop EFI drivers. (there may also be a space issue fitting both sets of codes on the ROM chip on the graphics card)

while im not doubting this post. I thought that line was kinda weird, considering the fact that we can take a "Mac/EFI" card, and then put it into a normal PC and then boot it up.

Also, doesnt vista run EFI? Wouldnt a Vista compatible card then run in a Mac Pro as long as it had the drivers?

 

[CyberPrey]

(sigh) OK, MAJOR stupid question.. I googled this, and got so many answers my head hurts now, and still do not understand the differences...

BIOS - got that part..
EFI - Not sure exaclty what that is?

Anyone able to toss a link or a simple explanation?

 

[aiongiant]

while im not doubting this post. I thought that line was kinda weird, considering the fact that we can take a "Mac/EFI" card, and then put it into a normal PC and then boot it up.

Also, doesnt vista run EFI? Wouldnt a Vista compatible card then run in a Mac Pro as long as it had the drivers?

as i recall in other posts i think the Mac Pro does recognize normal pc vid cards
but jsut lacks the proper Drivers in OS X
so hopefullly someone comes up with a 3rd party driver for the nvidia cards =) like they did for the x1800 over at osx86 they even have a lil installer

 

[tobyg]

as i recall in other posts i think the Mac Pro does recognize normal pc vid cards
but jsut lacks the proper Drivers in OS X
so hopefullly someone comes up with a 3rd party driver for the nvidia cards =) like they did for the x1800 over at osx86 they even have a lil installer

While this part is true, the only thing this would help you with would be to get OSX running with your graphics card. You would not be able to see the white/gray bootup screen and wouldn't see any graphics on the screen until the driver was initialized. This would still be great for some, they could at least run the 7300GT and another card as a secondary card, but I don't know if I could live with a mac with a single non-mac video card that didn't show me anything during bootup. It means you wouldn't be able to get into diags, wouldn't be able to hold down option and select drives to boot from, and so on.

In order to get everything to work, it would require EFI and/or video card firmware hacks/changes.