Mojave, Dual boot, K5000 for CMP for 4K!

[Mad Davey]

Hi guys,

The wife and I love our CMP's 3.46ghz, SSD's, raid, lots of ram etc. They are beasts. My biggest problem as of late has been video cards. When I started this I could use my geforce GTX980 and boot into windows when I wanted and back again using boot camp. After High Sierra and Mojave no such luck with my modern GTX card. I got a 7950 and 7970, I used the information generously supplied by Netkas and others to make a firmware for the cards and they worked good for my wife but not for me on my 4k monitors. (is there somewhere to donate a few $$ to Netkas?) I am still hunting for something that would let me switch back and forth via display port 1.2 on my 4k monitors so I can run Windows and OSX.

The other day I got a good deal on a K5000 with a damaged chip that disabled one of the DP ports. Since my soldering skills are above average I was able to repair some traces and reconnect an extremely small chip that had broken legs. Now the card is fully functional and I hoped the K5000 mac bios I located would simply program to it. Alas no, the mac bios is larger than the PC cards bios chip can hold, and based on my research it turns out I would have to replace the bios chip with the same one as on the Mac K5000 to be able to program it with the mac bios. ugh!

Can anyone clue me in as to what the exact bios chip is that I would have to buy? I realize I'd probably have to do a recovery flash using another video card to interface. A high res image of the bottom of the mac version k5000 especially the 8 pin chip closest to the GPU on the bracket side of the card so I could get the numbers.

I'm hoping I can get this done and this card will do what I want via display port but I wont be surprised if it wont... Any help from anyone that's experienced with the k5000. I'm happy to buy a firmware chip for more than it's worth... Anyone?

 

[Flint Ironstag]

You're better off asking at netkas.org forum.

 

[h9826790]

Hi guys,

The wife and I love our CMP's 3.46ghz, SSD's, raid, lots of ram etc. They are beasts. My biggest problem as of late has been video cards. When I started this I could use my geforce GTX980 and boot into windows when I wanted and back again using boot camp. After High Sierra and Mojave no such luck with my modern GTX card. I got a 7950 and 7970, I used the information generously supplied by Netkas and others to make a firmware for the cards and they worked good for my wife but not for me on my 4k monitors. (is there somewhere to donate a few $$ to Netkas?) I am still hunting for something that would let me switch back and forth via display port 1.2 on my 4k monitors so I can run Windows and OSX.

The other day I got a good deal on a K5000 with a damaged chip that disabled one of the DP ports. Since my soldering skills are above average I was able to repair some traces and reconnect an extremely small chip that had broken legs. Now the card is fully functional and I hoped the K5000 mac bios I located would simply program to it. Alas no, the mac bios is larger than the PC cards bios chip can hold, and based on my research it turns out I would have to replace the bios chip with the same one as on the Mac K5000 to be able to program it with the mac bios. ugh!

Can anyone clue me in as to what the exact bios chip is that I would have to buy? I realize I'd probably have to do a recovery flash using another video card to interface. A high res image of the bottom of the mac version k5000 especially the 8 pin chip closest to the GPU on the bracket side of the card so I could get the numbers.

I'm hoping I can get this done and this card will do what I want via display port but I wont be surprised if it wont... Any help from anyone that's experienced with the k5000. I'm happy to buy a firmware chip for more than it's worth... Anyone?

Bootcamp 6.1 will allow you to switch back to macOS in Windows.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ut-a-boot-screen.2114788/page-9#post-26689280

 

[zedex]

I'm interested in your configuration/setup and I'm interested in the K5000.. here's what I know - people sell flashed PC Quadro K5000's on eBay. There's no way they're swapping chips, only flashing ROMs.
Also worth watching - MacVidCards recently blogged about adding K5000s to his line-up.. I never understood why he didn't have them earlier (except no 4K bootscreen) and someone who knows him should persuade him to mod / flash a K2200 - this would be the perfect solution for cMP owners everywhere. One-slot, 4x DP, no pci-E power draw, and, because it's Maxwell architecture for which he's already designed a ROM (based on GTX750) you'd get 4K bootscreen and we could all get back to living in 2018

 

[Mad Davey]

I know at least some of the ebay sellers are swapping bios chips. One actually says so in auction, another told me when I asked. I'd actually prefer to do it this way since it would be the original mac bios. I'd sure like to see if the k5000 will let me view boot screen over my 4k monitors via display port. Hmm you mention macvidcards said no 4k boot screens. So, this might not get me what I want anyway.

Interesting, apple has a boot camp that supports the new disk format, but for imac not for us cmp owners? You guys figured it out and installed the imac version on cmp. Awesome! Maybe it's time to RX 580. It sure would be nice if sapphire would make a new mac rx 580 or 590.

 

[Mad Davey]

"You're better off asking at netkas.org forum."

Good idea but I can't make a new post there, at least I do not see how. Where I believe the option is normally under OSX and Graphics Cards it only shows me Mark Read and Notify. I guess I'm too new or they only allow certain people to make topics.

 

[Mad Davey]

For me swapping the chip is easy, much easier than say editing a bios. I've located the chip. It is a GD25Q20 2.7V-3.6V . GD stands for Giga Device, I searched by the symbol on the chip and located them, but I should have known since the markings are start with GD. What happened to the old days when Atmel made all of these. It is 2048K, the mac bios for this card is 2831k so I will compare the specs and see if I can get my hands on a larger one, then I should be able to do a recovery flash using another video card. Cheers.

 

[zedex]

Hey Mad Davey - I really appreciate the update there. I don't know cards when it gets down to ROM chips! Your insight is very helpful

 

[Mad Davey]

I have it all working now. I used a cheap eprom programmer instead of doing a recovery flash. I guess I lost my nerve. The eprom programmers from overseas are inexpensive but take forever to get here, I did not want to change the chip twice. I am unsure why Mojave shows 3.5gb instead of 4gb but it happens on the PC bios and mac bios of this card so it does not seem to be the fault of the K5000 Mac Bios but rather Mojave, I can't be sure until I try it in an older OSX.

 

[h9826790]

however both report 3584mb ram in Mojave rather than the proper 4096mb.

Due to ECC?

https://www.nvidia.in/Download/driverResults.aspx/68445/en-in

 

[Mad Davey]

Due to ECC?

I just tried in another mac pro and it has the same issue. I tried flashing back to the non mac bios and it did the same. Thanks, I think you nailed it! I guess that makes these k5000's even more reliable.

 

[Stran0020]

Can you post a quick guide on how you accomplished this? Im planning to pick up a cheap k5000 pc version that I want to have the boot screen on my mac pro. thank you

 

[Stran0020]

Anyone know where I can find the correct (bigger bios chip) to flash a pc k5000 with a mac efi? Or what to search for online

 

[Stran0020]

So from post number 7 it looks like GD25Q20 is the original eeprom chip for k5000, I am assuming gd25q40 would be the correct bigger chip? can anyone verify this for me please. or point me in the right direction

 

[pinotschio]

I just tried in another mac pro and it has the same issue. I tried flashing back to the non mac bios and it did the same. Thanks, I think you nailed it! I guess that makes these k5000's even more reliable.

If its shown as 3,5GB it means you have ECC enabled. You can disable it via the Web drivers

 

[Penguin322]

anyone know which EEPROM chip is the correct one to use for converting to the mac rom?
GD25Q40B ??

 

[pinotschio]

Yes

 

[leandroguerreiro.pt]

No answer????