Race to dump the 4870 ROM, Who's first?

[tobyg]

Oddly enough, after flashing an 8800gt from my first gen mac pro to work in my '09 I experienced similar behavior in that it works great under OS X but I can no longer use it through boot camp.

I just reflashed my EVGA 8800GT that was running the EFI32 bit ROM and in my MP 2x2.66 Quad (MacPro1,1) to the EFI64 bit ROM and put it in my new 2x2.8ghz Octo (MacPro3,1) and it works fine in OSX and Bootcamp with XP.

Curious, maybe the 8800GT won't work in the '09 Mac Pro. I don't know of anyone else who has tried the 8800GT in the '09 Mac Pro.


I'm done with the 4870 flashing. I'll get the official Apple 4870 when it's available.
Tried 2 cards and both failed, so I'm done.

 

[jeanlain]

thats sad, this trick worked with 9800 card and 8800gt rom.

Hey, maybe it will work with a 2nd gen 4870 and the Mac 4870 rom.
Could we expect better success with this method? Why did you use it with the 9800 card, because it only has a 64KB rom?

I'd be nice to know WHY the recent Sapphire 4870 could not be flashed. Apparently, it is not specific to the EFI part since the cards are made unusable even in PCs. Wrong device ID or something? I know squat about BIOS...

EDIT: tobyg, what was the other card you flashed? Just so we know which card to avoid.

 

[tobyg]

EDIT: tobyg, what was the other card you flashed? Just so we know which card to avoid.

The other card was a Diamond. Read my previous posts in this thread.
That one probably would have failed too, as it had the same RV770XT product name and P/N 11X- instead of 113- but that one I was never able to test. It physically wouldn't go into the lower slot on the Mac Pro because of the screws in the back being too long. I didn't try it in any other slot, although I should have before returning it.

 

[cured.not.dried]

i have the visiontek card that came out first release and the above procedures worked for me, i just wanted to add that for this card since there are two dvi ports and one s-video port that flashing it borks the s-video port but not the dvi ports... also it does not work with apple's DVI to S-video adapter.

in bootcamp i had a bit of trouble. i had to erase my bootcamp drive to make a bridge drive (FAT32 - 23 gigs, just to have for various game disk images since i don't download in windoze ->unsafe) and reinstall vista, so i was using my x1900xt to take care of the installation. so after windoze was set up i put the newly flashed card in and... NO VIDEO! after a bit of fen-angling i realized that i would need to disable the x1900xt in the device tree before the 4870 would be recognized. after i disabled it, i pressed my power button, shut down, took out the x1900xt, put in the 4870, booted, and lo and behold, windoze splash screen at startup!!

since i really only use it to play games, i didn't find it necessary to edit the clocks in RBE. when in windoze the catalyst drivers will overclock it for me, and when on the mac side i don't need to worry about the extra speed since games usually won't go that much faster, least not till iPhone developers start making macintosh games... at any rate, i'd honestly just rather have quieter fans cause i'm usually jammin tunes.

oh and i wanted to remind all the haterz that the last time ati came out with a new generation of radeons we still hadn't seen a mac version of the late one. at least this time we've got the jump by a few months... progress is always better for the consumer than market stagnation.

 

[goin3d]

Dude. this is fixable...it has to do with Device id of card and ROM and the way Nvidia uses Softstraps to load final digit of this device id.

When windows sees multiple device id's for same card it halts.

Don't suppose you are in LA?

Nah...i'm on the east coast That makes sense though! In OS X everything works great, under xp/vista it's shutting the device down due to "errors" which i am guessing now are due to the device ids. the gt 120 still works giving me 1 monitor. While I'd like to figure this one out, flashing the 06 8800gt to work in the 09 was just a carry over until a 4870 replaces it.

I still have a 1g sapphire 4870 coming to me monday or tuesday. With what's been learned over the course of this thread does anything change with regards to flashing it? IE i'm still going to try with the 4870 rom that netkas had out there and see what happens.

Rominator, now that i at least have 1 monitor under vista I should be able to dump the 120 rom using GPU-Z?

 

[KPTChristopher]

4850

I have a Sapphire 4850 card and thought I'd try and get it to work in OS X. It and the stock 2600 are fine in Vista under bootcamp. I have two monitors, a Samsung 22" connected via DVI and an Apple Studio monitor connected via an ADC converter box.
I downloaded and installed the 4800 drivers from the web and rebooted, but after the grey Apple appeared both screens went a light blue and I couldn't see OS X. Vista worked fine on both monitors. Swapped monitors between the two video cards but couldn't see anything. Ended up having to boot off the install DVD and do a clean install.
Maybe I should have flashed the 4850 card first then installed the drivers?
Wondering if maybe 10.5.7 will sort this out?

 

[MacVidCards]

Did you remove the Natit.kext per the instructions?

 

[jeanlain]

I have a Sapphire 4850 card and thought I'd try and get it to work in OS X. It and the stock 2600 are fine in Vista under bootcamp. I have two monitors, a Samsung 22" connected via DVI and an Apple Studio monitor connected via an ADC converter box.
I downloaded and installed the 4800 drivers from the web and rebooted, but after the grey Apple appeared both screens went a light blue and I couldn't see OS X. Vista worked fine on both monitors. Swapped monitors between the two video cards but couldn't see anything. Ended up having to boot off the install DVD and do a clean install.
Maybe I should have flashed the 4850 card first then installed the drivers?
Wondering if maybe 10.5.7 will sort this out?

You mean you got the grey apple logo and some video (albeit blue) without even flashing the card?
Is this on a Mac Pro?

 

[MacVidCards]

4850 enroute

I'm pretty sure he means that he had the 2600 in and during boot it locked up.

I imagine this is because he didn't remove Natit.kext which causes a halted boot.

I am 99% certain the blue screen, etc came from 2600.

In OTHER NEWS...I have a 4850 coming via a local Craigslister.

If it has a 64K chip on it I will replace it with a 128K...and we will have another answer soon.

Thanks to Netkas for putting a ROM together...answer soon.

And if Netkas DOES see this...any ideas on the 9800GT 1 Gig question I posted in the 8800GT EFI 64 thread?

 

[KPTChristopher]

Did you remove the Natit.kext per the instructions?

No. I thought I'd be able to do that after a reboot, but then I couldn't see anything. I thought the 2600 would work whether the 4850 did or not.

 

[tobyg]

You don't have to remove it manually. You can just choose not to install it during install. Hit "Customize" when installing the package and you can unselect it.

 

[Konni]

Has someone a info with which card it would work ?

 

[Ronchande]

Has someone a info with which card it would work ?

This is too early to say.

 

[MacVidCards]

Has someone a info with which card it would work ?

You are ON the cutting edge, Konni.

I got a Diamond to work...but Tobyglen said his Diamond didn't.

What you can gather from this thread is ALL that we know.

I am certain an Engineer from Apple or ATI could clarify things......but they seem to NOt be helping. You can play a valuable role by trying a card out...buy from somewhere that has a return policy you can live with. Newegg lets you get $$$ back but they will take a "restocking fee"...a reasonable price for the overall boost in knowledge.

 

[Konni]

You are ON the cutting edge, Konni.

I got a Diamond to work...but Tobyglen said his Diamond didn't.

What you can gather from this thread is ALL that we know.

I am certain an Engineer from Apple or ATI could clarify things......but they seem to NOt be helping. You can play a valuable role by trying a card out...buy from somewhere that has a return policy you can live with. Newegg lets you get $$$ back but they will take a "restocking fee"...a reasonable price for the overall boost in knowledge.

In Germany it's a little bit more complicated, but, I will try it with a XpertVision 4870 (I think smaller Hardwareproducers didn't create own designs, so I hope it is the Referencedesign from ATI).

I will report, when I get the card (I thin 2 oder 3 days).

 

[Setmose]

Ethics?

yes i did buy 4 8800gt in FEB2008 ! Buy ONE , Flash it , if OK keep it, if not Send it back , order a NEW ONE ! and so on .........until one Card did work.

Let me get this right. You knowingly damaged several cards and then represented to the manufacturers that the fault was theirs, that they sent you defective cards, and you claimed monies from them after you damaged the cards? And then you are bragging about it here?

Even if you restored the cards to working order, you are pushing the ethics in making them restock or push the returned merchandise to refurbished. They would have to re-test the cards after return, etc.

Not nice.

 

[netkas]

Hey, maybe it will work with a 2nd gen 4870 and the Mac 4870 rom.
Could we expect better success with this method? Why did you use it with the 9800 card, because it only has a 64KB rom?

I'd be nice to know WHY the recent Sapphire 4870 could not be flashed. Apparently, it is not specific to the EFI part since the cards are made unusable even in PCs. Wrong device ID or something? I know squat about BIOS...

EDIT: tobyg, what was the other card you flashed? Just so we know which card to avoid.

the guy used this trick to make 9800gx2 working without reflashing.

imho, it's a good way to check if card will work with the firmware, without flashing.

 

[grue]

Let me get this right. You knowingly damaged several cards and then represented to the manufacturers that the fault was theirs, that they sent you defective cards, and you claimed monies from them after you damaged the cards? And then you are bragging about it here?

Even if you restored the cards to working order, you are pushing the ethics in making them restock or push the returned merchandise to refurbished. They would have to re-test the cards after return, etc.

Not nice.

If he pays a restock fee, I don't see the problem. It's a firmware flash and reflash, not desoldering something and replacing with a dead cat's tongue.

 

[pipomolo42]

I'd be nice to know WHY the recent Sapphire 4870 could not be flashed. Apparently, it is not specific to the EFI part since the cards are made unusable even in PCs. Wrong device ID or something? I know squat about BIOS...

Well, it's a different PCB design, and they probably need some differences in the bios as well.

Anyway, I really need to have VGA output working again, and I'll try to see if I can mix the pc bios and the mac EFI part. If this works, it might mean that 2nd rev cards and 1GB card could be working as well, using this trick ...

I can't promise anything yet, but I think that by the end of this week, i'll be able to tell you if I managed to get something, or if I simply gave up.

 

[Ronchande]

In Germany it's a little bit more complicated, but, I will try it with a XpertVision 4870 (I think smaller Hardwareproducers didn't create own designs, so I hope it is the Referencedesign from ATI).

I will report, when I get the card (I thin 2 oder 3 days).

HI. I am also from Germany. I was thinking to buy a Club3D. At least it "looks" pretty similar to the Mac ATI version so maybe worth a try. Can you drop me a PM if you have a positive result with your card?

Thanks,

Ron

 

[nateDEEZY]

Let me get this right. You knowingly damaged several cards and then represented to the manufacturers that the fault was theirs, that they sent you defective cards, and you claimed monies from them after you damaged the cards? And then you are bragging about it here?

Even if you restored the cards to working order, you are pushing the ethics in making them restock or push the returned merchandise to refurbished. They would have to re-test the cards after return, etc.

Not nice.

It's called return policies, learn to love them. One of the reasons why I still shop at Fry's Electronics.

Don't be a fanboi.

 

[smgfreak]

Let me get this right. You knowingly damaged several cards and then represented to the manufacturers that the fault was theirs, that they sent you defective cards, and you claimed monies from them after you damaged the cards? And then you are bragging about it here?

Even if you restored the cards to working order, you are pushing the ethics in making them restock or push the returned merchandise to refurbished. They would have to re-test the cards after return, etc.

Not nice.

I dont Give a Shi...... about the Stores , if they Take it back that´s fine with me , ad i did not damage anything so !
this threat is about Finding the Right ATI HD4870 and i will do the Same thing again until i find the Right CARD to Flash .

 

[jeanlain]

Well, it's a different PCB design, and they probably need some differences in the bios as well.

Anyway, I really need to have VGA output working again, and I'll try to see if I can mix the pc bios and the mac EFI part. If this works, it might mean that 2nd rev cards and 1GB card could be working as well, using this trick ...

I can't promise anything yet, but I think that by the end of this week, i'll be able to tell you if I managed to get something, or if I simply gave up.

Netkas says that putting the original PC BIOS in the Mac ROM will deactivate the upper port under OSX, because it's what happens in hackintoshes. The lower port may have VGA, though... Just need to make a hybrid BIOS, so we could have DVI-VGA on both ports.

To Rominator: the Diadmond card you flashed, was it an older card following ATi's original design? Was the board name something like "wekiva RV770" or "RV770XT"?

 

[mackmack]

Netkas says that putting the original PC BIOS in the Mac ROM will deactivate the upper port under OSX, because it's what happens in hackintoshes. The lower port may have VGA, though... Just need to make a hybrid BIOS, so we could have DVI-VGA on both ports.

So the new mac 4870's only have EFI code and they work under both OSX and bootcamp windows?

What's the point of putting the BIOS code in then?

 

[jeanlain]

So the new mac 4870's only have EFI code and they work under both OSX and bootcamp windows?

What's the point of putting the BIOS code in then?

No, the Mac ROM has a BIOS + EFI. The BIOS is necessary for bootcamp, but also in OSX, according to Netkas.
We were talking about replacing the BIOS part in the Mac ROM by the original BIOS from the PC card that is to be flashed.