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Race to dump the 4870 ROM, Who's first?
- Thread starter MacVidCards
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Yes - Thanks for that! That's the setup I'm using, as well, and it works great!
Does anyone know why my Cinebench r10 OpenGL scores for the 4870 are practically identical to my old x1900xt?
BTW, I originally bought, and returned the "Apple Certified" 3870 MAC+PC card - that thing was as loud as a vacuum cleaner compared to this one, even while idling!
Cinebench doesn't make the GPU work particularly hard. Notice that it always runs at the same small (1024 x 768?) resolution, and it isn't using any advanced shading/lighting effects like you'd see in a modern 3d game. And it's not like the card is being asked to draw many frames per second. A 4870 isn't going to be much faster than a 1900 for these purposes. All the extra muscle in the 4870 is going unused.
Cinebench is more of a test of your CPU power.
Mc ROM for Grandmars 1 Gig
Okay, here it is.
Better to post it here than email it. Maybe someone else has same card too.
Let us know how it goes.
If you can test Dual DVI and see the GTs speed on "PCI Cards" property, would be helpful.
Okay, here it is.
Better to post it here than email it. Maybe someone else has same card too.
Let us know how it goes.
If you can test Dual DVI and see the GTs speed on "PCI Cards" property, would be helpful.
Prior to returning mine (mouse jump issue), the 1Gb Sapphires that I was using were silent. Noticeably quieter than my 8800gt.
4870 Realtek HDMI audio
Thank you very much for the insight on 4870 noise!
Apple must have changed the fan control profile that the card runs warmer but also runs quieter when idling. In my PC I wouldn't call my MSI 4870 1Gb card silent compared to Mac Pro standards. I have a 128K bios, so I might try to flash it.
But I have another quetion that keeps buging me Is the Realtek sound device still available in Boot Camp? It is a 8 channel HDMI audio output integrated on all 4870-s. Or in Os X does anything appear about this in device manager?
This is a bit off, but somewhat VGA related. Apple is going on my nerves not willing to support Blu-Ray. No authoring software, no player, no HDCP in displays, Mini DP and probably 4870 not allowed to carry audio, no proper 24hz support, unable to manually disable a display when I need to, etc... Come on Apple, how can a Mac lag behind regarding multimedia features? Sorry for this rant, it had to come out.
Thank you very much for the insight on 4870 noise!
Apple must have changed the fan control profile that the card runs warmer but also runs quieter when idling. In my PC I wouldn't call my MSI 4870 1Gb card silent compared to Mac Pro standards. I have a 128K bios, so I might try to flash it. But I have another quetion that keeps buging me
Is the Realtek sound device still available in Boot Camp? It is a 8 channel HDMI audio output integrated on all 4870-s. Or in Os X does anything appear about this in device manager?This is a bit off, but somewhat VGA related. Apple is going on my nerves not willing to support Blu-Ray. No authoring software, no player, no HDCP in displays, Mini DP and probably 4870 not allowed to carry audio, no proper 24hz support, unable to manually disable a display when I need to, etc... Come on Apple, how can a Mac lag behind regarding multimedia features?
Sorry for this rant, it had to come out.
Thank you very much for the insight on 4870 noise!
But I have another quetion that keeps buging me
This is a bit off, but somewhat VGA related. Apple is going on my nerves not willing to support Blu-Ray. No authoring software, no player, no HDCP in displays, Mini DP and probably 4870 not allowed to carry audio, no proper 24hz support, unable to manually disable a display when I need to, etc... Come on Apple, how can a Mac lag behind regarding multimedia features?
Amen to everything in the rant.
On subject I just broke down and ordered a 4870 so I'll hopefully have another success story in about a week.
Cindori, as I wrote above, dual DVI does indeed work on my XFX 1 GB (non-XXX) card. However, VGA out is inoperative on all ports, and video out is inoperative as well. This is on a 2006 Mac Pro (which is PCIe 1.1 only), so I can't test the link speed. Regarding the mouse jumping on my Fujitsu-Siemens P20-1, I have checked the docs, and sure enough, it uses a Samsung panel.
As for the noise level, when my Mac Pro is closed and under my desk, I don't hear a thing from the graphics card, as long as it's only doing 2D stuff. It's not louder than the case and CPU fans. However, as soon as it spools up (which it only really does for a few seconds at power-on), it'd win any competition with a vacuum cleaner (as does the Mac Pro on it's own).
By the way, the spool-up behavior is much less annoying than that of the X1900. The latter spools up in discreet steps, which often causes it to constantly switch between two well discernable rpms if the temperature is right around the threshold. The 4870, on the other hand, increases rpm smoothly, making it almost unnoticable when it slowly ramps up rpm over time. Moreover, the sound at high rpms is much more pleasing as well (to my ears, anyway): the X1900's fan produces a high-pitched whine, whereas the 4870's fan itself doesn't make much noise at all - you only hear the sound of a jet of air rushing through the cooling fins.
As for the noise level, when my Mac Pro is closed and under my desk, I don't hear a thing from the graphics card, as long as it's only doing 2D stuff. It's not louder than the case and CPU fans. However, as soon as it spools up (which it only really does for a few seconds at power-on), it'd win any competition with a vacuum cleaner (as does the Mac Pro on it's own).
By the way, the spool-up behavior is much less annoying than that of the X1900. The latter spools up in discreet steps, which often causes it to constantly switch between two well discernable rpms if the temperature is right around the threshold. The 4870, on the other hand, increases rpm smoothly, making it almost unnoticable when it slowly ramps up rpm over time. Moreover, the sound at high rpms is much more pleasing as well (to my ears, anyway): the X1900's fan produces a high-pitched whine, whereas the 4870's fan itself doesn't make much noise at all - you only hear the sound of a jet of air rushing through the cooling fins.
Problems with card - need help
Hello!
so far, my experience with flashing the card was rather frustrating, but based on what I experienced I am not sure if it was the fault of the flashing process at all.
Here is what happened:
As many others, I have bought the Sapphire HD4870 1GB, "Toxic" Version, PN: 288-20E85-T30SA, SKU: 11133-14-20R
I put the card in my mac pro, slot 2 which is replacing my (flashed) 8800GT and booted into Windows (without ATI Drivers) So far everything seemed to work and I made a backup of the orgininal ROM via GPU-Z, with a file resulting in 128KB.
Next, I made a custom ROM using the technique described by pipomolo42 on my laptop and burned a modified FreeDos version to CD. (Tried to make it bootable on a stick, but that didn't work.)
Then, I burned this ROM to the card, which seemed to work flawless. ROM Version remained the same anyway due to my handmade ROM. And boy I was happy as soon as I saw the grey Apple Logo when I restarted my machine!
Seems my joy was somewhat early.
Next step was to install the OS X gfx drivers and then the strange thing happened: while rebooting, the screen went completely black! This happened just before the login screen would appear, the Mac was responsive, but no image on both DVI ports!
Soooo, after a while I tried the same with Windows Vista, and actually installed the newest Catalyst Drivers (without these, the gfx card still showed a picture). But as soon as I rebooted with these drivers, I also get a blank screen, and also immediatly before the login screen would appear - only this time in windows Just like in OS X this seems to happen when the driver is actually initialised.
So I was completely puzzled at this moment, and after trying a lot of useless things I decided to give up and put back the orginial ROM on the card (I also had used another ROM I found here for a nearly identical card, but this gave me exact the same results as with my custom ROM)
And guess what? For the last time I tried to boot into Windows, this time with my Drivers active and the original ROM ..... and there was a blank screen again. Booting in Safe Mode gave me a picture again ......
So, in the end my problem has nothing to do with the BIOS?
I only have 2 explanations for this:
1) Card was out of order from the beginning
2) The culprit is my DVI 2 ADC Adapter (from Dr. Bott) I use to drive my original 22" Cinema Display. Since these adapters are relatively complex, there could be a problem - in theory. But my 8800GT has worked without problems, so I am really clueless.
Any ideas & help would be really appreciated!
Hello!
so far, my experience with flashing the card was rather frustrating, but based on what I experienced I am not sure if it was the fault of the flashing process at all.
Here is what happened:
As many others, I have bought the Sapphire HD4870 1GB, "Toxic" Version, PN: 288-20E85-T30SA, SKU: 11133-14-20R
I put the card in my mac pro, slot 2 which is replacing my (flashed) 8800GT and booted into Windows (without ATI Drivers) So far everything seemed to work and I made a backup of the orgininal ROM via GPU-Z, with a file resulting in 128KB.
Next, I made a custom ROM using the technique described by pipomolo42 on my laptop and burned a modified FreeDos version to CD. (Tried to make it bootable on a stick, but that didn't work.)
Then, I burned this ROM to the card, which seemed to work flawless. ROM Version remained the same anyway due to my handmade ROM. And boy I was happy as soon as I saw the grey Apple Logo when I restarted my machine!
Seems my joy was somewhat early.
Next step was to install the OS X gfx drivers and then the strange thing happened: while rebooting, the screen went completely black! This happened just before the login screen would appear, the Mac was responsive, but no image on both DVI ports!
Soooo, after a while I tried the same with Windows Vista, and actually installed the newest Catalyst Drivers (without these, the gfx card still showed a picture). But as soon as I rebooted with these drivers, I also get a blank screen, and also immediatly before the login screen would appear - only this time in windows
Just like in OS X this seems to happen when the driver is actually initialised.So I was completely puzzled at this moment, and after trying a lot of useless things I decided to give up and put back the orginial ROM on the card (I also had used another ROM I found here for a nearly identical card, but this gave me exact the same results as with my custom ROM)
And guess what? For the last time I tried to boot into Windows, this time with my Drivers active and the original ROM ..... and there was a blank screen again. Booting in Safe Mode gave me a picture again ......
So, in the end my problem has nothing to do with the BIOS?I only have 2 explanations for this:
1) Card was out of order from the beginning
2) The culprit is my DVI 2 ADC Adapter (from Dr. Bott) I use to drive my original 22" Cinema Display. Since these adapters are relatively complex, there could be a problem - in theory. But my 8800GT has worked without problems, so I am really clueless.
Any ideas & help would be really appreciated!
Hello!
so far, my experience with flashing the card was rather frustrating, but based on what I experienced I am not sure if it was the fault of the flashing process at all.
Here is what happened:
As many others, I have bought the Sapphire HD4870 1GB, "Toxic" Version, PN: 288-20E85-T30SA, SKU: 11133-14-20R
I put the card in my mac pro, slot 2 which is replacing my (flashed) 8800GT and booted into Windows (without ATI Drivers) So far everything seemed to work and I made a backup of the orgininal ROM via GPU-Z, with a file resulting in 128KB.
Next, I made a custom ROM using the technique described by pipomolo42 on my laptop and burned a modified FreeDos version to CD. (Tried to make it bootable on a stick, but that didn't work.)
Then, I burned this ROM to the card, which seemed to work flawless. ROM Version remained the same anyway due to my handmade ROM. And boy I was happy as soon as I saw the grey Apple Logo when I restarted my machine!
Seems my joy was somewhat early.
Next step was to install the OS X gfx drivers and then the strange thing happened: while rebooting, the screen went completely black! This happened just before the login screen would appear, the Mac was responsive, but no image on both DVI ports!
Soooo, after a while I tried the same with Windows Vista, and actually installed the newest Catalyst Drivers (without these, the gfx card still showed a picture). But as soon as I rebooted with these drivers, I also get a blank screen, and also immediatly before the login screen would appear - only this time in windows
So I was completely puzzled at this moment, and after trying a lot of useless things I decided to give up and put back the orginial ROM on the card (I also had used another ROM I found here for a nearly identical card, but this gave me exact the same results as with my custom ROM)
And guess what? For the last time I tried to boot into Windows, this time with my Drivers active and the original ROM ..... and there was a blank screen again. Booting in Safe Mode gave me a picture again ......
I only have 2 explanations for this:
1) Card was out of order from the beginning
2) The culprit is my DVI 2 ADC Adapter (from Dr. Bott) I use to drive my original 22" Cinema Display. Since these adapters are relatively complex, there could be a problem - in theory. But my 8800GT has worked without problems, so I am really clueless.
Any ideas & help would be really appreciated!
Windows have a million causes to crash. But for the Mac side, what year is your Mac Pro?
I have a Mac Pro early 2008. And no, the machine does not seem to crash on both Vista64 and Mac OS 10.5.6, just a black monitor when the login screens should appear. (while booting, I still can see the grey Apple and the Windows Logo). At least I can use my keyboard to shut down OS X properly. And with both OS, I get a picture when no drivers are installed! Before the blank screen appears in Vista, I can clearly see the GPU trying to switch resolutions, on the Mac side, I can see a very short fade into blue before screen goes blank. So I think something happens when the card is initialised by the driver. But the strange thing is that this a) seems to be the identical behaviour in both Windows and Mac OS and b) this also happens with the original GPU ROM in Windows (of course Mac OS screen is always blank then)
Thanks so much man !! this rom work very fine with my card now , but just like others at this thread, not work dual DVI mode & same as 2.5GT/s .
you know what reason of No dual DVI mode ? any fix for it ?
anyway, thanks again for your help . Cheers~
Monitor
I had issues with the DVI to ADC bridge convertor (I have apple's branded convertor -not Dr, Bott - for a 22" Apple display). I had to unplug the power brick and plug it back in when the machine was on. Then I held the 22" inch display's power button (bottom right side of display) and then the image came up. I think the issue is probably the DVI/ADC convertor and/or the ADC display.
I had issues with the DVI to ADC bridge convertor (I have apple's branded convertor -not Dr, Bott - for a 22" Apple display). I had to unplug the power brick and plug it back in when the machine was on. Then I held the 22" inch display's power button (bottom right side of display) and then the image came up. I think the issue is probably the DVI/ADC convertor and/or the ADC display.
It happens every once in a while. I think it is a Apple's 22" display issue. Could be a faulty board in the display. I have other display's that never have the problem. I am a bit sick of Apple and their proprietary display connections, hence my reason for flashing a non-apple 4870. Now if the 2nd DVI connector will start working in 10.5.7 I will be a truly happy camper.
Another note, I am wondering if the 4870 that Apple will sell separately will have a newer firmware on it - one that is more universal. We shall see!
I am sick of that, too ...
Unfortunately, your advise did not work. Unplugged the Adapter, replugged, pressed Power Button on Monitor - nothing ....
Any ideas left? Want do avoid returning the card after it already cost me so much time. I don't have the slightest idea why this is not working.
good news guys I have for you:
1) 4870x2 with patched atiradeonx2000.kext work with qe/ci (if framebuffer works... depends on model as usual)
2) we managhed to finish writing a kext which calls ASIC_init for card (that's what efi(in case if efi rom present)/bios does for card durring POST) ,so it opens a way to run ati cards on macpro without flashing it (u still need to have card which will be used to boot macpro), it's in alpha stage yet, http://netkas.org/?p=94
1) 4870x2 with patched atiradeonx2000.kext work with qe/ci (if framebuffer works... depends on model as usual)
2) we managhed to finish writing a kext which calls ASIC_init for card (that's what efi(in case if efi rom present)/bios does for card durring POST) ,so it opens a way to run ati cards on macpro without flashing it (u still need to have card which will be used to boot macpro), it's in alpha stage yet, http://netkas.org/?p=94
Yes, I just had a look at your site.
I saw a 4850 running with a 2600.....but not a 4870x2.
I am eager to get a 4870x2 running since I bought one based on that hoaxster's posts in the "2 4870s in a 2009 Mac Pro" thread.
I will have my Mac Pro back and ready to fiddle & experiment on Tuesday the 21st.
I saw a 4850 running with a 2600.....but not a 4870x2.
I am eager to get a 4870x2 running since I bought one based on that hoaxster's posts in the "2 4870s in a 2009 Mac Pro" thread.
I will have my Mac Pro back and ready to fiddle & experiment on Tuesday the 21st.
Wouldn't that be something.
We'd actually catch up with PCs.
After that, there'd be nothing to live for.