Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

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

4870x2 sshots will follow latter, guy said he got qe/ci/res change.

anyway it will not work as one corsfired card in osx.
 
any leads on the 5.0 GT/s speed? I'm going to sell this 1 GB Sapphire when 10.5.7 comes out next week since the Apple 512 MB 4870 is a bit faster with the faster link speed (generally UI responsiveness and Mudbox).
 
BEIGE said:
any leads on the 5.0 GT/s speed? I'm going to sell this 1 GB Sapphire when 10.5.7 comes out next week since the Apple 512 MB 4870 is a bit faster with the faster link speed (generally UI responsiveness and Mudbox).
Click to expand...

Is it really noticeably faster? Can you quantify that at all? I wasn't aware that the link speed would make that much of a difference with this...at any rate, there has to be some way to fix the speed problem. Any of you people in the know about the ROM know which headers are responsible for identifying link speed to the OS? Or is this a 10.5.7 thing?
 
well like I said, Mudbox benchmarks are 80 on the flashed 1 GB 2.5 GT/s vs 105 fps on the Apple-supplied 512 MB at 5.0 GT/s. Since Mudbox relies heavily on bandwidth since it does sculpting on the GPU, it's slightly slower to sculpt on the flashed card. Cinebench is also slightly slower. I don't know how it affects games - I have a PS3 and Windows doesn't have Killzone 2 :p
 
When you say "slightly", what do you mean?...I guess more to the point is, will this affect things that aren't mudbox, but still use the GPU (such as Motion, etc.)? What I'm wondering is if the mudbox behavior is something specific to the situation, or whether or not as more things become GPU accelerated, the link speed will be a bigger issue. Games I don't care so much about, as I too have a PS3. Actually already bought and flashed the Sapphire 1GB card, but as 10.5.7 is apparently imminent, I figured it couldn't hurt to wait a day or three.
 
well it's noticeable enough that I'm willing to sacrifice 512 MB and an extra $250 by not selling the Apple Radeon. I also think the OS X UI feels faster and I think it's not just placebo effect given its dependence on bandwidth.
 
it cant use both rv770, osx doesnt support crossfire.

now we can initiate second chip(with aty_init.kext) , but it pointless if it has no attached outputs.
 
I installed the 4800 package and the patched 'ATIRadeonX2000.kext', but my system frooze at startup. I did notice that the patched file was updated on the 21st February, which seems a bit odd seeing as your messages suggest it was done quite recently.

Edit: I just delved into the package and noticed the dates were more recent, my mistake.
Edit2: duh, I forgot to change the permissions recursively, boots now.

----

Netkas, I presume I needs a new ROM file, where can this be obtained from?
 
What exactly is Bootcamp used for in this process? Reading the instructions (nice writeup!) it seems it is only used to get the original ROM off the card. Is this correct? If so, can I skip these steps and move right to the flashing?

I have an original Mac Pro and like to keep my GFX card up to date. If I am reading the thread correctly, the flashed cards WILL work in the original Mac Pro, right?

I also have the Apple 30". Any problems there?
 
Maury said:
What exactly is Bootcamp used for in this process? Reading the instructions (nice writeup!) it seems it is only used to get the original ROM off the card. Is this correct? If so, can I skip these steps and move right to the flashing?

I have an original Mac Pro and like to keep my GFX card up to date. If I am reading the thread correctly, the flashed cards WILL work in the original Mac Pro, right?

I also have the Apple 30". Any problems there?
Click to expand...

In case of a mishap during the flash process you could end up rendering your card inoperable, hence the need for a backup of the firmware to restore it to its former glory instead of a paperweight.
 
Well, you need either Windows or some kind of DOS to flash the card, too. Both need the EFI BIOS emulation module/driver in order to boot. However, as far as I'm aware, the original firmware of the 2006 Mac Pro (which works fine with the flashed card, by the way) doesn't have that emulation code. That means unless you have applied the firmware update that came with Bootcamp at some point, you won't be able to boot into DOS. I have no idea if this update has ever been made available via Software Update. In other words, a stock 2006 Mac Pro without the Bootcamp firmware update can't boot anything other than OS X (for all practical intents and purposes, that is).

Edit: Assuming you tried to boot from a FreeDOS CD, and it didn't work: You do not need a full-blown Bootcamp/Windows setup. You don't even need to run the Bootcamp wizard (however, a small FAT32 volume on the internal hard disk comes in handy in the process). All you need to do is install the Bootcamp package, which should install the firmware update during the next reboot. If you decide you do want to backup your original (4870) ROM, which is highly recommended (I'd have a fancy paperweight by now otherwise), you still don't need Windows - FreeDOS will do. In that case, run the Bootcamp wizard, let is shrink your hard disk by a couple of MBs, and simply don't insert a Windows CD when prompted to do so.
 
PatrikL said:
This is very interesting if you could get a 4870x2 working under osx.
For me it doesnt mather if both cores dont work under osx as long as it does under windows.

Keep us updated!
Click to expand...

They should work under windows when inserted without any ROM tweaks. You just need to sort out the PSU for it.
 
*puts hand up*

I have a Apple OEM 4870 and it pauses with my DGM 24" DVI connected monitor.

Had two now, both do the same thing.

Apple, RELEASE 10.5.7 FOR GODS SAKE!
 
Pressure said:
In case of a mishap during the flash process you could end up rendering your card inoperable, hence the need for a backup of the firmware to restore it to its former glory instead of a paperweight.
Click to expand...

I understand. But it seems the original ROM is "available" anyway, no?

I ask because this set of instructions:

http://www.macshadows.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9587

Does not require BC, which would save me time and trouble. I'd consider modifying slightly to get the XXX to work. Anyone see any red flags? He did download the original ROM on the PC, but I think I'm willing to skip this.

Maury
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back