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

4870x2

So I installed the latest build. (Thank you Netkas!)

My 4870x2 (Visiontek) booted up...but....QE/CI not running.

Also...how does it know that it only has 1 Core?

Very good progress.

It is possible that I still have a semi-patched EFI ROM on this from when that ****** claimed this was possible via ROM.

But I don't think that should DISABLE QE/CI?

Also, I have managed to get an OEM 4870 (yes, with the MDP port)

The OEM card boots up fine with this package installed, so Natit isn't killing it as in past.

I can do some testing later...going to a meeting in near future.

Let me know if anyone needs anything tried out or any IOPCI reports from whatever card.
 

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by default qe/ci is not supported on 4870x2, you need to install patched kexts, find it here - http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=161742

I added (1 core) to model name, so peoples will not think crossfire working on osx (its not supported), basicaly, all information you see about card in system profiler - all I set via natit.

I'll try to improve natit later, so it doesnt set keys for card which already has them (aka card has efi rom), then it will be more universal.
 
darn...

... thanks for the clarification, netkas. Hmmm... looks like the 4870 is the best thing going in the foreseeable future (no Windows gaming for me).
 
Need to try 4890 also, i have some report, Motmot works for it(nothing about qe/ci yet).
 
Patched kexts did bring up QE/CI.

Yay !

However, running the OpenGl View tests show performance is at about 60% of a normal 4870.

(usually scores around 1500-1600.....now at 900)

So something is still not quite right.

Happy to keep testing.
 

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pipomolo42' script don't work for me

The Rominator said:
Put a little more time into this.

HexEdit has a wonderful "Compare" function.

Drag before and after ROMS into it and Hit "APPLE K" and you will be able to see what changes you have made.

If you have inserted MAC EFI properly, you will see that a whole lot of "FFFFFFFFFFF" gets replaced with code that opens with "55AA"

DOS (via FreeDOs) is a better choice than WInflash
Click to expand...

I have made a second attempt to flash a radeon 4870 HD Powercolor 1GB with the Pipomolo42’ script on a 2006 mac pro rev 1.1, but, when using the script in mac terminal (fixrom.py and xcode installed) with my extracted original rom renamed pc4870.rom and the 4870.ROM, there are 3 errors which prevent modification of the ROM to be made. Here is how it goes :
dd if=4870.ROM of=efi.part bs=1 skip=63488 count=49152
49152+0 records in
49152+0 records out
49152 bytes transferred in 0.349436 secs (140661 bytes/sec)
blocknum=`printf %d "'\`dd if=pc4870.rom bs=1 skip=2 count=1 2>/dev/null\`"`
size=$(($blocknum * 512))
dd if=efi.part of=pc4870.rom bs=$size seek=1 conv=notrunc
python fixrom.py pc4870.rom pc4870.rom[Ordinateur-de-francis-crepel:~/Desktop] fcrepel% blocknum=`printf %d "'\`dd if=pc4870.rom bs=1 skip=2 count=1 2>/dev/null\`"`
Unmatched ".
[Ordinateur-de-francis-crepel:~/Desktop] fcrepel% size=$(($blocknum * 512))
Illegal variable name.
[Ordinateur-de-francis-crepel:~/Desktop] fcrepel% dd if=efi.part of=pc4870.rom bs=$size seek=1 conv=notrunc
size: Undefined variable.
[Ordinateur-de-francis-crepel:~/Desktop] fcrepel% python fixrom.py pc4870.rom pc4870.rom
Before:
OpRom (size=63488, indicator_offset=0x275, indicator=0x80, checksum=0xff)
RawData (size=67584)
After:
OpRom (size=63488, indicator_offset=0x275, indicator=0x80, checksum=0xff)
RawData (size=67584)
As I have just copied the script in the terminal, I don’t see why these 2 errors occur. Any possible fix would be mostly welcome..
 
So how about the sound with this natit method?

Million dollar question: how does fan control work when using the 4870 this way, unflashed with the natit package? Is it taken over by the os or it still uses the profile in the card's rom?
 
ghislain said:
[Ordinateur-de-francis-crepel:~/Desktop] fcrepel% python fixrom.py pc4870.rom pc4870.rom
Before:
OpRom (size=63488, indicator_offset=0x275, indicator=0x80, checksum=0xff)
RawData (size=67584)
After:
OpRom (size=63488, indicator_offset=0x275, indicator=0x80, checksum=0xff)
RawData (size=67584)
As I have just copied the script in the terminal, I don’t see why these 2 errors occur. Any possible fix would be mostly welcome..
Click to expand...

Should be 2 @ "OpROMs"...so you still aren't doing it right.

Make sure original ROM is 128K and has 2 parts...PC BIOS and DDR5 table.

If you drag and drop the ROMs to terminal window after placing cursor where the rom name WAS....you can't get wrong ROM.

And I created a second ROM...the python script command fixes first rom and saves as second one. So make second one be "mac4870.rom" after doing an "Apple D" on first.
 
The Rominator said:
Should be 2 @ "OpROMs"...so you still aren't doing it right.

Make sure original ROM is 128K and has 2 parts...PC BIOS and DDR5 table.

If you drag and drop the ROMs to terminal window after placing cursor where the rom name WAS....you can't get wrong ROM.

And I created a second ROM...the python script command fixes first rom and saves as second one. So make second one be "mac4870.rom" after doing an "Apple D" on first.
Click to expand...

thanks again to the newbie I am. I will try again...
 
Matrixfan said:
Million dollar question: how does fan control work when using the 4870 this way, unflashed with the natit package? Is it taken over by the os or it still uses the profile in the card's rom?
Click to expand...

YOu can edit binimage from natit with RBE (radeon bios editor) and set fan attitude there.( need to create file from data array first, and then , after editing, data aray from file), ATY_Init calls ASIC_init(atombios function) from card's atombios, which you provide via Natit (ATY,bin_image), so card initiated with provided bios, not the bios it has in rom.


Rominator, check cards in highest resolution available, with 8xAA and 16xAF , with benchmark option enabled, this way it's less cpu dependent, or better, just run CoD4 for mac, best benchmark forosx imho :)
 
So I'm ragged after a lot of tries and no success and about 12 hours nonstop.

First I tried Netkas's approach by having my 2600XT load the EFI for my 4870 XFX - couldn't get it to work. Then I tried flashing my ROM using the one by rhildinger everything looked great in Windows via bootcamp but nothing in OS X. So I tried to use pipomolo42's method and no go so I tried to manually mix the Apple 4870 rom with my card stock rom using rhildinger's rom as a template and pipomolo42's script and still no go. I've bricked my card at least a dozen times and reflashed it back. I've never gotten it to work in OS X the closest I came was the screen was blue and the mouse was a very big grey square that I could move around.

I'm posting my last rom attempt that I mixed. I would greatly appreciate it if rhildinger and pipomolo42 and anyone else in the know would take a look at it so see if there is somewhere obvious that I've gone wrong.

Thanks everyone.
 

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netkas said:
Need to try 4890 also, i have some report, Motmot works for it(nothing about qe/ci yet).
Click to expand...

Got a Radeon HD 4890 on the way in the mail, so will try this in a few days.

The RV790 and RV770 are basically the same chip after all.
 
swissman...

what card did this start out as?

post the original ROM that came on the card.

The ROM you posted looks fine but has same board number as XFX

FYI...Netkas' ATI-init kext can work miracles on SOME cards. Got 4870x2 and 4850 working.

On 1 Gig XFX boards it causes a NASTY reboot/black screen/100% fan on 4870, before and after flashing.

When he says that 4870 cards that won't boot with Mac OEM ROM won't work...he MEANS it.

If you get this...do a safe boot and delete ati_init.kext
 
Netkas, would this work with a 3870x2 alongside a mac efi 3870, or is it only applicable to 4800 series cards.

The only reason I ask is that it sits there in OS X with the fan running at 100% :(
 
The Rominator said:
swissman...

what card did this start out as?

post the original ROM that came on the card.

The ROM you posted looks fine but has same board number as XFX

FYI...Netkas' ATI-init kext can work miracles on SOME cards. Got 4870x2 and 4850 working.

On 1 Gig XFX boards it causes a NASTY reboot/black screen/100% fan on 4870, before and after flashing.

When he says that 4870 cards that won't boot with Mac OEM ROM won't work...he MEANS it.

If you get this...do a safe boot and delete ati_init.kext
Click to expand...

Rominator thanks for the reply. It is an XFX 1 GB model. I did boot in single user mode and delete netkas's files (Natit and ATY_Init) per his how to post in this thread. However I just checked to makes sure they were gone and they were still there so obviously it didn't work - permissions or something probably. The ROM I posted earlier also doesn't work on the windows side of things so I'm sure it is off although I'm testing it again now that I got rid of those files.

Here is the original ROM. Thanks for your help.
 

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well done

AGDenton said:
Hello,

I just bought the Sapphire HD 4870 1GB this afternoon, and, using the method outlined by pipomolo42 above, I've successfully converted it to a EFI card ! The whole GB of RAM is recognized, fan control works, QE/CI works, etc.

Given the success of pipomolo42's process, I wouldn't be surprised if someone was able to convert both the cards in a 4870x2, for instance. Very good news indeed...

Next up : buying a second 4870 for Crossfire... I'm pretty sure the auxiliary PCIe power plugs will handle the load, as I've been running a 8800GT+9800GX2 on them for more than six months now.

AG

PS : I've attached the ROM I used to reflash the card.
Click to expand...

I have made a third attempt to flash my radeon 4870 HD Powercolor 1GB with the Pipomolo42’ script on a 2006 mac pro rev 1.1, but again whithout success when using the script in mac terminal. However, the extracted rom is OK since the card still work when reflashed with this rom. Fortunatly, I had no problem to successfully flash the card with the AGDanton' modified rom (efi4870GB.rom, thanks to him), so that mac and windows-bootcamp now work fluently. So, I recommand this modified rom for everyone who have the same radeon as me. Everythink OK, even on the first generation macpro!
 
Rankrotten, you will have to manualy add ATY,binimage to natit, with content of 3870x2 master chip bios(up to 64kb)
 
Hi,
something about the white noise issue: Yesterday i changed my display from an old NEC 18" 1860 DVI-I (without HDCP) to a brand new HP 2309m (23" 16:9, VGA/DVI/HDMI with HDCP).

Today i have the first time the white noise after longer sleep, i currently don't know with panel manufactor HP uses. After power cycle of the display it's ok.

In the next few days i will try HDMI-out from my Sapphire 4870 to HDMI-in of the new display.

Bye, jaberwocky
 
Hi its me again. I've been trying to figure this out on my own and from pictures but just can't seem to connect the dots. How do you power dual 4870s? I've read through the "Running Dual 4870s" thread and there isn't a very clear solution. What I do know is that I can power a card from one of the SATA connections and have that split to two 4 Pin PSU connectors, but from there I don't know what else to do? Anyone have a few suggestions for me? Thanks!;)
 
Is this one going to work?

Is this XFX 1GB card going to work for flashing? Anyone know? I like the fan design (exhausts at the back).
 
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