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Race to dump the 4870 ROM, Who's first?
- Thread starter MacVidCards
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Right now only the XFX 4870s were confirmed to be working with 2 monitors, Sapphire and many others only work with ONE monitor. I am using a XFX 4870 1G vram in early 08 MacPro with two 23' Apple monitors at 1920x1200 with 2.5g link speed (PCIe 1.0). I also changed the stock cooler to an Accelero twin turbo-$32 and used the power from the secondary DVD burner and connected the fan's 7v input. In Windows it changed the idle temp. form 70C to 53C. I tried pluged the fan to the 4870's pwm connector but didn't work out since the fans are not really moving and idling at 78C!!
The fan is really quiet(way better than the stock one) and Hardware Monitor shows a decrease of 1-2 degrees throughout the whole computer.
Somebody please come up with a solution for the link speed issue.....
Yeah I meant DVI cable. My PCIe power cables are working just fine. I've since discovered that its not a problem with the quality of DVI cables that is giving me issues but the length.
The longer the extension cable I use, the more noise I get. I've tried a 1m and 2m extension cable (1m being a cheapo jobby, the 2m being a premium cable) and both give problems whereas just sticking with what's already attached to my 30" ACD is just fine.
I'm guessing there are some power limitations in either the 4870 cards or the 30" ACD in regards to the DVI signal. I should have a 50cm cable arriving tomorrow. I'm praying that it will work without issue. I don't need more than 50cm but without it I'll have to move my computer to a place where I don't want it, either next to my screen (which would take up more immediate desk space) or under the desk (which would piss off the Cat because she couldn't sleep on it anymore). Neither's a good option.
I am not sure I understand the mechanics behind this, but why isn't this possible in Mac Pros?
Flashing a non-standard 4870 with the apple ROM results in constant reboots (apparently, the same behavior happens with natit if its plist is not patched with the original ROM).
On a side-note, I should be able to test your new ATY_init when I get my 4870.
Not exactly, macosx drivers uses only few parts of atombios, so mac's bin_image in ioreg works ok.
latest aty_init initialize card with it's own bios image, but sets mac's binimage into ioreg, so can make a trick. (ATY_init is coded to bypass working with flashed(bios+efi) cards)
I've been following this thread the whole time and I seem to remember someone (with an XFX card?) was able to get VGA out, but I don't remember whether there was any success running DVI (single-link OK) and VGA simultaneously... Anyone?
What about with 4890s? Not having to flash sounds good.
I tried both ports with DVI-VGA adapter with a old Sony 15' monitor and no signal under OSX. Able to see the grey apple boot screen from the bottom port and no problem in Windows.
Here's the test scores from both monitors which pretty much a close match with the 4890. Can anyone post score with OEM 4870 using the same settings? I believe the slightly overclocked XFX 1G 4870 with 2.5GT/s link speed should score higher with the extra ram.
Early 08 2x 2.8ghz quad xeon, 10g ram, 2.5T HDD, XFX 4870 1G, 2x Apple Monitors
Here's the test scores from both monitors which pretty much a close match with the 4890. Can anyone post score with OEM 4870 using the same settings? I believe the slightly overclocked XFX 1G 4870 with 2.5GT/s link speed should score higher with the extra ram.
Early 08 2x 2.8ghz quad xeon, 10g ram, 2.5T HDD, XFX 4870 1G, 2x Apple Monitors
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MSI 4890 vs XFX 4870
Per Netkas request, I have retested using his settings.
The 4890 is 5-10% faster.
BTW...not sure what passeur means by "active card"
The XFX flashes fine in DOS with no other card needed. I think people are getting really confused...no need for another card in WIndows or DOS, folks.
The way I got VGA working on XFX was to have a DVI to VGA adapter on BOTH ports, or to use a DVI/VGA splitter. EDID problem that should be somewhat solveable via SwitchresX....but for VGA it is SINGLE display only.
Per Netkas request, I have retested using his settings.
The 4890 is 5-10% faster.
BTW...not sure what passeur means by "active card"
The XFX flashes fine in DOS with no other card needed. I think people are getting really confused...no need for another card in WIndows or DOS, folks.
The way I got VGA working on XFX was to have a DVI to VGA adapter on BOTH ports, or to use a DVI/VGA splitter. EDID problem that should be somewhat solveable via SwitchresX....but for VGA it is SINGLE display only.
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Just mulling over a few thoughts here, I have had a 3870 Mac+PC version and a 3870x2 blasting away in my 2006 Mac Pro for quite some time now and would like to replace it with a one card solution. The combined grunt in crossfire is good in Windows for gaming but the constant fan noise and wasted card in OS X is not.
Options?
- Single Flashed 4870 in OS X, would this benchmark in Windows as well as my current dual card setup?
- Single 3870 with a flashed or ATY_int 4870, best performer but another two slot solution
- Single 4870x2 in OS X? Has anyone successfully used this card flashed or with ATY_init in OS X
- Wait for Nvidia GTX 285?
Options?
- Single Flashed 4870 in OS X, would this benchmark in Windows as well as my current dual card setup?
- Single 3870 with a flashed or ATY_int 4870, best performer but another two slot solution
- Single 4870x2 in OS X? Has anyone successfully used this card flashed or with ATY_init in OS X
- Wait for Nvidia GTX 285?
To be quite honest even the Radeon HD 4850 is better than the Radeon HD 3870x2.
I am pretty sure the Radeon HD 4870 is a good match for CrossfireX with a Radeon HD 3870 and the Radeon HD 3870x2 combined. Especially as resolution increases.
The Radeon HD 4870x2, Radeon HD 4870 and Radeon HD 4890 works in both Windows and Mac OSX with ATY_init
I had two 3870s in Crossfire in my 2006 Mac Pro too. I've now got two flashed 4870s in the same machine. Benchmarks show that a single 4870 has roughly the same performance as a 3870x2.
For what its worth, the 4870s are definitely quieter than the 3870s. I don't know why your system's so loud, my 3870s were nearly silent and the 4870s are quieter still. Yes, I can hear my system in the dead of night but its a long long long way from loud. Its only loud for about a second after boot as the 4870s spin up to max for a short while.
It was the 3870x2 that was loud as it was not recognised by OS X the fans ran at 100% at all times. Tried netkas ATY_init with the 3870x2 bin_image inserted but still not recognised in system profiler.
Will both cores of a 4870x2 work in OS X... ?
Ah, I misread, I thought you said you had a PC 3870 and had two 3870s in crossfire configuration. So many people have called having two 4870s in crossfire a "4870x2 setup" when its in fact not that its now what I expect. My PC 3870 wasn't any louder in OS X than it was in Windows, strange that your X2 was so loud. While people have got 4870s working with the natit method, I always prefer flashed cards since that way I won't have to wait ever for a new natit method after each patch release etc. I'm using two 4870 1GB XFX cards in crossfire in my 2006 Mac Pro and it works great. Both have been flashed for OS X use so there's definitely no problem with fans spinning up. 2x4870 cards will definitely be quieter and faster than you're current setup. Admittedly, they wouldn't be *that* much faster than the triple crossfire solution you have right now but they would be at least a little faster for sure and definitely much quieter.
Also, no, both cores of a 4870 will not work in OS X, that requires ATI drivers that support Crossfire. Even dual gpu on one card solutions require crossfire support to work, alas.
Be Careful with using WinFlash to back up your ROM as it doesn't copy the full 128k ROM off your card, but im not sure if they have fixed it in a new Version. But GPU-Z is a safe bet as I know the new version Does Copy the full 128k, which is important if your making a custom "dual boot" ROM, and if you want to flash it back if things go wrong.
You can get GPU-Z from www.techpowerup.com too.
So wait, is this something we could fix? A little confused, here. Could we get the ioreg working like this on mac pros?
And in unlikely case anyone has a problem with the PCIe power cables from the link in slicedbread's post, feel free to contact me.
I'm actually having small, odd problem since update to 10.5.7 - whenever monitor goes to sleep, any open application application using QE/CI - be it iTunes or Quicktime - crashes with
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at /insert random address/
Happens on both of my patched ROM'ed 4780's. Can be tested ad infinitum by opening quicktime, playing few seconds of any video, pausing it, then setting "Put monitor to sleep" to 1 minute in Energy Saver and waiting one minute. As soon as my monitor is fully off and I wake it up I get crash report.
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at /insert random address/
Happens on both of my patched ROM'ed 4780's. Can be tested ad infinitum by opening quicktime, playing few seconds of any video, pausing it, then setting "Put monitor to sleep" to 1 minute in Energy Saver and waiting one minute. As soon as my monitor is fully off and I wake it up I get crash report.
Hello! I've read through the thread but still have some questions: I'm looking forward to buy a 4870 for my Mac Pro 2006 - sadly, there is no XFX available in the next time. Is it possible to use one of the following cards instead?
sapphire 4890 (1024mb)
powercolor 4890/4870/X2 (1024mb)
And if yes, is there anything special I would have to think of?
Thx 4 Help!
sapphire 4890 (1024mb)
powercolor 4890/4870/X2 (1024mb)
And if yes, is there anything special I would have to think of?
Thx 4 Help!