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

[noiceT]

I guess it could be a bad card, but perhaps it is a flakey DVI cable or connection.

Thanks for the reply. I also thought about a possible flakey DVI cable/connection, however when I connect the display to my original 7300gt, everything is fine, works perfectly.

My monitor is also a 30" ACD, which afaik weren't experiencing any graphical problems with the 4870. It is very strange though to say the least.

To add, when connected and experiencing the "snow" problem, I don't have any mouse jumping problems either. Maybe I'll try and get an exchange, hopefully it is just a bad card...

 

[Kris Kelvin]

Sapphire 4870 1GB: Another success!

Flashing my Sapphire 4870 (SKU: 11133-04-20r) worked perfectly with this ROM:

this is for a sapphire, PN# 288-20e85-130sa/SKU# 11133-04-20r

Thanks to everyone that helped provide information!

Some comments:

I've had to replace the four screws holding the GPU cooler with shorter ones, because the card has been "sitting" on the memory casing.

I've been flashing with just the new graphics card installed. Works fine if you remember to press "C" for booting from the DOS-based CD.

No mouse problems whatsoever; performance is excellent and it's VERY silent. In fact it's the most silent graphics card I've seen in quite a while (except passively cooled ones of course). The Radeon 1900 and GeForce 8800 boards we have here are definitely noisier.

As other have stated, only one of the DVI ports on this board (the one the right side) is dual link capable with this ROM. As soon as a second display is being attached, the GUI locks up - but it's just the GUI. Connecting to the machine with SSH works fine, and a clean shutdown is possible.

 

[lannister80]

I though perhaps the snow and fuzziness was, maybe a result of the flashed rom "slight overclock" on the ZHFC with what seems like a "lower quality" constructed card. I figured maybe because of the lower quality, it maybe can't handle the slight overclock of the rom.

Anyway, tried other posters 50 C and 55 C , cooler roms however the snow problem has persisted.

I then flashed back the original pc1xfx.rom back to the card, and low and behold...the same snow problem when booting into windows.

I'm forced to assume that this is a defective card??? Can anyone chime in to let me know their thoughts..I really don't want to buy back the Apple 4870

I've gotten the "snow" before. It happens very rarely when the monitors are in sleep mode due to power savings settings (the Mac itself is NOT asleep, just the monitors). I move the mouse, both my monitors come back on, but one of them will very, very rarely be "snowy". Happened maybe 3 times since I got the card in May, out of a few hundred times of the screens coming back on.

Turning the monitor off and then on again fixes the issue. No biggie in my book. And I have the HD-487A-ZDFC.

 

[treo360]

So I got my replacement Sapphire
HD4870 512M GDDR5
PCI-E DUAL DVI-I/TVO
PN 288-10EXX-XXXXX
SKU# 11133-03-20R

Is Jaberwocky the only one here that has the .rom/.bin file for this? Heck if I flash it wrong again

 

[treo360]

Okay, so I got it to work using the sapphire rom on page 13. Now I'm only getting 2.5 on the link speed, and whenever I plug in a second monitor the system abruptly reboots and then hangs on a blue screen. Any one have any ideas?

 

[MacVidCards]

Is this the Reference red board and fan?

Or the later black one?

Did you ever see 5.0 link speed?

I don't believe ANY flashed 4870 has had 5.0 link speed.

 

[treo360]

Is this the Reference red board and fan?

Or the later black one?

Did you ever see 5.0 link speed?

I don't believe ANY flashed 4870 has had 5.0 link speed.

Only for my 8800gt (link speed) but if that's the way things are then its normal (link speed) as for the board yes it's red fan housing is black though, but I have to be honest I'm very very new to this, so I claim extreme ignorance.

again the baord is a
HD4870 512M GDDR5
PCI-E DUAL DVI-I/TVO
PN 288-10EXX-XXXXX
SKU# 11133-03-20R
don't know if that helps any.

 

[MacVidCards]

Did you ever try just the regular OEM ROM?

 

[treo360]

Did you ever try just the regular OEM ROM?

if by OEM you mean right out the box, then yes it was detected by OSX but was unusable.

 

[treo360]

okay, so I plugged in the 8800gt back in (slot 4) and it's the only way I'm able to use two monitors. Curious, I even tried reinstalling the ati drivers (even though I'm on 10.5.7) No dice. Here is my original rom, and the sapphire/mac compatible one.

Edit Update:


So having just about given up on a dual display solution I decided to use the injectors and the other .kext pkgs that were in the 4890 thread. Presto! Dual Monitor support via the second dvi using the dvi/hmdi adapter.

 

[MacVidCards]

Can you return the Saphire?

It appears that the only 512 cards to have Dual DVI functional are the OLDER reference boards with Red fan.

basically, to have Dual DVI, you need a card that can run original OEM ROM, or the XFX.

Seems that MOST 4870s are going to be Cyclops.....

 

[treo360]

Can you return the Saphire?

It appears that the only 512 cards to have Dual DVI functional are the OLDER reference boards with Red fan.

basically, two have Dual DVI, you need a card that can run original OEM ROM, or the XFX.

Seems that MOST 4870s are going to be Cyclops.....

hehe read the update , but thanks for helping. if I hadn't clicked on find more posts by you I would've missed the 4890 thread, and thus not experimented with that install process.

 

[MacVidCards]

So Netkas packages can FIX the Dual DVI issue?

I don't know if I ever heard (read) that before.

That is wonderful news as I know several people got Saphire 1 Gig cards and had same issue.

Did I miss this info before?

Has someone with Saphire 1 Gig reported success as well?

Congrats !!!

 

[treo360]

So Netkas packages can FIX the Dual DVI issue?

I don't know if I ever heard (read) that before.

That is wonderful news as I know several people got Saphire 1 Gig cards and had same issue.

Did I miss this info before?

Has someone with Saphire 1 Gig reported success as well?

Congrats !!!

Thanks, though I don't know if that was all that was needed to be done. So for the sake of a scientific method here's what I did starting from scratch.

As you know the card that I used is the Sapphire SKU# 11133-03-20R
I used the .rom that is listed a couple of posts up.

Using UBCD I flashed it using atiflash (latest version)

Mac booted up but only using one dvi display port (as detailed by my cries for help)

No matter what I configuration I tried I could not get the mac to boot from the secondary dvi display at all.

Nearly giving up hope I followed these steps

I downloaded these:
http://rapidshare.de/files/46982841/ATI_Init.pkg.html

Installed

And this: http://rapidshare.de/files/46893369/accel.tar.bz2.html

Which I installed with kexthelper
(@ http://cheetha.net/)

Of course doing this with my Mac card in the comp.

Rebooted with 4870 in slot 1

As I was prepared to go to bed I figured why not try the second monitor so I could go to bed in disgust (nearly 4am as of this writing)


I plugged the dvi/hdmi adapter in, and then the hdmi cable with my monitor off. My previous primary display flickered and then showed up as a secondary monitor, I quickly turned on the syncmaster and then the whole thing turned blue, holding my breath both displays then sprang to life, no reboots, everything stable.






Update


Shutdown yielded bad news. Back to the drawing board. Inconsistent results. Upon startup kernel hang in osx. out of 6 restarts I got lucky.

 

[TheLostG]

so has anyone managed to get apple oem 4870's crossfired and working correctly?

 

[Tower-Union]

Ugh my head hurts from all the Z/F/H/D/C stuff... ok my question is, of these two cards,

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=39067&vpn=HD487AZHFC&manufacture=XFX

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=39066&vpn=HD487AZHDC&manufacture=XFX

Which one is flashable? My understanding from reading is the FIRST one should flash fine (though has 2 reports of possible "snow" effects? While the SECOND one, I've seen NOTHING about. Can anyone confirm for me which one is least likely to turn into an expensive paperweight?

OK wait scratch that, I just found some more info on this thread, the first one DOES work, but there is NO information about the second one. Maybe I just shouldn't be greedy for that mildly faster clock speed. . .

 

[TheStrudel]

Here's a question nobody's answered yet: Can OS X really use the higher clock speeds on the various tweaked 4870s? It seems like the extra RAM is usable, but I'm not sure if the mildly faster cards will actually perform better.

With regards to the sapphire and other cards, there have been no reports of non-XFX or ATI OEM style cards being able to use both DVI ports simultaneously. Thus, the only 1 GB cards that have dual port capability are XFX cards.

Also, nobody has reported being able to use the analog (mini-DIN) port for anything. My own efforts yielded nothing.

 

[treo360]

Here's a question nobody's answered yet: Can OS X really use the higher clock speeds on the various tweaked 4870s? It seems like the extra RAM is usable, but I'm not sure if the mildly faster cards will actually perform better.

With regards to the sapphire and other cards, there have been no reports of non-XFX or ATI OEM style cards being able to use both DVI ports simultaneously. Thus, the only 1 GB cards that have dual port capability are XFX cards.

Also, nobody has reported being able to use the analog (mini-DIN) port for anything. My own efforts yielded nothing.

Incorrect. Played with it some more today and well 5 shutdowns and 5 successful starts now. Granted I have my 8800gt still plugged in (and why not?)

 

[super_kev]

Here's a question nobody's answered yet: Can OS X really use the higher clock speeds on the various tweaked 4870s? It seems like the extra RAM is usable, but I'm not sure if the mildly faster cards will actually perform better.

There's really been no need to ask that question; it's like asking if a computer would be able to use a 2.16Ghz processor vs. a 2Ghz processor. All OS X does is send data to the gfx card. The GPU crunches the numbers and then sends the completed data to your monitor (or back to the system in certain functions). So if you have a higher-clocked card, of course OS X will use it... how much faster will depend on the overclocked GPU is vs. stock.

 

[Nadav35]

What is the point to this?

Assuming everyone on here has 2006 or 2007 mac pros.. What is the point to using a flashed card when it doesn't even work at the PCIe 2.0 speed of 5GT/Sec? Now, if its for a 2006-2007 mac pro, then the 16x slot inside those machines is limited to 2.5GT/sec anyway and you are fine..

But, for those who have 2008 mac pros and 2009 mac pros, I think its a waste of time since although the flashed 4870's with 1GB are better, they are being starved of power due to the fact that it will only recognize 2.5GT/Sec. I had a 1GB 4870 Sapphire and it was a nice card, but once I saw in my system profiler I was only getting 2.5GT/Sec - more than 1/2 of the true speed, I decided to return the card and get the Apple version.

I think the 1GB running at 2.5GT/sec is going to be slower in terms of the bus than a native Apple 4870 running at 5.0GT/sec.

So, for those with 2006-2007 mac pros, it makes sense as 2.5 is the max you will get since it lacks 2.0 PCIe slots. But, for those with 2008 and 2009, it is a waste of time.

 

[Nadav35]

Thats because...

Okay, so I got it to work using the sapphire rom on page 13. Now I'm only getting 2.5 on the link speed, and whenever I plug in a second monitor the system abruptly reboots and then hangs on a blue screen. Any one have any ideas?

Any PC Flashed card, including the Sapphire 1GB 4870 is going to run at the lower speed. Only Apple native cards are going to run at 5.0GT/sec. I had to return my 1GB sapphire card back to Applemacanix on ebay due to the fact that in my 3,1 mac pro it was not working at full speed.

Remember, 2008 and 2009 mac pros have 2.0 PCIe slots and anything other than Apple native cards is going to run at the slower speed which then gives poor performance, well, maybe not poor, but slower performance compared to running at the native 5.0GT/sec speed.

 

[super_kev]

Any PC Flashed card, including the Sapphire 1GB 4870 is going to run at the lower speed. Only Apple native cards are going to run at 5.0GT/sec. I had to return my 1GB sapphire card back to Applemacanix on ebay due to the fact that in my 3,1 mac pro it was not working at full speed.

Remember, 2008 and 2009 mac pros have 2.0 PCIe slots and anything other than Apple native cards is going to run at the slower speed which then gives poor performance, well, maybe not poor, but slower performance compared to running at the native 5.0GT/sec speed.

I disagree. This was talked about in this thread already, with a link to this thread at Beyond3D. There's also a good article on Tom's Hardware.

My understanding is that the current GPUs don't seem to saturate a PCI-E 1.0 bus, and PCI-E 2.0 is more important if you use Crossfire/SLI. So if you want to return your flashed card and spend $200-300 more to gain a nominal increase in frame rate, be my guest. The XFX 4870 in my 2006 Mac Pro is pumping out frame rates equal to PC gaming rigs; I don't see any evidence of it running slower due to PCI-E 1.0.

 

[matthew.russo]

I think we are having some mild communication issues.

In any case, I was finally able to find that the ASUS 4870 ROM boots with a clean screen in OSX. I have no way to test MDP. However, there may be some bad news about Windows. WHenever the driver finished loading in Vista, the screen would go black on the OEM running the ASUS ROM.

When viewed from the 4850 I was Crossfiring with, the OEM running Asus ROM appeared fine. When I hooked a display to it the display was correctly id'd, but the display remained dark.

On the GOOD news side, the OEM running the Asus Rom was able to be the 2nd half of a Crossfire pair.

Is there someone who could help test some of the ROMs?

BTW, I tried the ATI ROM, and it gave messy boot screens and locked up on OEM.

Back from holidays finally...bad I guess

I got a response back from ATI in regard to getting a specific rom, as support reckons there is no standard BIOS that they have, they are manufacturer dependent.

Quote from ATI Support "There is no standard ATI firmware update, they are specific to the partner producers. There is no support for CrossFire configurations on the Apple cards at this point in time."

I still havent had a chance to test the roms I had posted here


Same Roms -
Diamond - 113-B50701-100 \
Gigabyte - 113-B50701-100 |> To be tested
HIS - 113-B50701-100 /

Asus-113-AB67800-162 - See this post
ATI - 113-B50701-105 - See this post
Palit - 113-AA48709575.24 - To be tested
Powercooler - 113-BA0701-X05 - To be tested
Sapphire - 113-AB68800-XXX - To be tested

This is to flash the OEM Apple ATI 4870 to see if crossfire can work under windows, yet still work under OSX and windows ok.
Any volunteers who want to test the above roms?

 

[TheLostG]

Back from holidays finally...bad I guess

I got a response back from ATI in regard to getting a specific rom, as support reckons there is no standard BIOS that they have, they are manufacturer dependent.

Quote from ATI Support "There is no standard ATI firmware update, they are specific to the partner producers. There is no support for CrossFire configurations on the Apple cards at this point in time."

I still havent had a chance to test the roms I had posted here


Same Roms -
Diamond - 113-B50701-100 \
Gigabyte - 113-B50701-100 |> To be tested
HIS - 113-B50701-100 /

Asus-113-AB67800-162 - See this post
ATI - 113-B50701-105 - See this post
Palit - 113-AA48709575.24 - To be tested
Powercooler - 113-BA0701-X05 - To be tested
Sapphire - 113-AB68800-XXX - To be tested

This is to flash the OEM Apple ATI 4870 to see if crossfire can work under windows, yet still work under OSX and windows ok.
Any volunteers who want to test the above roms?

Ive never flashed cards before but am more than willing to give it a crack. Ill use the method that you mentioned in a previous thread. I am on leave until next week so will start then. As mentioned before i will be testing with two oem apple 4870. Fingers crossed

 

[lannister80]

Assuming everyone on here has 2006 or 2007 mac pros.. What is the point to using a flashed card when it doesn't even work at the PCIe 2.0 speed of 5GT/Sec? Now, if its for a 2006-2007 mac pro, then the 16x slot inside those machines is limited to 2.5GT/sec anyway and you are fine..

But, for those who have 2008 mac pros and 2009 mac pros, I think its a waste of time since although the flashed 4870's with 1GB are better, they are being starved of power due to the fact that it will only recognize 2.5GT/Sec. I had a 1GB 4870 Sapphire and it was a nice card, but once I saw in my system profiler I was only getting 2.5GT/Sec - more than 1/2 of the true speed, I decided to return the card and get the Apple version.

I think the 1GB running at 2.5GT/sec is going to be slower in terms of the bus than a native Apple 4870 running at 5.0GT/sec.

So, for those with 2006-2007 mac pros, it makes sense as 2.5 is the max you will get since it lacks 2.0 PCIe slots. But, for those with 2008 and 2009, it is a waste of time.

I have a 2008 Mac Pro. I chose the XFX card over the official Apple one because (1) it's half the price, and (2) the 1GB of memory is much more important to me (gaming) than the 5.0GT/s link speed. Current evidence indicates that the 2.0 PCIe is almost never saturated, except in a handful of cases (Mudbox).

If there was an official Apple card with 1GB of memory, I might have gone with that, but that product doesn't exist.