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avatar1349

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 25, 2009
59
14
Netherlands
Got a ATI Radeon R9 270 from a friend he wasn't using. Tried it out, but there was no signal coming from the HDMI port. Read a number of articles and edited the AMD7000Controller.kext and the AMDRadeonX4000.kext.
Still no signal; was only able to try the HDMI port; haven't tried the DP port or the DVI port.
Is there a slight chance it could work at all? I don't play games (and never will) Any bit of info is welcome
 

MIKX

macrumors 68000
Dec 16, 2004
1,815
691
Japan
ATI " Radeon cR9 270" overs a lot of brands. . .which MAKER ? Sapphire ? XFX ? Gigabyte ?

I had a Japanese knockoff ( EDIT R9 270X ) which i was able to EFI flash - nice card but obsolete now.

EDITED : My card & your's are different
if you are really serious re your R9 270 PM me . maybe I still have the relevant flashing info somewhere ( Netkas techique ).
 
Last edited:

avatar1349

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 25, 2009
59
14
Netherlands
ATI " Radeon cR9 270" overs a lot of brands. . .which MAKER ? Sapphire ? XFX ? Gigabyte ?

I had a Japanese knockoff R9 270 which i was able to EFI flash - nice card but obsolete now.

if you are really serious re your R9 270 PM me . maybe I still have the relevany flashing info somewhere ( Netkas techique ).

For some reason I can't pm (too little posts), but I got a pic of the card
R9 270.png
 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,455
13,602
First some facts:

  • R9 270 uses the same graphics processor as HD 7870, Pitcairn. Is a rebadged card. This card has the Futomaki personality/framebuffer.
  • The Mac EFI that everyone uses to flash AMD GCN1.0 GPUs (HD 79xx, R9-280x, etc) is based on the EFI of Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition. This card uses a Tahiti graphics processor and have the Hamachi personality/framebuffer.

Now let's explain why you can't make HDMI work.

  • HD 7870 is not fully compatible with the personality of HD 7950 EFI, the HDMI port has a different hardware setup from HD 7870 to HD 7950. So, when you flash a HD 7870/R9 270 with the EFI of HD 7950, the HDMI port don't work anymore. You can't change that.
  • Another problem, Mojave drivers don't work with HD 7870 that was flashed with Hamachi framebuffer. AFAIK, you have to keep it unflashed for Mojave to work correctly.

Years ago, some people here made a personality for the Pitcairn series of GPUs that:
  • HDMI works correctly
  • Works with Mojave perfectly
This personality is not public but some cards in the wild have it.

TL,DR:

R9 270 HDMI port has a different configuration from HD 7950 and stops working when you flash the Mac EFI from it. If the monitor only has HDMI, use a mDP to HDMI adapter or a DVI-D to HDMI.
 
Last edited:

avatar1349

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 25, 2009
59
14
Netherlands
R9 270 uses the same graphics processor as HD 7870, Pitcairn. Is a rebadged card. This card has the Hamachi personality/framebuffer.

The Mac EFI that everyone uses to flash AMD GCN1.0 GPUs (HD 79xx, R9-280x, etc) is based on the EFI of Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition. This card uses a Tahiti graphics processor and uses the Hamachi personality/framebuffer.

Now let's explain why you can't make HDMI work.

HD 7870 is not fully compatible with the personality of HD 7950 EFI, the HDMI port has a different setup from HD 7870 to HD 7950. So, when you flash a HD 7870/R9 270 with the EFI of HD 7950, the HDMI port don't work anymore. You can't change that.

Another problem, Mojave drivers don't work with HD 7870 that uses Hamachi framebuffer. AFAIK, you have to keep it unflashed for Mojave to work correctly.

Years ago, some people here made a personality for the Pitcairn GPUs that:
  • HDMI works correctly
  • Works with Mojave
This personality is not public but some cards in the wild have it.

TL,DR:

R9 270 HDMI port has a different configuration from HD 7950 and stops working when you flash the Mac EFI from it. If the monitor only has HDMI, use a mDP to HDMI adapter or a DVI-D to HDMI.

Thank you so much tsialex for this very clear information. Like I said before, just got the card from a friend, who never. used it.
Another thing, if the card works with a DVI-D to HDMI thats enough for me. I don't play games and I don't wanna run Mojave (did that on my MacBook Air - didn't like it ) (personal taste) Been running FreeBSD for years (CLI) so every GUI is a bonus to me
 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,455
13,602
Thank you so much tsialex for this very clear information. Like I said before, just got the card from a friend, who never. used it.
Another thing, if the card works with a DVI-D to HDMI thats enough for me. I don't play games and I don't wanna run Mojave (did that on my MacBook Air - didn't like it ) (personal taste) Been running FreeBSD for years (CLI) so every GUI is a bonus to me
I'm using a DVI-D to HDMI cable with my HD 7870 flashed with HD 7950, works ok up to High Sierra. Apple mDP to HDMI adapter works too.

BTW, I edited my post above, I erroneously used Hamachi one time in the place of Futomaki.
 

MIKX

macrumors 68000
Dec 16, 2004
1,815
691
Japan
avatar1349

Sorry, my cards was an R9 270X .. different to yours & also has two fans.

I edited my prior post.

I used this with the netkas technique . . .. .
========================
./makerom.sh --efifile=7950mac.efi --romfile=efiromheader.rom --originalrom=cardname.rom --devid=6810
=========================
My R9 270X had EFI boot & worked in High Sierra 10.12.6
The above MAY or MAY NOT work with your card.



R9 270X Box.jpg
 
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