Radeon X1900 G5 Mac Edition Cheap 'n Easy Flashing Guide

[sos_nz]

I have one of these I could let go of; shipping from Europe to New Zealand might not be cheap though (even if it's just a padded envelope), and import taxes might be piled on top of it.

PM sent, thanks. Shouldn't attract import taxes if it's private second hand. I have seen a few on ebay for a bit less. And then all I'd need would be a min DP to DP cable.

You mean 2560×1440 41 Hz?

Yep. Will fiddle with some slightly higher Hz values and see here it can get to.

 

[Amethyst1]

Will fiddle with some slightly higher Hz values and see here it can get to.

Using the tighter CVT-RBv2 timings you can get 42.5 Hz. Pixel clock should be 165.00 MHz max — dual-link (usually) kicks in above.

 

[sos_nz]

Using the tighter CVT-RBv2 timings

How do you access those? The latest version of SwitchResX I have for PPC (4.3.6) only has CVT-RB available from the drop down menu.

 

[Amethyst1]

How do you access those? The latest version of SwitchResX I have for PPC (4.3.6) only has CVT-RB available from the drop down menu.

Try using this calculator to get the CVT-RBv2 timing for the mode you want and entering the respective values manually in SwitchResX. Alternatively, IIRC SwitchResX 4.3.6 supports entering a Modeline directly, so give this one a try:

Modeline "2560x1440_42.5" 164.821 2560 2568 2600 2640 1440 1455 1463 1469 +HSync -VSync

 

[Methanoid]

@sos_nz OP mentions 1900gt bit you flashed your 1900xt? Which make/model please? Picture?

 

[sos_nz]

Which make/model please? Picture?

Here's the exact ebay link I purchased from. Flashed just fine from a PC ROM to a MAC one as per instructions above:

ATI Radeon X1900GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express (PCIe) Dual DVI Video Card w/TV-Out | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for ATI Radeon X1900GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express (PCIe) Dual DVI Video Card w/TV-Out at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

In other words, I purchased a 1900GT (which is the PC card nomenclature), and flashed it to a 1900XT (the mac nomenclature). Same card, different firmware, so different suffix

 

[Methanoid]

Ah, so just a 1900gt flashed to xt. I did flash a 1950xt to 1900gt myself but curious if there was any evidence someone had done a 1900xt also.

 

[netsrot39]

Ah, so just a 1900gt flashed to xt. I did flash a 1950xt to 1900gt myself but curious if there was any evidence someone had done a 1900xt also.

I'm curious about flashing a 1950XT to 1900 GT because I have recently purchased said card. Did you use the .rom file from The Mac Elite? I'm asking since this thread is about flashing the same card from PC to Mac but I'd like to know if following the OP's instructions would also work for flashing a 1950XT to 1900 GT. Thanks!

 

[weckart]

I'm curious about flashing a 1950XT to 1900 GT because I have recently purchased said card. Did you use the .rom file from The Mac Elite? I'm asking since this thread is about flashing the same card from PC to Mac but I'd like to know if following the OP's instructions would also work for flashing a 1950XT to 1900 GT. Thanks!

Try this thread for the 1950XT

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/need-help-flashing-a-radeon-x1950-xt.2192094

 

[FerociousPPC]

Q:
Where is the 6 pin Mac power connector located on the main board for a late model G5? 🤔

EDIT1:
Is this it?

EDIT2:
My bad thats not the mini Pci-e connector.

 

[FerociousPPC]

Found it....

QUAD G5 -installing ati radeon 1900xt fro… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

 

[FerociousPPC]

X1900 is working well in Sorbet Leopard 256mb. In Tiger system profiler only shows 128mb, if I check the ATi utility it does display 256mb. Did I miss something in Tiger?

 

[fluidhd]

Hi,

I'm finding x1950pro's and x1950gt's easier to come by, has anyone ever successfully flashed either of these cards for PowerPC?
Thanks

 

[netsrot39]

Thanks @z970 for providing the instructions on flashing an X1900GT to PowerPC Mac! Recently I've found a deal on a Connect 3d X1900GT which I just flashed with the ROM of "The Mac Elite" (I attached images of the flashing process). Flashing was very easy and the card works in the G5 but the fan is really damn loud. I've already read in this thread that this behavior is normal but the fan is driving me nuts. Does the fan behave the same with a retail Mac card? I can't really believe people would have accepted that even back in the day. This is not a critique to the OP in any shape or form but a thing to keep in mind if you want to flash an X1900GT. As posted earlier, I recently also got an X1950XT for cheap which I've also flashed successfully today. In System Profiler it is more or less identical to the X1900GT (except device id if I remember correctly) but in an Xbench benchmark I found it to be a little faster. What I do not like about the X1950XT is that it takes up two PCIe slots (or in other words blocks the second PCIe slot). That is exactly the reason why I got the X1900GT but with that fan noise I'd rather give up a PCIe slot and slap in that chunky X1950XT which seems to control the fan depending on actual load. Again, not a rant but something to consider if you choose to go the ATI route on a late 05 PowerMac G5

 

[Amethyst1]

Flashing was very easy and the card works in the G5 but the fan is really damn loud. I've already read in this thread that this behavior is normal but the fan is driving me nuts.

You could replace the fan with a quieter one or install a large after-market heatsink like the Arctic Cooling Accelero series that uses large and slow, and thus, quiet fans.

 

[netsrot39]

You could replace the fan with a quieter one or install a large after-market heatsink like the Arctic Cooling Accelero series that uses large and slow, and thus, quiet fans.

I know about that particular cooler but it would defeat the purpose of having an X1900GT (at least for me) since the cooler adds height which will block the second PCIe slot. I even thought about using a PCIe riser cable because one card in my G5 rig (mini PCIe to PCIe, i.e. the wifi card) does not have to be accessed from the outside (no ports) and is so small that I could mount it by tape on the GPU for example but so far I couldn't find a fit since the riser cables stick out too much so they are also blocked by the GPU I really wish Apple had designed the x16 slot of the G5 like they did with the Mac Pro. Anyways, if I'd go the Arctic Cooling Accelero route with the X1900GT it wouldn't really be any different than having the X1950XT installed.

 

[fluidhd]

Has anybody managed to flash a card in ppc64 Linux using amdvbflash?

I can't get it to work, but it might be because it's x86 specific?

Are there any command lines or apps for flashing inside of ppc64 osx?

Thanks

 

[netsrot39]

I'm currently building a "low-noise-adapter" for my flashed X1900GT. The adapter will convert the 12V line of the fan to 7V (resistor stuck in between). It is really easy to make one yourself and I will post instructions on how to do it later. My only question is if ATI followed the industry standard? Or in other words, is the red wire the 12V line?

I just hope it won't fry the card in the long run (due to the heat) but 7V seems pretty reasonable in my opinion.

 

[wicknix]

Does the fan behave the same with a retail Mac card?

No. Not mine anyway. It only spins up at power up. Quiet as a mouse after that. Even playing quake 3 it's silent.

 

[netsrot39]

I'm currently building a "low-noise-adapter" for my flashed X1900GT. The adapter will convert the 12V line of the fan to 7V (resistor stuck in between). It is really easy to make one yourself and I will post instructions on how to do it later. My only question is if ATI followed the industry standard? Or in other words, is the red wire the 12V line?

I just hope it won't fry the card in the long run (due to the heat) but 7V seems pretty reasonable in my opinion.

Okay, so in this post I'll shortly write about how I made the silent adapter for my X1900GT. In this thread you can read about my experience with it. Basically what I did is buy an ordinary silent adapter for 3pin fans.

In my case it was this one (not my auction and no affiliation). You can pretty much buy any 3pin silent fan adapter and one that fits your needs (there are 12V to 5V ones, 12V to 7V ones, etc.) The only thing I'd pay attention to is that the 3 wires are not merged into one (not like this one for example) although you might be able to adapt it as well but you'd need to cut it so you can rearrange the red and black wire.

Next, you need to de-pin the male connector and swap the red and black wire (if they are not color-coded like in my case you have to pay attention that the wire with the resistor matches the 12V line of the fan connector):

Also, you can see that the male connector of my silent adapter does not really match the female connector of the fan but that does not matter since it is still making good contact (verified by testing with a multimeter).

I believe there are special tools for de-pinning connectors but I had great success with a tiny Pentalobe screwdriver.

The step that comes after has to do with de-pinning the female connector of the silent adapter. Now comes the tricky part which is finding a match for the male connector on the GPU itself (for me it was tricky because I had no idea what the connector on the graphics card was called) but I can tell you that it is a Micro JST connector. Unfortunately I can't tell which one exactly. I've ordered "Micro JST PH 2.0" and "Micro JST 1.25mm" online and one of these two does fit the connector on the GPU (I think it was the latter one but again I'm not entirely sure). After de-pinning you have to rearrange the wires of the other end into the Micro JST connector (in my case they weren't a 100% perfect match but a quick test with a multimeter showed continuity for ground and the tachometric signal and resistance for the 12V line so it is good).

It is kind of unfortunate that the X1900GT does not use the ordinary pinout of 3pin fans since this would make the entire process much easier. Maybe someone knows how to edit the ROM in a way that lets the fan spin depending on load but if you feel bothered by the noisiness of the fan you can resort to this quick and dirty fix in the meantime.

 

[TzunamiOSX]

Okay, so in this post I'll shortly write about how I made the silent adapter for my X1900GT. In this thread you can read about my experience with it. Basically what I did is buy an ordinary silent adapter for 3pin fans.

In my case it was this one (not my auction and no affiliation). You can pretty much buy any 3pin silent fan adapter and one that fits your needs (there are 12V to 5V ones, 12V to 7V ones, etc.) The only thing I'd pay attention to is that the 3 wires are not merged into one (not like this one for example) although you might be able to adapt it as well but you'd need to cut it so you can rearrange the red and black wire.

Next, you need to de-pin the male connector and swap the red and black wire (if they are not color-coded like in my case you have to pay attention that the wire with the resistor matches the 12V line of the fan connector):

View attachment 2034491

Also, you can see that the male connector of my silent adapter does not really match the female connector of the fan but that does not matter since it is still making good contact (verified by testing with a multimeter).

I believe there are special tools for de-pinning connectors but I had great success with a tiny Pentalobe screwdriver.

The step that comes after has to do with de-pinning the female connector of the silent adapter. Now comes the tricky part which is finding a match for the male connector on the GPU itself (for me it was tricky because I had no idea what the connector on the graphics card was called) but I can tell you that it is a Micro JST connector. Unfortunately I can't tell which one exactly. I've ordered "Micro JST PH 2.0" and "Micro JST 1.25mm" online and one of these two does fit the connector on the GPU (I think it was the latter one but again I'm not entirely sure). After de-pinning you have to rearrange the wires of the other end into the Micro JST connector (in my case they weren't a 100% perfect match but a quick test with a multimeter showed continuity for ground and the tachometric signal and resistance for the 12V line so it is good).

It is kind of unfortunate that the X1900GT does not use the ordinary pinout of 3pin fans since this would make the entire process much easier. Maybe someone knows how to edit the ROM in a way that lets the fan spin depending on load but if you feel bothered by the noisiness of the fan you can resort to this quick and dirty fix in the meantime.

As I know, this fan is temperature controlled. With this resistor you make this fan more silent, but you destroy the temperature control of the card. Perhaps this will damage the GPU on high load.

If you want a silent GPU search for a better cooler like Zalman VF-700 or 900.

 

[netsrot39]

As I know, this fan is temperature controlled. With this resistor you make this fan more silent, but you destroy the temperature control of the card.

The fan was temperature controlled when it had the original ROM (PC) but once I flashed the Mac BIOS it does not feel like it is temperature controlled anymore. I can't corroborate my hypothesis since I did not look into the ROM but from what I've observed the fan is always on full blast and sounding like a jet engine. This is also the case when the G5 is idling so yeah I believe the temperature control is out of the question. I think the card gets enough cooling by providing 7V to the fan. Please correct me if I'm wrong but like I've pointed out I don't think the silent adapter will hurt anything.

By the way, I've also flashed the X1950XT with a Mac ROM and it does not exhibit this issue with the fan (but then again the ROM for the X1950XT is different). I don't really know what is going on with the fan of the X1900GT but the fan adapter made the card viable for me again (hence I've taken out the Quadro FX 4500 and put the X1900GT in my third G5).

Aftermarket coolers could be an option but I think the fan speed has indeed to do with that particular Mac ROM (i.e. it does not matter which fan I connect to the GPU it will always run like crazy)

 

[ifrit05]

Anyone know why mine blanks the screen out as soon as it hits the desktop with Sorbet? I have the ATI drivers installed.

EDIT: Big dumb. I forgot I still had ATIcellerator installed and it was clocking the GPU down to 20MHz at login. Works now.

 

[ToniCH]

Will a ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB card from MacPro1.1 work in late 2005 G5?

 

[Amethyst1]

Will a ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB card from MacPro1.1 work in late 2005 G5?

Not without further ado, because it needs to be initialised by the Mac Pro's 32-bit EFI firmware.