Sapphire Radeon HD 7950

[Borowski]

Yes, it is the script from netkas.

Since a few weeks, there is a new method to activate bootscreen: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...pport-for-efi-era-imacs-and-mac-pros.2378942/
Short description: You have to add 1 oder 2 new images to your rom, GOPEnbler and, if not present, GOP-image (can be done with GOPUpdater from winraid-forum).

Your card is no reference model (ports: DVI, HDMI, mDP, mDP), you will loose some ports after flashing with modded rom.
This can't explain the missing DVI before modding, but in my opinion you still have a wrong bios, card is defect or missing drivers.

 

[macstatic]

Yes, it is the script from netkas.

Is there only one HD-7950 script which can enable the Mac EFI boot screen?
Or have others also made similar scripts (for other 7950 models, such as my Vapor X)?
I see that the Netkas site has been abandoned, so there might not be any more development from Netkas himself?

Since a few weeks, there is a new method to activate bootscreen: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...pport-for-efi-era-imacs-and-mac-pros.2378942/
Short description: You have to add 1 oder 2 new images to your rom, GOPEnbler and, if not present, GOP-image (can be done with GOPUpdater from winraid-forum).

Thanks. I read the announcement too, and have also read the above posting but didn't understand it. It's obviously written for people who are deeply into this stuff and not normal users.

So is this a patcher for the GPU card's BIOS, using a similar method in the Terminal as the Netkas EFI patcher script, or are we talking about modifying and reflashing the Mac Pro's bootROM?

In the case of the latter (modifying/relashing the cMP BootROM), does this mean that the GPU card (i.e. HD-7950) is to be left untouched, but the Mac bootscreen is added to the cMP bootROM instead?
Is there a step-by-step guide for normal users for this? Obviously I don't want to experiment too much with something that can potentially brick either my cMP, my HD-7950 or both!

Your card is no reference model (ports: DVI, HDMI, mDP, mDP), you will loose some ports after flashing with modded rom.

By "reference model", do you mean the GPU-card that the Netkas script attempts to modify the card's BIOS to behave like? Would the reference model be the "AMD Radeon HD-7950 Mac edition" in this case?
If so, yes -I see what you mean: that card has only a single DVI output (mine has two), a HDMI output (same as mine) and two mini-DP outputs (mine has a single full-size DP ouput).

This can't explain the missing DVI before modding, but in my opinion you still have a wrong bios, card is defect or missing drivers.

Missing drivers...... that may be it!
I've never liked Windows, but I'm sure it's not supposed to behave as badly as the one I installed recently (on a separate drive)! I keep getting error messages about certificate errors etc. and I should probably try to reinstall it all again. When I try to run various AMD software it complains about not having the drivers installed even though I have installed them. Perhaps it's not recognized after reflashing the card with different BIOS versions.

 

[Borowski]

Is there only one HD-7950 script which can enable the Mac EFI boot screen?
Or have others also made similar scripts (for other 7950 models, such as my Vapor X)?
I see that the Netkas site has been abandoned, so there might not be any more development from Netkas himself?

The problem is: To my knowledge no matching framebuffer-personality in macos exists, which fits for your card. The reference-7950, also available for mac, uses the "Hamachi"-framebuffer.
I've seen flashed Vapor X-models for sale, but i'm absolutely sure, that these won't work perfectly.

So is this a patcher for the GPU card's BIOS, using a similar method in the Terminal as the Netkas EFI patcher script, or are we talking about modifying and reflashing the Mac Pro's bootROM?

In the case of the latter (modifying/relashing the cMP BootROM), does this mean that the GPU card (i.e. HD-7950) is to be left untouched, but the Mac bootscreen is added to the cMP bootROM instead?

Both methods work: Injection of GOPEnabler in MP firmware or gpu-rom. Pre-requirement: GOP-functionality in gpu-rom, which is part of gpu-rom since many years (from about 2013), if missing, can be added to older gpus also.
GOPEnabler is known to work on MP5.1, but no older machines yet.

 

[macstatic]

Most of that was over my head, but are you saying that there are two separate ways of getting a Mac bootscreen back when using standard PC graphic cards? Like this:
1) patching OpenCore to the cMP BootROM, then reflashing the BootROM
2) patching the BIOS of the graphic card (GPU) like I've done

Is that correct? If so, will method #1 eliminate the loss of certain GPU outputs?

Some interesting developments here.....
Having tried to install and use Windows 7 for 5 times or so without much success I decided to try out Windows 10. This worked a whole lot better and I also managed to install the AMD HD-7950 driver software without any issues (which I never got right in Windows 7). The funny thing is that both DVI outputs work within Windows 10 (with either the original or Mac-EFI patched BIOS!). While in MacOS 10.13.6 (High Sierra) I can use both DVI outputs with the original (non-patched) BIOS of the GPU card, but once I boot with the Mac-EFI patched one then only one of the DVI outputs works (the bottom one: DVI-I).
So I gather this means the patched BIOS doesn't "remove" the other DVI output port, but rather MacOS doesn't recognize it. Is there anything I can do about that?
I believe that I read somewhere that newer MacOS version (10.14 etc.) have added support for GPU cards...

 

[tsialex]

So I gather this means the patched BIOS doesn't "remove" the other DVI output port, but rather MacOS doesn't recognize it. Is there anything I can do about that?

Wrong, when you flash the Vapor-X GPU with a Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition derived EFI, the GPU firmware informs macOS that the card have outputs like abcd and then macOS try to use exactly like what the GPU firmware instructed, but the GPU physically have acdee instead of the expected abcd.

Seems you didn't understood the most important point, your GPU have a different configuration for the addresses of outputs and different outputs than a Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition have - this is hardcoded inside the Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition EFI.

The moment that you flash the Vapor-X with a firmware that have the EFI extracted from the Mac Edition GPU, you will lose outputs from the hardware differences between your GPU and the Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition. You already proved this multiple times and there are nothing that you can do about that, no one here can compile a replacement personality that will work for your Vapor-X GPU.

The best course of action is to totally forget the Netkas script or any other firmware mod based on the Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition EFI and add GOP directly to the card firmware via Win-Raid forum GOPUpdater, then inject OC EnableGop to the reconstructed BootROM image or to the firmware GPU (I'd avoid doing that since the 128KB limit of AMD GPUs).

If even after that you can't get all the ports to work, then it's time to sell the GPU and get one that is more Mac friendly.

I believe that I read somewhere that newer MacOS version (10.14 etc.) have added support for GPU cards...

Mojave adds support for newer/modern AMD GPUs, but nothing changed for an ancient GPU like yours. Correction, Mojave makes it worse for some of the older GPUs, since it removed support for analog adapters, like passive DVI to VGA adapters/cables that worked perfectly fine with previous macOS releases.

 

[macstatic]

Seems you didn't understood the most important point, your GPU have a different configuration for the addresses of outputs and different outputs than a Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition have - this is hardcoded inside the Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition EFI.

No, I didn't, but I think I do now
So the code which relates to the Mac EFI bootscreen is extracted from the Sapphire HD-7950 Mac edition, then patched to the VBIOS of other HD-7950 cards (with varied results according to the different outputs)?

So here's the Sapphire HD-7950 Mac edition's outputs:
- DVI-I
- HDMI
- Mini DisplayPort

(image source: Newegg.com)


And my Sapphire HD-7950 Vapor-X OC boost:
- DVI-I
- DVI-D
- HDMI
- DisplayPort

(image source: TweakTown)


So between the two there's an additional DVI output in my Vapor-X, both have HDMI and both have a variation of DP.
As far as I remember I tested the HDMI output and it works both with the original and Mac-EFI patched BIOS within MacOS 10.13.6, so that's good news. But how about the Mini DP vs. DP port -does it work the same?
I don't have a DisplayPort cable to check out with.

The best course of action is to totally forget the Netkas script or any other firmware mod based on the Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition EFI and add GOP directly to the card firmware via Win-Raid forum GOPUpdater, then inject OC EnableGop to the reconstructed BootROM image or to the firmware GPU (I'd avoid doing that since the 128KB limit of AMD GPUs).

Again, this is way over my head, so I could need a simplified explanation for this. Is there a step-by-step guide or a sticky somewhere? It sounds very complicated.
Is the advantage (over using the Netkas script as I've done) that I no longer lose any outputs?

If even after that you can't get all the ports to work, then it's time to sell the GPU and get one that is more Mac friendly.

Maybe, but it's also a matter of economy.
My ATI HD-5870 was actually working just fine, but I needed to get something so I could run MacOS 10.14 (or higher).

Mojave adds support for newer/modern AMD GPUs, but nothing changed for an ancient GPU like yours. Correction, Mojave makes it worse for some of the older GPUs, since it removed support for analog adapters, like passive DVI to VGA adapters/cables that worked perfectly fine with previous macOS releases.

I see. Good to know as I've been testing my display #2 with a DVI-I to VGA cable I had.

So, in order to use two displays with this card (when flashed with the Mac-EFI bootscreen) I'm hoping that the DP port will work (neither of my displays have HDMI). I'd like to hear from anyone who knows if I lose or get to keep that port after Mac-EFI patching the existing BIOS in the card.

 

[h9826790]

No, I didn't, but I think I do now
So the code which relates to the Mac EFI bootscreen is extracted from the Sapphire HD-7950 Mac edition, then patched to the VBIOS of other HD-7950 cards (with varied results according to the different outputs)?

So here's the Sapphire HD-7950 Mac edition's outputs:
- DVI-I
- HDMI
- Mini DisplayPort

(image source: Newegg.com)


And my Sapphire HD-7950 Vapor-X OC boost:
- DVI-I
- DVI-D
- HDMI
- DisplayPort

(image source: TweakTown)


So between the two there's an additional DVI output in my Vapor-X, both have HDMI and both have a variation of DP.
As far as I remember I tested the HDMI output and it works both with the original and Mac-EFI patched BIOS within MacOS 10.13.6, so that's good news. But how about the Mini DP vs. DP port -does it work the same?
I don't have a DisplayPort cable to check out with.




Again, this is way over my head, so I could need a simplified explanation for this. Is there a step-by-step guide or a sticky somewhere? It sounds very complicated.
Is the advantage (over using the Netkas script as I've done) that I no longer lose any outputs?





Maybe, but it's also a matter of economy.
My ATI HD-5870 was actually working just fine, but I needed to get something so I could run MacOS 10.14 (or higher).



I see. Good to know as I've been testing my display #2 with a DVI-I to VGA cable I had.

So, in order to use two displays with this card (when flashed with the Mac-EFI bootscreen) I'm hoping that the DP port will work (neither of my displays have HDMI). I'd like to hear from anyone who knows if I lose or get to keep that port after Mac-EFI patching the existing BIOS in the card.

The DP usually can work (even though you should still test it).

The HDMI port usually is the dead port. But in your case, it works. However, it seems the extra DVI port is dead (which make sense if the original Mac EFI has no code for the 2nd DVI port).

 

[Borowski]

Its not only the Mac EFI, problem is the framebuffer-personality: There is no framebuffer for 2 DVI-ports!
Second DVI won't work w/ osx until modding system files, thats the way the hackintosh community made the ports working.

 

[macstatic]

The DP usually can work (even though you should still test it).

The HDMI port usually is the dead port. But in your case, it works. However, it seems the extra DVI port is dead (which make sense if the original Mac EFI has no code for the 2nd DVI port).

Yes. I understand the HD-7950 comes in many different variations with different ports, so unless someone with a Vapor-X can comment here I should just buy a DP cable to try it out.
If I can use the DVI-I and DP ports for two monitors in MacOS I'm OK with the broken DVI-D port

Its not only the Mac EFI, problem is the framebuffer-personality: There is no framebuffer for 2 DVI-ports!
Second DVI won't work w/ osx until modding system files, thats the way the hackintosh community made the ports working.

Interesting. So the Hackintosh community have made a GPU driver which makes both DVI ports work? Is this something that can be adapted for use in a normal MacOS/Mac hardware environment as well?

So having understood a little better how all this works I spent a little time today reflashing the GPU with different applicable VBIOS files (including Mac-EFI patched variants of those), then booted into both MacOS and Windows 10 to compare (unlike with my previous attempts in Windows 7 I now have fully working installations of AMD driver software)...
I noticed that when booting into Windows, both DVI ports worked (regardless of having the original/untouched or Mac-EFI patched BIOS), but in MacOS (10.13.6) the DVI-D port didn't work -just as pointed out earlier in this thread.

But there's something more... Tsialex pointed out (in post# 105) that with MacOS 10.14 (Mojave) has removed support for passive DVI to VGA adapters/cables.
Could it be that this has happened already in 10.13 High Sierra? I ask because with certain untouched (not Mac-EFI patched) BIOS files I tried out, my 2nd display (DVI-I output -> DVI-I to VGA cable -> VGA input of monitor) doesn't show anything, but the "Display" system preference detects both displays.
It would be interesting to try this out with a normal DVI cable, but unfortunately I only have one, and it's attached to display #1.

 

[Borowski]

Testing any roms is wasting time.
Apple has a weird design to control displays; windows is not affected to the framebuffer-personality, it is only driver-related, thats why you will get output from any connector.

My opinion: Use this card with gop-enabler or buy a better macos-matching card.

 

[macstatic]

My opinion: Use this card with gop-enabler or buy a better macos-matching card.

Now if someone could just explain in plain English exactly how that all works and how to install it....

 

[Macschrauber]

Now if someone could just explain in plain English exactly how that all works and how to install it....

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/pre-opencore-gop-support-for-efi-era-imacs-and-mac-pros.2378942/post-31924217

 

[macstatic]

The DP usually can work (even though you should still test it).

The HDMI port usually is the dead port. But in your case, it works. However, it seems the extra DVI port is dead (which make sense if the original Mac EFI has no code for the 2nd DVI port).

I've now gotten hold of the cables and found out that after Mac-bootscreen EFI reflashing of my Sapphire HD-7950 3GB Vapor X I've only lost one of the two DVI ports. The DVI-D output now no longer works in MacOS, but all three others do, so I can still use two screenn (even though ideally I'd like them all to continue working).

I've tested the GPU-card with two displays with different combinations of using the three available ports and all combinations work.
One of my displays only has two DVI ports and VGA, but fortunately the other one has DP in addition to DVI and VGA, so I can use thm both together with this card

 

[macstatic]

I want to add that I found a HDMI to DVI cable and it worked fine with the above GPU card! So even with just one DVI output of the GPU card (and missing HDMI and DP ports of an older display) there appears to be other solutions like this 👍

Is it correct to assume that with digital outputs (DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort) it's more or less just a matter of using physically different connectors/pinouts? So using for instance a HDMI-DVI cable would work in the exact same way as a DVI-DVI cable?

 

[Borowski]

No, it isn't.
HDMI and DVI are very similar, both use TMDS-standard and DVI can usually converted to HDMI with simple passive adapters, but usually not other way round, because newer standards of HDMI offer more bandwith.

DP uses different protocol LVDS and is incompatible to DVI and HDMI, but most outputs/GPUs can switch to a legacy TMDS signal which is accessible with adapters.

 

[macstatic]

Good to know.

Can I conclude that for the GPU card's HDMI output I can safely use a HDMI to DVI cable, but with the card's DP output I can't use a DP to DVI cable, or is this where a "maybe" comes in because as you say: most outputs/GPUs can switch to a legacy TDMS signal?
To further complicate things: is any of this also affected by the fact that newer MacOS versions have less and less support for passive adapters as well (as TSIalex pointed out at the end of posting #105)?

 

[Borowski]

Again: You have some wrong port-definitions under macOS, so nobody will guarantee for any unexpected behaviour.

To my knowledge: the switching is done on hardware level, probably unknown for the operating system. I'm sure it will work for Windows.
Simple adapters are very cheap, get some and try it on your own.