Ultimate Thread: 4890 in Mac Pro

[Cindori]

I seriously could use some help with basic Interface Builder-questions (Xcode), I got a great idea for a GUI and most of the scripting done, I just need some help to understand how linking works etc. if someone would be able, send me PM.


I will update main post to cover the dual ATI cards tomorrow.

 

[Cindori]

ok here goes


PEOPLE WITH SECONDARY ATI CARDS

The flash application will try to flash any ATI card in your computer.
If you are flashing with a Apple x1900, 3870 or 2600 running your display, you might brick the cards.


Workaround is this:

Download Natit PKG

It contains these files:

Steps:

- Install Natit.pkg
- Shut down Mac
- Remove all ATI cards but leave your 4890/4870
- Boot Mac
- Proceed with the normal flashing instruction
- Run Natit remover
- Reboot

Done!


Natit will give you display without flashing the card, but you will miss out on things like the apple boot screen, perhaps quartz extreme or things like that.
It is however enough for us to be able to flash the card without any other Apple-card in computer.

Note this only applies to people with secondary ATI cards, if you are running Nvidia cards this step is probably not necessary (at least no problems reported yet)


Natit is a extension made by netkas.

 

[marcng]

The computer will use the GPU that is connected to the display of course.

If you have two displays, one display connected to one of two cards, and open a game on the display driven by the GT120, that card will be used to render the graphics.

A GPU can not assist in rendering graphics on a display that is not connected to it.

Unless you combine the two using technnologies like Nvidia's SLI or ATI's Crossfire, none of which are supported by OSX.

so, that means my main display should always connect to the more powerful GPU if i want to game right?

also, if i run a game in windowed mode, then of no reason i just drag the window from one monitor to another (given two monitors connected to two GPU), the workload would go to the GPU in charge?

thanks

 

[Cindori]

yes, yes everything you just said is correct.

 

[Alexbard]

that's wierd
what pkg did you use?

find a pc to reflash the card

A small update....
I put the 4890 card in a Windows pc, and reflashed again with 4890.rom found in the package of this post.
Same result, loop in booting with BOING sound in my macpro 2008.
So I flashed again with 4890 rom found in the blog of the author, but the firmwares were identical.
So for me no good news.
My old 3870 card flashed with 4890 rom, after a few attempts yesterday, stopped working, because also in the Windows pc is not recognized by atiflash -i, I got a couple of minutes working yesterday (until os load of course) but now it's dead.
I ordered the 4870 at Apple Store, tomorrow it will be here. No other choice to' have my macpro working again.
The 4890 card is the Sapphire one, and works perfectly under Windows pc also with the modified Rom.

 

[Cindori]

wow, not working even when properly flashed? very very wierd. you have only 4890 on slot 1?

anyway.. workaround for secondary ATI cards is posted

 

[Macinposh]

I´ll be fugging damned.
Sold my card to a pc wizard that said he can fix any ***** that hasnt caught fire, and he said that the card is dead. Stone dead. Not zombie dead but,kaputt.Fin.

So obviusly,there now is a slight aura that you really can brick your card if things get borked up. We are waiting for more info what is going on,etc, but at the moment things look grim.
So alexbard,you aint the only one...

 

[Alexbard]

I´ll be fugging damned.
Sold my card to a pc wizard that said he can fix any ***** that hasnt caught fire, and he said that the card is dead. Stone dead. Not zombie dead but,kaputt.Fin.

So obviusly,there now is a slight aura that you really can brick your card if things get borked up. We are waiting for more info what is going on,etc, but at the moment things look grim.
So alexbard,you aint the only one...

Sounds strange... I mean... I bricked my Ati card inside, not the 4890... I flashed it 4 times without making any damage... Simply doesn't work in my macpro but works in a standard pc.
Are you sure that the pc wizard is really a wizard?

)

 

[Macinposh]

Sounds strange... I mean... I bricked my Ati card inside, not the 4890... I flashed it 4 times without making any damage... Simply doesn't work in my macpro but works in a standard pc.
Are you sure that the pc wizard is really a wizard?

)

I got the impression from your post that you misflashed the 4890 and brought it in to a chimeloop (like I did) and bricked it. Pardon for the misunderstanding.

And yes,I would think as the guy has flashed a 20+ cards so he should know his *****.. But as said. Checking it out...

 

[MacVidCards]

It IS possible to sorta-brick a card.

I have 2 or 3 times had to clip an EEPROM off a card when the flash was "close" to working but not quite right.

It is quite likely that a different PC or different BIOS setting would allow the PC to boot DOS and reflash, but as I said a couple times it literally required a new chip to save a card.

I will be happy to do this for anyone who PMs me with this problem.

I would just ask that you send the card along with sufficient postage for return. (Including a few extra $ for a six of Stella is always appreciated)

 

[68topls]

Success Story

I just had success with an ATI saphire 4890 in my mac pro that has 10.5.8! Oh yeah! Waiting for digi design to update pro-tools before going to snow leopard. Before I chuck the nvidia card that's in there can I install snow leopard using the flashed 4890 or will I need to retain the card for an upgrade? I'm thinking that since its flashed it should boot using a "generic" driver until I install the proper driver....but I'm not sure.

 

[68topls]

Maybe I shouldn't have spoken so fast. I happen to notice that my display in the system profiler said "quartz Extreme: not supported" so I ran an open GL extensions viewer test and got 11fps. Reset the nvram pram. Using the supplied DVI to HDMI cable to connect from the card to the display. Uhm is it just that I have a bad monitor or cable problem?

 

[68topls]

Figured it out. Had to install modified atiraedon1000 kext. Works great now!

Maybe I shouldn't have spoken so fast. I happen to notice that my display in the system profiler said "quartz Extreme: not supported" so I ran an open GL extensions viewer test and got 11fps. Reset the nvram pram. Using the supplied DVI to HDMI cable to connect from the card to the display. Uhm is it just that I have a bad monitor or cable problem?

 

[Alexbard]

I just had success with an ATI saphire 4890 in my mac pro that has 10.5.8! Oh yeah! Waiting for digi design to update pro-tools before going to snow leopard. Before I chuck the nvidia card that's in there can I install snow leopard using the flashed 4890 or will I need to retain the card for an upgrade? I'm thinking that since its flashed it should boot using a "generic" driver until I install the proper driver....but I'm not sure.

Which macpro you have?
I begin to think that newer macpros have different efi bios, maybe they make more control over the pci cards...
Mine is the 2008 version, 2Xquad core cpu, harpertown I think, I can't check the version since the new Vga card arrives...
Also with Sapphire 4890 no way...

 

[Cindori]

Maybe I shouldn't have spoken so fast. I happen to notice that my display in the system profiler said "quartz Extreme: not supported" so I ran an open GL extensions viewer test and got 11fps. Reset the nvram pram. Using the supplied DVI to HDMI cable to connect from the card to the display. Uhm is it just that I have a bad monitor or cable problem?

If you would bother to read the main post:

Older QE_CI pkgs:

Pkgs for 10.5.7, 10.5.8 and 10.6.0 in this zip:
Old QE_CI pkgs

(QE being Quartz Extreme)

So obviusly,there now is a slight aura that you really can brick your card if things get borked up. We are waiting for more info what is going on,etc, but at the moment things look grim.

Ehm, you bricked your card because you continued with flashing even though you got error messages.

The reason Alexbard ****ed up his 3870 is because the flash app tries to flash any ATI card in the computer. A workaround to that has already been posted, and also updated in the main post.

 

[Peloche]

880 or 850 ?

The difference between them is that the Overclock one is using a rom with 950 clock, and the Normal one is using a rom with 880 clock.

Hi Cindori,

Congrats for your work.

I'm just wondering why "880 clock", I've double checked and found core clock for your card :

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?psn=000101&pid=219

SAPPHIRE HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E : Core Clock: 850 MHz

and for mine:

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?psn=000101&pid=277

SAPPHIRE HD4890 1GB DDR5 PCIE (New Edition) : Core Clock: 850 MHz

Is there any reason for this overclocking ?

And do you know the difference in between GDDR5 and DDR5 ?

I'll try your 4890Flash.app very soon, Xfingers...

Thanks,

Peloche,

 

[Cindori]

the rom I used was 880, did not bother to lower it 30MHz, it's so little that any card should be able to run it.

quick googling says: DDR= Double Data Rate, GDDR=Graphics Double Data Rate

good luck with "New edition", you are first to try it afaik

 

[68topls]

I installed the OLD Quartz Extreme package. It did not work until I downloaded and modified a separate ati kext. Thanks for all of your work / help.

If you would bother to read the main post:



(QE being Quartz Extreme)




Ehm, you bricked your card because you continued with flashing even though you got error messages.

The reason Alexbard ****ed up his 3870 is because the flash app tries to flash any ATI card in the computer. A workaround to that has already been posted, and also updated in the main post.

 

[68topls]

I have the first 1,1 mac pro with quad 2.66GHZ CPUs.

Which macpro you have?
I begin to think that newer macpros have different efi bios, maybe they make more control over the pci cards...
Mine is the 2008 version, 2Xquad core cpu, harpertown I think, I can't check the version since the new Vga card arrives...
Also with Sapphire 4890 no way...

 

[Peloche]

the rom I used was 880, did not bother to lower it 30MHz, it's so little that any card should be able to run it.

good luck with "New edition", you are first to try it afaik

Thanks, for the time being I installed this card on Slot-1 and NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT on Slot-3

I've got the following for 4890: is it correct ? does it allow me to go ahead ?

 

[Cindori]

no idea. go for it

 

[68topls]

It looks the same as mine. I installed the 4890 into slot one and moved the 7300 to slot 3. Booted the machine with the monitor connected to the geoforce. Got a pop up screen about configuring lanes. Installed the quartz package. Then flashed. shut down the computer. swap the monitor cable. boot it up. Worked perfect except for quartsz so I had to download the ati1000 kext and install that. However it looks as if that is what the quartz package was suppose to do.

Thanks, for the time being I installed this card on Slot-1 and NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT on Slot-3

I've got the following for 4890: is it correct ? does it allow me to go ahead ?

 

[Peloche]

no idea. go for it

Done

Dead

even MacPro doesn't want to start, there is a red led lit on the motherboard, I remove 4890 and MacPro started on NVidia, any idea why it prevent MacPro to start ?

 

[Cindori]

describe carefully what you did

 

[Peloche]

describe carefully what you did

I did exactly what is explained on your first post, and reboot as written, until reboot there was no problem, it was almost heaven ... but after reboot things went very bad, black screen and red led lit on motherboard just above memory risers, heaven is black for the time being...