Ultimate Thread: 4890 in Mac Pro

[Peloche]

Hello guys. I need some help here.. I have a sapphire 4890 (new edition) with the qimonda memory chips. The thing is, im not sure if the problem is software side or hardware side. I installed natit and anything else needed to boot with injectors, then replaced the x1900 with the 4890. I only had one PCIe cable to connect to the card (the one came with the x1900) so the other one is connected with a molex cable through the 2nd superdrive. When i boot, the card sounds spinning and as one would expect, spins faster for 1 or 2 seconds, then goes silent... That's making me think that its getting powered properly.. or maybe not? Anyway, i never got any picture even though i was sure the mac completelly booted (i can even hit ctrl+eject and then enter to shutdown). What could be the problem?? I'm having a hard time to find another PCIe cable but if thats the case, im getting it

Hi sOwl,

IMHO your card is powered enough with your PCIe cable and your molex.
It shouldn't be a power problem.

Which natit did you use, did you follow this https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/8742713/ ?
Did you try, when you are sure OS finished to boot, to unplug your display from the card and plug it back ?

 

[sOwL]

Hi sOwl,

IMHO your card is powered enough with your PCIe cable and your molex.
It shouldn't be a power problem.

Which natit did you use, did you follow this https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/8742713/ ?
Did you try, when you are sure OS finished to boot, to unplug your display from the card and plug it back ?

Well, i followed the same injection instructions, the only thing i did diferrently is that i didnt use the flashing tool to install the QI_CI, i just used the .pkg file that mfka provided in his post. Also, havent tried unplugging and plugging in again. Could anything else be wrong?

 

[Peloche]

Well, i followed the same injection instructions, the only thing i did diferrently is that i didnt use the flashing tool to install the QI_CI, i just used the .pkg file that mfka provided in his post. Also, havent tried unplugging and plugging in again. Could anything else be wrong?

Could you please try unplugging and plugging back

 

[sOwL]

Could you please try unplugging and plugging back

Ok, i can't do that right now (everything is connected back as it was so its going to take some time, and i dont have much time atm) i'll report back in about half an hour. Thanks for your responses so far

 

[mfka]

Hello guys. I need some help here.. I have a sapphire 4890 (new edition) with the qimonda memory chips. The thing is, im not sure if the problem is software side or hardware side. I installed natit and anything else needed to boot with injectors, then replaced the x1900 with the 4890. I only had one PCIe cable to connect to the card (the one came with the x1900) so the other one is connected with a molex cable through the 2nd superdrive. When i boot, the card sounds spinning and as one would expect, spins faster for 1 or 2 seconds, then goes silent... That's making me think that its getting powered properly.. or maybe not? Anyway, i never got any picture even though i was sure the mac completelly booted (i can even hit ctrl+eject and then enter to shutdown). What could be the problem?? I'm having a hard time to find another PCIe cable but if thats the case, im getting it

You could try to press power button to put mp to sleep and that wake him up.

 

[sOwL]

Muhahahah... Success! Im typing this from my *flashed* 4890 new edition. I just waited untill OSX fully booted then plugged my monitor and voila it worked Running good so far, the screen only flickered once when on loading screen, but everything seems to be working fine. Now i have to find a way to pass the cable from the inside, otherwise it cant be closed :S

a HUGE thank you to everyone to contributed to this

 

[mfka]

Hi Peloche,

I git hold of a friend's Hynix based Sapphire 4890 New Edition card, and we flashed it with E115QA1G.S02 rom.
Few symptoms:

- On boot.. after the grey screen, as the reFit boot screen loads there is a slight flicker as it loads the reFit screen.. then a flcker again as it goes back to grey screen during boot.

- Once the OSX desktop is loaded, msg pops up saying that the power cables on video card is not connected properly ( but they are )

Other than that everything else is working fine in OSX.

Really strange issue we're finding is on the bootcamp side.
With the original rom, apple bluetooth kb & mm pairs & works fine in bootcamp.
But after flashing with E11 rom.. kb & mm no longer pairs and no matter what we did could not get them to pair ( on snow leopard, bootcamp 3.0 ).
Soon as we flash back to the original rom, kb & mm pairs right away on booting into bootcamp and they work fine ( typing on it now ).

Attached is the original rom

Would be great if you could make the rom base don this one & we can try it ( anyone else using a Hynix based card ? )

Hello astro768,

Don’t worry about power cables message it is not a problem.
I also sometimes get that message but everything works perfect.

As Peloche said, yes i’m using windows 7 via bootcamp but i don’t use
bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Same as os x i don’t have any problems
at all, mine card works perfect on both sides SL and W7.

I’m not using bootcamp 3 thought, i have version before this one, 2.something.

 

[Peloche]

Muhahahah... Success! Im typing this from my *flashed* 4890 new edition. I just waited untill OSX fully booted then plugged my monitor and voila it worked Running good so far, the screen only flickered once when on loading screen, but everything seems to be working fine. Now i have to find a way to pass the cable from the inside, otherwise it cant be closed :S

a HUGE thank you to everyone to contributed to this

Congrats sOwl and welcome to New Edition

 

[mfka]

Muhahahah... Success! Im typing this from my *flashed* 4890 new edition. I just waited untill OSX fully booted then plugged my monitor and voila it worked Running good so far, the screen only flickered once when on loading screen, but everything seems to be working fine. Now i have to find a way to pass the cable from the inside, otherwise it cant be closed :S

a HUGE thank you to everyone to contributed to this

Congrats sOwL,
I’m glad things finally worked out for you.

Welcome to the New edition gang!

 

[sOwL]

Phew, finally found a way to pass the cable through and without doing any damage. Now the case can close After few restarts, heres a note: The screen always flickers once, just when the apple logo appears, but i havent noticed any problems with anything else so far. I'll do some testing and will post back soon

 

[mfka]

Phew, finally found a way to pass the cable through and without doing any damage. Now the case can close After few restarts, heres a note: The screen always flickers once, just when the apple logo appears, but i havent noticed any problems with anything else so far. I'll do some testing and will post back soon

Do you get power cables message after boot?

 

[sOwL]

Yes i do, but i dont mind. It should be because the one cable im connecting "is not meant" to do that.. Nevermind, i came back to post that it works seemlessly well. I also tested Bootcamp with winxp32, installed the drivers and it works fantastically. Ran almost all my games, having ZERO problems so far and the graphics are so much better now. The card remains very silent and much cooler than the x1900, using the stock cooler.

 

[Peloche]

Yes i do, but i dont mind. It should be because the one cable im connecting "is not meant" to do that.

No i've got the 2 PCIe cables and still get the power cables message at boot, but you're right it's only a mouse click to be quiet and enjoy this very good GPU.

Nevermind, i came back to post that it works seemlesly well. I also tested Bootcamp with winxp32, installed the drivers and it works fantastically. Ran almost all my games, having ZERO problems so far and the graphics are so much better now. The card remains very silent and much cooler than the x1900, using the stock cooler.

Which version of bootcamp do you use ?

Yeap i'm playing CoD4 at 2560 x 1600 and it's very fluid.

Enjoy it in your very nice country. I lived for 1 year in Vravrona , wonderfull.

 

[sOwL]

Yeah its a nice place Im using bootcamp either 2.1 or 2.2.1, im not sure about that, but definitelly not 3. Only thing left to try out now is connecting my second display, but im too tired to do that right now... Damn the part where i had to pass the cable through the only one opening there was on the top of the box was really hard. Proud to say that now ANYTHING in my mac pro is good quality (you wouldnt want a very good piece of equipment having a bad part right?)

 

[AnimeFunTv]

n00b

Hey All,

I've read this topic back and forth, and I'm glad there are more options for us who have the 2006 MacPro 1,1 =)

Reading up on several 4890's I did notice a new card from XFX thats now available at my local bestbuy with a sn of HD-489X-ZSFR, Now I do know that the newer XFX ZDFC's work with very mixed results.

My question is, has anyone tried flashing the ZSFR with any results?

 

[sOwL]

@AnimeFunTV

I'm not sure that this card will work and its propably more about just a model number. Anyway, if you read just few posts above, i recently managed to get the sapphire 4890 new edition to work perfectly, with peloche's and mfka's guide. Note that im also using a mac pro 1,1 and that this card is one of the best 4890 solutions and also much more available. Good luck

 

[Peloche]

Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 New Edition outputs

ATI Radeon HD 4870 and HD 4890 GPUs include both same outputs:

- 2 dual-link DVI display outputs (up to 2560 x 1600 dual-link and 1920 x 1200 single-link)
- 1 DisplayPort output (up to 2560 x 1600)
- 1 HDMI output (up to 1920 x 1080)
- 1 TV output (supports SDTV and HDTV resolutions)

These outputs are made enable or not by third parties manufacturers, Sapphire has enabled 1 Dual-link DVI, 1 HDMI and 1 DisplayPort for HD 4890 New Edition.

EFI/Driver used for this card are Apple's EFI/driver for 4870 Apple graphic card where only DVI and Mini DisplayPort are enabled.

DVI is working on New Edition, HDMi is not working as Apple's HD 4870 doesn't have HDMI enabled consequently the driver ignores it, but DisplayPort should work.

Difference is Apple card is MiniDisplayPort and New Edition is DisplayPort, but IMHO this is only physical.

Does somebody tried this DisplayPort on New Edition ?

Assuming my reasoning was correct (…) I placed an order for this DisplayPort -> DVI adaptor:

http://www.indipc.fr/connectique,ad...ge,zoom,mod,boutique,gps,5001619-4487.fr.html

I'll keep you inform as soon as i'll test it.

 

[mfka]

Note that im also using a mac pro 1,1 and that this card is one of the best 4890 solutions and also much more available. Good luck

I think so too, and those cards are not expensive.

 

[mfka]

DVI is working on New Edition, HDMi is not working as Apple's HD 4870 doesn't have HDMI enabled consequently the driver ignores it, but DisplayPort should work.

But i guess HDMI should work in BootCamp, right?
I will try that.

 

[Peloche]

But i guess HDMI should work in BootCamp, right?
I will try that.

Hi mate,

Yeap with windows all ouptuts should work, with the right driver installed.

Keep up inform about your test.

Edit: HDMI port is limited to 1920 x 1080

 

[astro768]

Hi astro768,

Thanks for your report.

Your Hynix vgabios attached newsapp.bin is 100% identical to my Qimonda E115QA1G.S02, so the EFIROM is also identical, here attached this EFIROM:
md5
59eb238cb978084afff5cef729a2da21
You could try it.

I'm very surprised that rom for Hynix and Qimonda memories card are identical, since i obtained mine directly from the manufacturer in Taiwan who asked me to open and check because there was 2 types of new edition card, and the designation E115QA1G.S02 is theirs with QA for Qimonda.

Do your P/N and SKU# match this the attached label ?



Mine too but mfka's one doesn't.



I can't answer to this point since I don't have bootcamp, mfka is using his card IMHO with OS X and Windows bootcamp if i understood well, but i don't know if is he using bluetooth keyboard and magic mouse, he'll answer to this.

Did you try with wired keyboard ?

Peloche,

Thanks Peloche & mfka,

Re: bootcamp issue with wireless mouse & kb pairing, thin k this is an issue with SL & bootcamp 3.0 upgrade rather than the gpu.

mm & kb always seem to pair ok on a second reboot to bootcamp but never on the first reboot ( from osx). tried this few times & its consistent
Its always worked flawless under leopard/bootcamp2 but never really had a closer look at it since the upgrade to SL

So other than few flickers on boot & power cable msg, everything else was working fine.
Unfortunately not sure if P/N and SKU# matched as my friend didn't have a box & he's taken the card back now.. am back to my trusty old xfx 4890 card.

 

[Redneck1089]

Confirming that this ROM works. Thanks again Rominator and do you have a tip jar somewhere? Redneck1089 have you tried this ROM yet?

I tried the ROM a few days ago and have been too busy to report back. The ROM works fine, but unfortunately it still hasn't solved the problem of the screen tearing issue. Maybe now that 10.6.2 is out with updated drivers, the problem will solve itself. For the time being I'm happily using both the 4870 and 4890 to power both my monitors.

Thanks again Rominator. I too would like to know where your tip jar is located at (PayPal - what's your e-mail address?). Please PM me details.


When's the updated QE_CI Pkg for 10.6.2 being released?

 

[Treksdot]

Just keep an eye on netkas.org for the QE/CI update Redneck.

 

[Altimeter88]

So I am looking at getting the Sapphire "new version" or whatever from NewEgg mainly because of the extra HDMI and Display Ports:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102852

Quesions:
-Does the display port even work on this card because if it does not, I don't see a benefit over the HIS with dual DVI because of the extra steps involved in getting the Sapphire working.

-Has anyone else ordered this card from NewEgg and received the Hynix memory chipset that is NOT compatible as indicated in the thread? NewEgg is a popular place for these cards so I thought I would just throw that out there just to see. I would hate to get the card, tear it apart and find the Hynix chips and then have to try and send it back.

-Do you foresee problems when updating software ie: going from 10.6.1 to 10.6.2? Like do you think flashing the 4890 will be a constant thing every time Apple releases a software update? Just something to consider if I end up selling the Mac Pro, I am sure the new owner would like to know this.

 

[MacVidCards]

ATI Radeon HD 4870 and HD 4890 GPUs include both same outputs:

- 2 dual-link DVI display outputs (up to 2560 x 1600 dual-link and 1920 x 1200 single-link)
- 1 DisplayPort output (up to 2560 x 1600)
- 1 HDMI output (up to 1920 x 1080)
- 1 TV output (supports SDTV and HDTV resolutions)

These outputs are made enable or not by third parties manufacturers, Sapphire has enabled 1 Dual-link DVI, 1 HDMI and 1 DisplayPort for HD 4890 New Edition.

EFI/Driver used for this card are Apple's EFI/driver for 4870 Apple graphic card where only DVI and Mini DisplayPort are enabled.

DVI is working on New Edition, HDMi is not working as Apple's HD 4870 doesn't have HDMI enabled consequently the driver ignores it, but DisplayPort should work.

Difference is Apple card is MiniDisplayPort and New Edition is DisplayPort, but IMHO this is only physical.

Does somebody tried this DisplayPort on New Edition ?

Assuming my reasoning was correct (…) I placed an order for this DisplayPort -> DVI adaptor:

http://www.indipc.fr/connectique,ad...ge,zoom,mod,boutique,gps,5001619-4487.fr.html

I'll keep you inform as soon as i'll test it.

We are thinking along the same lines.

A couple days ago, I picked up a Gigabyte 4870 1 Gig....GV-R487D5-1GD

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125256

I was excited because it has DisplayPort, and I was hoping it would work.

I crafted a ROM from the original, and it works GREAT in WIndows. However, in OSX...the only connector to work is the HDMI one.

As there are three connectors and only 2 display channels, in Windows you need to use CCC to choose which 2 will work if you have 3 displays plugged in. Since we have no corresponding software in OSX I think we are boned.

I was hoping that 10.6.2 would help, but alas no.

So.......I thought maybe it would work with Mac ROM on it. (original unadulterated 4870 ROM)...no go. I even tried placing the GDDR5 table from Gigabyte ROM into the Mac ROM...got a messy boot screen, and only on the HDMI port.

HDMI is Single Link only...so not very useful right now.

Good news is I was able to use Cindori's app to test much more quickly than if I had been flashing in DOS. Truly a useful tool.

Anyone need a single HDMI only 4870?