Working Flashable PC 4870 Card Thread

[MacVidCards]

Hey, you should definetely include this link on your first page "How To"

http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=3280778

It is the ATI power cable that people will need 2 of to run a 4870 in Mac Pro.

This is of use to US and Canada folks only.

It is also possible to make your own cable, but certainly more bother.

It is odd that ATI sells this as a separate item...would seem to ALLOW use of flashed cards.....or do these typically burn up or get lost? (ie, why would there need to be MANY of these purchased if not for flashed cards?)

 

[Shrapnel]

I'm so sorry to my bad english

Don't feel sorry, I'm sure your English is better than my or tobyg's Chinese (assuming).

Now if you were located in the US or UK then that would bad.

 

[Earl Urly]

It is odd that ATI sells this as a separate item...would seem to ALLOW use of flashed cards.....or do these typically burn up or get lost? (ie, why would there need to be MANY of these purchased if not for flashed cards?)

At this point I believe they are aware of the flashing community but I doubt they would really give a rat's ass about them. More likely they're offering the cables for people upgrading their PC mobos to something with PCI-E powerports; noted that of the two cards mentioned they only supply PCI-E to 5-pin Molex..

 

[MacVidCards]

At this point I believe they are aware of the flashing community but I doubt they would really give a rat's ass about them. More likely they're offering the cables for people upgrading their PC mobos to something with PCI-E powerports; noted that of the two cards mentioned they only supply PCI-E to 5-pin Molex..

Doubtful...one end of the Plug is Apple-only.

It is of no use to anyone except somebody putting a PCIE card that needs power into a G5 or Mac Pro.

 

[jjhny]

Keep this moving

This is the better thread for discussing the ACTUAL process to get yourself a working 4870 card.

It appears 2 models listed in this forum definitely work. The Sapphire and the HSI, both are at Newegg and are cheap. We just need to get the 2 patched ROMS that work with these cards posted here and we are set.

You also need the 2 proper cables from ATI made for the x1900 - or you need to make your own.

I am sure there will be ROMS for other cards as well.

Let's keep this thread at the top with useful info in it. We should avoid thread hijackers, etc. The other thread on dumping the ROM is all over the map.

Anyone else should report in if they got this working, with which card and then post the working ROM!

 

[MacVidCards]

Have we CONFIRMED that the Saphire board with black fan in center of card has working Dual DVI?

I have tried 2 @ Diamond Brand. The older works both DVI but newer one does the Crash Dance.

Note that we may have some insight into this in main thread.

But until we solve second display issue, everyone who lists a working card should specifically state if second port works or if they were not able to test it.

 

[jjhny]

I agree. I think those who have made it work should post the model they used, where they got it and whether it fully works (i.e. both DVI ports, etc.)

If it does fully work they should post the ROM they used. Then we can have collection of good ROMS and the cards they flash.

It's too bad we can't get a wiki together for this. But until then, this would help. So anyone reading this, if you got your 4870 to work, help us all out by posting and letting us know the above information.

 

[Spikelite]

I made the wonderful choice to leap head first without looking. I did however call Apple tech support (NEVER AGAIN) and they told me any ATI 4870 would work (lies...).

I have never flashed a card and am terrified at the prospect of doing so but I am going to give it a try.

I got the Sapphire 4870 1GB TOXIC card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102815&Tpk=14-102-815

It has the dual 6 pin power connectors so should be fine there. I am just wondering if anyone has already tried this card and found it to work or not.

If I don't hear anything an EE friend and I are going to muck around with it and see what we can do. I will let you know how it goes.

*crosses fingers*


If it works I may also write a step by step for noobs write up on how to do this for this card and possibly others that use the same steps.

 

[gzfelix]

POWERCOLOR AX4870 512MD5 Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-

Adapter 0 (BN=05, DN=00, PCIID=94401002, SSID=22671787)
Asic Family : RV770/M98
Flash Type : PM25LV010 (128 KB)
Product Name : RV770 512MB 86105CCB.QFH9
Bios Config File : Test.bin
Bios P/N : 113-BA0701-X07
Bios Version : 011.010.000.002.029896
Bios Date : 01/05/09 02:52

Just follow the instruction of the first post and everything works fine. Both DVI ports works fine at 1680x1050. I have no dual-link display or VGA so no test on that. Still got 2.5GT/s link speed tho.

A screenshot and the ROM for this card are attached.

UPDATE: Dual-monitor is NOT supported on this card. The card works fine with either port when I connect my monitor to it.

 

[MacVidCards]

Thanks for your input !!!

Glad to know the Powercolor works.

To be 100% clear...I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that you used the same 1650x monitor to test both ports....ie, you were only able to test one port at a time.

Your screenshot would appear to be from one of the ones that only can do 1 port at a time.

To avoid MUCHO frustration on the part of people who follow this thread, we need to be clear which cards run 2 @ DVI AT THE SAME TIME.

 

[gzfelix]

Thanks for your input !!!

Glad to know the Powercolor works.

To be 100% clear...I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that you used the same 1650x monitor to test both ports....ie, you were only able to test one port at a time.

Your screenshot would appear to be from one of the ones that only can do 1 port at a time.

To avoid MUCHO frustration on the part of people who follow this thread, we need to be clear which cards run 2 @ DVI AT THE SAME TIME.

I only have one monitor. So two-monitor situation is UNTESTED.

 

[Dredog]

Is there a guide out there that's easy to follow. I've never flashed the GPU bios before.

Can this be done on my Intel Mac Pro or do I need to use a PC to flash the card?

 

[gzfelix]

After one-day usage of 4870, I have to say that 4870 is way noisier than the stock GT120. I have no Apple 4870 so no comparison could be made.

 

[Dredog]

How to get ROM file?

When I run GPU-Z and try to get the 128k vgabios on my PC card, I'm only able to get a BIN file not a ROM file.

Am I clicking on the wrong thing?

 

[gzfelix]

When I run GPU-Z and try to get the 128k vgabios on my PC card, I'm only able to get a BIN file not a ROM file.

Am I clicking on the wrong thing?

Is it 128K? Then it's the file.

 

[Dredog]

yes, it is 128k but will i be able to run the fixrom.py script pipomolo42 prepared?

 

[osssua]

yes, it is 128k but will i be able to run the fixrom.py script pipomolo42 prepared?

Yes, .bin or .rom are only the file extensions, the important thing is the contents. I followed the instructions using the .bin file I got from GPU-Z without problem.

BTW, I can confirm that the method works for the black non-reference Sapphire model
PN 228-10E85-030SA
SKU# 11133-03-20R

I only have one monitor, so no dual-monitor check on my side.

cheers

 

[nachtliche]

I want to get a 4870, but this thread looks dead. All the working cards I see here are no longer available. I'm looking at getting a Sapphire HD4870 Vapor-X, Part 100267L. Anyone know if this will work?

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=AT-487VP1G&c=pw

 

[nachtliche]

awesome success...

I'm amazed how easily this worked given the instructions in this post. I have another confirmed compatible card with this method, Sapphire HD4870 Vapor-X 1GB part # 100267L.

 

[Cindori]

please upload original rom and modified rom.

 

[Billydelp4]

I'm amazed how easily this worked given the instructions in this post. I have another confirmed compatible card with this method, Sapphire HD4870 Vapor-X 1GB part # 100267L.

Does VGA HDMI and DVI work on your card? or are you only using DVI?

 

[johnwillsey]

Trying with a new card

Picked up a XFX HD 4870 card.
Part No.: HD-487A-ZWFC
HD 4870 750M 1GB DDR5 DUAL DVI PCI-E
Tiger Direct Feb 2010

I used the premade/pretested rom over at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/811768/

flashed and works, however I have 2 issues:
1) I get the annoying power cord warnings
2) Quake/Doom3/QE testing util all report the card as 256MB. I was expecting 1GB

I then tried the pipomolo42 method using my original rom dumped on a pc with GPU-Z:

But I could not boot properly after flashing... Perhaps I did not do it correctly, or perhaps my original dump was not good.

Here is my original rom dump, in case someone can validate my dump and re-mod...
Thanks!

 

[johnwillsey]

Picked up a XFX HD 4870 card.
Part No.: HD-487A-ZWFC
HD 4870 750M 1GB DDR5 DUAL DVI PCI-E
Tiger Direct Feb 2010

I used the premade/pretested rom over at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/811768/

flashed and works, however I have 2 issues:
1) I get the annoying power cord warnings
2) Quake/Doom3/QE testing util all report the card as 256MB. I was expecting 1GB

I then tried the pipomolo42 method using my original rom dumped on a pc with GPU-Z:

But I could not boot properly after flashing... Perhaps I did not do it correctly, or perhaps my original dump was not good.

Here is my original rom dump, in case someone can validate my dump and re-mod...
Thanks!

OK, here is an update.. the suggestion to download the rev e.0 card was perfect since after this post I found problem #3

3) bootcamp windows booting did not work either.

the rev e.0 card rom otherwise labeled as "klar4870.rom" works in bootcamp.
http://groths.se/atiflashingtool/ZWFLE-0.zip


So, now just the power message and proper video memory recognition remain, although the card seems to perform perfectly in Q4 and Doom3 at 1900x1200 ultra quality with over 100FPS on a original 1,1 MacPro.

 

[johnwillsey]

bump

sorry. just a post to add subscription notification to thread..

 

[Cindori]

i have two 4870's i've been tinkering with... done tinkering tho, if anyone wants em, PM... they are flashed and ready.. think I may have some spare power cables too.