Write up on flashing a Gigabyte AMD Radeon 7950

[LightBulbFun]

im guessing your 4K monitors are MST monitors

which are known to be quite problematic in general, and the EFI For the 7950 is known to have issues with DP1.2 in general so I doubt my ROM will solve your issues in that regard sadly

I would recommend you upgrade to some more recent single tile display monitors if you can

 

[Mad Davey]

ok learning more about 4k monitors now. My monitors are SST with dp 1.2. Since the monitors work with both stock roms (7950 and 7970) I wonder what's changed in the rom file that disables my 4k monitors from working over dp..? Does anyone use these modified cards over dp in 4k? Would a factory Mac version of one of these cards work or would I have the same issues? Will changing my monitors fix my problem or will these cards simply not support what I want to do? Sorry for straying from the topic, I will try to see if there is a thread on this somewhere.

 

[Mad Davey]

LightBulbFun, are you using the display port output/s on your card?

 

[LightBulbFun]

its a known issue that the Radeon HD 79xx EFI will crash when booted with a DP1.2 monitor plugged in

try booting the system up then plugging in the monitor after POST, and you may get a picture

but your not going to get boot screens on your DP1.2 monitor unless you force it into DP1.1 mode (then you can only do 4K 30Hz)

the card supports DP1.2 but the EFI-VBIOS does not.

(as for what my setup is, currently a DELL U2715H plugged into the left most Mini display port)

 

[Mad Davey]

You are correct, the dp 1.2 will work when plugged in after. It will not boot with it plugged in. Ouch, I would not have done all this if I knew, I don't want to have to plug in my monitors at each start. Is there no fix for this? I don't mind so much that it won't display the EFI boot at start, but I'd like to computer to turn on without having to move cables. Will another card I can modify work such as the R series that can take a mod? Regardless thanks again for the information.

 

[LightBulbFun]

You are correct, the dp 1.2 will work when plugged in after. It will not boot with it plugged in. Ouch, I would not have done all this if I knew, I don't want to have to plug in my monitors at each start. Is there no fix for this? I don't mind so much that it won't display the EFI boot at start, but I'd like to computer to turn on without having to move cables. Will another card I can modify work such as the R series that can take a mod? Regardless thanks again for the information.

your best bet is just to flick the switch an use the secondary PC Only BIOS, then you wont have to worry about hot plugging

and if you need Boot screens you can plug in another Monitor and flick the switch back to the Mac EFI one

 

[Mad Davey]

Unfortunately I want to switch between windows and Mac OS. in order to boot back to Mac OS from windows I would have to power down, hit the vid card bios switch, unplug both DP connectors, switch input on my monitor to HDMI, hold option at boot, select Mac HD, once in Mac OS select startup disk-Mac HD, shut down, switch the bios switch, plug in the DP monitors, switch my monitor input to DP, then power up. Easy right? LOL, this is kinda funny. This is if I make the upgrade to Mojave... I'm sure there is a better solution...? Actually I think High Sierra disabled booting back and forth from the OS's due to the new HD format system.

 

[LightBulbFun]

Unfortunately I want to switch between windows and Mac OS. in order to boot back to Mac OS from windows I would have to power down, hit the vid card bios switch, unplug both DP connectors, switch input on my monitor to HDMI, hold option at boot, select Mac HD, once in Mac OS select startup disk-Mac HD, shut down, switch the bios switch, plug in the DP monitors, switch my monitor input to DP, then power up. Easy right? LOL, this is kinda funny. This is if I make the upgrade to Mojave... I'm sure there is a better solution...?

if you wish to switch between windows and Mac OS

set the card to the PC BIOS, then use this App https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...rnative-in-the-status-bar-of-your-mac.2145374 to one time boot into windows (once ya reboot it will auto boot back to Mac OS)

 

[Mad Davey]

You're the best!! Thank you! I'll keep one 79xx card around for emergencies since it will support the latest OS and have boot screen but will likely get a newer AMD style card no efi with native driver support and lose the GTX980 even though I like it a lot. Cheers!

I have a few cards with Mac efi that will be useless once I go to Mojave...

 

[MIKX]

You are correct, the dp 1.2 will work when plugged in after. It will not boot with it plugged in. Ouch, I would not have done all this if I knew, I don't want to have to plug in my monitors at each start. Is there no fix for this? I don't mind so much that it won't display the EFI boot at start, but I'd like to computer to turn on without having to move cables. Will another card I can modify work such as the R series that can take a mod? Regardless thanks again for the information.

You "could" use a " monitor switcher" .. if it has DVI ports .. and puh the button to have it switch to an empty video port at bootup and then switch again to the active DVI socket after bootup. Should work. . like this $16 one https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-SV231DDVDUA-Monitor-Switch-Audio/dp/B00310EES0

 

[Mad Davey]

It would need to be a dual DP switch, they are VERY expensive. I have a couple old monitor switches but they will not help. Needs to disconnect DP preferably without having to unplug. Filing this as not the solution I hoped for. I will likely just buy an RX card and keep this card for emergencies and maintenance. Thank you very much for the correct bios for my card! The one card that might work for me, but still unknown to me, would be the mac k5000 but it's expensive and slow... Thankfully I found your thread, I'd still be banging my head against the wall about this bios. Long time PC enthusiast and hardware hacker here. Loving my cheese grater. Cheers!

 

[Mad Davey]

I have the same card but 7970, it programmed easily using the exact netkas process. Does anyone know how to make OSX see 7970 instead of 7950? I tried editing the romheader file with a hex editor to say 7970 on the right but that did not do it.

 

[h9826790]

I have the same card but 7970, it programmed easily using the exact netkas process. Does anyone know how to make OSX see 7970 instead of 7950? I tried editing the romheader file with a hex editor to say 7970 on the right but that did not do it.

Not the romheader, but the efi file.

 

[Mad Davey]

Not the romheader, but the efi file.

Thanks I'll give that a go, I think someone incorrectly said to change the romheader somewhere in middle of the 44 page netkas thread... I should have thought of that..

 

[mbonello]

hello all so I own a Mac Pro 1,1/2,1 that I have upgraded substantially over time and I am always looking to upgrade it when possible. now one thing I have wanted for it was a ATI Radeon 7950/7970/R9 280/X for it as they are the fasted GPUs you can fit to a EFI32 Mac Pro with Boot screens.

so a few days ago I found a Nice 7950 for a very nice price on ebay so I jumped on it. the card in question is a Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 7950 GV-R795WF3-3GD rev 2.0 http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4121&dl=#ov . Now of course this is a PC Card that needed flashing so i was taking a bit of a gamble especially as no one had flashed this card before. so I got the card and popped it into my Mac Pro and it worked in OS X with out Boot screens as i had not flashed it yet but i wanted to verify it worked and played nice with OS X before i flashed it (as these cards where popular with cryptocurrency miners and they get worked very hard doing it so i wanted to make sure mine was not a dud) so i stress tested the card for a while and it passed with flying colours .

now onto flashing it. first I dumped the ROM on the card so i could see whats the most up to date BIOS for this card was. mine had the FX1 series UEFI BIOS on it so I downloaded the latest one from the gigabyte website and then used @netkas excellent ROM creation tool you can find here http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,5619.0.html to make an EFI ROM. I also had to use @Fl0r!an fixrom.py checksum patch. but after i patched it it said it made the ROM with no errors that i could see and indeed an EFI ROM had been made. so I took the ROM and booted into windows and used ATIWinFlash to flash the Card it said it flashed with no errors. (the card has a ROM switch by default its in position 2 which is the one you can overwrite with 1 being the back up) so moment of truth time I rebooted the mac pro and BAM a lovely boot screen greeted me. i was Very happy now and it proceeded to boot into OS X with no issues and the card passed another stress test no issues and as well All the Ports work The 2 mDP the HDMI and the DVI ports are fully functional after flashing. and it works fully still in windows so this is my write up on the Card i dont intend this to be a flashing guide just my experience with the card and knowledge for others if they own the same card and are not sure if it can be flashed or not etc.

a big thanks to @netkas for making the tools and putting in the effort to do so and to @Fl0r!an for his fixrom.py patch.

I hope this helps someone out and that it all makes sense (edited due to typo. meant FX when typed FY)

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[doublepost=1540425255][/doublepost]Hello i realize that this is an old post but maybe someone can help me from pulling my hair out.
I also have a "Gigabyte AMD RADION HD 9750" card - but hey, it seems that they decided to make different versions of the card to confuse people. Mine is a Windrush version with 3 fans on the top.
It has a 6 pin and 8 pin power sockets.
When you install it into the system it does not wake up or do anything.
I know that the OROM is flashed for PC so i'm not expecting to see an apple logo but i expected it to come up once the El Capitain MacOS booted. But nothing....

Do i need to add add an 8 pin socket to get this to work?
the six pin socket will plug into the RHS of the 8 pin socket currently.

Any ideas?
Is it just a dud card?

many thanks for any help, Mike

 

[LightBulbFun]

[doublepost=1540425255][/doublepost]Hello i realize that this is an old post but maybe someone can help me from pulling my hair out.
I also have a "Gigabyte AMD RADION HD 9750" card - but hey, it seems that they decided to make different versions of the card to confuse people. Mine is a Windrush version with 3 fans on the top.
It has a 6 pin and 8 pin power sockets.
When you install it into the system it does not wake up or do anything.
I know that the OROM is flashed for PC so i'm not expecting to see an apple logo but i expected it to come up once the El Capitain MacOS booted. But nothing....

Do i need to add add an 8 pin socket to get this to work?
the six pin socket will plug into the RHS of the 8 pin socket currently.

Any ideas?
Is it just a dud card?

many thanks for any help, Mike

you need to have both the 6 and 8 pin plugged in

I use two Mac Pro 6 pin cables 1 for the 6 pin on the card and the other goes into a 6 to 8 pin cable that goes into the 8 pin on the card

 

[h9826790]

[doublepost=1540425255][/doublepost]Hello i realize that this is an old post but maybe someone can help me from pulling my hair out.
I also have a "Gigabyte AMD RADION HD 9750" card - but hey, it seems that they decided to make different versions of the card to confuse people. Mine is a Windrush version with 3 fans on the top.
It has a 6 pin and 8 pin power sockets.
When you install it into the system it does not wake up or do anything.
I know that the OROM is flashed for PC so i'm not expecting to see an apple logo but i expected it to come up once the El Capitain MacOS booted. But nothing....

Do i need to add add an 8 pin socket to get this to work?
the six pin socket will plug into the RHS of the 8 pin socket currently.

Any ideas?
Is it just a dud card?

many thanks for any help, Mike

STOP power up the card until ALL pins are connected.

Running a graphic card that not properly power may cause permanent damage to the card.

 

[Mad Davey]

I can't believe how crazy these cards can be. LightBulbFun, can you elaborate on the patch you mentioned for fixrom.py, My other card which is the 7970 version of nearly the same gigabyte card seems to get the same error when trying to run the netkas script. I initially fixed the problem by opening and saving in a program recommended in yet another thread a process which supposedly removes the EFI, then I can run in netkas script with no errors, and it all seems to work! However when I go to run windows it will crash/freeze on windows 10 start , but that also may be because of windows not in legacy mode, I think I saw you talking about this problem on another thread.... I'm not 100% sure so I'd like to try the fixrom.py patch method you mentioned to fix the file before running the netkas script and see if windows will boot better or at all. Why does the card boot windows 10 in a windows PC with no problems but not in a mac? These cards are nuts... I guess it's fun learning really.

 

[LightBulbFun]

I can't believe how crazy these cards can be. LightBulbFun, can you elaborate on the patch you mentioned for fixrom.py, My other card which is the 7970 version of nearly the same gigabyte card seems to get the same error when trying to run the netkas script. I initially fixed the problem by opening and saving in a program recommended in yet another thread a process which supposedly removes the EFI, then I can run in netkas script with no errors, and it all seems to work! However when I go to run windows it will crash/freeze on windows 10 start , but that also may be because of windows not in legacy mode, I think I saw you talking about this problem on another thread.... I'm not 100% sure so I'd like to try the fixrom.py patch method you mentioned to fix the file before running the netkas script and see if windows will boot better or at all. Why does the card boot windows 10 in a windows PC with no problems but not in a mac? These cards are nuts... I guess it's fun learning really.

if your windows install is an EFI one (ie shows up as EFI Boot in the boot picker) then the Radeon HD 7950 indeed is not compatible sadly

you have to switch the card to the PC BIOS and boot windows without any boot screens to be able to boot an EFI install of windows.

 

[Mad Davey]

I was confused, what I was looking for is more info on this statement: "as for what I did to get it working @Fl0r!an discovered that the fixrom.py script had a bug in it when used with some VBIOSs and he posted a fix for it so once ya patched fixrom.py it would properly oprate on those VBIOSs which caused it issues before hand, the exact details are on the netkas forums IIRC". I'll do more digging... Found it linked from the big thread, had to edit fixrom.py

 

[h9826790]

I was confused, what I was looking for is more info on this statement: "as for what I did to get it working @Fl0r!an discovered that the fixrom.py script had a bug in it when used with some VBIOSs and he posted a fix for it so once ya patched fixrom.py it would properly oprate on those VBIOSs which caused it issues before hand, the exact details are on the netkas forums IIRC". I'll do more digging... Found it linked from the big thread, had to edit fixrom.py

There are few limitations of the 7950 Mac EFI

e.g.

1) No 4K 60Hz boot screen, not just nothing display or distorted, but will hang.
2) Not compatible with Windows EFI mode, will cause BOSD
3) Not compatible with Crossfire, will cause BOSD.

May be few more, but these are the most common issues.

If you need any of above, you have to boot from the NON Mac EFI (original) ROM (for flashed card), or UEFI ROM (for Sapphire HD7950 Mac Edition card). Or apply some other work around. e.g. Install windows in legacy mode.

 

[yamstar]

if you scroll up to post 16 I posted my modified VBIOS

as for what I did to get it working @Fl0r!an discovered that the fixrom.py script had a bug in it when used with some VBIOSs and he posted a fix for it so once ya patched fixrom.py it would properly oprate on those VBIOSs which caused it issues before hand, the exact details are on the netkas forums IIRC

I guess this a good time as any to say, im pleased to report that my card is still working fine after 2 years of ownership, now running in a 5,1 and I "R17" modded it a while back with no issues. and now running flawlessly in Mojave 10.14

cant believe its been 2 years since I got the card

Do you have a F43 rom?

 

[Mad Davey]

Just wondering if anyone here would know, I posted in the big thread with no help. I tried to flash a friends 7850 2gb saphire, (which I stupidly advised him to get since I thought the netkas description included this card, it works before flash). I now notice no one has results from modding a 7850. I tried the script it seemed succesful I get mac boot screen then when the OS takes over it black screens. I have since learned the card is Pitcairn not Tahiti. I reread the entire thread and I can't find any clues. Can it be flashed to have mac boot screen? If so what do I need to research to get it to work? Any hints would be greatly appreciated.

 

[yamstar]

buy a 7950 with 2x6pin

I had a reboot loop problem with a gigabyte 7950 rev 2 , which has 8pin+6pin. the firmware or better the bios seems to be different on some cards. i bought a normal rev 1 card from gigabyte and it works like charm. no kernel panics and so on.

your 7850 seems to be not compatible with the ati driver. there is something messed up. you can also try to use a different bios with uefi or without uefi. you find them on google. just run the script over this bios and flash it. but it is possible that you loose some ports by using another bios.

 

[Mad Davey]

The 7850 card will boot fine in an unmodded state, identifies as the rest do 7XXX. When flashing the flashing goes normally without errors, but when on the card after showing the boot screen, it will not boot the OS. The monitor keeps polling from HDMI to DVI with black screen. I did a couple gigabyte 79xx cards, let me know if you want me to give your bios a go. I figured out the checksum fix Lightbulbfun got working on his card here.