Race to dump the 4870 ROM, Who's first?

[netkas]

for 10.5.7 , all you need for 4890/4870x2 is ati_init pkg and this pkg to get qe/ci - http://rapidshare.de/files/47140484/QE_CI_Exotic_cards.pkg.html

more at http://netkas.org/?p=101

[pastrychef]

Justupdated to 10.5.7 and a 4870 1 Gig XFX works EXACTLY the same so far.

OpenGl View scores were within 1%-2%

Haven't tested everything yet though

Bummer... Was hoping the 2.5GT/s link speed issue would be resolved.

[chas0001]

Has anybody got the second DVI port working on the SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB, even with the 10.5.7 update? I have tried it and the computer boots ok but I get blue screens on both monitors (one 30" ACD and the other a 24" Dell LCD).

[Topper]

hmm - so any ideas how to get the link speed up to 5.0 GT/s for a 1 GB Sapphire and Nehalem Mac Pro?
You will not feel difference, so dont bother :)

This "link speed" thingy is driving me nuts.
How important is it?
Is a 4870 512MB with a "link speed" of 5 GT/s faster than a 4870 512MB card with a "link speed" of only 2.5 GT/s?
Why can't the flashed video cards get their "link speeds" up to 5 GT/s?

[lannister80]

This "link speed" thingy is driving me nuts.
How important is it?
Is a 4870 512MB with a "link speed" of 5 GT/s faster than a 4870 512MB card with a "link speed" of only 2.5 GT/s?
Why can't the flashed video cards get their "link speeds" up to 5 GT/s?
OK, here's the deal with 5 GT/s vs. 2.5 GT/s:

2.5 GT/s is the maximum bus speed of PCI-e 1.0 slot (as opposed to PCI-e 2.0, which is 5 GT/s). So this card is essentially providing the same performance it would plugged into a PCI-e 1.0 slot. The card will still get 16 lanes, just at PCI-e 1.0 speeds.

The current argument is that the 4870 will not (under any normal circumstance) saturate the bus at 2.5 GT/s, let alone 5.0 GT/s, so it really shouldn't matter. Maybe when running "software" SLI/Crossfire (where you don't have a physical bridge between the cards) it would make a difference because the cards have to talk to each other a lot via the PCI-e bus so they can cooperate, but in a non SLI/Crossfire situation it will make little/no difference.

If you're still worried, getting a card with more memory (1GB) will help alleviate this issue because there will be less data flowing back and forth between system memory and video card memory. But unless you're loading and unloading assets like crazy (enough to totally fill the card's video memory AND saturate the bus in doing so), you'll see NO difference.

Related thread, non-Mac: http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=45229

[pastrychef]

OK, here's the deal with 5 GT/s vs. 2.5 GT/s:

2.5 GT/s is the maximum bus speed of PCI-e 1.0 slot (as opposed to PCI-e 2.0, which is 5 GT/s). So this card is essentially providing the same performance it would plugged into a PCI-e 1.0 slot. The card will still get 16 lanes, just at PCI-e 1.0 speeds.

The current argument is that the 4870 will not (under any normal circumstance) saturate the bus at 2.5 GT/s, let alone 5.0 GT/s, so it really shouldn't matter. Maybe when running "software" SLI/Crossfire (where you don't have a physical bridge between the cards) it would make a difference because the cards have to talk to each other a lot via the PCI-e bus so they can cooperate, but in a non SLI/Crossfire situation it will make little/no difference.

If you're still worried, getting a card with more memory (1GB) will help alleviate this issue because there will be less data flowing back and forth between system memory and video card memory. But unless you're loading and unloading assets like crazy (enough to totally fill the card's video memory AND saturate the bus in doing so), you'll see NO difference.

Related thread, non-Mac: http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=45229

According to BEIGE in post 1232 of this thread, the difference between the 2.5 GT/s and 5 GT/s in his non-Crossfire setup translates to over 20% drop in performance in the app he uses.

[Spanky Deluxe]

According to BEIGE in post 1232 of this thread, the difference between the 2.5 GT/s and 5 GT/s in his non-Crossfire setup translates to over 20% drop in performance in the app he uses.

Mudbox is one of the rare programs that is heavily bandwidth bound. Most applications shouldn't really be too affected if at all, particularly if you get a 1GB card. If games are important to you then its even less of an issue.

[lannister80]

According to BEIGE in post 1232 of this thread, the difference between the 2.5 GT/s and 5 GT/s in his non-Crossfire setup translates to over 20% drop in performance in the app he uses.
Yes, in Mudbox, sculpting on the GPU (tons of i/o traffic), with a 12-million polygon model. I guess I was looking at this more from a gaming perspective.

[Spanky Deluxe]

Yes, in Mudbox, sculpting on the GPU (tons of i/o traffic), with a 12-million polygon model. I guess I was looking at this more from a gaming perspective.

From a gaming perspective, a 1GB 4870 card running on 2.5 GT/s will be better than a 512MB 4870 card running on 5 GT/s. Some games (i.e. Crysis) can saturate 512MB of memory but I don't think any games can currently saturate 1GB.

[frviana]

for 10.5.7 , all you need for 4890/4870x2 is ati_init pkg and this pkg to get qe/ci - http://rapidshare.de/files/47140484/QE_CI_Exotic_cards.pkg.html

more at http://netkas.org/?p=101

Awesome!!! Updated to 10.5.7, my QE was gone, applied your package, restarted and boom, everything is fine again.

[Topper]

The current argument is that the 4870 will not (under any normal circumstance) saturate the bus at 2.5 GT/s, let alone 5.0 GT/s, so it really shouldn't matter. Maybe when running "software" SLI/Crossfire (where you don't have a physical bridge between the cards) it would make a difference because the cards have to talk to each other a lot via the PCI-e bus so they can cooperate, but in a non SLI/Crossfire situation it will make little/no difference.

If you're still worried, getting a card with more memory (1GB) will help alleviate this issue because there will be less data flowing back and forth between system memory and video card memory. But unless you're loading and unloading assets like crazy (enough to totally fill the card's video memory AND saturate the bus in doing so), you'll see NO difference.

Related thread, non-Mac: http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=45229

That link was somewhat interesting.
One problem I have with it is the discussion is 1 1/2 years old and things change.
One person brought up "gpgpu." Maybe Snow Leopard's OpenCL will provide a bottleneck for the 2.5 GT/s video card?

From a gaming perspective, a 1GB 4870 card running on 2.5 GT/s will be better than a 512MB 4870 card running on 5 GT/s. Some games (i.e. Crysis) can saturate 512MB of memory but I don't think any games can currently saturate 1GB.

That would be good if true because I definitely want a 1GB card.

[Cindori]

About aty_init

I have read alot about it, but not how it works

From my understanding, it is a kext+driver you download and install

The kext somehow initializes a PC radeon on the Mac?

Do I need a Mac card in slot 1?

Or will a single, PC, say 4890, inserted in slot 1, boot up fine in OSX, with original performance?

[yomibro]

Getting 2.5GT/s like everyone else and still have the wake from sleep color snow issue which requires me to turn on/off the monitor to get ride of. :(

[TheStrudel]

I have the Sapphire card that many others have, flashed with the same method, so here are my experiences since upgrading to 10.5.7:

Plugging in a second monitor still causes a crash. Interestingly, it actually gets going on both monitors, then crashes about 5 seconds thereafter. I got a crash log from the last one, and I will paste it here, in case it's at all helpful:

Wed May 13 18:31:00 2009
panic(cpu 7 caller 0x00194B15): "pmap_flush_tlbs() timeout: " "cpu(s) failing to respond to interrupts, pmap=0xf0b2ae0 cpus_to_respond=0x1"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.12.14/osfmk/i386/pmap.c:4582
Backtrace (CPU 7), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x85a8fba8 : 0x12b4c6 (0x45ec20 0x85a8fbdc 0x13355c 0x0)
0x85a8fbf8 : 0x194b15 (0x465018 0xf0b2ae0 0x1 0x0)
0x85a8fc68 : 0x194e3b (0x85a8ff3c 0x1 0x23d3e 0x0)
0x85a8fd18 : 0x1972db (0xf0b2ae0 0x23d3e000 0x0 0x85a459f0)
0x85a8fd78 : 0x16abc5 (0xf0b2ae0 0x23d3e000 0x0 0x23d5e000)
0x85a8fe98 : 0x16b18d (0x23d5e000 0x0 0x0 0x0)
0x85a8fed8 : 0x1836b5 (0xf08da2c 0x23d3e000 0x0 0x23d5e000)
0x85a8ff38 : 0x379ea7 (0xf08da2c 0x23d3e000 0x0 0x20000)
0x85a8ff78 : 0x3e2e3b (0xf1a3c88 0xe85f1e0 0xe85f224 0x0)
0x85a8ffc8 : 0x1a1bfa (0xe6f44c0 0x0 0x1a40b5 0xe6f44c0)
No mapping exists for frame pointer
Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0xbfffee18

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: WindowServer


Other thoughts:

I checked system profiler after the update, and I was interested to note a new section that I don't remember being there before, though I could be wrong, and does not appear for my other card: "Television," (see attached picture) which has a "yes" for the 4870. Thinking that analog support might be present through the S-video, I got the adapter plugged in to send composite out to a small TV, but had no result when I used detect displays or tried monitoring out to it via Final Cut - I may not be remembering how to activate it properly, so if anybody knows, or tried something similar with their 3870, please let me know.

[jeanlain]

I have the Sapphire card that many others have, flashed with the same method, so here are my experiences since upgrading to 10.5.7:

Plugging in a second monitor still causes a crash. Interestingly, it actually gets going on both monitors, then crashes about 5 seconds thereafter. I got a crash log from the last one, and I will paste it here, in case it's at all helpful:



Other thoughts:

I checked system profiler after the update, and I was interested to note a new section that I don't remember being there before, though I could be wrong, and does not appear for my other card: "Television," (see attached picture) which has a "yes" for the 4870. Thinking that analog support might be present through the S-video, I got the adapter plugged in to send composite out to a small TV, but had no result when I used detect displays or tried monitoring out to it via Final Cut - I may not be remembering how to activate it properly, so if anybody knows, or tried something similar with their 3870, please let me know.
Judging from older screenshots, "television" was listed in the properties before the update.
"ATi display utilites" used to be provided by ATi for its OEM cards. It offers various options, like antialiasing on games that don't support it natively, managing TV out... You could see if the utility manages the card, but I am not sure that it will, since ATi does not sell the 4870 for Macs.

Now regarding the consol log, it seems that the problem is that "No mapping exists for frame pointer" which causes an "invalid frame pointer", terminates "Backtrace" and makes one CPU panic. Not sure what it means, but I guess that the frame buffer (?) does not manages an additional display
I am not even sure if they updated the utility for the 3870 they shipped.

[Topper]

I still don't like the idea of having a 2.5 GT/s "link speed."
It is like taking a step backwards, back to PCIe 1.1.
PCIe 1.1 has a bandwidth of 2.5 GT/s, PCIe 2.0 has a bandwidth of 5.0 GT/s.
Many, many video cards advertise the advantages of having their 5.0 GT/s PCIe 2.0 support.

Here is a typical video card advertisement: "PCI Express 2.0 Support - a future-proofing bridge to tomorrow's most bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications by maximizing the 5 GT/s PCI Express 2.0 bandwidth." (http://www.amazon.com/PNY-GeForce-9800-1024MB-Graphics/dp/B001JQDRZ4)

Here's another: "PCI Express Base 2.0 specification doubles the interconnect bit rate from 2.5 GT/s to 5 GT/s in a seamless and compatible manner. The performance boost to 5 GT/s is by far the most important feature of the PCI Express 2.0 specifications. It effectively increases the aggregate bandwidth of a 16-lane link to approximately 16 GB/s. The higher bandwidth will allow product designers to implement narrower interconnect links to achieve high performance." (http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3947462&sku=V261-4870)

I don't understand why the flashed video cards are PCIe 1.1 instead of PCIe 2.0.

I am not going to spend money on a new, powerful video card and go backwards in technology.
Unless I can get an HD 4890 or a HD 4870 1GB card that has a 5.0 GT/s "link speed", my next video card will be the GTX 285.

[Dragonforce]

You buy a 2,5k Mac and then trying to save 200 bucks at most on the graphics card... me no understand :o
Fiddling with cables, soldering your own Molex connectors, dumping, flashing, gimped link speed, no warranty etc...

Simply buy the 4870 from Apple, plug it in and relax like I did ;)

[swissmann]

You buy a 2,5k Mac and then trying to save 200 bucks at most on the graphics card... me no understand :o
Fiddling with cables, soldering your own Molex connectors, dumping, flashing, gimped link speed, no warranty etc...

Simply buy the 4870 from Apple, plug it in and relax like I did ;)

Well if I bought a Mac Pro in 2006 (no more warranty) with 2.5 max link speed anyway, bought the cables straight from ATI (no rolling), bought my XFX card for $175, flashed/installed it in an hour, total cost of $208 saving me $142 and gaining me a second DVI instead of Display Port, plus 1 GB instead of 512 MB memory and the bragging rights that I was able to do it my way instead of Apple's way...well that's why I did it. I'd do it again.

Oh yeah and my productivity with my pro apps has dramatically increased over my 2600XT card.

I'm happy with my choice.

[lannister80]

You buy a 2,5k Mac and then trying to save 200 bucks at most on the graphics card... me no understand :o
Fiddling with cables, soldering your own Molex connectors, dumping, flashing, gimped link speed, no warranty etc...

Simply buy the 4870 from Apple, plug it in and relax like I did ;)
If you have an extra $172 to spend, go for it. To me that's the "easy tax". Like changing your own oil vs. having a shop do it.

But honestly, for a games, the 1GB card even at 2.5 GT/s is better than the retail Apple one. If the apple retail card was 1GB I'd consider getting it, but the 512MB is the real problem.

[pastrychef]

You buy a 2,5k Mac and then trying to save 200 bucks at most on the graphics card... me no understand :o
Fiddling with cables, soldering your own Molex connectors, dumping, flashing, gimped link speed, no warranty etc...

Simply buy the 4870 from Apple, plug it in and relax like I did ;)

It really wasn't the money for me... I wanted 1GB.

[pastrychef]

I still don't like the idea of having a 2.5 GT/s "link speed."
It is like taking a step backwards, back to PCIe 1.1.
PCIe 1.1 has a bandwidth of 2.5 GT/s, PCIe 2.0 has a bandwidth of 5.0 GT/s.
Many, many video cards advertise the advantages of having their 5.0 GT/s PCIe 2.0 support.

Here is a typical video card advertisement: "PCI Express 2.0 Support - a future-proofing bridge to tomorrow's most bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications by maximizing the 5 GT/s PCI Express 2.0 bandwidth." (http://www.amazon.com/PNY-GeForce-9800-1024MB-Graphics/dp/B001JQDRZ4)

Here's another: "PCI Express Base 2.0 specification doubles the interconnect bit rate from 2.5 GT/s to 5 GT/s in a seamless and compatible manner. The performance boost to 5 GT/s is by far the most important feature of the PCI Express 2.0 specifications. It effectively increases the aggregate bandwidth of a 16-lane link to approximately 16 GB/s. The higher bandwidth will allow product designers to implement narrower interconnect links to achieve high performance." (http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3947462&sku=V261-4870)

I don't understand why the flashed video cards are PCIe 1.1 instead of PCIe 2.0.

I am not going to spend money on a new, powerful video card and go backwards in technology.
Unless I can get an HD 4890 or a HD 4870 1GB card that has a 5.0 GT/s "link speed", my next video card will be the GTX 285.

I have similar feelings and will probably pick up a GTX 285 when it becomes available, too.

[lannister80]

"PCI Express 2.0 Support - a future-proofing bridge to tomorrow's most bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications by maximizing the 5 GT/s PCI Express 2.0 bandwidth."

"PCI Express Base 2.0 specification doubles the interconnect bit rate from 2.5 GT/s to 5 GT/s in a seamless and compatible manner. The performance boost to 5 GT/s is by far the most important feature of the PCI Express 2.0 specifications. It effectively increases the aggregate bandwidth of a 16-lane link to approximately 16 GB/s. The higher bandwidth will allow product designers to implement narrower interconnect links to achieve high performance."

Not to argue, but PCI-e 2.0's only important feature is the increased link speed...which, at the moment, is not utilized by any but a tiny, tiny fraction of applications. By the time "tomorrow's most bandwidth-hungry games" come out, I'll probably be ready for a new video card anyway (processing power-wise).

Is there any way to monitor the bandwidth use on a PCI-e slot in real time? That would settle most of these arguments.

[Topper]

Not to argue, but PCI-e 2.0's only important feature is the increased link speed

I'm not trying to argue either, just trying to learn. :)

[BEIGE]

You buy a 2,5k Mac and then trying to save 200 bucks at most on the graphics card... me no understand
Fiddling with cables, soldering your own Molex connectors, dumping, flashing, gimped link speed, no warranty etc...


well I have both the 512 MB retail card and a 1 GB sapphire that I was hoping to replace it with since I need the extra texture memory. But seeing as it's slower with Mudbox (where my heavy GPU lifting is done), I can't use the 1 GB. I think I'll sell this one and get the Nvidia GTX 285 if it's faster and has more memory.

[Spanky Deluxe]

Maybe BearFeats should do a review into the 2.5GT/s vs 5GT/s. If I had a Mac Pro with PCie 2.0 and I had a genuine Apple card then I'd look into it myself. Honestly, for most people, a 1GB 4870 fully clocked card running in a PCIe 1.1 slot will be faster than a 512MB 4870 under clocked card running in a PCIe 2.0 slot.

[BEIGE]

well Cinebench was also slower so YMMV

[Spanky Deluxe]

well Cinebench was also slower so YMMV

Do you remember how much slower?

BTW, Warning for anyone using the 4870, official or flashed: Be careful about the quality of DVI cables you use. I bought a dual link cable off eBay for about £10, didn't seem that cheaply built and digital's digital and all that. However, after using the cable for about ten minutes I started getting speckling and noise on my screen. I got worried that it might be the flashed cards but its not. Plugging my ACD in without the extension cable works just fine with no noise. Try the other cable again, noise after a few minutes. The connector gets pretty hot and so I'm led to believe that the heat these 4870s pump out via the fan slot is sufficient to cause poor quality DVI cables to error.

Of course, I only found this out after I spent all afternoon sorting my office out and moving my Mac Pro to the other side of my desk. Its only a 1m extension cable but its now zip tied to several other cables and hidden away with zip ties under my desk. :(

Now I have to wonder, where on Earth can I get a good quality 1m long dual link DVI extension lead in the UK tomorrow without having to resort to waiting until Monday to have one delivered. :( PC World, Currys and Maplin's all seem to do male to male leads rather than male to female. :( Sitting with my Mac Pro now on its side taking up half of my desk is not the result I was hoping for after all this moving and tidying and zip-tieing!! :p

[BEIGE]

it was about 200 OpenGL whatevers slower - basically making it the same as the 8800 GT.

[The Rominator]

Got an MSI 4890 today (would swear it was supposed to be an XFX...)

Had some difficulty getting everything installed. (needed Natit, Exotic Cards patched X2000, and ATI-init) but now it is working.

FWIW...while the iGig 4870 with slightly higher clocks scored nearly identical to OEM Apple 4870, this new 4890 blows them both out of the water on the OpenGl Viewer....past scores @ 2560x1600 were around 1500 for most...now at 1700.

Interestingly, I was able to get 9800GTs to do this same score in past in OSX...so we still have some driver growth coming, I hope.

So, a 4890 working in 10.5.7 using Natit's method.

Now to play with the ROM.........

[Pressure]

About aty_init

I have read alot about it, but not how it works

From my understanding, it is a kext+driver you download and install

The kext somehow initializes a PC radeon on the Mac?

Do I need a Mac card in slot 1?

Or will a single, PC, say 4890, inserted in slot 1, boot up fine in OSX, with original performance?

I can confirm that you can run a Radeon HD 4890 without any Mac compatible card in slot 1.

I just removed the stock Radeon HD 2600XT and the Radeon HD 4890 runs fine alone.

[jeanlain]

Got an MSI 4890 today (would swear it was supposed to be an XFX...)

Had some difficulty getting everything installed. (needed Natit, Exotic Cards patched X2000, and ATI-init) but now it is working.
Now to play with the ROM.........
Nice!
How well is it working: dual screen, VGA, link speed, dual-link, etc...? Do you need an apple card to make it work (I guess not).

At macbidouille, we're trying the make natit work for non-standard 4870 (should be easy, but so far, no luck. Admittedly, we're not experts). I will report if we succeed.

[Frixo Cool]

First of all thanks to all for the truly inspirational and helpful thread here! :)

I have 3 questions for experts here:

- If I buy a higher clocked PC version of 4870 and flash it with Mac firmware, what do I get - a standard Mac Edition GPU and memory clock speed - or the original values of slightly overclocked PC card are somehow preserved?

- I know it's easy to overclock the card on a PC side, but what about Mac? Can I overclock it in Windows and to use those settings on Mac side too?

- I'am aiming at SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON HD 4870 TOXIC, 1GB DDR5, DVI, HDTV card as it is available in my local store and it has silent cooling system, any reason not to get this card?

Thank you so much!

[The Rominator]

Nice!
How well is it working: dual screen, VGA, link speed, dual-link, etc...? Do you need an apple card to make it work (I guess not).

At macbidouille, we're trying the make natit work for non-standard 4870 (should be easy, but so far, no luck. Admittedly, we're not experts). I will report if we succeed.

So far it is behaving just like the XFX 1 Gig 4870 it replaced.

I have not dragged a second monitor in to make sure the other port works, nor have I tested VGA yet.

The upper port is single link, lower is Dual Link.

I am sure that there is a way to make Natit, etc run the other 4870s....but melding & flashing the ROM is a much more permanent solution that doesn't need a fix with every upgrade of the OS. Also, having EFI in there gives you the boot screen, very handy thing indeed.

As far as Frixo Cool's questions....

You need to understand that the ROM for these cards has 2 main parts.

The EFI part is what brings the screen up with the "bong"...as the OS loads, it loads the second part of which is the....

PC BIOS which is used by WIndows to define and run the card is also used by the Mac. As far as I can tell, changes in PC Bios to clock speeds also effect Mac side...but I have only done extensive tests to prove this with Nvidia cards.

[BEIGE]

if anyone wants to buy the flashed, working Sapphire 1 GB card from me, I'll sell it to them for what I paid for it, plus shipping. I'm going to be beta testing next releases of Mudbox so I might as well stick to the retail cards for accurate bug logging purposes. email me at daveg at 3eige dot com

The card works well with the exception of the 2.5 GT/s problem and it only gets one monitor out at a time. It will save you flashing it. Altogether, it's $240 US shipped if you're around the East coast. First come, first serve and I only do paypal.

[swissmann]

First of all thanks to all for the truly inspirational and helpful thread here! :)

I have 3 questions for experts here:

- If I buy a higher clocked PC version of 4870 and flash it with Mac firmware, what do I get - a standard Mac Edition GPU and memory clock speed - or the original values of slightly overclocked PC card are somehow preserved?

- I know it's easy to overclock the card on a PC side, but what about Mac? Can I overclock it in Windows and to use those settings on Mac side too?

- I'am aiming at SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON HD 4870 TOXIC, 1GB DDR5, DVI, HDTV card as it is available in my local store and it has silent cooling system, any reason not to get this card?

Thank you so much!

So far as I know you will only be able to use one screen at a time with the Sapphire card. The XFX card I have supports 2 monitors at the same time one dual link and one single link. If you want that second simultaneous monitor it may be a reason for you not to buy the Sapphire. If you need further information on the card I got and my setup there is lots of info at the tutorial (I link to it yet again):

http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html

[Washuu]

Got an MSI 4890 today (would swear it was supposed to be an XFX...)

Had some difficulty getting everything installed. (needed Natit, Exotic Cards patched X2000, and ATI-init) but now it is working.

FWIW...while the iGig 4870 with slightly higher clocks scored nearly identical to OEM Apple 4870, this new 4890 blows them both out of the water on the OpenGl Viewer....past scores @ 2560x1600 were around 1500 for most...now at 1700.

Interestingly, I was able to get 9800GTs to do this same score in past in OSX...so we still have some driver growth coming, I hope.

So, a 4890 working in 10.5.7 using Natit's method.

Now to play with the ROM.........

Can you test 1920x1200 for me as a comparison? I am seeing 2,500 range on the tests with the Sapphire 1GB HD4870 at 1920x1200.

[The Rominator]

as u wish

[netkas]

Rominator

when u do gl view tests, plz set multisample to 4, anysotropi to 16 and check out benchmark option. otherwise your results is very cpu dependent.

Also, 4890 needs only two pkgs, ati_init and patched x2000 (aka exotic cards), no need to mess with natit :)

jeanlain

as i already told you, you need to replace bin_image for 4870 section with own, bin_image is first 65535 bytes of bios dump, use property list editor from xcode to edit plsit.

[nuvolino]

ok here is a question regarding the 2.5GT vs 5.0GT link speed issue...

I heard a lot of people mention that its not important unless you shift lots of texture/graphics based info in and out of the card and that games don't do that
well I pretty much exclusively play the game Second Life and as such here is what I am worried about ... the nature of second life is basically that whenever and wherever you go in the game the visual content of the region in the game will need to be downloaded and moved into the graphic memory on the GPU and pretty much all in realtime so basically the point that literally on a constant basis this happens would I be correct in saying that for a game like that the link speed would be very important if not crucial for the games performance

:) nuvo

[risingforce]

First I want to salute all members of this great forum and especially this thread. My English is very bad, sorry for that.

I have a Mac Pro early 2009 and I want to buy an ATI 4870 or 4890. Obviously 4890 is the best graphics but as I read makes a lot of noise and that's precisely what I dislike (do not know if this is true). Search for the best assembly of the market and make less noise. If the 4890 play, makes a lot of noise, because I do not care, but if doing a normal use of the Mac, the 4890 makes annoying noise, then do not buy graphics. So I'm asking for help.

Another question I have is about the overclock graphics that lead by the assembler. The method I use is the first of netkas, but do not rule out changing the bios for the 4870 Apple, if the netkas method gave me problems. Can you operate a 4870 or 4890 with Serial overclock in early 2009 Mac Pro? Is that most graphic I see on the market, but also bring OC best lead heatsinks.

Greetings

[jeanlain]

Rominator

when u do gl view tests, plz set multisample to 4, anysotropi to 16 and check out benchmark option. otherwise your results is very cpu dependent.

Also, 4890 needs only two pkgs, ati_init and patched x2000 (aka exotic cards), no need to mess with natit :)

jeanlain

as i already told you, you need to replace bin_image for 4870 section with own, bin_image is first 65535 bytes of bios dump, use property list editor from xcode to edit plsit.
Yes master, that's what I'm doing. ;)
But since I don't have the card myself, I cannot test directly, which complicates the thing.
Is it not 65536 (64K) bytes? Plist edit pro indicates that your bin image is that size. Also, it contains a truncated section of the EFI from the apple ROM. I wonder if that could pose problems with 4870 cards.

And why doesn't the 4890 need natit? What's the difference with the 4870? :confused:

[netkas]

4890 already has bin_image in natit's plist

65535 or 65536 - dont matter, aty_init will use only bios part anyway, which ends somewhere around 62kb
here around 62kb

[netkas]

I merged Natit and ATY_Init together, its able to read bios dirrectly from card now

jeanlain, it will be good to test it with non-reference 4870

before installing this kext (with kexthelper), remove /System/Library/Extensions/Natit.kext

http://rapidshare.de/files/47173322/ATY_Init.kext.tar.bz2.html

[lannister80]

I merged Natit and ATY_Init together, its able to read bios dirrectly from card now

jeanlain, it will be good to test it with non-reference 4870

before installing this kext (with kexthelper), remove /System/Library/Extensions/Natit.kext
Never mind about this post, Netkas fixed his link. :)

[jeanlain]

Alright, I am posting this to macbidouille where people have problems with non-flashed 4870.
I'll report here.

update: it seems that people are beginning to encounter problems with 4890s: no video on second DVI port.
I guess that some cards are too much different from the reference 4870 design, which so far produces the best results with apple drivers. There may be "reference" 4890s and non-reference cards.

update (channeling Macbidouille): The semi-compatible 4890 is a sapphire, I am trying to get info on the part number.

Netkas: I could get the guy to try your new ATY_Init with this card. No success: fans spin at full blast with a LED lit on the card. No boot. This is on a Mac Pro 1.1. But again, I can't confirm that your extension has been installed properly and natit removed. Someone who is more experienced (Rominator?) should try it with an unflashed card. I don't have a PC card here.

[jeanlain]

Netkas, it seems that your new ATY_Init does not work with 4980s (at least). Apparently, Lionel from Macbidouille did the test. The old ATY_Init + Natit used to work fine.

[risingforce]

First I want to salute all members of this great forum and especially this thread. My English is very bad, sorry for that.

I have a Mac Pro early 2009 and I want to buy an ATI 4870 or 4890. Obviously 4890 is the best graphics but as I read makes a lot of noise and that's precisely what I dislike (do not know if this is true). Search for the best assembly of the market and make less noise. If the 4890 play, makes a lot of noise, because I do not care, but if doing a normal use of the Mac, the 4890 makes annoying noise, then do not buy graphics. So I'm asking for help.

Another question I have is about the overclock graphics that lead by the assembler. The method I use is the first of netkas, but do not rule out changing the bios for the 4870 Apple, if the netkas method gave me problems. Can you operate a 4870 or 4890 with Serial overclock in early 2009 Mac Pro? Is that most graphic I see on the market, but also bring OC best lead heatsinks.

Greetings

Nobody can help me with my doubts?

Greetings

[netkas]

Netkas, it seems that your new ATY_Init does not work with 4980s (at least). Apparently, Lionel from Macbidouille did the test. The old ATY_Init + Natit used to work fine.

did the package work ? the one which link i removed, and u kept it on macbidoule.

[jeanlain]

did the package work ? the one which link i removed, and u kept it on macbidoule.
No one has tested this one. But since most are beginners, I am reluctant to use them as beta testers. :D

But in theory, your new method of BIOS dumping should enable the same ATI cards on Mac Pros as those working on hackintoshes, right? Or will we still need to add bin images in Natit plist for every model ?

Modifying the bin_image for the 4870 in Natit enabled non-standard cards, BTW.

[netkas]

No one has tested this one. But since most are beginners, I am reluctant to use them as beta testers. :D

But in theory, your new method of BIOS dumping should enable the same ATI cards on Mac Pros as those working on hackintoshes, right? Or will we still need to add bin images in Natit plist for every model ?

Modifying the bin_image for the 4870 in Natit enabled non-standard cards, BTW.

on hackintoshes old nati was dumping bios image of POSTed card from memory (where vga bios normally located), but on macs its different, so bin_image had to be located in plist, now no more need in it since bios getting directly from card. it works for me on hackintosh to run unposted 2600xt (4850 is inital card)

[jules1066]

Hi,

I need to upgrade my faulty ATI 2600XT on my mac pro Bus Speed: 1.6 GHz but I am confused over which 4870 card you refer to as they seem to be described differently in the US to the UK. Which of these is the best to go for see link as I spoke to Radeon and they said to buy the mac version only which they would I guess? I don't really need it for gaming just to drive two displays (DVI or HDMI input) watch dvds and imaging.

Also they have a 2Gb version i noticed

Thank you. :confused:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Index.aspx?NT=1-0-94-566.575-0

[Spanky Deluxe]

Hi,

I need to upgrade my faulty ATI 2600XT on my mac pro Bus Speed: 1.6 GHz but I am confused over which 4870 card you refer to as they seem to be described differently in the US to the UK. Which of these is the best to go for see link as I spoke to Radeon and they said to buy the mac version only which they would I guess? I don't really need it for gaming just to drive two displays (DVI or HDMI input) watch dvds and imaging.

Also they have a 2Gb version i noticed

Thank you. :confused:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Index.aspx?NT=1-0-94-566.575-0

Those cards are pretty much identical with the difference being that the XXX version is clocked slightly higher (3.3% faster clock speed and 5.6% faster memory speed). Some people have got the XXX, some the normal. I've got the cheaper one although since I followed swissman's guide and downloaded the ROM he linked to (which is for the XXX card), my card's now actually clocked at the same speed. So far, so good. :)

[risingforce]

Nobody can help me with my doubts? is very important, please :(

[Frostbite6]

Has Anyone figured out a way to get VGA working on the 4870 and get the link speed up to 5 GT/s?
Specifically for a 1gb Sapphire TOXIC.

Thanks

[Nilsemann]

Bad groove. I just bought an Sapphire 4780 1 GB - flashed it with the "Kit" provided here ( http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html )

Removed my X1900 and booted up my Mac Pro 1,1 - I hear the starting sound in a loop - the monitors stay black, and the Diagnostic LED on the Logic Board for CPU A or B is on in a shiny red colour.

I cannot even boot up the Mac when inserted two Cards (my old X1900 and the 4870) - the system will only boot when I install my X1900 solo.

Any opinion how I could reflash the card? I backed up the original Firmware.

[Spanky Deluxe]

Bad groove. I just bought an Sapphire 4780 1 GB - flashed it with the "Kit" provided here ( http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html )

Removed my X1900 and booted up my Mac Pro 1,1 - I hear the starting sound in a loop - the monitors stay black, and the Diagnostic LED on the Logic Board for CPU A or B is on in a shiny red colour.

I cannot even boot up the Mac when inserted two Cards (my old X1900 and the 4870) - the system will only boot when I install my X1900 solo.

Any opinion how I could reflash the card? I backed up the original Firmware.

The ROM on that site is for an XFX 4870, that might be your problem. I think you have to put it into a PC to bring the card back to life.

[Topper]

Nobody can help me with my doubts? is very important, please :(

Sorry my friend, I'd help you if I could but I have no idea.
But maybe this will keep your post going.
.

[Frostbite6]

Bad groove. I just bought an Sapphire 4780 1 GB - flashed it with the "Kit" provided here ( http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html )

Removed my X1900 and booted up my Mac Pro 1,1 - I hear the starting sound in a loop - the monitors stay black, and the Diagnostic LED on the Logic Board for CPU A or B is on in a shiny red colour.

I cannot even boot up the Mac when inserted two Cards (my old X1900 and the 4870) - the system will only boot when I install my X1900 solo.

Any opinion how I could reflash the card? I backed up the original Firmware.

Yeah, this happens when the card hasn't been flashed at all, because there is no EFI and the system doesn't recognise the hardware. So The flash probably went wrong.

If you have Windows in Bootcamp, keep the x1900 in and set your startup disc to windows, shutdown and put in the 4870. restart, it should boot into windows fine (Holding Alt won't work) and use ATI Winflash to flash the card with either the backed up ROM and take it back or you can use my Sapphire 1gb TOXIC ROM, with EFI-rev F, which you can get below.
You Should be able to get winflash from: http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/152

That article also gives you a ROM so you can save your bricked card if you didn't back up the full 128kb file. GPU-Z gets the full size off the card.

I have a theory, if you flash the card with the raw mac ROM and just change the clocks to the appropriate speeds, the VGA and Link speed issue may be fixed. What do you Guys think?

Nilsemann, hope this helps!

[The Rominator]

I have a theory, if you flash the card with the raw mac ROM and just change the clocks to the appropriate speeds, the VGA and Link speed issue may be fixed. What do you Guys think?


The urge to help is admirable, but your info is all wrong.

I realize that this thread has grown into a behemouth, but if you DID read it all, you would see that your theory is 100% wrong.

The nilsman guy who flashed an XFX ROM onto another card is in a spot.

May be difficult to use Mac Pro to flash back, may very well need a PC to fix.

TO SUM UP...THE OEM MAC ROM THAT WE STARTED THIS THREAD WITH WORKS ON MOST 512 MEG CARDS (with reference board) ANY OF THE 1 GIG CARDS OR NEWER BOARDS NEED A CUSTOM ROM MADE WITH THEIR ORIGINAL ROM COMBINED WITH MAC EFI.

Just flashing any old ROM onto your board is going to make a mess....please do research FIRST. (Measure TWICE, cut ONCE)

[jeanlain]

I think this thread has grown long enough. We've been discussing:
- The race to dump the apple ROM
- How well this ROM works in PC 4870s (i.e. it can make a mess).
- How to combine the EFI with the PC BIOS to make other cards work
- How well flashed cards work
- Where to get the good cables
- How to make a PC radeon work without flashing (this confuses most people, given the thread's title)
- ...?

So any crucial info that is buried in the thread is quite hard to find.

There was a thread dedicated to ROM flashing for the 4870.
I think we need a separate one for ATY_Init / Natit.

[BEIGE]

So any crucial info that is buried in the thread is quite hard to find.


The main thing is that the link speed of the flashed cards is still half that of the Apple retail card and yes, it does affect real-world performance.

[ntdogg511]

Ok so here is my question guys. I have a 2008 2.8 Octo mac pro, I'm looking to upgrade my video card, keeping the radeon 2600 to run my Wacom Cintiq tablet and buy a 4870/4890 to run my dual 23" cinemas. So my question is what do I get to run my setup? I don't want to buy the apple card because I don't need the mini-displayport adapter mess plus I have no issues with buying a cheaper card and flashing it. I also want something that if I so choose would decently play a game in bootcamp. Keeping in mind that eventually I'd like to replace the 2600 with another 4870/4890 and do crossfire in windows.

Do they have any 4890's that have both DVI ports working in order to run my dual cinema's? If so what brands etc. Or would I be better off doing a 4870? Also what about cables, do I need adapters for the power connectors? If so anyone have a favorite place to buy them?

Basically I'm looking for the easiest solution but also the most stable as I do have to make a living off my box so it can't be down or unstable.

I appreciate all the help, I have read through most of this post but it gets a bit confusing on what's working and what isn't so I figured I'd just ask.

[lenster]

Am I reading this wrong but is there no way to buy a 4870(or 4890 for that matter), flash it and for it to just work with the default 10.5.7 drivers or will I always need a natit package?

[Pressure]

Am I reading this wrong but is there no way to buy a 4870(or 4890 for that matter), flash it and for it to just work with the default 10.5.7 drivers or will I always need a natit package?

You need ATY_init.

It's basically the same as installing a graphic card driver in Windows, although less time consuming.

I'm running a Radeon HD 4890 this way with no problems.

[netkas]

Pressure

could you test this - http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7619986&postcount=1294

lenster

if u flash it, then u dont need any natit/aty_init pkgs

anyway, those pkgs stay in system after osx upgrade and works fine

[Pressure]

Pressure

could you test this - http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7619986&postcount=1294



Sure thing, will test it with a clean Mac OSX install when I get home from work.

[Spanky Deluxe]

Am I reading this wrong but is there no way to buy a 4870(or 4890 for that matter), flash it and for it to just work with the default 10.5.7 drivers or will I always need a natit package?

You only need natit if you're using a 4890. If you buy and flash a 4870 using the instructions provided in this thread then it will "just work" in 10.5.7.

[swissmann]

Ok so here is my question guys. I have a 2008 2.8 Octo mac pro, I'm looking to upgrade my video card, keeping the radeon 2600 to run my Wacom Cintiq tablet and buy a 4870/4890 to run my dual 23" cinemas. So my question is what do I get to run my setup? I don't want to buy the apple card because I don't need the mini-displayport adapter mess plus I have no issues with buying a cheaper card and flashing it. I also want something that if I so choose would decently play a game in bootcamp. Keeping in mind that eventually I'd like to replace the 2600 with another 4870/4890 and do crossfire in windows.

Do they have any 4890's that have both DVI ports working in order to run my dual cinema's? If so what brands etc. Or would I be better off doing a 4870? Also what about cables, do I need adapters for the power connectors? If so anyone have a favorite place to buy them?

Basically I'm looking for the easiest solution but also the most stable as I do have to make a living off my box so it can't be down or unstable.

I appreciate all the help, I have read through most of this post but it gets a bit confusing on what's working and what isn't so I figured I'd just ask.

I think the easiest way is to follow my tutorial. It will give you an overclocked (pretty sure about this) 1 GB 4870 that will support one 30" (dual link) display and one display smaller than 30" (single link) at the same time (positive about this as it is what I am running). All information on cables and such should be in there - lots of others have had success following the tutorial (check the comments page linked to it).

The tutorial site:
http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html

[Spanky Deluxe]

I think the easiest way is to follow my tutorial. It will give you an overclocked (pretty sure about this) 1 GB 4870 that will support one 30" (dual link) display and one display smaller than 30" (single link) at the same time (positive about this as it is what I am running). All information on cables and such should be in there - lots of others have had success following the tutorial (check the comments page linked to it).

The tutorial site:
http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html

Just make sure you get an XFX card.

[TheStrudel]

I know we've kind of moved past this, but has anybody figured out why, exactly (is it a ROM issue, or what?) that:

a) No 4870s are getting two dual-link ports working
b) Many 4870s are only getting one port working at a time

And whether or not this can be fixed with some ROM hacking or different methods? This thread's put out some pretty amazing work. Just wondering if we can get some wider card compatibility and functionality.

[netkas]

I know we've kind of moved past this, but has anybody figured out why, exactly (is it a ROM issue, or what?) that:

a) No 4870s are getting two dual-link ports working
b) Many 4870s are only getting one port working at a time

And whether or not this can be fixed with some ROM hacking or different methods? This thread's put out some pretty amazing work. Just wondering if we can get some wider card compatibility and functionality.

here is the trick: on hackintosh many 4870 have dual dvi because Mac's bin_image inserted to ioreg, so driver gets connectors table from it and works better than with original bin_image.

[macest]

I merged Natit and ATY_Init together, its able to read bios dirrectly from card now

jeanlain, it will be good to test it with non-reference 4870

before installing this kext (with kexthelper), remove /System/Library/Extensions/Natit.kext

http://rapidshare.de/files/47173322/ATY_Init.kext.tar.bz2.html

It's working here with a 4870x2.

[slicedbread]

Need a little help here,

Have a Mac Pro 1,1 with X1900 in it already, running Mac OS 10.5.7 on one drive, and another separate drive for bootcamp (Vista 32bit Home Premium).

I'd like to get a PC 4870 and flash it. I need help on a few of the steps.

The card will be this XFX 4870 1GB (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-120-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=939) from the UK, and I'll mostly be following swissman's (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7606372&postcount=1248) tutorial here, (http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html) with some changes.

I plan to remove the Mac OS HDD and X1900, and put in the 4870. I'll let it boot into Vista HP and then use ATI winflash (http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1364/Winflash_2.0.1.7.html) to backup the ROM and then rhildinger's (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7324217&postcount=487) ROM onto it.

(I think it would be easier to flash from Windows due to the fact I can't fit both gfx cards in together and I don't know if I will see anything on an unflashed 4870 to select the BootCD.)

Also, I can't seem to locate another gfx power cable, 4870 needs two and I have one that comes with the 1900. I have seem some on ebay (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PCIe-Power-Cable-for-Mac-Pro-ATI-4870-4850-etc_W0QQitemZ230341386773QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Apple_Mac_Accessories?hash=item230341386773&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50).

Could anyone shed any light on whether what I plan to do will work? I haven't bought anything yet but will do as soon as I know there aren't any flaws in my anticipated sequence of events.

[Pressure]

Also, I can't seem to locate another gfx power cable, 4870 needs two and I have one that comes with the 1900. I have seem some on ebay (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PCIe-Power-Cable-for-Mac-Pro-ATI-4870-4850-etc_W0QQitemZ230341386773QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Apple_Mac_Accessories?hash=item230341386773&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50), but have heard rumors that its poor quality (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7615986&postcount=1278)? Anyone know where else in the UK I could get one?

Could anyone shed any light on whether what I plan to do will work? I haven't bought anything yet but will do as soon as I know there aren't any flaws in my anticipated sequence of events.

Spanky Deluxe is refering to a DVI cable of poor quality. Not a PCI-Express power cable.

[Glen Quagmire]

Also, I can't seem to locate another gfx power cable, 4870 needs two and I have one that comes with the 1900. I have seem some on ebay (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PCIe-Power-Cable-for-Mac-Pro-ATI-4870-4850-etc_W0QQitemZ230341386773QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Apple_Mac_Accessories?hash=item230341386773&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50), but have heard rumors that its poor quality (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7615986&postcount=1278)? Anyone know where else in the UK I could get one?


I think this is the part in question:

http://www.applemacparts.co.uk/store/product_info.php?cPath=7445_7624_7639&products_id=65524

£14 + VAT.

[slicedbread]

Spanky Deluxe is refering to a DVI cable of poor quality. Not a PCI-Express power cable.

Thanks, clearly I can't read... I 've amended my post.

[Nilsemann]

Ok I gave back my Sapphire 4870 to the shop. And get another 4870 512MB, I was able to flash it, so that I could also boot up to Mac OS X 10.5.7

I have 1 x 20" and 1 x 22" Screen both at 1650 PX.

As soon as I plug in a second Screen the screens turn blue and the system freezes. Is there any driver to fix this?

[macz1]

Need a little help here,

Have a Mac Pro 1,1 with X1900 in it already, running Mac OS 10.5.7 on one drive, and another separate drive for bootcamp (Vista 32bit Home Premium).

I'd like to get a PC 4870 and flash it. I need help on a few of the steps.

The card will be this XFX 4870 1GB (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-120-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=939) from the UK, and I'll mostly be following swissman's (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7606372&postcount=1248) tutorial here, (http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html) with some changes.

I plan to remove the Mac OS HDD and X1900, and put in the 4870. I'll let it boot into Vista HP and then use ATI winflash (http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1364/Winflash_2.0.1.7.html) to backup the ROM and then rhildinger's (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7324217&postcount=487) ROM onto it.

(I think it would be easier to flash from Windows due to the fact I can't fit both gfx cards in together and I don't know if I will see anything on an unflashed 4870 to select the BootCD.)

Also, I can't seem to locate another gfx power cable, 4870 needs two and I have one that comes with the 1900. I have seem some on http://rover.ebay.com/ar/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?mpt=114100856&adtype=1&size=1x1&type=4&campid=5336090759&toolid=10001 ebay (http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?type=4&campid=5336090759&toolid=10001&customid=&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.co.uk%2FPCIe-Power-Cable-for-Mac-Pro-ATI-4870-4850-etc_W0QQitemZ230341386773QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Apple_Mac_Accessories%3Fhash%3Ditem23034138 6773%26_trksid%3Dp3286.c0.m14%26_trkparms%3D72%253A1683%7C66%253A2%7C65%253A12%7C39%253A1%7C240%253A 1318%7C301%253A1%7C293%253A1%7C294%253A50).

Could anyone shed any light on whether what I plan to do will work? I haven't bought anything yet but will do as soon as I know there aren't any flaws in my anticipated sequence of events.

When I flashed my 4870 I used the FreeDOS boot CD and the card worked (unflashed) as soon as DOS began to load, like it does in Windows. Only OS X does not work. Just hold down the C key on the keyboard during startup and your mac will start from the CD (provided that you burnt it correctly...)
I used DOS because WinFlash (even the newest version) did not work for me. I could dump the original BIOS but it froze when I attempted to flash my custom rom... (Fortunately I have a Gainward with two bioses on it) That is why I would not recommend WinFlash although many other people had success with it...

[slicedbread]

When I flashed my 4870 I used the FreeDOS boot CD and the card worked (unflashed) as soon as DOS began to load, like it does in Windows. Only OS X does not work. Just hold down the C key on the keyboard during startup and your mac will start from the CD (provided that you burnt it correctly...)
I used DOS because WinFlash (even the newest version) did not work for me. I could dump the original BIOS but it froze when I attempted to flash my custom rom... (Fortunately I have a Gainward with two bioses on it) That is why I would not recommend WinFlash although many other people had success with it...

Oh ok I'll remember that. Thanks.

[bb8882]

Ok I gave back my Sapphire 4870 to the shop. And get another 4870 512MB, I was able to flash it, so that I could also boot up to Mac OS X 10.5.7

I have 1 x 20" and 1 x 22" Screen both at 1650 PX.

As soon as I plug in a second Screen the screens turn blue and the system freezes. Is there any driver to fix this?

Right now only the XFX 4870s were confirmed to be working with 2 monitors, Sapphire and many others only work with ONE monitor. I am using a XFX 4870 1G vram in early 08 MacPro with two 23' Apple monitors at 1920x1200 with 2.5g link speed (PCIe 1.0). I also changed the stock cooler to an Accelero twin turbo-$32 and used the power from the secondary DVD burner and connected the fan's 7v input. In Windows it changed the idle temp. form 70C to 53C. I tried pluged the fan to the 4870's pwm connector but didn't work out since the fans are not really moving and idling at 78C!!
The fan is really quiet(way better than the stock one) and Hardware Monitor shows a decrease of 1-2 degrees throughout the whole computer.

Somebody please come up with a solution for the link speed issue.....

[Spanky Deluxe]

Spanky Deluxe is refering to a DVI cable of poor quality. Not a PCI-Express power cable.

Yeah I meant DVI cable. My PCIe power cables are working just fine. I've since discovered that its not a problem with the quality of DVI cables that is giving me issues but the length.

The longer the extension cable I use, the more noise I get. I've tried a 1m and 2m extension cable (1m being a cheapo jobby, the 2m being a premium cable) and both give problems whereas just sticking with what's already attached to my 30" ACD is just fine.
I'm guessing there are some power limitations in either the 4870 cards or the 30" ACD in regards to the DVI signal. I should have a 50cm cable arriving tomorrow. I'm praying that it will work without issue. I don't need more than 50cm but without it I'll have to move my computer to a place where I don't want it, either next to my screen (which would take up more immediate desk space) or under the desk (which would piss off the Cat because she couldn't sleep on it anymore). Neither's a good option. :(

[jeanlain]

here is the trick: on hackintosh many 4870 have dual dvi because Mac's bin_image inserted to ioreg, so driver gets connectors table from it and works better than with original bin_image.
I am not sure I understand the mechanics behind this, but why isn't this possible in Mac Pros?
Flashing a non-standard 4870 with the apple ROM results in constant reboots (apparently, the same behavior happens with natit if its plist is not patched with the original ROM).

On a side-note, I should be able to test your new ATY_init when I get my 4870.

[netkas]

I am not sure I understand the mechanics behind this, but why isn't this possible in Mac Pros?
Flashing a non-standard 4870 with the apple ROM results in constant reboots (apparently, the same behavior happens with natit if its plist is not patched with the original ROM).

On a side-note, I should be able to test your new ATY_init when I get my 4870.

Not exactly, macosx drivers uses only few parts of atombios, so mac's bin_image in ioreg works ok.

latest aty_init initialize card with it's own bios image, but sets mac's binimage into ioreg, so can make a trick. (ATY_init is coded to bypass working with flashed(bios+efi) cards)

[Weepul]

Right now only the XFX 4870s were confirmed to be working with 2 monitors
I've been following this thread the whole time and I seem to remember someone (with an XFX card?) was able to get VGA out, but I don't remember whether there was any success running DVI (single-link OK) and VGA simultaneously... Anyone?

What about with 4890s? Not having to flash sounds good. :)

[bb8882]

I tried both ports with DVI-VGA adapter with a old Sony 15' monitor and no signal under OSX. Able to see the grey apple boot screen from the bottom port and no problem in Windows.
Here's the test scores from both monitors which pretty much a close match with the 4890. Can anyone post score with OEM 4870 using the same settings? I believe the slightly overclocked XFX 1G 4870 with 2.5GT/s link speed should score higher with the extra ram.

Early 08 2x 2.8ghz quad xeon, 10g ram, 2.5T HDD, XFX 4870 1G, 2x Apple Monitors

[Passeur66]

[QUOTE=lynxmuc;7474282]demitri, the power cable that is/was plugged into your stock X1900 should work just fine. In fact, that's exactly what I did: roll one myself, and take the other from my old, dying X1900.

I am going to try to flash the XFX with X1900 ATI as the active card (using REW and Swissman tutorials). How the ATIflash program will distinguish both ATIs in DOS prompt? I want to make sure I flash teh right video card. Also with two power cables to feed the 4870 how Am I going to plug the X 1900?
Thanks in advance for your help.

[The Rominator]

Per Netkas request, I have retested using his settings.

The 4890 is 5-10% faster.

BTW...not sure what passeur means by "active card"

The XFX flashes fine in DOS with no other card needed. I think people are getting really confused...no need for another card in WIndows or DOS, folks.

The way I got VGA working on XFX was to have a DVI to VGA adapter on BOTH ports, or to use a DVI/VGA splitter. EDID problem that should be somewhat solveable via SwitchresX....but for VGA it is SINGLE display only.

[bb8882]

[QUOTE=The Rominator;7635401]Per Netkas request, I have retested using his settings.

The 4890 is 5-10% faster.

can u post score using my setting?
I only have 23" mon. unable to test 2560 x 1600 and dual link performance

sorry, i was little confused. don't think it's necessary since it's pretty easy to tell the 4890 is 5-10% faster, inline with most reviews, seems like the 2.5g link speed wasn't effecting in opengl..

[jeanlain]

[QUOTE=lynxmuc;7474282]demitri, the power cable that is/was plugged into your stock X1900 should work just fine. In fact, that's exactly what I did: roll one myself, and take the other from my old, dying X1900.

I am going to try to flash the XFX with X1900 ATI as the active card (using REW and Swissman tutorials). How the ATIflash program will distinguish both ATIs in DOS prompt? I want to make sure I flash teh right video card. Also with two power cables to feed the 4870 how Am I going to plug the X 1900?
Thanks in advance for your help.

The command atiflash -i lists all ATI adapters in your Mac. You can identify the 4870 by its port number. If it's in port 0, use "0" in the flashing command. Don't flash the wrong card.

You need a molex Y-splitter that you plug in lieu of one superdrive. You can't do that on an '09 Mac Pro (no molex). If you already have two PCIe cables that you can plug on the Mac Pro motherboard (those special apple cables), you don't need a splitter, just a molex connector of at least 25cm long, or a longer molex to PCIe.

[Rankrotten]

Just mulling over a few thoughts here, I have had a 3870 Mac+PC version and a 3870x2 blasting away in my 2006 Mac Pro for quite some time now and would like to replace it with a one card solution. The combined grunt in crossfire is good in Windows for gaming but the constant fan noise and wasted card in OS X is not.

Options?

- Single Flashed 4870 in OS X, would this benchmark in Windows as well as my current dual card setup?

- Single 3870 with a flashed or ATY_int 4870, best performer but another two slot solution

- Single 4870x2 in OS X? Has anyone successfully used this card flashed or with ATY_init in OS X

- Wait for Nvidia GTX 285?

[Pressure]

Just mulling over a few thoughts here, I have had a 3870 Mac+PC version and a 3870x2 blasting away in my 2006 Mac Pro for quite some time now and would like to replace it with a one card solution. The combined grunt in crossfire is good in Windows for gaming but the constant fan noise and wasted card in OS X is not.

Options?

- Single Flashed 4870 in OS X, would this benchmark in Windows as well as my current dual card setup?

- Single 3870 with a flashed or ATY_int 4870, best performer but another two slot solution

- Single 4870x2 in OS X? Has anyone successfully used this card flashed or with ATY_init in OS X

- Wait for Nvidia GTX 285?

To be quite honest even the Radeon HD 4850 is better than the Radeon HD 3870x2.

I am pretty sure the Radeon HD 4870 is a good match for CrossfireX with a Radeon HD 3870 and the Radeon HD 3870x2 combined. Especially as resolution increases.

The Radeon HD 4870x2, Radeon HD 4870 and Radeon HD 4890 works in both Windows and Mac OSX with ATY_init

[Spanky Deluxe]

Just mulling over a few thoughts here, I have had a 3870 Mac+PC version and a 3870x2 blasting away in my 2006 Mac Pro for quite some time now and would like to replace it with a one card solution. The combined grunt in crossfire is good in Windows for gaming but the constant fan noise and wasted card in OS X is not.

Options?

- Single Flashed 4870 in OS X, would this benchmark in Windows as well as my current dual card setup?

- Single 3870 with a flashed or ATY_int 4870, best performer but another two slot solution

- Single 4870x2 in OS X? Has anyone successfully used this card flashed or with ATY_init in OS X

- Wait for Nvidia GTX 285?

I had two 3870s in Crossfire in my 2006 Mac Pro too. I've now got two flashed 4870s in the same machine. Benchmarks show that a single 4870 has roughly the same performance as a 3870x2.
For what its worth, the 4870s are definitely quieter than the 3870s. I don't know why your system's so loud, my 3870s were nearly silent and the 4870s are quieter still. Yes, I can hear my system in the dead of night but its a long long long way from loud. Its only loud for about a second after boot as the 4870s spin up to max for a short while.

[Rankrotten]

I had two 3870s in Crossfire in my 2006 Mac Pro too. I've now got two flashed 4870s in the same machine. Benchmarks show that a single 4870 has roughly the same performance as a 3870x2.
For what its worth, the 4870s are definitely quieter than the 3870s. I don't know why your system's so loud, my 3870s were nearly silent and the 4870s are quieter still.

It was the 3870x2 that was loud as it was not recognised by OS X the fans ran at 100% at all times. Tried netkas ATY_init with the 3870x2 bin_image inserted but still not recognised in system profiler.

Will both cores of a 4870x2 work in OS X... ?

[Spanky Deluxe]

It was the 3870x2 that was loud as it was not recognised by OS X the fans ran at 100% at all times. Tried netkas ATY_init with the 3870x2 bin_image inserted but still not recognised in system profiler.

Will both cores of a 4870x2 work in OS X... ?

Ah, I misread, I thought you said you had a PC 3870 and had two 3870s in crossfire configuration. So many people have called having two 4870s in crossfire a "4870x2 setup" when its in fact not that its now what I expect. My PC 3870 wasn't any louder in OS X than it was in Windows, strange that your X2 was so loud. While people have got 4870s working with the natit method, I always prefer flashed cards since that way I won't have to wait ever for a new natit method after each patch release etc. I'm using two 4870 1GB XFX cards in crossfire in my 2006 Mac Pro and it works great. Both have been flashed for OS X use so there's definitely no problem with fans spinning up. 2x4870 cards will definitely be quieter and faster than you're current setup. Admittedly, they wouldn't be *that* much faster than the triple crossfire solution you have right now but they would be at least a little faster for sure and definitely much quieter.

Also, no, both cores of a 4870 will not work in OS X, that requires ATI drivers that support Crossfire. Even dual gpu on one card solutions require crossfire support to work, alas.

[Frostbite6]

Need a little help here,

Have a Mac Pro 1,1 with X1900 in it already, running Mac OS 10.5.7 on one drive, and another separate drive for bootcamp (Vista 32bit Home Premium).

I'd like to get a PC 4870 and flash it. I need help on a few of the steps.

The card will be this XFX 4870 1GB (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-120-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=939) from the UK, and I'll mostly be following swissman's (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7606372&postcount=1248) tutorial here, (http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html) with some changes.

I plan to remove the Mac OS HDD and X1900, and put in the 4870. I'll let it boot into Vista HP and then use ATI winflash (http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1364/Winflash_2.0.1.7.html) to backup the ROM and then rhildinger's (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7324217&postcount=487) ROM onto it.

(I think it would be easier to flash from Windows due to the fact I can't fit both gfx cards in together and I don't know if I will see anything on an unflashed 4870 to select the BootCD.)

Also, I can't seem to locate another gfx power cable, 4870 needs two and I have one that comes with the 1900. I have seem some on ebay (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PCIe-Power-Cable-for-Mac-Pro-ATI-4870-4850-etc_W0QQitemZ230341386773QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Apple_Mac_Accessories?hash=item230341386773&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50).

Could anyone shed any light on whether what I plan to do will work? I haven't bought anything yet but will do as soon as I know there aren't any flaws in my anticipated sequence of events.

Be Careful with using WinFlash to back up your ROM as it doesn't copy the full 128k ROM off your card, but im not sure if they have fixed it in a new Version. But GPU-Z is a safe bet as I know the new version Does Copy the full 128k, which is important if your making a custom "dual boot" ROM, and if you want to flash it back if things go wrong.

You can get GPU-Z from www.techpowerup.com too.

[TheStrudel]

here is the trick: on hackintosh many 4870 have dual dvi because Mac's bin_image inserted to ioreg, so driver gets connectors table from it and works better than with original bin_image.

So wait, is this something we could fix? A little confused, here. Could we get the ioreg working like this on mac pros?

[v0n]

Yeah I meant DVI cable. My PCIe power cables are working just fine.

And in unlikely case anyone has a problem with the PCIe power cables from the link in slicedbread's post, feel free to contact me. :)

[netkas]

So wait, is this something we could fix? A little confused, here. Could we get the ioreg working like this on mac pros?

we can try, noone wanted to be a tester so i didnt bother with it.

[Rankrotten]

we can try, noone wanted to be a tester so i didnt bother with it.

I'm willing to test if it helps.

[v0n]

I'm actually having small, odd problem since update to 10.5.7 - whenever monitor goes to sleep, any open application application using QE/CI - be it iTunes or Quicktime - crashes with
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at /insert random address/

Happens on both of my patched ROM'ed 4780's. Can be tested ad infinitum by opening quicktime, playing few seconds of any video, pausing it, then setting "Put monitor to sleep" to 1 minute in Energy Saver and waiting one minute. As soon as my monitor is fully off and I wake it up I get crash report.

[The Rominator]

Which 4870 are you using?

[LTDLTD]

Hello! I've read through the thread but still have some questions: I'm looking forward to buy a 4870 for my Mac Pro 2006 - sadly, there is no XFX available in the next time. Is it possible to use one of the following cards instead?

sapphire 4890 (1024mb)
powercolor 4890/4870/X2 (1024mb)

And if yes, is there anything special I would have to think of?

Thx 4 Help!

[Whiteyez]

Hello! I've read through the thread but still have some questions: I'm looking forward to buy a 4870 for my Mac Pro 2006 - sadly, there is no XFX available in the next time. Is it possible to use one of the following cards instead?

sapphire 4890 (1024mb)
powercolor 4890/4870/X2 (1024mb)

And if yes, is there anything special I would have to think of?

Thx 4 Help!

Take a second look on this thread again...

[netkas]

I'm willing to test if it helps.

try this - http://rapidshare.de/files/47239217/Natit.kext.tar.bz2.html

unpack and install with kexthelper

[Rankrotten]

try this - http://rapidshare.de/files/47239217/Natit.kext.tar.bz2.html

unpack and install with kexthelper

Is this natit just for 4870 cards as I have installed it and it does not recognise my unsupported card 3870x2. If it needs to be tested with 4870 I can probably buy one for testing.

Edit: I see from the natit plist that it is only for 4870. Ok sorry about this.

PS I don't know why my system profiler on the external firewire drive thinks my Mac Pro is a G5 :rolleyes:

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/7088/picture3k.png

[red9]

I'm actually having small, odd problem since update to 10.5.7 - whenever monitor goes to sleep, any open application application using QE/CI - be it iTunes or Quicktime - crashes with
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at /insert random address/

Happens on both of my patched ROM'ed 4780's. Can be tested ad infinitum by opening quicktime, playing few seconds of any video, pausing it, then setting "Put monitor to sleep" to 1 minute in Energy Saver and waiting one minute. As soon as my monitor is fully off and I wake it up I get crash report.

Interesting, I'm having the EXACT same issue, except I have the OFFICIAL radeon 4870 from Apple.

The only weird thing I did that I can think of, was that I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my main system disk to a new hard drive and have been booting from that. Have you done anything similar? I was thinking that may be the issue (if it's not a driver thing), but if you haven't done any disk cloning the issue may be something to do with the drivers or who knows what. Hopefully it's not a hardware issue.

Another thing I have noticed is that I have a weird black horizontal line about 1" below the bottom of some application windows. Quitting and restarting the applications does not remove the line. Haven't rebooted in a while so not sure if that'll clear it up, but definitely not cool, especially after paying the $349 for the 'official' card, kind of wishing I'd just saved myself the money at this point if there are going to be issues even with the Apple ones. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

[v0n]

Interesting, I'm having the EXACT same issue, except I have the OFFICIAL radeon 4870 from Apple.

The only weird thing I did that I can think of, was that I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my main system disk to a new hard drive and have been booting from that. Have you done anything similar?

No, it started happening literally right after I updated to 10.5.7. At first re-boot, I opened Streamclip, went to brew some coffee, returned to screen on stand by, moved the mouse, bang - an error. Odd, I thought, later on the same happened with iTunes and then with Quicktime. Took me 10 minutes to find out what it was. Swapped the 11133-00-20R Sapphire ATI for 21133-00-XX I prepped for Crossfire - tried the 1 minute power setting trick - does the same. Puzzling really.

[bb8882]

try this - http://rapidshare.de/files/47239217/Natit.kext.tar.bz2.html

unpack and install with kexthelper

I installed the kext and rebooted and tested with opengl and performance was cut by half. Tried twice and same result, uninstalled and went back to normal. - compare to result post 1336 - XFX 4870 1g flashed

[makoffee]

Hey gang,
Just wanted to share my success story. I recently flashed my Sapphire 1gb Ati HD 4870. I followed the instructions, "rolled my own" molex connectors - everything went according to plan. Works great in both MacOS and Windows booted on the first try. Thank you to everyone on this forum. You have helped breathe new life into my mac! :D

OVERALL:
If I were to do it again. I think I would opt for 2 ATI reference cards instead of the 1GB Sapphire card. Mostly because I think it would raise less eyebrows at resale. (looks more like the apple brand cards) Secondly the Sapphire's cooling solution while it photographs well - in person it strikes me as cheap looking and relatively ineffective airflow. However the card is a beast and takes the extra heat in stride. I will hate buying the matching second card for Crossfire in the future.

Also, rolling your own molex cables - filled me with an immense felling of pride. However if I were to do it again I would simply have ordered the $12 cables online. :rolleyes: BTW - don't let these guys BS you - the power cables that come in the box will totally work from your spare super-drive power connectors if only as a temporary solution.

Don't get me wrong - I love the card and its a HUGE improvement from my x1900xt.

SIDENOTE:
Has anyone with a Sapphire card been able to do dual DVI monitors? Seems strange that it works on the XTX brand. What is so different about the hacked firmware between the two?

[sica]

Has anyone tried other XFX-cards? I only found information about the 1GB version in this thread, will other cards like the 512MB oder the 1GB XXX one work as well?

I understand that, apart from the XFX cards, only one dvi-port will work. Could I use my old Geforce-Card with one monitor and the ATI with my main monitor?

[netkas]

I installed the kext and rebooted and tested with opengl and performance was cut by half. Tried twice and same result, uninstalled and went back to normal. - compare to result post 1336 - XFX 4870 1g flashed


lol, such comments always make fun, nobody asked to measure performance with very cpu dependent test. the test was to get dual dvi.

[bb8882]

thought that it worths looking into since performance was cut by as much as 50% with the kext, doesnt' matter if cpu or gpu related. Dual DVI is working with or without kext for the XFX 4870

[netkas]

maybe card went into permanent 2d mode clocks

[TheStrudel]

Has anyone tried other XFX-cards? I only found information about the 1GB version in this thread, will other cards like the 512MB oder the 1GB XXX one work as well?

I understand that, apart from the XFX cards, only one dvi-port will work. Could I use my old Geforce-Card with one monitor and the ATI with my main monitor?

This will work. But yes, I'm interested in seeing if the kext did enable the use of both ports, even if speed was drastically reduced...any word?

[The Rominator]

During my extensive Crossfire testing in the last day, I had occasion to run the 4870x2 again. Now with Netkas 4890/exotic cards magic the card works in OSX. As I reported before, it is MUCH slower than even a regular 4870 at this time.

But I think maybe we need to have another look at it. I have attached a couple screenshots. It turns out that in Windows the card is designed to work as a single card, with a PCIE bridge chip combining the work of two separate GPUs. As you can see, the Expansion Slot Utility sees it as just this...a bridge chip. While the 9800GX2 requires working Sli via software, the 4870x2 is supposed to "just work"....if the bridge chip is supposed to be invisible, well, all beyond me.

At the very least, it would be good to figure out how to get it to function fully as a single 4870 in OSX...then it could blossom into an X2 in Windows at will.

For advanced 4870x2 info:

http://gpucafe.com/2008/08/4870x2-review-roundup/

(painfully slow load)

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_4870_X2/4.html

(info on bridge chip)

[netkas]

During my extensive Crossfire testing in the last day, I had occasion to run the 4870x2 again. Now with Netkas 4890/exotic cards magic the card works in OSX. As I reported before, it is MUCH slower than even a regular 4870 at this time.

But I think maybe we need to have another look at it. I have attached a couple screenshots. It turns out that in Windows the card is designed to work as a single card, with a PCIE bridge chip combining the work of two separate GPUs. As you can see, the Expansion Slot Utility sees it as just this...a bridge chip. While the 9800GX2 requires working Sli via software, the 4870x2 is supposed to "just work"....if the bridge chip is supposed to be invisible, well, all beyond me.

At the very least, it would be good to figure out how to get it to function fully as a single 4870 in OSX...then it could blossom into an X2 in Windows at will.



4870x2 rv770 chips has three interconnect ways(for crossfire):
1) sidebus (or whatever it called) - arent used at all atm on windows
2) crossfire interconnect - same as crossfire bridge on two radeon cards
3) pci-bridge - it's job is to provide system an access to both rv770 chips/cards, and allow cards to interconnect (just like NB works on intel mobos (P45/X48/X58))

u cant change anything in those interconnects

[gugucom]

This is a very good thread but a bit confusing for newbies due to the many details. So I could use some advise on my project to flash a HIS HD4870 for my 1st Gen. Mac Pro.

I mainly use a 46" Samsung HDTV and strangely it loves 1920x1080@59,9 Hz in VGA. Currently I run a patched HIS x1900XT IceQ3 which I pachted with the usual ROM file from the Mac Elite Wiki with AtiFlash in DOS.

It does all HDTV with EyeTV nicely like German Discovery HD and also Blu-Ray with Bootcamp which I run in AHCI from the Mac ODD-SATA ports in the rear of the logic board.

I am very happy with the IceQ heat sink because it is completely inaudible so far for any of my applications. The Mac is the perfect HTPC for me after some years of trying with Shuttles. It may use more power but it is very quiet.

One issue I have is the relatively high CPU usage in H.264 and I believe that a HD 4870 would probably be perfect for all H.264 decoding and encoding due to the ATI VIVO HD technology.

Having had this positive experience with the IceQ coolers I would love to patch a HIS HD4870 turbo+ with ICeQ4. It features the usual 1 GB of DDR5 and should have a 128kB serial Flash EEPROM which seems to be the requirement. I know from reviews that the card uses the ATI reference layout except for the much improved cooler which vents out of the rear and seems to keep the voltage regulators nicely cooled.

I have not been able to find a reference to a successfull use of that card in the thread. So I would appreciate any advice how to get this card to work with VGA in my Mac Pro.

[The Rominator]

It is LIKELY but not guaranteed that you can get this to work.

If it runs as a OEM card using OEM ROM, I think you can get VGA by placing DVI to VGA adapters on both outputs, the signal will be present in one of them, most likely the lower port.

However, the EDID won't work, so you may need to use SwitchresX to force the res you need.

[gugucom]

It is LIKELY but not guaranteed that you can get this to work.

If it runs as a OEM card using OEM ROM, I think you can get VGA by placing DVI to VGA adapters on both outputs, the signal will be present in one of them, most likely the lower port.

However, the EDID won't work, so you may need to use SwitchresX to force the res you need.

Which one of the posted ROMs is the OEM ROM? Is there a reference post # to find it? I assume you are talking about the ROM which is used in the original Apple HD4870 with 512 MB. I know that this card is capable of VGA so the plan sounds feasible.

I frequently had problems to set resolution to the odd frequency the Sammy requires so usually I just fit a basic 2. monitor and force the card to detect all monitors. Then I set the resolution and frequency manually. So that process should not hold me back.

I would probably need only the reference to the proper ROM file for a trial.

One more thing though. Could someone explain the requirement for the 1GB of DDR5, please. I appears to me that the 1 Gig cards for some reason use the 128 kB serial flash EEPROM that is also required for the Apple Firmware. Is that correct? In that case the additional RAM is probably not even used? It is a bit inefficient to run it that way because the bigger RAM forces you to connect dual PCIe cables. In this case would it not be more efficient to use a 512 MB card and replace the 64 kB EEPROM chip with a 128 kB chip? I'm asking this question because I investigated a ROM refitter who does this job to run PC HD3870s with the ATI Mac & PC EDition ROM. The EEPROM refit is cheaper than the price increase from 512 MB to 1GB cards.

[The Rominator]

re-do your research.

ALL 4870s have 128K chips.

You are confusing lines.

[gugucom]

re-do your research.

ALL 4870s have 128K chips.

You are confusing lines.

I wasn't aware of this. I thought the 128K chips were connected to the bigger memory.

So with regard to the OEM ROM does it make a difference if the card has 512 or 1024 MB of memory?

There is also the HIS HD4870 with 512 MB of DDR3 memory. Or would that memory config make it unusable for the OEM ROM file?

[gugucom]

I take it as an answer that the Memory type must match. So only the 1 GB will do.

[Nadav35]

Ok, you have confirmed that Apple's version of the 4870 works on 1st gen mac pros, can you also confirm that the MINI-DISPLAY PORT also works? If this is the case, I might get one as I would like to get a mini-display port monitor.

Nadav


I have an OEM Apple 4870 and it works A-OK in my first gen, just like the flashed ones.

[lannister80]

Another success story!

Ordered the XFX 1GB from http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html and it flashed the first time, no problems at all. Dual DVI monitors work.

I don't have the power cables for the card yet, so I used one of the molex connectors in the optical bay to get power. Used a female-to-male molex extender to route the wire into the PCI-e area, works great with the connectors included in the 4870 kit. early 2008 mac pro. 2.5GT/s issue remains, but who cares, 1GB card! Turned up COD 4 all the way, pretty darn smooth.

[netkas]

so, noone wanna try to get dual-dvi on non-xfx card with this http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7643911&postcount=1355 ?

[jeanlain]

so, noone wanna try to get dual-dvi on non-xfx card with this http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7643911&postcount=1355 ?
I'm waiting on my sapphire 4870, which should arrive in a couple of days. Then I will give it a try. You say that more hackintoshes get dual DVI. Do you know if dual DVI works for sapphire 4870s on hacks?

I suppose I need ATY_Init.kext. But do I need to edit a plist with my own BIOS? Or does your kext read the BIOS directly from the card's ROM?
I know that sapphire 4870s won't work with the Apple BIOS in the plist.

Also, I recall that natit will ignore cards with EFI, right? So you may want to modify it for testing purpose (if not done), or specify that the test is useless on flashed cards.

[netkas]

I'm waiting on my sapphire 4870, which should arrive in a couple of days. Then I will give it a try. You say that more hackintoshes get dual DVI. Do you know if dual DVI works for sapphire 4870s on hacks?

I suppose I need ATY_Init.kext. But do I need to edit a plist with my own BIOS? Or does your kext read the BIOS directly from the card's ROM?
I know that sapphire 4870s won't work with the Apple BIOS in the plist.

Also, I recall that natit will ignore cards with EFI, right? So you may want to modify it for testing purpose (if not done), or specify that the test is useless on flashed cards.

it works there iirc, u can use either latest aty_init , or flashed card with that natit (it only replaces bin_image in ioreg with one from plist)

[gzfelix]

so, noone wanna try to get dual-dvi on non-xfx card with this http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7643911&postcount=1355 ?

Thank you very much! This Natit package works perfectly on my Sapphire 4870 512M card with a 1920x1080 display and a 1680x1050 display.

[jeanlain]

Thank you very much! This Natit package works perfectly on my Sapphire 4870 512M card with a 1920x1080 display and a 1680x1050 display.
W00T! :)
No problem at all, sleep mode, resolution changes, rotation...?

Now Netkas... next challenge. :)
People are having problems with some 4890s on Mac Pros: single DVI working. I was thinking that it could be solved the same way.
Correct me if I am wrong... If we (I mean, you :P) use the BIOS of a 4890 that supports dual screen on Mac Pros, and build a Natit like the one you just did with its bin_image in the plist... maybe it will enable dual screen on other the "bad" 4890s?

There's a difference with 4870, though. The 4890s that don't do dual screen can still be initialized by the generic bin_image you included in natit. While the newer 4870s (typically, those that won't do dual screen on Macs) just won't boot OS X with the Apple ROM (constant reboot).

[gzfelix]

W00T! :)
No problem at all, sleep mode, resolution changes, rotation...?


My Mac Pro cannot come back from sleep if Natit is installed and used. Resolution change and rotation work flawlessly.

[TheStrudel]

Have you noticed a speed hit, like the one the other guy reported having occurred in OpenGL testing?

[gzfelix]

Have you noticed a speed hit, like the one the other guy reported having occurred in OpenGL testing?

No. OpenGL extensions viewer reports the same results with multisample=8 and anisotropy=4.

[jeanlain]

My Mac Pro cannot come back from sleep if Natit is installed and used.
Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. Many hackintoshes with 48x0 cards have problems coming back from sleep. So this also affects Mac Pros. I wonder if it's due to the Apple ROM being used in ioreg, while it was not designed for the specific PC card used...
It's not due to Natit per se, because when natit uses the original card's BIOS, sleep mode works correctly (at least, no problem reported from Macbidouille).
If my theory (ahem) is correct, editing natit's plist with your card's BIOS, instead of Apple's BIOS, should restore sleep mode (but you'll lose dual screen). Of course, that natit would be useless.

[gzfelix]

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. Many hackintoshes with 48x0 cards have problems coming back from sleep. So this also affects Mac Pros. I wonder if it's due to the Apple ROM being used in ioreg, while it was not designed for the specific PC card used...
It's not due to Natit per se, because when natit uses the original card's BIOS, sleep mode works correctly (at least, no problem reported from Macbidouille).
If my theory (ahem) is correct, editing natit's plist with your card's BIOS, instead of Apple's BIOS, should restore sleep mode (but you'll lose dual screen). Of course, that natit would be useless.

Interestingly though, it does not come back from sleep (stand by) but deep sleep (hibernation).

[netkas]

jeanlain

new aty_init supposed to work ok then, it extracts bios from card, to initialize card.

it inserts bin_image to ioreg from plist (if not present there, it inserts bin_image extracted from card).

also, maybe need to try to replace binimage in that mini_natit with one from XFX cards.

[jeanlain]

jeanlain

new aty_init supposed to work ok then, it extracts bios from card, to initialize card.

it inserts bin_image to ioreg from plist (if not present there, it inserts bin_image extracted from card).

also, maybe need to try to replace binimage in that mini_natit with one from XFX cards.
I'll try that when I get my card.

The new aty_init... is it the one that combines also natit in a single kext? People at macbidouille failed to make 4890s work with this one, although one people here successfully used it on a 4870X2, IIRC.

So, the old ATY_init/natit worked the opposite: initialize card with the bin_image in the plist file and insert the card's BIOS into ioreg? Because if natit has always used the plist bin_image for insertion into ioreg, well that did not activate both DVI ports for some 4890s (including sapphire cards).

[Cindori]

Well, does a 4870x2 work alone in slot 1 and 2 dvi ports with netkas packages?

[Matrixfan]

Hmm. Flashing 2 xfx 4870 cards is becoming an attractive sollution if Crossfire capability and 5 GT link speed are both retained under Windows in Boot Camp. Are CF and GT link speed normal in Windows?

[jeanlain]

yes. Flashed cards are PC cards after all.

[gzfelix]

Hmm. Flashing 2 xfx 4870 cards is becoming an attractive sollution if Crossfire capability and 5 GT link speed are both retained under Windows in Boot Camp. Are CF and GT link speed normal in Windows?

Believe or not, my Sapphire 4870 512M card is 2.5GT link speed even in Windows.

[Cindori]

yes. Flashed cards are PC cards after all.

No. They are PC cards running Mac version firmware.

[Cindori]

Any thoughts on what 4890 card to get to have dual DVI?

[bb8882]

Believe or not, my Sapphire 4870 512M card is 2.5GT link speed even in Windows.

probably you have the 06 mac pro which is pcie 1.0 which is 2.5gt link. only early 08 mac pro or later has pci-e 2.0 at 5.0gt

[jeanlain]

No. They are PC cards running Mac version firmware.

They still have their original BIOS, and that's all that matters. EFI is ignored in windows.

[netkas]

jeanlin, old natit+aty_init wasnt able to extract bios image from card, so they used bin_image from plist of natit

[gzfelix]

probably you have the 06 mac pro which is pcie 1.0 which is 2.5gt link. only early 08 mac pro or later has pci-e 2.0 at 5.0gt

No. It is a 09' Mac Pro. And I also tried this card on a Dell Workstation which gave the same report of 2.5GT Link Speed.

[chas0001]

Just tried the Natit.kext on with my flashed PC SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB with OS X 10.5.7 and now the second monitor is working fine. This is really good news so thanks to those responsible.

Have not tested the possible sleeping issue yet.

[erteclas]

chas0001 with OS X 10.5.8 ?

[jeanlain]

Successul flashing of a sapphire 4870 1Go, using Pipomolos's method. :)

Way quieter than the X1900XT in a Mac Pro 1.1. So far so good in OS X. I may do some tests with natit when I have the time.

[speedys123]

I saw a VisionTek 4870 512MB on clearance at Best Buy yesterday for $164.99 so I picked it up. I even had a RewardZone coupon for $15 off :) It appears to be the first gen version. I flashed it with the rom that appears on page 6 of the thread and it worked great, no troubles once I figured out the flashing procedure. After that I over-clocked it and it's running at 935Mhz ram and 785Mhz processor after editing the rom. The UPC on the box is 784090025067.

After that, I took my Apple first gen Mac Pro 8800GT and reflashed it using the PC version of Nvidia 8800gt bios from:

http://www.mvktech.net
http://www.mvktech.net/component/option,com_remository/Itemid,26/func,selectfolder/cat,72/page,3/

The NVIDIA 8800GT PCIe 512MB - Rev 01 rom worked great after I flashed it and put it in my wifes PC. I popped out the old 7900GS that's been there for years, put in the Mac 8800GT with new PC rom and it worked great. Cheap upgrades all around!

I had to boot the Mac Pro in DOS though, that was the only way I could figure out to have access to the EFI 8800GT and still be able to flash it. I'm sure there's other ways, but that worked out for me. I booted the Mac Pro off a Win98 CD with no CD-Rom support and hooked a small FAT16 formatted ATA HD to the Slave ATA port. Once it booted into DOS, I had access to the ATA HD as the C: drive, so I could backup the old rom and re-flash with PC version which I copied onto it earlier.

All in all, a very successful night!

Speedys123

[chas0001]

chas0001 with OS X 10.5.8 ?

oops that was a typo. I meant 10.5.7.

Did some further testing and when I put the computer to sleep it works fine but when I wake it up the computer crashes. Shame.

[The Rominator]

After that, I took my Apple first gen Mac Pro 8800GT and reflashed it using the PC version of Nvidia 8800gt bios
Speedys123

Glad this worked for you, but to all who read and follow....absolutely no need to do this.

With exception of 1900XT, All Mac Pro cards carry a PC BIOS. (otherwise you would not have been able to boot into DOS.....think about it)

So, when you wish to retire a Mac Pro card to a PC...simply plug it in, and boot up. Add latest drivers and you are good. If you ever need it as a Mac card again, just plop back in Mac Pro and it will work there too.

[netkas]

jeanlin, I think maybe 4890 failed with new aty_init because of problems with reading bios from card, I saw such problems with 2 4870 cards on pc.
So i updates aty_init and added fallback to using bin_image from plist to initialize a card, if reading biso from card failed, kext there - http://netkas.org/?p=104

===========

Btw, I added nvidia support to aty_init, with all latest gt200/gt200b chips. New game when we can get quadro 4800 drivers :D

[Spanky Deluxe]

jeanlin, I think maybe 4890 failed with new aty_init because of problems with reading bios from card, I saw such problems with 2 4870 cards on pc.
So i updates aty_init and added fallback to using bin_image from plist to initialize a card, if reading biso from card failed, kext there - http://netkas.org/?p=104

===========

Btw, I added nvidia support to aty_init, with all latest gt200/gt200b chips. New game when we can get quadro 4800 drivers :D

Damn, you should get paid by ATI and nVidia for all this work!

[Cindori]

jeanlin, I think maybe 4890 failed with new aty_init because of problems with reading bios from card, I saw such problems with 2 4870 cards on pc.
So i updates aty_init and added fallback to using bin_image from plist to initialize a card, if reading biso from card failed, kext there - http://netkas.org/?p=104

===========

Btw, I added nvidia support to aty_init, with all latest gt200/gt200b chips. New game when we can get quadro 4800 drivers :D


Wow, this basically means that you can buy PC 285 cards and use when the drivers are out?

[jeanlain]

jeanlin, I think maybe 4890 failed with new aty_init because of problems with reading bios from card, I saw such problems with 2 4870 cards on pc.
So i updates aty_init and added fallback to using bin_image from plist to initialize a card, if reading biso from card failed, kext there - http://netkas.org/?p=104

===========

Btw, I added nvidia support to aty_init, with all latest gt200/gt200b chips. New game when we can get quadro 4800 drivers :D

Sorry, I tried it with my sapphire 4870 1Go, which I had flashed back with its original BIOS, and it didn't work. Screen remained blank with the card's fans at full blast. I was not sure that OS X was actually booting, but I know it boots normally with a PC card and without ATY_init (screen just remains blank, of course).
So I flashed my card again with the EFI-BIOS. Upon start-up, OS X gave me this error message :
Interval Since Last Panic Report: 111070 sec
Panics Since Last Report: 1
Anonymous UUID: B94BBEA9-ECA2-4E10-857B-D7A35D4143B3

Tue May 26 22:15:43 2009
panic(cpu 1 caller 0x0011F230): "ipc_object_copyin_from_kernel: strange rights"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.12.14/osfmk/ipc/ipc_object.c:642
Backtrace (CPU 1), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x54fafb18 : 0x12b4c6 (0x45ec20 0x54fafb4c 0x13355c 0x0)
0x54fafb68 : 0x11f230 (0x45e69c 0x80 0x94 0x11e1aa)
0x54fafbb8 : 0x12d6cd (0x7575100 0x58 0x54fafbdc 0x4439a1)
0x54fafbe8 : 0x443aa1 (0x6b6d200 0x58 0x54fafc18 0x3f08d1)
0x54fafc28 : 0x412736 (0x6750020 0x0 0xe0000280 0x6795200)
0x54fafc78 : 0x41b79b (0x6795200 0xe0000280 0x6729940 0x10001)
0x54fafcd8 : 0x412851 (0x6729940 0x54fafd40 0x1 0x6eca640)
0x54fafd18 : 0x41f61a (0x54fafd40 0x6716340 0x41b644 0x54fafd40)
0x54fafd78 : 0x448c51 (0x6795200 0xe0000280 0x54fafdb8 0x2)
0x54fafd98 : 0x41e5d1 (0x6795200 0x2 0x67c6c00 0x1)
0x54fafdd8 : 0x41e711 (0x6795200 0x54fafdf0 0x1 0x3f26dd)
0x54fafe18 : 0x41ea54 (0x6795200 0x11 0x2 0x20)
0x54fafe68 : 0x4209bc (0x6795200 0x6cfa1c0 0x0 0x1a436f)
0x54fafeb8 : 0x41b133 (0x6795200 0x6cfa1c0 0x678b200 0x0)
0x54fafee8 : 0x420e1d (0x678b200 0x64 0x6ee24ec 0x7)
0x54faff28 : 0x41c944 (0x6795200 0x6cfa1c0 0x672e280 0x1a436f)
Backtrace continues...

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Mac OS version:
9J61

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.7.0: Tue Mar 31 22:52:17 PDT 2009; root:xnu-1228.12.14~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacPro1,1 (Mac-F4208DC8)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 85624702132
unloaded kexts:
(none)
loaded kexts:
com.parallels.kext.Pvsvnic 2.2 - last loaded 32234326245
com.parallels.kext.vmmain 2.2
com.parallels.kext.hypervisor 2.2
com.bresink.driver.BRESINKx86Monitoring 2.0
com.parallels.kext.Pvsnet 2.2
com.dong.driver.ATY_Init 1.0.0d1
com.parallels.kext.ConnectUSB 2.5.0
com.ATITechnologiesInc.TVOut 2.7.2d1
com.apple.filesystems.ntfs 2.1
com.apple.filesystems.msdosfs 1.5.4
com.apple.driver.InternalModemSupport 2.4.0
com.apple.filesystems.autofs 2.0.2
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAPlatformDriver 1.6.8a3
com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9d0
com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient 2.7.5
com.apple.kext.ATY_Motmot 5.4.4
com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 1.6.8a3
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager 2.1.6f8
com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X 6.0.3
com.apple.ATIRadeonX2000 5.4.4
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController 1.6.8a3
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP 1.7.7
com.apple.driver.AudioIPCDriver 1.0.6
com.apple.driver.AppleMCEDriver 1.1.7
com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin 3.4.0d10
com.apple.driver.AppleLPC 1.2.12
com.apple.driver.AppleTyMCEDriver 1.0.0d28
com.apple.driver.CSRUSBBluetoothHCIController 2.1.6f8
com.apple.driver.AppleHIDKeyboard 1.0.8b1
com.apple.driver.CSRHIDTransitionDriver 2.1.6f8
com.apple.driver.XsanFilter 2.7.91
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 1.2.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub 3.4.3
com.apple.driver.PioneerSuperDrive 2.0.7
com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient 2.0.9
com.apple.iokit.IOATAPIProtocolTransport 1.5.2
com.apple.driver.AppleFileSystemDriver 1.1.0
com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI 3.8.2
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub 3.4.0
com.apple.driver.AirPortBrcm43xx 363.35.0
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 1.6.0
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelPIIXATA 2.0.0
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient 3.3.1
com.apple.driver.AppleIntel8254XEthernet 2.1.2b1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI 3.4.3
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBUHCI 3.3.5
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM 1.2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 1.2.4
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 1.2.3
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.4
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPCI 1.2.4
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 1.4
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 1.2.4
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.4
com.apple.security.seatbelt 107.12
com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall 1.6.77
com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet 3
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement 76.0.0
com.apple.driver.DiskImages 199
com.apple.BootCache 30.4
com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib 1.6.8a3
com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily 9.4
com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily 1.6.8a3
com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily 1.6.9fc3
com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib 1.1
com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport 1.7.3
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily 1.7.3
com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily 3.4.0d10
com.apple.driver.AppleSMC 2.2.1d2
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBBluetoothHCIController 2.1.6f8
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily 2.1.6f8
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver 3.2.2
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite 3.2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice 2.0.9
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice 2.0.9
com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily 1.5
com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily 1.5
com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily 1.5
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily 2.0.9
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily 3.4.7
com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family 216.1
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily 1.5.0
com.apple.iokit.IOATAFamily 2.0.1
com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily 1.6.1
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily 3.4.3
com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime 1.2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily 1.1
com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily 1.5.6
com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily 1.5.5
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform 1.2.4
com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily 1.2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily 2.6

[netkas]

Sorry, I tried it with my sapphire 4870 1Go, which I had flashed back with its original BIOS, and it didn't work. Screen remained blank with the card's fans at full blast. I was not sure that OS X was actually booting, but I know it boots normally with a PC card and without ATY_init (screen just remains blank, of course).
So I flashed my card again with the EFI-BIOS. Upon start-up, OS X gave me this error message :

try to remove aty_init from single user mode.

[jeanlain]

try to remove aty_init from single user mode.
It's OK. I could restart OS X with the flashed card. The error message poped up on the desktop. I removed ATY_init with the terminal.

[netkas]

You mean it was kind of bugreport ?

[jeanlain]

You mean it was kind of bugreport ?
yes. Sorry if I wasn't clear. Maybe it's just the result of me forcing shutdown with the power button when the Mac couldn't start.

[macz1]

There is a thing I don't get: does the intallation of natit/aty_init bring any advantages for a 4870 in a Mac Pro compared to flashing it with a "hybrid" ROM?
Or is this extension only meant for non conventionally flashable cards such as the 4890?... Thanks.

[jeanlain]

It's always better to flash the card if you can, IMO.

[lannister80]

Or is this extension only meant for non conventionally flashable cards such as the 4890?... Thanks.
Yes, or for people who don't want to flash a flashable card. It brings 0 benefits over flashing.

[TheStrudel]

What about dual port support? Doesn't this enable those of us with that 1 GB sapphire card to use both DVI ports without crashing? That's a plus, and one worth considering until we figure out a ROM solution that fixes that problem. Though nobody's definitively answered whether it comes with performance penalties.

[macz1]

I have a problem with my flashed 1GB Gainward 4870 GS. First, I must say that I am using a VGA monitor.
When I plug the monitor to the VGA connector of the card together with the stacked HDMI/DVI-DVI/VGA adapter I get always a picture (including the "boot volume choosing" screen)

BUT... the display is not properly recognized. Only after plugging the display to the DVI port using another DVI/VGA adapter when OS X has booted, the EDID data is read correctly. After that, even when I plug it back to the VGA port its still recognized.

However if I boot with the display connected to the DVI port, there is no picture. Waking up from sleep also works with the diplay plugged into the VGA port... :(

It's a bit complicated... but has anyone of you similar problems?
I can set all resolutions even if the monitor is not recognized but the picture simply looks better with the properly recognized monitor, its sharper.

Is there any way to manipulate the ROM or some kext-tricks in order to improve things? (perhaps it's simply time to get a flat panel...)

[jeanlain]

TheStrudel,
I recall that a recent Natit posted by Netkas enabled dual screen on a non-standard 4870, albeit with problems in sleep mode. Have you tried it? I cannot test it since I only have one LCD.
One possibility suggested by Netkas is to edit Natit with the XFX BIOS, as XFX cards have dual screen working. Natit currently uses the Apple BIOS. I my view, natit could be a viable solution. I don't know squat about BIOS editing, but I believe that one has to locate the bits related to port mapping (or something), and change them in the PC card so they match the Apple card. It's always better to keep most of the orignal PC BIOS intact.

I don't think that dual screen affects performance, except that each screen has half the VRAM. Another advantage of 1GB cards.

macz1,
I don't think anyone had VGA working with flashed 4870s.

[Pressure]

TheStrudel,

I don't think that dual screen affects performance, except that each screen has half the VRAM. Another advantage of 1GB cards.



It doesn't work like that.

The resolution and colour depth dictates how much of the framebuffer is used.

1920 x 1200 x 32-bit = 73,728,000 / 8 (bits to bytes) / 1,000 (bytes to kilo bytes) = 9216 KB or 9 MB of framebuffer used for a resolution of 1920 x 1200 with 32-bit colour depth.

[TheStrudel]

That's what I was referring to. Since my second monitor is in storage right now, I'm waiting to hear from Jeanlain and others about testing, because somebody said their card did not perform as well (according to benchmark) with the use of natit. When I refer to performance, I'm talking about changes made by natit, etc., not a dual monitor thing - I've been using dual monitors for years.

[BEIGE]

does anyone know of a 4870 cooler with next to no height for the back screws like the retail Apple 4870? The Sapphire doesn't fit in the 2009 mac Pro unless you take the screws off and I need to sell this thing.

[TheStrudel]

It does fit, actually, just barely. If you press it down. You can even put a single width card right above it, though it may be shoved up against the top of the PCIe bracket. But more to the point, if anybody knows what size screws with which to replace it, that's good too.

[thehimay]

It does fit, actually, just barely. If you press it down. You can even put a single width card right above it, though it may be shoved up against the top of the PCIe bracket. But more to the point, if anybody knows what size screws with which to replace it, that's good too.

Same here. No real problems putting the card in. Snug fit, but doesn't appear to have any physical stress on it.

Also wanted to report that netkas' Natit worked beautifully. I have dual-displays working fabulously, no loss in performance, and I don't have any apparent sleep issues with the displays right now. Thanks for that work you put into getting that tweaked!

[TheStrudel]

Ooh, that sounds good. As soon as my second monitor gets out of storage, I guess I'll be using it. Now I have one more question, which may have been answered previously, but Netkas: will it be possible to get analog output from the card using natit out of the S-video port? And if not, could that possibly be added in the future?

[Concorde Rules]

I've skipped through a few pages on this but could someone answer these questions:

1. To flash a 1Gb 4870 its a case of downloading the cards BIOS, running that batch file on it and then reflashing as long as it has a >128kb chip yes?

2. Is the above possible on a 4890?


I assume this will then allow it to work flawlessly in both Windows and OS X as the default 512Mb 4870 does?

I do NOT want to mess around changing the OS X system files, unless its 100% stable as the default apple 4870!

[The Rominator]

unless some kind soul comes by with a spoon, you're gonna hafta do more reading

[lannister80]

I've skipped through a few pages on this but could someone answer these questions:

1. To flash a 1Gb 4870 its a case of downloading the cards BIOS, running that batch file on it and then reflashing as long as it has a >128kb chip yes?

2. Is the above possible on a 4890?


I assume this will then allow it to work flawlessly in both Windows and OS X as the default 512Mb 4870 does?

I do NOT want to mess around changing the OS X system files, unless its 100% stable as the default apple 4870!
Just do this:
http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html

Seriously. Buy that specific card, follow the guide, you'll have it up and running in 10 minutes. No system file hacking required, just runs natively in OS X.

[Ferrari904]

So what is the deal with the crossfire being disabled on the 4870? Is anyone close to a hybrid rom for the it yet? I guess I'm just looking for an update. You can consider me impatient. LOL.

[lannister80]

So what is the deal with the crossfire being disabled on the 4870? Is anyone close to a hybrid rom for the it yet? I guess I'm just looking for an update. You can consider me impatient. LOL.
Crossfire works on the Windows side using flashed cards, but not on the Mac side.

In addition, crossfire DOES NOT WORK on the Windows side when using an official Apple 4870. Only the flashed PC ones will do crossfire in Windows. Current speculation is that it's something in hardware that was changed to disable it on the official Apple 4870s.

[damado]

Just do this:
http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html

Seriously. Buy that specific card, follow the guide, you'll have it up and running in 10 minutes. No system file hacking required, just runs natively in OS X.

Edit: NM, I must have screwed something up while cleaning the dust off in there...PSU roars up with any card now =/ I guess it's going to Apple.

I just followed this procedure to the letter. It works fine except my power supply fan is over 2700 RPMs and the 4870 card is pretty hot without running anything. I tried resetting the SMC, but about 10 seconds after it finishes booting into Leopard the PSU fan cranks up and stays there.

Any ideas?

[swissmann]

Edit: NM, I must have screwed something up while cleaning the dust off in there...PSU roars up with any card now =/ I guess it's going to Apple.

I just followed this procedure to the letter. It works fine except my power supply fan is over 2700 RPMs and the 4870 card is pretty hot without running anything. I tried resetting the SMC, but about 10 seconds after it finishes booting into Leopard the PSU fan cranks up and stays there.

Any ideas?

I haven't had any fan problems like you describe. Sorry. SMC is where I would go to. Maybe resetting PRAM but I doubt it.

[lannister80]

Edit: NM, I must have screwed something up while cleaning the dust off in there...PSU roars up with any card now =/ I guess it's going to Apple.

I just followed this procedure to the letter. It works fine except my power supply fan is over 2700 RPMs and the 4870 card is pretty hot without running anything. I tried resetting the SMC, but about 10 seconds after it finishes booting into Leopard the PSU fan cranks up and stays there.

Any ideas?
Wow, that's really weird, that definitely did NOT happen on my machine. If the unflashed 4870 was in while OS X was running, the fan on the CARD would blow pretty hard, but not the PSU. And after flashing the card was very quiet.

Crazy. I'm reluctant to think it has anything to do with the card flashing, just a coincidence? Or maybe your PSU was marginal to begin with and putting in the 4870 with power connected was enough to push it over the edge? Bizarre.

[damado]

Yeah I'm not really sure what's going on...is there a temp probe somewhere or a connector that maybe came lose or something down by the 2 main front fans or anywhere in the bottom part of the case that I can check? Everything works fine, but the PSU is WAY too loud.

This happens in Windows 7 and Leopard, with 4870, 7300 and 8800GT cards swapped out individually, resetting SMC each time.

[Ferrari904]

Crossfire works on the Windows side using flashed cards, but not on the Mac side.

In addition, crossfire DOES NOT WORK on the Windows side when using an official Apple 4870. Only the flashed PC ones will do crossfire in Windows. Current speculation is that it's something in hardware that was changed to disable it on the official Apple 4870s.

So people like me who have an Apple 4870 are SOL? Jeez that stinks.

[Spanky Deluxe]

So people like me who have an Apple 4870 are SOL? Jeez that stinks.

Yeah I'm afraid so. One can only assume that Apple didn't want users to achieve better graphics performance in Windows than in OS X so instead of getting ATI to write Crossfire compatible OS X drivers, they limited the cards' windows ability.

[TheStrudel]

But they'd get better performance in Windows anyway, because more stuff is optimized to work well with GPU acceleration in Windows...

[Ferrari904]

Well looking on the bright side, it looks like I get a new display. Unless there is an adapter that converts mini displayport to DVI. LOL, a man can dream. :)

[Spanky Deluxe]

Well looking on the bright side, it looks like I get a new display. Unless there is an adapter that converts mini displayport to DVI. LOL, a man can dream. :)

Mini Displayport to DVI yes, DVI to Mini Displayport, alas no.

Mind you, one thing I've been wondering is whether you could hack together a Full size display port to mini display port adater and then buy a PC 4870 with a full size display port on it. I seem to remember Gigabyte's 4870s having Displayport. The only challenge would be getting the female mini displayport connector. If only Apple at least did a MDP extension cable!!

[Ferrari904]

Mini Displayport to DVI yes, DVI to Mini Displayport, alas no.

Mind you, one thing I've been wondering is whether you could hack together a Full size display port to mini display port adater and then buy a PC 4870 with a full size display port on it. I seem to remember Gigabyte's 4870s having Displayport. The only challenge would be getting the female mini displayport connector. If only Apple at least did a MDP extension cable!!

DVI to Mini Displayport is what I meant. Well thats all in good, but like I said before, I'm impatient (which is what got me in this mess). So either that happens in the next week, or for now I just have a useless card right now.

[damado]

Well it looks like I might have resolved the problem I mentioned earlier about the permanent runaway PSU fan.

-Pushed the 2 buttons on the motherboard, one just under the low slot PCI-E slot and one by the highest PCI-E slot.
-Installed the 7300GT
--No loud PSU fan
-Swapped out to an 8800GT
--No loud PSU fan
-installed 4870
--Loud PSU fan
-Turned off, pushed both buttons again
--No PSU fan
-Rebooted to windows 7 and back, still ok. PSU fan at 600 RPM instead of 2700.

Not sure what this means, sounds like a bad PSU or something. I couldn't imagine running two of these cards in there.

I haven't had a very good track record with this Mac Pro. I've gone through 3 1900XTs that got changed out thanks to Blizzard getting involved with Apple. The last time it blew I just switched to the 8800GT since it just came out. That blew out last week (it locks up OSX in games now and driver stops responding in games in windows 7) and so I found the 4870 would work. We'll see how long this lasts. No point in buying one from apple for double the price with their track record.

I keep considering going back to PC since windows 7 is actually decent, but being in the photography business I feel apple is where I should be. I just really want something reliable =/

On a positive note, Apple gave me a brand new 30 inch ACD a week before the warranty expired on mine since the top right of the screen was losing pixels or something.

[TheStrudel]

Mini Displayport to DVI yes, DVI to Mini Displayport, alas no.

Mind you, one thing I've been wondering is whether you could hack together a Full size display port to mini display port adater and then buy a PC 4870 with a full size display port on it. I seem to remember Gigabyte's 4870s having Displayport. The only challenge would be getting the female mini displayport connector. If only Apple at least did a MDP extension cable!!

Monoprice does now make a MDP extension cable, actually. No DP to MDP adapter. Yet.

[ArtizanGBR]

I created a new custom ROM file for XFX XXX Edition card listed above with the revision F EFI rom from the latest shipping Apple 4870 cards. While it works just as well as the old ROM, it doesn't appear to fix the 2.5 GT/s link speed issue, nor the 2nd DVI port is only single-link issue. I've attached the ROM file should you be interested in trying for yourself. Again, I am no way responsible if this ROM bricks your card. Use it entirely at your own risk.

Hi rhildinger, just wondering is there any advantage using this RevF Rom over the rom you posted earlier? (post 487)
I have a xfx HD4870xxx which will be arriving this week. I have Dell 20" vga monitor attached to my Mac Pro 1.1 currently using the apple dvi-vga adapter.
Am I right in thinking that this will not work with these flashed cards? as in no vga reported (it works with my flashed Sapphire X1900 xtx)

If so, does anyone have a HannsG HG221AP had a good review in Macworld after reading the thread (several times!!) I know there is an issue with some LCD's. Would be helpful to get a list of screens that have issues.

Thanks again for all the hard work you guys have put into this. I will post my efforts when I have done. :)

[Spanky Deluxe]

Monoprice does now make a MDP extension cable, actually. No DP to MDP adapter. Yet.

Looks like they do have one listed now but its on back order. Buy one of those and a standard display port extension and you could easily make your own set of mini display port to display port and display port to mini display port adapters.

[The Rominator]

I have Dell 20" vga monitor attached to my Mac Pro 1.1 currently using the apple dvi-vga adapter.
Am I right in thinking that this will not work with these flashed cards? as in no vga reported (it works with my flashed Sapphire X1900 xtx)



There is VGA on these cards.

You need to have a DVI-VGA adapter on both ports and you may need to use SwitchResX to get your display's res choices, but it is there.

This only works on cards with BOTH DVI ports working.

[matthew.russo]

Does anyone know where I can get an ATI Rom based on the reference card Wekiva RV770 B77101 Board?

[aconu]

There is VGA on these cards.
This only works on cards with BOTH DVI ports working.

Not exactly, this work on the Gainward GS 1024Mo too (but this is VGA OR DVI, not both in same time).

[StuAff]

I know I must have done something wrong, not sure what....
I'm swapping out an X1900XT, using the power cable that came with than plus one of V0n's. Card's an XFX 1GB XXX edition. So, yes, the 4870 is the only card in the system. I have two Superdrives fitted, so no spare molex for a second card unless I use one of those- I would prefer to avoid it?
Windows boots fine, copied the ROM fine, UBCD (4.1.1) appeared to burn fine. But the CD won't boot the system. Not with holding down 'C' or option. Try burning another one with Toast on my MacBook- no dice. ATI WinFlash can't see the card (CCC etc installed fine, running beautifully). So, ATM, I have an excellent XP box. But how do I get this thing flashed and running properly? Any ideas gratefully accepted...

[pastrychef]

I know I must have done something wrong, not sure what....
I'm swapping out an X1900XT, using the power cable that came with than plus one of V0n's. Card's an XFX 1GB XXX edition. So, yes, the 4870 is the only card in the system. I have two Superdrives fitted, so no spare molex for a second card unless I use one of those- I would prefer to avoid it?
Windows boots fine, copied the ROM fine, UBCD (4.1.1) appeared to burn fine. But the CD won't boot the system. Not with holding down 'C' or option. Try burning another one with Toast on my MacBook- no dice. ATI WinFlash can't see the card (CCC etc installed fine, running beautifully). So, ATM, I have an excellent XP box. But how do I get this thing flashed and running properly? Any ideas gratefully accepted...

Have you tried selecting the CD as the boot up device from Bootcamp Tools? Or, try holding the [Option] key when booting?

[StuAff]

Have you tried selecting the CD as the boot up device from Bootcamp Tools? Or, try holding the [Option] key when booting?

Option key made no difference, my MacBook wouldn't recognise it as a bootable disc either...

[swissmann]

Option key made no difference, my MacBook wouldn't recognise it as a bootable disc either...

I would guess you made a mistake in creating the CD. You need to make it bootable and it sounds like you just made an un-bootable disc of data (try booting from an audio CD for example). My tutorial might be helpful in this:

http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html

[StuAff]

I would guess you made a mistake in creating the CD. You need to make it bootable and it sounds like you just made an un-bootable disc of data (try booting from an audio CD for example). My tutorial might be helpful in this:

http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html

Yup, I was following that (very helpful it is too, btw). I got Magic ISO, was using that to burn. I have Nero version-something-or-other on an ancient (2002) PC, I'll try that later (at work at mo).

[StuAff]

OK, burnt yet another UBCD. My MacBook boots fine with it holding down 'C'. Straight off the bat, no problems. The Pro- nada, ignores it then goes back into Windows. Holding down C or Option makes no difference. My wrist gets sore to no avail. Can't see a boot menu, let alone get it to start up from the CD- which is clearly OK. Seriously hacked off with this......

Update: After playing Kane's Wrath for a bit of relief, I tried WinFlash again- made sure it was the latest version. And praise be, it's worked perfectly. Back in OS X now. Still haven't a clue why the UBCD wouldn't work, but got there in the end. Thanks rhildinger and swissman for the software and the tutorial. £160 thankfully not wasted (or spent on a card I managed to brick...).

[Spanky Deluxe]

OK, burnt yet another UBCD. My MacBook boots fine with it holding down 'C'. Straight off the bat, no problems. The Pro- nada, ignores it then goes back into Windows. Holding down C or Option makes no difference. My wrist gets sore to no avail. Can't see a boot menu, let alone get it to start up from the CD- which is clearly OK. Seriously hacked off with this......

Update: After playing Kane's Wrath for a bit of relief, I tried WinFlash again- made sure it was the latest version. And praise be, it's worked perfectly. Back in OS X now. Still haven't a clue why the UBCD wouldn't work, but got there in the end. Thanks rhildinger and swissman for the software and the tutorial. £160 thankfully not wasted (or spent on a card I managed to brick...).

Just out of interest, what keyboard are you using? Any non Apple wireless keyboard will likely not work with boot up options.

[The Inevitable]

I just got one of the newly released 4890s (a Sapphire 4890 Toxic 1GB (960MHz clock)), and I installed the ATY_init package (http://rapidshare.de/files/47380512/Enabler_for_Nvidia_and_multiple_ATI_cards.pkg.html) thats listed on the front page of netkas.org. I inserted the card into Slot 1, and ran a cable from the empty optical bay molex connector to the 8-pin PCI-E power connector on the card and used the existing 6-pin PCI-E cable from my X1900 to connect to the other power connector on the card. Unfortunately, as soon as OS X loads, the card's fan goes to 100% and I get no video.

I'm running 10.5.7 on a 2006 Mac Pro, but I haven't installed drivers since I was under the impression that they're only needed with 10.5.6. I may try to use an older version of ATY_init like the one linked to here (http://netkas.org/?p=104) to see if that might make any difference.

Anyone have any other ideas about what I can do to get this card working in OS X? I'm willing to provide any additional info needed if it'll help.

[netkas]

there was pkg with antit&aty_init inside, on this thread, works for 4890

seems like new aty_init works only for 4870x2 yet.

[StuAff]

Just out of interest, what keyboard are you using? Any non Apple wireless keyboard will likely not work with boot up options.

I used the regular Apple keyboard that came in the box...Why it didn't work with the CD...well, got everything up and running now, so I'm not going to worry about it.

[gugucom]

Just do this:
http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html

Seriously. Buy that specific card, follow the guide, you'll have it up and running in 10 minutes. No system file hacking required, just runs natively in OS X.

I have flashed my XFX with the above procedure. In Windows I get everything I need.

In OS X I cannot run my 46" Samsung HDTV with the advised mode which is VGA 1920x1080. When I use HDMI via DVI and set the TV to "Just Scan" I cannot achieve 1:1 pixel mapping. Samsung advise a horizontal frequency of 67.500 kHz, a vertical frequenzy of 60 Hz and a pixel clock of 148.000 with +/+ sync polarity for HDMI/DVI input.

In control panel for monitors I can set one frequency only which will not make a difference. I can also set overscan which will not hit the 1:1 pixel mapping with or without. Identifying the monitors does not help with the problem.

I wonder if there is a tool under OS X that lets you set the screen parameters individually?

Alternatively I could use a different ROM file that enables VGA output for at least one of the DVI connectors. If you know such a ROM it would be helpfull.


Help appreciated!!

[The Rominator]

look through last full page or so of posts

[lannister80]

I wonder if there is a tool under OS X that lets you set the screen parameters individually?

SwitchResX - Can do custom everything when it comes to monitor resolution.

http://www.madrau.com/html/SRX/About.html

[The Inevitable]

I installed ATY_init and natit plus the Exotic Cards patched X2000 mentioned in this post, (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7607696&postcount=1252) and I can report success with getting video in OS X! However, it crashes as soon as I connect a second monitor or boot with a second monitor attached. =/

If needed, I'm sure can dig up the crash logs, but it sounds similar to the problems experienced by the flashed Sapphire 4870 users were/are experiencing. For now, I'm gonna try fitting my X1900 into slot 3 to power my 2nd monitor. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. :)

[?uestion]

Mac pro 1,1
stock HD
6gb ram
reflashed a regular sapphire HD 4870
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102810
with 4870.rom (found on this site)

restart and a redlight comes on on the diagnostic area.

fail CPU B

I can remove the card and put the 7300GT in and it boots fine. however any slot I put the 4870 cpu B fail

I have ruled all other upgrades out. I followed the directions to reflash to the T (all greenlights under the 4870 card is green anyone got any ideas?

I see someone else has these problems too. guess its a bad reflash

[Cindori]

Reporting success of 4890 with dual displays (second display being my HDTV connected by HDMI).

Details will come next week.

[gugucom]

SwitchResX - Can do custom everything when it comes to monitor resolution.

http://www.madrau.com/html/SRX/About.html

I have actually tried that one. It will not give me 1:1 pixel mapping as VGA does without any problems. So I will continue to look for a ROM file that delivers at least one VGA output and works without software hacks. I have no desire to have problems at at every update Apple does.

I will also continue to experiment with SwitchResX for some days but my expectations are not very high. I cannot simply set the resolution, the frequencies and such in a way as defined by Samsung. There are complicated scaling geometries which are connected with different frequencies. It is impossible to define a simple set without scaling it appears.

[The Rominator]

I guess this thread is now of ungainly size so nobody is gonna read the whole thing. Several weeks ago I reported that the cards that worked with Dual DVI (ie...your XFX) could have a single VGA output if they placed a DVI to VGA adapter on both outputs. Unfortunately, this means you can only run a single VGA...but better than nothing.

Sadly, the EDID doesn't make it through the process, so you will be in need of that SwitchresX that you already installed. :-)

[gugucom]

That sounds interesting Rominator. There is no problem to run the XFX4870 with VGA on both the Dell 1600x1200 screen and the Samsung 1920x1080. I will check this and come back if there are questions regarding SwitchResX. Thanks for the info. I agree this thread has grown a bit out of proportion, but thankfully we have knowledgeable people who can point other users in the right direction.

Edit: Checked and found that with two VGA adaptors I will get screen on one. Unfortunately I havn't got a clue how to get the second screen with VGA or DVI and by help of SwitchResX. Can someone give a bit of a howto for this, please?

[?uestion]

is there anyway for me to reflash a botched flash through a mac pro?

[gugucom]

I can only tell this from theoretical background. You would need a second card and use that for grafics while you are doing your atiflash. I do all my flashing in a Shuttle with DOS run off a flash stick. The PC is capable to boot of the device which isn't true for the Mac Pro with EFI as far as I know. So you would need a FAT boot drive which could be a CD-RW or a hard disk.

When you are booted into DOS you would interrogate the system to find out the adapter ## of your cards. Then atiflash the one you want to repair with the backup that you have hopefully taken off the card prior to flashing it. If you forgot to backup you will most likely find stuff at TechPowerUps! archive, which is quite exhaustive for PC BIOS files.

For any future backups remember to use size parameter 20000 for 128 kB EEPROMS like the one in the 4870.

Assuming your video adapter is #0, your botched card is #1 and your backup ROM file is backup.rom. Also assuming you are in the right directory which contains the atiflash files and the ROM file itself, your code in atiflash would be:

atiflash -p 1 backup.rom -f


Your code for backing up the ROM file which was on your card originally with only one card in the machine would be:

atiflash -s 0 backup.rom 20000

[jaison]

I want to do this for OSX86 is it safe? t have this card
Sapphire HD4870 1GB Gddr5 PcI-E Dual DVI-i/TVO
pn 288=20E85-130SA
Sku# 11133-04-41R
Rest of the stuff matches... please advice
thanks in advance
UPDATE: flashed it with the rom here boots properly in windows now will try OSX86 and report back, OSX still gives all sorts of problems anyone else have any roms for this card :(
Intro:
I've been looking to upgrade the video card in my Mac Pro for quite a while since the 7300gt it came with was woefully inadequate for most modern gaming.

This forum helped me immensely in getting up and running, so I figured the least I could do was attempt to write a noob-proof, step-by-step guide with as much clarity as possible to help take some of the pressure off of the geniuses in there who answered my stupid questions. I STILL RECOMMEND YOU READ THROUGH THE ENTIRE THREAD.

What we're doing in a nutshell:
We're going to buy the PC version of an ATI 4870 video card because they're going to cost a good deal less than the official cards from Apple. The firmware on these PC cards is NOT compatible with our Mac Pros, however. Our goal then is to essentially update this firmware with something that our Mac Pros can understand. This is a slightly tricky process since we can't update the firmware from within OS X, and so we'll first have to boot to a DOS environment, flash the card from there, and then install the drivers for the video card onto OS X just like we would with Windows. Folks HAVE been able to flash directly from Windows, I just wasn't able to do it myself.

The end result:
A 4870 that is supported in both OS X and Windows. NOTE: CURRENTLY WITHIN OS X, ONLY ONE DVI MONITOR MAY BE ATTACHED TO THE CARD.

Assumptions:
You have a Mac Pro and you have Bootcamp installed on that Mac Pro (alternatively, if you have a PC in addition to your Mac Pro, you may execute the first two phases of the directions below on your PC and just transfer the card to your Mac when finished with phase two). You use a DVI connection between your monitor and your current video card. You have Windows XP installed on Bootcamp (Vista is probably fine, but I did NOT test it). You're somewhat of a power user and know how to make your way around DOS, are comfortable with ISO files, and have no issues with modifying system files. This isn't brain surgery, but you should be able to follow along with what's going on lest you run into problems. If this isn't you, then you shouldn't try this.

Notes:

This guide is for a stock Mac Pro purchased in August of 2006. It had one 7300GT card and upgraded RAM and an additional CD-ROM drive, but past that, all stock.
I haven't seen any specific instructions for specific Mac Pro models, so if you have a newer Mac Pro these directions MAY still be sufficient. Newer Macs will likely work, but obviously I haven't been able to test them.
There are numerous methods that folks have used to flash their cards. Some used WinFlash (flash your card from within Windows), some used a version of DOS (what we will be doing), and some used a standalone PC to boot into DOS, flash the card, and drop the card into the Mac. The point being that you don't HAVE to do it this way - I have Windows and Bootcamp installed, you might not want to install those if you don't already have them. At any rate, there ARE other methods, this is just the method I chose.
Obviously proceed with care - I'm not responsible for any damage you may do to your computer and flashing cards can be serious business.


What you need to buy (HARDWARE):

This EXACT Sapphire video card: SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP. PN# 288-20e85-130sa SKU# 11133-04-20r. You can buy it HERE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801.
TWO of these EXACT internal power cables. The Sapphire comes with power cables, but they won't fit in our Mac Pros, so we need to get these instead. You can buy them HERE: http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=3280778. Alternatively, some folks have crafted their own cables. Instructions are present earlier in the thread.


What you need to download (SOFTWARE):

GPU-Z. We're going to use this Windows application to safely backup the factory ROM on the card in case something goes wrong. Get it here: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
evlisizer's ROM. This is the firmware that we will be placing on the card. Get it from HERE (it's the pc4870.zip attachment): http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=7314503#post7314503
ATIFlash. This is the application that will copy elvisizer's ROM onto the card. Get if from HERE: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1123/mirrors.php
The OS X Radeon Drivers. These enable full support of the card (minus the second DVI port) within OS X. Get them HERE (if they're not present, Google for "MacOSX_10.5.6_radeon_hd_48x0_drivers.pkg"): http://www.sendspace.com/file/gvsi12
Ultimate Boot CD: We are going to make a bootable CD that will get us into a DOS environment where we can flash the card. Download the ISO version from here: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html
MagicISO: When we boot off of our Ultimate Boot CD, we're going to need to have ATIFlash and the new ROM file also burned onto the CD so that we can flash the ROM. We're going to use MagicISO to open the iso file from Ultimate Boot CD and put those files into the ISO before we burn it.


Assuming you've met the assumptions and have all of the hardware and software, here are the Step-By-Step Directions:

Stage one: Install the card, backup the ROM, setup the boot CD.

Install the new 4870 in the first slot (your primary card is probably sitting here). Move the card that resides in that slot to the second slot. Install both of the power cables (if your Mac Pro is upgright and you're looking into it, then the connectors are toward the upper left of the motherboard). Use some caution here - it's a snug fit.
Plug the DVI cable into your OLD video card, NOT the new card. This might just have been my computer, but when I tried to view any sort of video through the new card (even in Windows) it didn't put out a signal in either DVI ports. Don't be concerned if this happens to you.
Turn your Mac on. Using Bootcamp, load Windows. When Windows is loaded, you should see that it found the 4870. Don't worry about installing the drivers for it yet, we just want to make sure that you have the card and power cables installed correctly and that Windows can see it.
Open GPU-Z. At the bottom of the application, you'll see a dropdown box, probably with your old video card selected. Select the new card. Next to the "BIOS Version" label, you'll see a small icon of a chip with a green arrow. Click it and save the resulting file in a safe location - THIS IS YOUR BACKUP ROM.
Open MagicISO. Load the Ultimate Boot CD ROM. In the upper right window, create a new folder and call it "Mac". In this folder, add the contents of the ATIFlash.zip file that you downloaded (don't just put the zip file in here, unzip it and dump the contents!) and the "pc4870.rom" file that is in the "pc4870.zip" file you downloaded. I also threw "MacOSX_10.5.6_radeon_hd_48x0_drivers.pkg" in this directory just so that I had the files handy for OS X. Once you have the files in place, save the ISO.
Burn the ISO file to a CD.


Stage two: Flash the video card

With the CD we created in step 6, reboot your computer and hold down the "Alt" key to bring up the Bootcamp Bootloader. On the very right, you should see an option to boot from the CD. Do this. As it loads, you'll see another screen asking you to hit enter to boot from the CD. Do it.
At the main menu, select the "DOS/Linux Boot Disks" option.
Select the OpenDOS Boot Disk. You may have to hit "enter" a few times here. I didn't do anything fancy here, just let it run through the process and pretty much said "yes" for everything. Keep your eye open to see which letter it maps your CD to - mine was something like T:.
Navigate to your CD's "Mac" directory that we setup in step 5.
Type "ATIFlash -i" and hit enter. This will display information about the ATI cards on your system. Again, we're just ensuring that the card is being read and is ready to be flashed. Don't be concerned if you only see one card here even if you have two installed - this will ONLY show ATI cards that are installed, and so it ignored my Nvidia 7300 GT.
Time to flash the card. Assuming your situation is similar to mine and the above only shows one single card, type "ATIFlash -p 0 pc4870.rom -f" and hit enter. You should see a successful message telling you that your card has been updated and to restart. If two cards show up, I BELIEVE you will substitute the "0" for whichever number (from the above stuff) the 4870 is in.
Turn your Mac off. Pull out the old video card and plug your monitor into the new video card. Only one of the DVI outputs works - I think it's the upper one.
Power back on. With any luck your screen will light up and OS X will load! If you've gotten this far, then you're pretty much golden.


Stage three: Install the drivers for OS X (Enter your password as necessary)

OS X will now load. It may look completely fine, but the drivers aren't installed yet and so you'll be getting degraded video performance and Quartz Extreme won't be supported (you can see that in the System Profiler). Assuming you still have the boot CD in your drive, open it and navigate to the "Mac" directory. Copy the "Natit.kext.zip" and "MacOSX_10.5.6_radeon_hd_48x0_drivers.pkg" files to your desktop.
Install the "MacOSX_10.5.6_radeon_hd_48x0_drivers.pkg" file.
Reboot! When you get back into OS X, if you look at your video card under System Profiler, you should see that your card now supports Quartz Extreme.


Finished! The only thing you probably still need to do is install video card drivers in Windows. Those came with your video card's CD.

Hopefully that's concise enough for noobs like me. Many thanks to EVERYONE on the original "Race to dump the 4870 ROM" thread! This is really all of THEIR work, I just tried to get it all in one place in a guide format.

[?uestion]

I tried the 4870.rom on that same card jaison

I really need jaberwocky's rom to get mine working

[jaison]

I tried the 4870.rom on that same card jaison

I really need jaberwocky's rom to get mine working
Thanks
Link?

[?uestion]

Thanks
Link?

sorry it was early I meant that maybe I could use that on my 4870 pin number 288-10E85-030SA

as of right now I flashed my 288-10E85-030SA with a rom found in this thread called 4870.rom it essentially bricked my mac pro, so what I need is Jabberwalky's rom he created for the Sapphire 288-10E85-030SA.

I essentally fubared by not creating my own rom using the 4870 and the pc rom

[Macnolo4]

Hi, guys !

I have just recieve the official ATI 4870, and now I´m in Windows 7 32 Bits under Bootcamp with the latest ATI drivers installed, but I can´t find the Avivo GPU Transcoder for some testing. Anyone know if there is a problem with the Apple version of this card and Avivo ??

Thanks !!


P.S.: This card is big and heavy compared even with the 3870 !!

Sorry guys.. I found the download in the drivers section..

[jaison]

will it be helpful if i posted my rom?

[jaison]

I finished installing the Sapphire 4870 1GB earlier. It works just fine!

was it for a hackintosh can you share the rom

thanks

[Macnolo4]

Hi, guys !
I have posted this question in other thread, but It didn´t work so I question again...

I got the Apple ATI 4870 this morning, but when I boot in Windows 7 32 Bits under Bootcamp with the latest ATI drivers installed, I can´t run the Avivo GPU Transcoder, and Cyberlink MediaShow Expresso which has a GPU encoding option doesn´t give me this choice. So anyone know if there is a problem with the Apple version of this card and the ATI drivers in the form of GPU encoding??

Thanks !!

[jaison]

http://rapidshare.de/files/47433290/RV770.bin.html
link to my original rom
Sapphire HD4870 1GB Gddr5 PcI-E Dual DVI-i/TVO
pn 288=20E85-130SA
Sku# 11133-04-41R

[jaberwocky]

Jabberwalky's rom he created for the Sapphire 288-10E85-030SA.

I essentally fubared by not creating my own rom using the 4870 and the pc rom

You got a PM!

Bye, jaberwocky

[jaison]

You got a PM!

Bye, jaberwocky


Any luck with my issue jaberwocky?

[JeffreyM]

Hmm, I have a 1GB Sapphire card and I flashed it with a rom found earlier in this thread. It works great in Mac OS, but when I try to boot into Windows everything is black (Note: the xp booting logo shows up fine.) Any idea?

TIA!

[makoffee]

I'm having this same problem please help!

Mac pro 1,1
stock HD
6gb ram
reflashed a regular sapphire HD 4870
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102810
with 4870.rom (found on this site)

restart and a redlight comes on on the diagnostic area.

fail CPU B

I can remove the card and put the 7300GT in and it boots fine. however any slot I put the 4870 cpu B fail

I have ruled all other upgrades out. I followed the directions to reflash to the T (all greenlights under the 4870 card is green anyone got any ideas?

I see someone else has these problems too. guess its a bad reflash

[jaberwocky]

Any luck with my issue jaberwocky?

I don't think so - my card is 512MB, you got a 1GB, so my org. ROM / modified ROM is not usefull for you.

Bye, jaberwocky

[BConvery]

Hmm, I have a 1GB Sapphire card and I flashed it with a rom found earlier in this thread. It works great in Mac OS, but when I try to boot into Windows everything is black (Note: the xp booting logo shows up fine.) Any idea?

TIA!

I've been using the one from this post in my 1 gig sapphire card for 6 weeks....works great in Mac OS and windows on my early '08 mac pro.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=7314503#post7314503

[matthew.russo]

Im interested to see how these flashed cards go with openCL. no one has a seed of snow leapord to test?

[super_kev]

Those of you who are running the flashed 4870... are the GPU temperatures reported with iStat (or other temperature monitoring programs)?

Reading up on the card suggests that it runs 50-60C when idle and 80-90C when under load (due to ATI's low fan settings), which is way too hot for me. The Windows folks can use ATI Catalyst Control Center to up the minimum fan speed to 35-40%, which gives a huge drop in card temps. However, there doesn't seem to be a comparable option for the OS X side.

[bpd115]

Any difference between this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150382

and the one being sold for 189.99 at newegg and tiger direct?

The only thing I can tell is the re-certified part is

HD487AZDF

and the model that is confirmed working part number is

HD487AZDFC

[TheStrudel]

I've been using the one from this post in my 1 gig sapphire card for 6 weeks....works great in Mac OS and windows on my early '08 mac pro.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=7314503#post7314503

I assume you're not using dual monitors in OS X. But are you using dual monitors in windows? Are both ports dual-link DVI?

[?uestion]

ok flashed a new 4870 sapphire card 288-10EXX-XXXXX

got into osx fine

but now it shows two hd4870's :confused: here is some screenshots in profiler
OSX is 10.5.7
http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/5483/card1.jpg

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/5928/card2.jpg


anyone know whats up?

[bozz2006]

haven't read through the whole thread but wanted to ask a quick question...

can the flash be executed with windows XP while running under emulation in Parallels? Or does it have to be Bootcamp?

[pknz]

After reading through most of this thread, I am left still a little confused.

I have a 2006 Mac Pro with a X1900XT and am looking at the possibility of upgrading the graphics card to support OpenCL.

If I were to purchase a 4870, it would require both the power supplies on the motherboard.

Is this cable a standard power cable or does it have to be the ATI one. (I am in NZ, so it makes it a little more difficult trying to buy from a US or Europe site).

What sort of set up would u need to run the X1900XT and 4870 for flashing purposes in terms of powering both at the same time?

[TheStrudel]

can the flash be executed with windows XP while running under emulation in Parallels? Or does it have to be Bootcamp?

This has already been discussed, but I'll post it again:

You cannot flash a graphics card through a VM. Use windows, or preferably DOS.

[bozz2006]

This has already been discussed, but I'll post it again:

You cannot flash a graphics card through a VM. Use windows, or preferably DOS.

I figured that it was, but I appreciate the answer. Thank you.

[pknz]

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ATi-Radeon-HD-4870-512MB-DDR5-PCI-E-Card-For-Mac-Pro_W0QQitemZ260417528058QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3ca21820fa&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177&_trkparms=240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

Would this suffice? Or is it on the dodgey side?

[richpjr]

After reading through most of this thread, I am left still a little confused.

I have a 2006 Mac Pro with a X1900XT and am looking at the possibility of upgrading the graphics card to support OpenCL.

If I were to purchase a 4870, it would require both the power supplies on the motherboard.

Is this cable a standard power cable or does it have to be the ATI one. (I am in NZ, so it makes it a little more difficult trying to buy from a US or Europe site).

What sort of set up would u need to run the X1900XT and 4870 for flashing purposes in terms of powering both at the same time?

I just upgraded my 2006 Mac Pro with the X1900 to the XFX4870 tonight. It went well, except for not having enough power connectors for both the 1900 and 4870 at the same time! I happened to have a PC sitting right next to my Mac, so I opened up the case on it and used one of cables from the PC's power supply to power the 1900 during the reflash! Kind of cheesy, but it worked like a charm! The upgrade was very easy and I am amazed at how much quieter the 4870 is than the 1900 was.

[super_kev]

I checked Newegg for the XFX 4870 (ZDFC) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150352) a few hours ago and it was $190. Just checked now and it's $150, so it looks like a price drop or a weekend special. For those who are looking for dual DVI out for a good price, jump on it. Free 3 day shipping, too! :cool:

[richpjr]

I checked Newegg for the XFX 4870 (ZDFC) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150352) a few hours ago and it was $190. Just checked now and it's $150, so it looks like a price drop or a weekend special. For those who are looking for dual DVI out for a good price, jump on it. Free 3 day shipping, too! :cool:

Ugh, I just order mine a week ago for the $190 price.

[AdvocateUK]

I've been waiting for the GTX285 to show but damn the prices on the 4870 for PC here in the UK are less than half as much as Apples card on their site?

Which PC 4870 when flashed will allow me to continue to use both my 30" ACD and 23" ACD? Any of the 1gig cards?

TIA

Alistair

[Spanky Deluxe]

I've been waiting for the GTX285 to show but damn the prices on the 4870 for PC here in the UK are less than half as much as Apples card on their site?

Which PC 4870 when flashed will allow me to continue to use both my 30" ACD and 23" ACD? Any of the 1gig cards?

TIA

Alistair

I'm pretty sure the XFX 1GB cards work with dual monitors (one dual link, one single link).

[richpjr]

I'm pretty sure the XFX 1GB cards work with dual monitors (one dual link, one single link).

I'm running with two single links with no problems.

[richpjr]

Ugh, I just order mine a week ago for the $190 price.

I just called up NewEgg and the gave me a $40 credit on my card - great customer service!

[pknz]

What would be the best way to power an X1900XT and a 4870 at the same time so I don't have to flash 'blind.'

The X1900XT requires one 6pin and the 4870 requires two.

[Cindori]

What would be the best way to power an X1900XT and a 4870 at the same time so I don't have to flash 'blind.'

The X1900XT requires one 6pin and the 4870 requires two.


http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=4796516&postcount=1

[richpjr]

Cindori points out the elegant way. I moved a PC next to the Mac Pro and used one of the power cables from it while I flashed - cheesy but free!