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

[vestigefilm]

I noticed in another thread that the XFX supports dual DVI under both leopard and snow leopard. http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=8681042#post8681042

Consumer Depot lists the HD487AZDFC as a vendor drop ship item. http://www.consumerdepot.com/productstd.asp?id=10504466

Will this card support dual DVI in OSX (specifically snow leopard) after flashing?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[lannister80]

I noticed in another thread that the XFX supports dual DVI under both leopard and snow leopard. http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=8681042#post8681042

Consumer Depot lists the HD487AZDFC as a vendor drop ship item. http://www.consumerdepot.com/productstd.asp?id=10504466

Will this card support dual DVI in OSX (specifically snow leopard) after flashing?

Thanks in advance for any help.
YES!
That is the exact card I picked up in April 09, and it supports dual DVI output in Leopard and SL. No VGA signal though. And yes, mine is flashed, not using "injectors".

Get it if at all possible. It's the better double-height card with the heat exhaust instead of the scatter-shot fan.

[d1sahib]

Thank you Rominator. That worked very well. :)

To answer one of your questions in Post #2000, I rebooted and the power message went away by itself within a minute.

For others who may want to try this, here is the procedure I followed (thanks to Alexandre Boeglin for providing an easy way to flash the card from within OS X):

- Downloaded and extracted the firmware file by Rominator (Post #1995)

- Downloaded the two files (iMac Graphics Update and Pacifist) as detailed in the Boeglin method (http://boeglin.org/blog/comments.php?y=09&m=09&entry=entry090918-031702).

- Using Pacifist, extracted the two files (ATIROMFlasher.kext and ATIFacelessFlash.app) to my home folder (~).

- Fixed the authentication errors.

- Erased the old iMac firmware as suggested in Boeglin's notes.

- Copied the firmware file (saph487X.ROM) to the flash utility.

- Installed the card in slot 1, moved the existing GT120 to slot 3.

- Connected the power cables (bought from the ATI store).

- Booted and ran the flash utilities.

- Connected a monitor (Dell 2405FPW) to the 4870 and rebooted.

As mentioned in other posts also, a warning pops up every time your Mac is rebooted, but is goes away if you do nothing.

Many thanks to all; this would not been possible without your dedication and perseverance.

[Peloche]

If you create a ROM for your 4870 or 4890 from it's original PC BIOS, here is a piece of advice that can save you some frustrating hours.

Use "hexedit" to do a search. Look for the characters "MCUC". Be sure to click the "ASCII" button.

The string should show up twice, first time in the PC BIOS, just a few bytes after address for GDDR5 table.

The second time is the open for the GDDR5 table. If "MCUC" only shows up once, you have overwritten the begining of GDDR5 table and are doomed for failure.....DON'T FLASH IT.

Post here and I can help if I have time. Or maybe someone else will come by.

Hi The Rominator,

I 've checked my EFIROM for Sapphire HD Radeon 4890 New Version and found 2 "MCuC".

I've compared also 3 roms, my EFIROM (hyb.rom), The original rom of the same card (original.rom), and Netkas ROM (netkas.rom), you'll find here attached the results, in blue is the end of the original bios, in red is the beginning of EFI part, and in brown the end of EFI part.
Netkas ROM bios (from MSI) is a bit longer than mine, so bios doesn't finish at the same place.
EFI on mine starts next line after bios end, EFI on Netkas has left 15 lines between bios and EFI.
but for mine 1F8B0 - F800= 65 712 (dec)
and for Netkas 1FAB0 - FA00 = 65 712 (dec) so EFI starts with the same value, finishs with the same value and have the same length on both rom.
My card work very well on PC and on Hackintosh, but not on Mac Pro :(

http://yfrog.com/0lromsej

[The Rominator]

Hi The Rominator,

I 've checked my EFIROM for Sapphire HD Radeon 4890 New Version and found 2 "MCuC".

I've compared also 3 roms, my EFIROM (hyb.rom), The original rom of the same card (original.rom), and Netkas ROM (netkas.rom), you'll find here attached the results, in blue is the end of the original bios, in red is the beginning of EFI part, and in brown the end of EFI part.
Netkas ROM bios (from MSI) is a bit longer than mine, so bios doesn't finish at the same place.
EFI on mine starts next line after bios end, EFI on Netkas has left 15 lines between bios and EFI.
but for mine 1F8B0 - F800= 65 712 (dec)
and for Netkas 1FAB0 - FA00 = 65 712 (dec) so EFI starts with the same value, finishs with the same value and have the same length on both rom.
My card work very well on PC and on Hackintosh, but not on Mac Pro :(

http://yfrog.com/0lromsej

Hmm...hard to tell from those shots, but it looks OK.

Everything I know how to do with these ROMs can be figured out from the ROMs posted above, the one that came on the Saphire 4870, the one that the guys had made that contained the placement error, and the one I posted with the error fixed. (that works)

Do a Hexedit compare on them and see what I did.

In addition to reinstalling the GDDR5 table in it's entirety, I also changed the address it is lised at in the PC BIOS. (look about 10 bytes before first "MCUC")

DO all those things, make sure it is still exactly 128Kb in length, and then run the Fixrom.py on it.

I have a guest coming for the weekend and won't be able to spend time on ROMs til monday...but seriously, comparing the 3 roms for the Saphire I fixed for ZVON et al can show you all the tricks I did.

FWIW, I tried to do a ROM for a troublesome XFX 4890 in another thread for a trkkie guy, and despite my best efforts he still got screen corruption. There may be some memory or speed init strings in EFI part tat need to be close to the actual card and as cards get more different, the EFI fails. (just a guess, but we are certainly having more trouble with ROMs than in "early days" of spring, despite SL greater tolerance)

[matthew.russo]

has anyone had any luck with crossfire on the Apple oem ati 4870cards?

[Treksdot]

As far as I know Crossfire will not work for any card because the motherboard does not support it.

[Peloche]

Hmm...hard to tell from those shots, but it looks OK.



Just in case your guest will be late :rolleyes:, here attached my EFI ROM.

SANEQEFI stands for "Sapphire New Edition Qimonda EFI".

If we make it to work it should be great since it's widely available now.

Good luck,

Peloche,

Edit: SANEQEFI is for 4890

[Cindori]

As far as I know Crossfire will not work for any card because the motherboard does not support it.

Crossfire works, but only in Windows.

Crossfire is disabled on Apple cards, you need a PC flashed card.

[matthew.russo]

Crossfire is disabled on Apple cards, you need a PC flashed card.

Thats what I was seeing, I had tried a reverse procedure of using other roms injected with the efi part (pipomolo method) and flashed the Apple cards.. was no joy. Seems the crippled oem rom will have to stay.

[Cindori]

yes, crossfire is disabled by hardware on the apple 4870

[rasmusonline]

The Problem under 10.5 is, when I start my mac I have to reconnect the DVI cable, because when the GUI is starting the display's black -,-.

[Tinkersonic]

Thank you Rominator. That worked very well. :)

To answer one of your questions in Post #2000, I rebooted and the power message went away by itself within a minute.

For others who may want to try this, here is the procedure I followed (thanks to Alexandre Boeglin for providing an easy way to flash the card from within OS X):

- Downloaded and extracted the firmware file by Rominator (Post #1995)

- Downloaded the two files (iMac Graphics Update and Pacifist) as detailed in the Boeglin method (http://boeglin.org/blog/comments.php?y=09&m=09&entry=entry090918-031702).

- Using Pacifist, extracted the two files (ATIROMFlasher.kext and ATIFacelessFlash.app) to my home folder (~).

- Fixed the authentication errors.

- Erased the old iMac firmware as suggested in Boeglin's notes.

- Copied the firmware file (saph487X.ROM) to the flash utility.

- Installed the card in slot 1, moved the existing GT120 to slot 3.

- Connected the power cables (bought from the ATI store).

- Booted and ran the flash utilities.

- Connected a monitor (Dell 2405FPW) to the 4870 and rebooted.

As mentioned in other posts also, a warning pops up every time your Mac is rebooted, but is goes away if you do nothing.

Many thanks to all; this would not been possible without your dedication and perseverance.

Hello all. I followed the same procedure quoted above with one exception, I used an older rom (the one quoted wasn't available at the time). My problem is that I get the cpub fail issue when it is plugged into the computer. Black screen, no boot. I tried using the Natit app but it didn't work either.

From what I gather from this thread (it is long and I am a newb) I need to get my hands on a PC with an empty PCI express slot and a PCI video card so that I can re-flash this thing. Is this the case? If so, I have no PC to use. Is there some other method I could try?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Specs:
MacPro 1,1 (bought early 2007)
existing card is NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
new card is Sapphire HD 4870 512 GDDR5

[Cindori]

cpu b light indicates your card had bad flash, you need a PC now and pray you can still save it

[rasmusonline]

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330368686138&_trkparms=tab%3DWatching#ht_1218wt_1074


is this a original ATI card, can I flash a original dump from the apple card on it?

[Cindori]

thats just a reference image, not pic of actual card.
dont think there are any ATI PC 4870 that arent branded (HIS, XFX, Asus etc)

[rasmusonline]

The guy writes it is from ATI himself. I hope he is telling the truth. ;)

So can I flash an original Apple ROM on it? :) Will second DVI port and s-video port work too, although the Apple card has only one DVI port and a mini displayport?

[merneric]

Does anyone have a copy or link to "Jabberwalky's ROM" for a 512GB Sapphire 4870 p/n 288-10E85-030SA?

I tried to search through this thread but it is extremely long, and browsing Jabberwalky's posts did not seem to help.

[popiko]

hi all, first Im sorry for me english... no is really good.

I buy for error Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 2 GB Vapor-X ... change the graphic card is little dificult..
I down a rom from netkas and use on me 4870 2Gb but I have black screen....
Im really angry with Apple, I pay to buy me MacPro 1.1 and now "its Sux" with graphic cards...

Today I down a bios from this threat and try again... I make and restart macpro 1.1 and yes! I can use me 4870 2Gb with Snow Leopard but have "big" problems..
1: I cant use 4870 in Slot 1.. for the heatsink.. its really big.
2: I use in the slot 3 x1 and nvidia 7300 in slot 1 x16.
I can use 4870 2Gb in Snow Leopard but I look in the profile system and Snow Leopard look a graphic card with 1Gb (I think its for the rom from this threat).
I look small graphics bugs on the screen (I think its the problem for the memory.. only detected 1Gb)..

I try use game wow but the game is locked.
I dont know to edit rom and make changes to try use 4870. I use rom
saph487x.rom

Any little help? or I can throw the card to the trash?

I try use this card with windows on bootcamp but I cant install the catalyst.

Thanks to all.

I attach the original rom Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 2 GB Vapor-X

[nachtliche]

Do all 4870's give the power cable warning at bootup? I haven't bought one yet and am trying to decide which one. Having trouble finding one that is still available to buy that has been tested. I'm looking at Sapphire Vapor-X 1GB, part 100267L. Any advice appreciated.

[blunderbus]

I pulled the card back out and took some shots of it. This is the Sapphire Radeon 4870 1 gb that I posted the original rom for a while back. This is the card that Rominator fixed up the rom for.

[merneric]

One more Q, sorry if OT...still not sure if I have correct ROM for my Sapphire 512 4870 card. Problem I run into is whenever I run Sims 3 with flashed 4870 it will not display correctly, mouse arrow comes up but background is completely black. All else (in OS X) seems ok tho. When I run same with flashed 8800, Sims 3 runs fine. Could this be an incompatible ROM issue, or is there some sort of problem with Sims 3 and 4870?

Running on 2006 MacPro 1,1. Also I run 3 displays, 4870 or 8800 as main (30" ACD), and then I have the original 7300 running the 2 side displays (23" ACD's).

[Cindori]

sounds like thesims/ati driver issue

I would try another 3d game with the 4870

[nhood01]

Does anyone know if http://www.consumerdepot.com/productstd.asp?id=10504466 is legit? This site looks alittle sketchy.There is no phone number anywhere. Its the only place that seems to sell the ZDFC model.

edit: i found this place http://www.1stopcamera.com/i121158-xfx-hd487azdfc.html?ref=sortprice too. I just hope they send you that exact model. If they send you a ZWFC or something, that would really suck.

[nike.oakman]

I bought a XFX-HD-487A-ZWFL card yesterday and I installed it in my Snow Leopard 10.6.1 (Mac Pro 1.1). I booted into Windows XP with Bootcamp and flashed with the ROM in the below package:

http://krull.se/macpro/ZWFCFlash.zip

I flashed it with WinFlash and it worked pretty good. As reported elsewhere in this forum I have problems with my monitor output, I have to switch between the different DVI outputs to get it working. Booting to Windows XP works perfect though. I also get the warning about the power cable.

Now, I thought that I could maybe create my own ROM, so I started to search for the original Holy Grail XFX ROM and couldn't find it. So, if anyone can point my in some right directions I'd be more than happy to try creating a working ROM for the ZWFL card.

Thanks in advance

[The Rominator]

If you are having issues in OSX, I imagine you are running Leopard.

Snow Leopard works pretty well on these cards.

Good luck improving the ROM.

The big issue is that the card has physically changed from the ZHFC/ZHDC "easy flash" cards.

The ROM I did for ZWFL/FC uses same method and means as the working ZHFC ROM, so you would need to really get into the down & dirty ROM writing to fix it. (ie...not a simple technical error....ROM would need to be re-written)

[nike.oakman]

Hi Rominator,

I'm afraid that I am running Snow Leopard. I have two different hard drives, one with a Snow Leopard installation which I've upgraded from Leopard, and one clean Snow Leopard install. In both of them I'm experiencing the same problem.

I don't know if it's the issue here, but I have an old CRT monitor attached via a DVI -> VGA adapter. Maybe it's that which is causing the problems? I'll try to run some tests with a monitor with a DVI input later tonight or tomorrow.

I really do appreciate all the help that you and others are willing to give on this issue, it always blows my mind away when there's people around the net helping people like me. Thanks.

[Cindori]

afaik, vga does not work with any flashed card.

do try the dvi.

[The Rominator]

Ha !!!

If VGA works at all it's a miracle.

Try putting a DVI to VGA adapter on the other DVI port...used to be the trick to get it working.

We never claimed to have VGA working except in a very rudimentary sense.

[nike.oakman]

I can absolutely confirm that VGA is working, although not as perfect as I would've hoped. I do know that I saw some reference to VGA not working somewhere in the topic, but as it is 82 pages and I've googled all over net information tends to be lost in the hive... Miracle? Maybe, or just some really smart guys doing a very, very good job here (kudos to you all).

[nhood01]

Cindori, i found a place to buy an XFX 4870 ZDFC. I'd like to use the flashing app you created. Before i take a leap of faith and buy this thing, i wanna make sure i know how to back up the ROM. I know you mentioned earlier in the thread that your 4870 app does not back the ROM up. How would i do this? or where can i go to learn?

thanks

[nike.oakman]

If you have bootcamp installed, I suggest you use

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

to do it. It's very easy, back it up and place it on a USB stick or something for safekeeping.

[nhood01]

thanks.

I'll be needing some sort of newbie guide to go along with it. Could you give me all the steps ? or direct me somewhere i can read on how to do it?

[nike.oakman]

Ok, first and foremost, this is not the usual stuff to do with computers, if you go along with this, you really should have someone more experienced sitting next to you. I don't want to offend anyone, but when you flash something and it goes all wrong and the cold sweat starts to run down your spine, it really helps with a pro by your side. If you still want to continue by your self, do this to back up your ROM.

1. Boot into windows with bootcamp.
2. Download http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1665d/GPU-Z.0.3.6.exe
3. Start it
4. On the first tab (called Graphics Card) locate the row where it says BIOS Version.
5. On that row, on the right side of it, there's a small symbol wich is a black thingy with a blue arrow on top, this is the save ROM button.
6. Click the button, choose "Save to file..." from the popup menu.
7. You'll be presented with a regualar "Save as" dialog, hopefully you'll manage from here.

As a final word of warning, please, flash it with someone a bit experienced as a helping hand.

[nhood01]

Unfortunately, i know no one that is familiar with this, so idk. I wanna make sure i can accomplish this before i shell out the cash, so i don't brick the thing.

Thanks for instructions

[macz1]

Ha !!!

If VGA works at all it's a miracle.

Try putting a DVI to VGA adapter on the other DVI port...used to be the trick to get it working.

We never claimed to have VGA working except in a very rudimentary sense.

I'm afraid this trick works only in OS X 10.5.
Since 10.6 the analog signal of my card is turned off as soon as the system finishes loading... and I did not manage to get it back even after having tried every possible adapter combination including these which used to work in 10.5...

[The Rominator]

If the ZHDC/FC you are getting is from one of those two links, I would be concerned.

The 1st Photo one says it is "Special Order" item. I'm gonna guess they will order a ZWFL from Newegg and charge you $50 to put it in their box and send to you.

If you can't talk to the person holding the item in their hand, or see an actual photo of item being sold, I'd pass. To the PC crowd, the difference in these cards is somewhat negligible, to us it is a different matter.

[nhood01]

I talked via online chat to a representative from the second link. They said it would be the ZDFC, but i still don't really know for sure. They said i could put in a note with the order that it must be a ZDFC, but that just leads me to believe that the one for sale isn't a ZDFC. *shrug* idk

Every aspect of this operation is very risky, lol.

[nike.oakman]

I must report on my success today. I plugged in a DVI monitor instead of my very, very old Lacie 19" CRT monitor... and it worked like a charm! Once again, the card I'm using is a XFX-HD-487A-ZWFL card. I'm using Snow Leopard 10.6.1 on a Mac Pro 1.1. I haven't tried dual screen yet as I only have one DVI monitor. The only issue is the power cable warning, and that I can live with as I've saved a few bucks not buying the Apple 4870 card (why do they overcharge so much for it???). I first flashed with WinFlash from Bootcamp and later with Cindoris app. I guess both of them worked, but at the moment it's the flash made with Cindoris app I'm using. Which way to go is probably up to what kind of preference one have :)

Thanks to all on this forum for the information and help making this work, you're awesome!

[The Rominator]

Glad to hear it worked. I got a ZWFL just to write the ROM for it. May put more time in and try to refine, may not. Anyone else is welcome to try to improve it. But I am very glad that it is working for people.

[Mark Booth]

pipomolo42, Rominator, Cindori or whoever else might be able to help... I really need some help please!

I'm trying very hard to do this myself but I guess I just don't have the experience. I received my XFX HD 4870 model HD487AYHFC from TigerDirect today. This is a 512MB card, not 1GB. It is a slightly older card. The "companion" 1GB card to this card is the ZHFC. (Z for 1GB, Y for 512MB.) The ZHFC has been successfully flashed by numerous people. But I don't want to try the XFX ROM (rhildinger's ROM) for fear his custom ROM for a 1GB card won't be compatible. So.....

I installed Boot Camp with Windows XP on my Mac Pro 1,1, shut down, and then installed the XFX 4870 512MB in Slot #1, moving my Radeon x1900 to slot 2. After restarting in Windows, I installed the driver's included with the XFX card. After that, it was easy to use GPU-Z to dump the original XFX PC ROM. I then rebooted into Mac OS X (Snow Leopard 10.6.1) and put these three files in a folder on my desktop named "Flash":

• pc4870.rom (the file I dumped in Windows using GPU-Z)
• 4870.ROM (the ROM dump from the Apple 4870 card)
• fixrom.py (the file I downloaded from pipomolo42's attachment in message #344 of this thread)

Then I ran Terminal and changed the directory to the Flash folder (cd /Users/Mark/Desktop/Flash). Then I carefully copied each command line from pipomolo42's message and pasted them into Terminal (I figured copy/paste was safer than typing it). But, unfortunately, I ran into some errors. I've tried multiple times and, though the first few commands seem to work OK, I'm concerned about the errors. Here is a copy/paste of the Terminal window:

Last login: Wed Oct 28 00:41:05 on ttys000
Marks-Mac-Pro:~ Mark$ cd /Users/Mark/Desktop/Flash
Marks-Mac-Pro:Flash Mark$ dd if=4870.ROM of=efi.part bs=1 skip=63488 count=49152
49152+0 records in
49152+0 records out
49152 bytes transferred in 0.266352 secs (184538 bytes/sec)
Marks-Mac-Pro:Flash Mark$ blocknum=`printf %d "'\`dd if=pc4870.rom bs=1 skip=2 count=1 2>/dev/null\`"`
Marks-Mac-Pro:Flash Mark$ size=$(($blocknum * 512))
Marks-Mac-Pro:Flash Mark$ dd if=efi.part of=pc4870.rom bs=$size seek=1 conv=notrunc
dd: bs must be between 1 and -1
Marks-Mac-Pro:Flash Mark$ python fixrom.py pc4870.rom pc4870.rom
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "fixrom.py", line 103, in <module>
f=file(sys.argv[1])
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'pc4870.rom'
Marks-Mac-Pro:Flash Mark$

I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. I've checked and triple-checked the spelling and case of the filenames. Yet, I'm getting errors.

pipomolo42 or Rominator, I would REALLY appreciate it if one of you fine gentlemen wouldn't mind taking my ROM dump (attached below) from my HD487AYHFC, add the EFI, and give me back a custom ROM.

Cindori, I'd also REALLY appreciate if you wouldn't mind then taking the new custom ROM (once it's been created) and putting it into the 4870 Flash App.

Honestly, I had every intention of trying to flash this thing tonight without bothering you guys anymore. It's past 1am and my goal before I went to bed was to post a "success" message. But I can't even get past the Terminal commands. HELP PLEASE!

RV770.bin (dumped ROM from my XFX HD487AYHFC) attached below!

Thanks!! Mark

P.S. For the record, the BIOS Version listed in GPU-Z for the XFX HD487AYHFC was: VER011.010.000.002.029896

[Cindori]

someone with original ZDFC PC rom please post it

[Caterham]

I can sort you a Rom out in a few hours when I get home, unless someone obliges between now and then ofc.

[Flaz]

HI Team,

This is my first post. I bought a XFX 4870 ZWFK in Australia, with plans on flashing it like the rest of you successful people.

But realised I had a lemon after having the same problems as everyone else with this card (power issue on boot up OS X). Does anyone know if the ZWFK are like the ZWFL that a few of you are talking about?

I would like to know if there is hope of flashing this card properly or should I fall on the sword and try sell it.

I have noticed a few are looking into it.

I have read through most of the posts since page 61 and it is 1AM and I am about done........any help would be super.

Cheers:)

[merneric]

sounds like thesims/ati driver issue

I would try another 3d game with the 4870

I have tried other 3D games and the 4870 seems to work ok. Can anyone confirm that their *flashed* 4870 works with the Sims 3? If so, then I will have to pursue getting a better rom for my card, as right now I have it sitting on a shelf, and am using the 8800 instead...BTW same results with both Leopard and Snow Leopard.

Thanks!

[lannister80]

I have tried other 3D games and the 4870 seems to work ok. Can anyone confirm that their *flashed* 4870 works with the Sims 3? If so, then I will have to pursue getting a better rom for my card, as right now I have it sitting on a shelf, and am using the 8800 instead...BTW same results with both Leopard and Snow Leopard.

Thanks!
Nope, haven't tried the Sims, but I have not gotten any rendering issues/weirdness with any of the couple dozen PC/Mac games I've played with mine (XFX 1GB 4870).

[rasmusonline]

Can someone please upload a ZWFL ROM I want to send my card back...

[rasmusonline]

Please -,-

[Cindori]

try this


http://krull.se/macpro/original.zip

[Mitay007]

Can anybody confirm pinots of the power cable?
Is another end (mother board's) has same pinots (upper:ground, bottom:12V)?

post an image like this plz.

[Mark Booth]

I just finished re-reading the first 10 pages of this thread and I'm itching to just go ahead and flash my XFX 512MB card with the straight dump of the Apple 4870 rom (4870.ROM). Folks definitely had success with it. What I don't know is if my card is too new to be able to work with it. I think it was mostly Sapphire 512MB cards that worked with it.

The other thing I noticed re-reading the first 10 pages was how anxious and excited a lot of you were about getting your hands on the first dump of the Apple 4870 ROM. You guys sat by the computer, waiting for it to show up. There was a bit of begging too. :)

Well, I know exactly how you all felt. I've been checking the thread on an hourly basis to see if there is a response to my message #2042. So far, I feel like the invisible man.

Hey, I understand how people are busy with their lives and have other things to do. But I am asking one of you excellent ROM experts to PLEASE take pity on someone who actually TRIED (desperately) to do it on his own. I'm stuck and I can't move forward. Heck, I'll do the flashing the good old fashioned way (DOS CD). But I need what I believe will be a working ROM before I tackle that.

Please?!?!

Mark

[The Rominator]

I just finished re-reading the first 10 pages of this thread and I'm itching to just go ahead and flash my XFX 512MB card with the straight dump of the Apple 4870 rom (4870.ROM). Folks definitely had success with it. What I don't know is if my card is too new to be able to work with it. I think it was mostly Sapphire 512MB cards that worked with it.

The other thing I noticed re-reading the first 10 pages was how anxious and excited a lot of you were about getting your hands on the first dump of the Apple 4870 ROM. You guys sat by the computer, waiting for it to show up. There was a bit of begging too. :)

Well, I know exactly how you all felt. I've been checking the thread on an hourly basis to see if there is a response to my message #2042. So far, I feel like the invisible man.

Hey, I understand how people are busy with their lives and have other things to do. But I am asking one of you excellent ROM experts to PLEASE take pity on someone who actually TRIED (desperately) to do it on his own. I'm stuck and I can't move forward. Heck, I'll do the flashing the good old fashioned way (DOS CD). But I need what I believe will be a working ROM before I tackle that.

Please?!?!

Mark

reread your terminal session

you are very close, a very helpful tip would be that if you DRAG the roms into terminal window AT THE POINT YOU WANT THEM USED..the path will be correct for sure.so at place where script calls for "pc4870.rom" you delete that and physically DRAG your ROM into the window with cursor at the point you want the ROM path

As far as whether the card will work with OEM ROM....it is likely but if you can't find a post about it...you can be first.

I thought someone said he was going to write this for you? should be relatively easy...just make sure to do the "mcuc twice test" in Hexedit before flashing

[The Rominator]

Can anybody confirm pinots of the power cable?
Is another end (mother board's) has same pinots (upper:ground, bottom:12V)?

post an image like this plz.

When you have the connectors facing you as you do in that drawing...the pins are the same.

[rasmusonline]

try this


http://krull.se/macpro/original.zip

thx so far, I'll try it out tomorrow. :)

edit: hmm, have you got a .ROM image, too? I want to flash it with your great flash soft. ;)

[Mark Booth]

reread your terminal session

you are very close, a very helpful tip would be that if you DRAG the roms into terminal window AT THE POINT YOU WANT THEM USED..the path will be correct for sure.so at place where script calls for "pc4870.rom" you delete that and physically DRAG your ROM into the window with cursor at the point you want the ROM path

Thank you for responding!! I tried doing the drag and drop thing but the commands still gave errors.

Once again, I tried it by changing the directory in Terminal and got this result:

Last login: Wed Oct 28 15:22:54 on ttys000
[Marks-Mac-Pro:~] mark% cd /Users/mark/Desktop/Flash
[Marks-Mac-Pro:~/Desktop/Flash] mark% dd if=4870.ROM of=efi.part bs=1 skip=63488 count=49152
49152+0 records in
49152+0 records out
49152 bytes transferred in 0.266605 secs (184363 bytes/sec)
[Marks-Mac-Pro:~/Desktop/Flash] mark% blocknum=`printf %d "'\`dd if=pc4870.rom bs=1 skip=2 count=1 2>/dev/null\`"`
Unmatched ".
[Marks-Mac-Pro:~/Desktop/Flash] mark% size=$(($blocknum * 512))
Illegal variable name.
[Marks-Mac-Pro:~/Desktop/Flash] mark% dd if=efi.part of=pc4870.rom bs=$size seek=1 conv=notrunc
size: Undefined variable.
[Marks-Mac-Pro:~/Desktop/Flash] mark% python fixrom.py pc4870.rom pc4870.rom
Before:
OpRom (size=63488, indicator_offset=0x275, indicator=0x80, checksum=0xff)
RawData (size=67584)

After:
OpRom (size=63488, indicator_offset=0x275, indicator=0x80, checksum=0xff)
RawData (size=67584)
[Marks-Mac-Pro:~/Desktop/Flash] mark%


This time it appears it actually wrote something to the pc4870.rom file because, before I started, it had a last modified date of last nite. Now the last modified date is just a few minutes ago.

But, given the errors, I still have my doubts the ROM is OK.

I'll have to go back through the thread and find the information about looking at the ROM with hexedit. But I don't really understand what I'm supposed to be looking for.

Anyway, THANK YOU for responding Rominator!! Despite the fact that I don't think I've achieved the goal just yet, I very much appreciate the response!

Mark

[Mitay007]

Shapphire HD4870 1G GDDR5
PN 102-B50702-10-AT
SKU#21133-04-20R

flased ok with rom modding method. mac-pc rom attached.

[Flaz]

Hi Rominator,

I posted earlier about having a ZWFK card that I bought in Australia.

I have not been able to get it working on the mac. I have read many of your posts and would like to know if I have wasted my money or if there is a chance that a Rom could be written for this specific model?

it looks just like the ZWFL model that you said you were working on, only that the K stands for Korea.

I have spent hours looking elsewhere for answers but it seems I am alone here.

Many Thanks

[The Rominator]

I'm unclear.

Did you try the ZWFL/FC rom I wrote?

If so, what was the issue with it?

[Flaz]

I'm unclear.

Did you try the ZWFL/FC rom I wrote?

If so, what was the issue with it?

I have flashed the ZWFK with your m2xfx487.rom using Dos.

It does not show up in OS X 10.8,

It did show up with the first Rom I used (macxfx.rom) but it had the power Msg and the computer would crash. I am running a Mac Pro early 2008.

[Chaos Deadlock]

Hi Mark,
I've been reading this thread for a few days now and my 4870 card arrived today. I'm currently just waiting for my power cables to arrive before I can go through the process of ripping my ROM image, patching it with the EFI info and flashing the card. My card is an XFX HD 487A-YDFC 512MB. I thought that while I was waiting to be able to plug it into my Mac Pro I would try patching a ROM as a kind of dry run. So I downloaded the ROM image that you posted, renamed it pc4870.rom, download the other stuff (including the 4870.rom for the mac card) and gave it a go. The bit that stopped all the errors for me was logining in as root. Once I did that it all went pretty straight forward. I have also checked the finished ROM in a HEX editor, something I'm no stranger to, and it is looking good. Oddly I could not find the mcuc entries the Rominator mentions in either the before or after ROM images, but the EFI code is not conflicting with any thing and like I said it looks good.
So without further adoo here is the finished ROM.......

[Chaos Deadlock]

I also ment to add that if the ROM works then the real thanks has to go to pipomolo42 as he is the guy that provided the magic that I entered into terminal.
Also please let me know how it works out for you Mark as once my power cables arrive then I will be doing this same method for my own card.
My next problem will be my monitors as I only have VGA Samsung SyncMasters and I don't really have the bucks to go buy a DVI montior, so fingers crossed about the VGA thing.

[Chaos Deadlock]

Is the VGA problem just and Apple Driver thing?
Does anyone know if the VGA output works on the official Apple Radeon 4870 card and if it does it may be worth having a closer look at it's ROM image in a HEX Editor compared with the Windoze ROM images to see what is different.
If VGA is working under Windows then I would lean towards it being a problem with the Apple driver. If anyone reading this thread has an official Apple 4870 card and a VGA monitor could they let me know if it gets a picture?
Thanks.

[The Rominator]

Oddly I could not find the mcuc entries the Rominator mentions in either the before or after ROM images.......

Yes, it is odd. :confused:

In fact it is there twice, as it should be.

Note that the GDDR5 table opens with it...and look at the address.

Then see the other occurence buried deep in PC BIOS? Notice the address of the GDDR5 table at the begining of the line it appears in? In ROMs where the PC BIOS is too long, the GDDR5 table needs to be moved down or it gets squashed and overwritten. When you do this, you also need to change that little bit of addressing buried in PC BIOS.

ROM looks OK. Good luck !!!

[Mark Booth]

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!

After repeated frustration trying to build my own hybrid ROM, I decided to throw caution to the wind and flash my XFX Radeon 4870 512MB Dual-DVI (model HD487AYHFC) with the straight Apple 4870 ROM (4870.ROM). I used the BootDOS CD method described at Jacob Croft's site (http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html?) (except, of course, I substituted the 4870.ROM instead of using the rhildinger's ROM). Per Jacob's tutorial, I built the DOS CD within Boot Camp (Windows XP) while both my original Radeon x1900 (slot #2) and the XFX Radeon 4870 (slot #1) were in the computer (display attached to the x1900). I put several ROM images on the DOS CD: Apple 4870 ROM (4870.ROM), rhildinger's ROM (macxfx.rom), and the original ROM I dumped from the XFX card last night (just in case I had to flash back to it). After the DOS CD was burned, I quit Windows XP and powered down the Mac Pro (leaving the DOS CD in the drive). I then opened up the Mac Pro and removed the factory Radeon x1900 card and connected a single display (Cinema 23") to the right-most (as viewed from the back) DVI connector on the XFX 4870. (Since I was about to flash an ATI card, I didn't want to flash BOTH cards so the x1900 had to come out.) Then I powered up the Mac Pro again, holding down the "C" key immediately after the startup bong. It took awhile to load, but eventually I started seeing the DOS CD loading. Then I followed Jacob's tutorial very carefully, checking and double-checking each keystroke (again, substituting the Apple 4870.ROM). This is the final screen after the flash was complete (took a photo of the screen, sorry for the slight blur!):

http://www.thephotobooth.net/photos/696031845_wtY2C-O.jpg

I find it interesting that the New Product Name and New BIOS are higher numbers than the Old (original). That would seem to indicate this particular XFX card has been sitting around since before Apple's BIOS was released. But you ROM experts would know more about that then me.

Anyway, then it was time for the big test! Restart the Mac Pro in Mac OS X and see what happens! Happily, it booted completely normally! No error screens or warnings about power. No other weirdness of any kind. Frankly, it looked no different than had I been booting from the original x1900 that was installed in the Mac Pro when I bought it.

After fiddling around within Finder for awhile, I shut down the Mac Pro and connected my second monitor (Samsung Syncmaster 153T that I rotate to portrait mode) to the other DVI port on the XFX 4870. I restarted and, HOORAY, the second port works just fine! I had to go into the Display Preference Pane to reset the proper rotation and also re-select my calibrated monitor settings, but all of that went like normal!

Now, I did have one bit of weirdness while fiddling with Display Preference Pane. I noticed that a horizontal black band (a couple dozen pixels tall, and about the same width as the Display settings panel) appeared below the Display settings panel that wasn't active. If I clicked on the Display settings panel for the 23" Cinema Display, the black band was present below the Display settings panel on the Samsung. If I made the Samsung Display settings panel active, the black band appeared under the settings panel for the 23" Cinema Display.

That weirdness happened just that first time I was adjusting Display settings after installing and flashing the 4870. I've opened up the Display settings panels several times since and I can't get it to reproduce the problem. And, frankly, I seem to remember having seen this type of weirdness before with the x1900. So, I'm not going to worry about it for now.

Anyway, here's a look at my System Profiler information:

http://www.thephotobooth.net/photos/696031865_hxAa3-O.jpg


I ran some graphics tests. I was a little disappointed with the XBench 1.3 results because I think my x1900 was just about the same speed for these tests:

http://www.thephotobooth.net/photos/696031866_waun5-O.jpg


Here are the results using OpenGL Extensions Viewer:

http://www.thephotobooth.net/photos/696031848_BzjEJ-O.jpg


Those OpenGL results are slightly slower than some results I've seen for the Apple 4870 but I think those other tests were in a faster Mac Pro (or one with more cores).

FWIW, my Mac Pro is the Classic (1,1) with two 2.66GHz dual-cores (four cores).

I also spent a bit of time in Aperture and, it could just be my imagination, but things seem a bit snappier when scanning through a large number of large RAW photos. Of course, when the next version of Aperture comes along with OpenCL support, that should help too. We'll see.

At any rate, other than that one bit of weirdness while using the Display Preference Pane, there really isn't any way to tell that I didn't simply spend $350 for Apple's 4870 and stick it in my Mac Pro!! The fact that it cost me $134.99 (XFX 4870)) + $20 (extra x1900 power cable) makes me very happy! The same net result but with $200 still left in my wallet!

My thanks to Rominator and all of the other folks that came before me!! That's why I made this message so long.... so, hopefully, my experience can help someone else down the road!!

Mark

[Mark Booth]

Hi Mark,
I've been reading this thread for a few days now and my 4870 card arrived today. I'm currently just waiting for my power cables to arrive before I can go through the process of ripping my ROM image, patching it with the EFI info and flashing the card. My card is an XFX HD 487A-YDFC 512MB. I thought that while I was waiting to be able to plug it into my Mac Pro I would try patching a ROM as a kind of dry run. So I downloaded the ROM image that you posted, renamed it pc4870.rom, download the other stuff (including the 4870.rom for the mac card) and gave it a go. The bit that stopped all the errors for me was logining in as root. Once I did that it all went pretty straight forward. I have also checked the finished ROM in a HEX editor, something I'm no stranger to, and it is looking good. Oddly I could not find the mcuc entries the Rominator mentions in either the before or after ROM images, but the EFI code is not conflicting with any thing and like I said it looks good.
So without further adoo here is the finished ROM.......

Chaos,

THANK YOU!!! I very much appreciate your efforts on my behalf!!

Now I have a decision to make... Please see the post I just made a few minutes ago. I successfully flashed my card with the straight Apple 4870 ROM. Other than that bit of weirdness (black band) when using the Display Preference Pane, the card seems to be working perfectly. And, again, I think I've seen that type of Display Preference Pane weirdness with my x1900 in the past too!

So.... should I reflash or should I stick with what I have? ARGH! I've gone from Famine to Feast! :)

BTW, I was flashing my 4870 with the Apple ROM while you were posting your message (and Rominator was posting his reply). Then I came here and posted my "Success" message above, before I ever read your messages. Sorry about that!

Mark

[Mark Booth]

I have one other question for the video card gurus.... My original Radeon x1900 card has that extension on it that makes it a longer card. The x1900 also had a few small black rubber-like rectangles stuck to the bottom of it. The XFX 4870, on the other hand, has neither. And, frankly, the XFX 4870 appears that it might be able to short out against the tops of the memory and CPU shields (shrouds). Yes, those shields have some grey rubber-like material stuck to them as insulators. But those grey insulators are smaller than the card and there are areas where it appears the card might be able to touch and short out.

What has everyone else done to help prevent any possible electrical shorts? Suggestions and recommendations are greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Mark

[Mark Booth]

I just tested for VGA capability on both ports of my flashed XFX 4870 (model HD487AYHFC). Like all of the other flashed cards, VGA doesn't work. Not a concern for me because both of my displays are DVI (the Samsung does both).

I have an HDTV in the same room too but I don't have a HDMI cable long enough to test. I'll eventually get around to trying the DVI to HDMI adapter.

Mark

[pknz]

In NZ the common 4870 seems to be the HD-487A-YWFK model. Is this flashable?

[Cindori]

someone with original ZDFC PC rom please post it


still want that rom

[Chaos Deadlock]

OK guys, I've got a problem.
I've got my power cables and installed the card into my Mac Pro. It will boot into Windoze OK, but I can't get the XFX Drivers installed as it says that it can not dectect an XFX Product. After a while it did eventually turn up in GPU-Z so I have managed to grab the ROM image (all 128K). My big problem is that when I try to boot up in OSX I can't get past the grey and white apple screen. What instead happens is that the fans rev up like crazy and I get the dark grey screen overlay telling me to hold down the power button to power off.
Anyone got any ideas?
Please.

[Cindori]

did you install natit?

did you flash?

card model?


dude, I'm not telepatic.

[Chaos Deadlock]

I have not installed 'natit' as I thought that was only required for a Hackintosh.
The model is the XFX 4870 512MB DDR5 HD-487A-YDFC VA.1.
I have just flashed it using Ultimate Boot CD, but still the problem persists.
One development is that I now have it working in Windows using a driver I downloaded from the XFXForce website and It ran NeverWinter Nights 2 in Windoze perfectly at full everything.

What does 'Natit' do exactly, and do I need it even with a flashed card?
I flashed the card with a Hybrid ROM that I made.

[Chaos Deadlock]

Well it is now 4:39am and still no luck.
If I flash it with the ROM I made myself it does not get any image on the attached monitor and the mac crashes before it even reaches the login screen....however if I hold down alt I can boot into windoze and everything works perfectly. If I boot using the OSX 10.5 install DVD the mac will boot into the osx installer, but there is no display on the center monitor. If I then run the system profiler and check what display cards are installed it is not listed, only my nVidia 7300 is there.
If I flash the card with the Apple 4870 rom it does not work in windoze anymore, but it does start getting a display when booting up in OSX. I get a white screen with some fuzzy lines in the middle and it looks like a screwed up version of the white with grey apple boot screen with the animated clock/dial thingy going round....it then goes to the blue screen with a white square for a pointer, although when I move the pointer to one of my other monitors, connected via the 7300 card, it goes back to being a proper pointer. The computer never then goes past this blue screen, but will just sit at this point forever. If I then disconnect the DVI monitor connected to the 4870 and reboot I am back to it crashing once more with the message to hold down the power button.
http://images.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/frown.gif
At this stage I am feeling like completely giving up.
If anyone can help it would be very much appreciated as I am now broke and back to using a nVidia 7300 once more.
Here is the original ROM from my 4870 card..... time for me to go to bed and weep http://images.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/frown.gif

[Cindori]

I have not installed 'natit' as I thought that was only required for a Hackintosh.
The model is the XFX 4870 512MB DDR5 HD-487A-YDFC VA.1.
I have just flashed it using Ultimate Boot CD, but still the problem persists.
One development is that I now have it working in Windows using a driver I downloaded from the XFXForce website and It ran NeverWinter Nights 2 in Windoze perfectly at full everything.

What does 'Natit' do exactly, and do I need it even with a flashed card?
I flashed the card with a Hybrid ROM that I made.

very good info about natit in both ATI Flashing tool thread and the tool itself.

[Caterham]

Here's your ZDFC rom as requested Cindori.

[j2048b]

All right guys, with all the new stuff being posted about different cards, i am confussed as all get out!!

I have this card:

part # hd-487A-ZHFC

this one should work, and work well to flash correct? i believe it should but..

i have tried to keep up with this thread but with a ton of new posts each week it is almost impossible!!

will the new programs put up by cindori work with my card so i can get this done and move on!?

thanks

[Chaos Deadlock]

OK people I have finally got this 4870 card working and discovered my problem.....it was the virgin 4870.rom file that I was working form. I went and downloaded another copy of the 4870.rom and just flashed it an it works.....although it states that Quartz Extreme is not supported. I've tried the part on the mac flash tool which is ment to fix the Quartz Extreme thing, but it is still not supported. I am no about to flash the card again using a new rom file I have made, this time getting the EFI part from a none corrupt 4870.rom file.
So the lesson of this little tale....if you are having a ********* nightmare of a time trying to get the flashed card to work check that you have a good 4870.rom file to start with....Oh, and Mark, don't use the rom I made for you as it will be corrupt....If you want me to I can make you another.
Any tips on how to fix the Quartz Extreme issue please let me know.

[gelid]

I have this card:

part # hd-487A-ZHFC

this one should work, and work well to flash correct? i believe it should but..


Yes. ZHFC works fine for me. I flashed it with the ZDFC firmware many months ago (which was posted earlier in this thread) and it has been working great for me ever since.

[Chaos Deadlock]

Sorry to ask, but I've still not managed to get Quartz Extreme working on my ATI 4870 512mb card.

This is what I've got...........

Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 4870
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x9440
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-B7710C-176
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.318
Displays:
DELL 1708FP:
Resolution: 1280 x 1024 @ 60 Hz
Depth: 32-Bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Not Supported


Does anyone have working Kexts for this or anything that could solve me problem?

[Chaos Deadlock]

Chindori is there something I'm meant to do other than just select 10.5.8 and click install. Do I have to edit anything after? Also another odd thing is that no matter which ROM I flash with the system profiler always says ROM Revision: 113-B7710C-176. Does anyone know why it always says the same thing even though I've used JollyRogers ROM and in his system profiler it says ROM Revision: 113-B7710F-176 ?
I'm completely puzzled.
Does anyone else have this card.....XFX 4870 512MB DDR5 HD-487A-YDFC ?
If so please share your experience of it.
Well it's 7:13 am here and I've not been to bed yet. I'm going to try and get an hour or so of sleep before I have to go to work.
Catch you all later.

[j2048b]

Yes. ZHFC works fine for me. I flashed it with the ZDFC firmware many months ago (which was posted earlier in this thread) and it has been working great for me ever since.

thanks for the reply, i will have to get the rom posted for that, I thought there was one specifically made for the zhfc cards?

[Cindori]

Chindori is there something I'm meant to do other than just select 10.5.8 and click install. Do I have to edit anything after? Also another odd thing is that no matter which ROM I flash with the system profiler always says ROM Revision: 113-B7710C-176. Does

rom revision is always the same

You can't QE_CI patch for the 4870. The device id-s already exists in OSX.
What you're experiencing is probably a driver problem with the card you're using.

Flaz had the same problem here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=811768

His problem was solved by updating to Snow Leopard.


thanks for the reply, i will have to get the rom posted for that, I thought there was one specifically made for the zhfc cards?

Many cards share rom.

Check out rom folder in ATI Flashing Tool:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=811768

[j2048b]

thanks cindori! i will take a look!

[Chaos Deadlock]

Thanks for the reply Cindori (and sorry for typing your name wrong in my previos post). It's good to have some direction instead of just scratching my head thinking that I'm doing something wrong. I'm going to pop out and grab a copy of Snow Leopard. What confused me about the rom revision was post #1102 by JollyRogers.
Well I'm off to the computer store to buy some snow.
Once again thanks for putting me at ease as far as it not being some thing I'm doing wrong and I'll let you know if Snow Leopard does the trick. I hope it does because my wife is really wanting me to start coming to bed at a normal hour and not dawn.

[jfm010]

I've tried to flash this card:

Sapphire 4870 1GB GDDR5
SKU# 11133-19-20R

This is the same card several people reported success with in this thread. The Problem is I can't even boot when this card is installed. If I try with both cards installed (X1900) I get 2 red lights on the motherboard (CPU A+B Fail). I'm running power from the optical bay. Can the power be insufficient? I have ordered a proper power cable which should be arriving soon. Getting a bit nervous about this!

I'm on a Mac Pro 1,1

[Cindori]

did you have the x1900 inside when you flashed?

[jfm010]

did you have the x1900 inside when you flashed?

I haven't been able to flash. I've tried with both card installed and just the 4870. Even tried to boot into my Windows XP partition. I can hear a few seconds of disk-activity and then nothing. Netkas is installed.

[Cindori]

If it doesnt boot windows (when windows is selected in Boot Disk before restarting) you either have faulty card or bad power. Cause it doesn't even need Natit to do that.

I'd go get that 2nd motherboard power cable.

[jfm010]

Should be getting the cable in a day or two. I'll get back with the results.

[poopdedoop]

Hey everyone. I've been lurking the thread for some time now and I've dicided I'm gonna try this

I'm going to be picking up a Sapphire HD 4870 1GB card from a local store later this week and I just have a few questions that i need cleared up before I start.

First off, I'm running a MacPro1,1 with a Radeon X1900

I know that I'll need power for both cards, and there's only two connectors on the mainboard, can I use the molex to 6pin connector (or whatever it is) to split the power from my 2nd opitcal drive to the 2nd video card? I don't see why this wouldn't work..

Also, if I follow rew's instructions (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7473867&postcount=886) I should have no problems correct?

or is there a better rom that I should use to flash to the card? I've seen people post a lot of different roms, and I don't know which one to use, so really if someone could link me to the right one that would help me out a ton.

And last question. The card I'm getting is the one with 2 DVI ports on it. I've been seeing that the 2nd one doesnt work in os x, is this correct? I have a dual monitor set up (both running at 1650x1080) and I want to be able to use both monitors, (i'm not gonna spend $200 on a card, only to have one of my monitors sit on my desk collecting dust.)

If someone can help me out here, that would be great. I've done stuff like this before, so i'm not a total n00b, I just like to make sure I know exactly what I will be doing when the time comes.

Thanks!!

[Cindori]

those are outdated instructions

go read my sig.
especially FAQ > guide link

also more instructions when you open the app.

[poopdedoop]

those are outdated instructions

go read my sig.
especially FAQ > guide link

also more instructions when you open the app.

oh very good sir.

i will read up on this and post back if i have more questions.

[Chaos Deadlock]

So I've now gone and picked up a copy of Snow Leopard and installed it. I have to say I am currently fighting back the urge to place the DVD back in all of it's packaging and then jump up and down on it while swearing furiously.
The result is I cant even boot up unless I unplug the monitor attached to the 4870 card and once I have booted up (or at any other point) if I plug the monitor back in the screens go funny on the monitors attached to my 7300 and my computer crashes. Also just to make things more fun.......nearly all of the software I use now no-longer works.
Apparently Snow Leopard is the upgrade to downgrade your life.
Some times I wish that I could turn the entire entity which is Apple into a single living being and then proceed to beat the living ***** out of them.
Why do they have to be such money grabing b*st*rds in the first place, forcing people to have to try and mod a pc gfx card in the first place because the price difference is so absurd.
Mmmmmmmm...........


No what am I going to do?
I'm totally fried. I have been sitting at this computer all night, every night this week trying to get this to work and when I thought I was finally almost there (in 10.5.8 everything except Quartz Extreme worked), I'm now back at square zero (if I was back at square one then all my software would still be working).

I think I'm going to go buy a bucket of gas drop my mac in it and play with matches.

[popiko]

hi all, first Im sorry for me english... no is really good.

I buy for error Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 2 GB Vapor-X ... change the graphic card is little dificult..
I down a rom from netkas and use on me 4870 2Gb but I have black screen....
Im really angry with Apple, I pay to buy me MacPro 1.1 and now "its Sux" with graphic cards...

Today I down a bios from this threat and try again... I make and restart macpro 1.1 and yes! I can use me 4870 2Gb with Snow Leopard but have "big" problems..
1: I cant use 4870 in Slot 1.. for the heatsink.. its really big.
2: I use in the slot 3 x1 and nvidia 7300 in slot 1 x16.
I can use 4870 2Gb in Snow Leopard but I look in the profile system and Snow Leopard look a graphic card with 1Gb (I think its for the rom from this threat).
I look small graphics bugs on the screen (I think its the problem for the memory.. only detected 1Gb)..

I try use game wow but the game is locked.
I dont know to edit rom and make changes to try use 4870. I use rom
saph487x.rom

Any little help? or I can throw the card to the trash?

I try use this card with windows on bootcamp but I cant install the catalyst.

Thanks to all.

I attach the original rom Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 2 GB Vapor-X

please any comments or little help.

[Chaos Deadlock]

I have added the EFI part to your ROM. Hope it works for you, do let me know. As for me...... I'm giving up and replacing the card with my other nVidia 7300GT.
I have been defeated.
I came so close, but no cigar.
I've got 10.5.8 re-installed and all my software re-installed as well (it took all night). I also gave in and placed 10.6 back in it's packaging and then jumped up and down on it swearing out loud. This did not have the desired effect as due to the disc being flat anyway, it just looked up at me intact and mocked, so I put it all in my wife's blender. No more OSX 10.6.
So there it is....I've blown £85 on a card and £90 on a DVI monitor and I'm still having to live with a ****** 7300GT graphics cards for doing work on.
Any like a said popiko here is a rom for your card which should work. Good luck and let me know the out come.

[popiko]

I have added the EFI part to your ROM. Hope it works for you, do let me know. As for me...... I'm giving up and replacing the card with my other nVidia 7300GT.
I have been defeated.
I came so close, but no cigar.
I've got 10.5.8 re-installed and all my software re-installed as well (it took all night). I also gave in and placed 10.6 back in it's packaging and then jumped up and down on it swearing out loud. This did not have the desired effect as due to the disc being flat anyway, it just looked up at me intact and mocked, so I put it all in my wife's blender. No more OSX 10.6.
So there it is....I've blown £85 on a card and £90 on a DVI monitor and I'm still having to live with a ****** 7300GT graphics cards for doing work on.
Any like a said popiko here is a rom for your card which should work. Good luck and let me know the out come.


Really thank you very much, I try today
Then communicate results.
Thank you very much again

[Cindori]

You can't use 2GB ram cards in OSX.

There is a bug, so they will show as -2048 (yes minus) MB ram.
So when you open apps, they will say you have too little RAM to run them.

[popiko]

I have added the EFI part to your ROM. Hope it works for you, do let me know. As for me...... I'm giving up and replacing the card with my other nVidia 7300GT.
I have been defeated.
I came so close, but no cigar.
I've got 10.5.8 re-installed and all my software re-installed as well (it took all night). I also gave in and placed 10.6 back in it's packaging and then jumped up and down on it swearing out loud. This did not have the desired effect as due to the disc being flat anyway, it just looked up at me intact and mocked, so I put it all in my wife's blender. No more OSX 10.6.
So there it is....I've blown £85 on a card and £90 on a DVI monitor and I'm still having to live with a ****** 7300GT graphics cards for doing work on.
Any like a said popiko here is a rom for your card which should work. Good luck and let me know the out come.

You can't use 2GB ram cards in OSX.

There is a bug, so they will show as -2048 (yes minus) MB ram.
So when you open apps, they will say you have too little RAM to run them.

Well I paste here a photo from system, all work good but only I have much memory RAM I think hahahaha. I open the game wow and work really really good, with card 7300 I have 18fps - 22 fps... with 4870 2Gb I have 45fps - 47fps.
Now the graphic is working x8 and 7300 x8 but I think continue testing... (using) the card with your rom.
7300 is really sux (I think)... I have 8800GT upgrade for MacPro 2006-2007 but its broken.... I call Applecare but the """""support technic"""" tell me: Its false... Apple dont sell upgrade 8800GT for MacPro 2006-2007.... in Spain we have really noobs on support technic and dont know the products of apple..... I eat me 8800GT broken.. I think change chip bios... but on this moment I use 4870 2Gb with 400000000000 Mb RAM ;)
We can read no monitor connected but I have a DVI monitor apple
Im sorry... the words in Spanish.

[Cindori]

I'm guessing you are having a RAM bug. Good for you, that it shows + 400000000, cause if it showed - (minus) you would not be able to start games.

Since games are working, the reported 40000000 ram is only cosmetic error, your card should not have any problems. Felicidades.

[popiko]

I'm guessing you are having a RAM bug. Good for you, that it shows + 400000000, cause if it showed - (minus) you would not be able to start games.

Since games are working, the reported 40000000 ram is only cosmetic error, your card should not have any problems. Felicidades.

Hi Cindori thanks for your comentary :)
Just in the photo have 4294965248 MB RAM, Im playing 40 minutes in wow and I have 0 problems on this moment. I think continue all day (maybe I can)... The next Step is change heatsink of memory in the card for other more fine and later remove the card 7300 and try use 4870 in slot 1 x16 :)
Again thank you all for the help, without you could not have taken this step.

[Chaos Deadlock]

I'm really glad that the ROM I made you works. I take it you are using 10.6?
10.6 just made things worse for me and I am now back running 10.5.8.
I am just about to turn of this computer and refir the 7300Gt that I took out.

The problem you will be having with your 8800GT is that it will have EFI64bit and I'm guessing you are using a Mac Pro 2006 model with Snow Leopard.
If that is the case then you could try flashing the 8800GT with the EFI32bit rom the Rominator has made.

[popiko]

I'm really glad that the ROM I made you works. I take it you are using 10.6?
10.6 just made things worse for me and I am now back running 10.5.8.
I am just about to turn of this computer and refir the 7300Gt that I took out.

The problem you will be having with your 8800GT is that it will have EFI64bit and I'm guessing you are using a Mac Pro 2006 model with Snow Leopard.
If that is the case then you could try flashing the 8800GT with the EFI32bit rom the Rominator has made.

Its talking about 4870 2Gb:
Just I install Snow Leopard of 0, I dont make upgrade on Leopard.I format the HDD and install Snow Leopard with the HDD clean.

Its talking about 8800GT:
I have a card for MacPro 1.1 upgrade, just in the box I can read:
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT for first generation Mac Pro.
Requieres Mac Pro (bus speed 1.33 Ghz) and Mac OS X v10.5.2 with graphic upgrade or later. Its in the original box of graphic card.

Just much people in forums wow have it problem... with 1 path (upgrade) .. muchs graphic cards 8800 of macpro fail.. I read muchs threads with this problem. I try flashed the bios but the machine cant look the card 8800GT, the fan work good.. for this question I think change the chip bios.

[Cindori]

The problem you will be having with your 8800GT is that it will have EFI64bit and I'm guessing you are using a Mac Pro 2006 model with Snow Leopard.
If that is the case then you could try flashing the 8800GT with the EFI32bit rom the Rominator has made.

Apple has two models of 8800gt. One carries 32bit EFI. It's for the 2006 mac.
He's got that card already.

[Chaos Deadlock]

I know this is off topic, but in the interest of simply trying to help some one here is the rom for your 8800gt card popiko.
Now you really can have kick ass gfx cards in your mac.

You'll need to download nvflash or modify the GeForce 7300 GT Firmware Update.
I'm sure Cindori could make a utility for nVidia using this the same way he has for ATI using the iMac updater.
GeForce 7300 GT Firmware Update program does have a mac native version of nvflasher inside it.

[Cindori]

He already has the 2006 version of the card, that already carries 32 bit EFI rom. It sounds to me like he has used it for quite a while too, but then something hardware broke down, which is normal with the 8800GT.

And no, I can't get Nvflash to work. I load the flash driver, but yet the program does not find any Nvidia adapters ( I have a 7300 ) :(

[popiko]

I know this is off topic, but in the interest of simply trying to help some one here is the rom for your 8800gt card popiko.
Now you really can have kick ass gfx cards in your mac.

You'll need to download nvflash or modify the GeForce 7300 GT Firmware Update.
I'm sure Cindori could make a utility for nVidia using this the same way he has for ATI using the iMac updater.
GeForce 7300 GT Firmware Update program does have a mac native version of nvflasher inside it.

Hey big thanks! I try change rom in the 8800. (I try past times but maybe I use utilities for ATI.... I have dudes now..) :)
Dont worry I use Nero to make boot cd with ms-dos and the files bios and utilities. I will comment after trying.

Thanks!

[popiko]

Why are you posting a 32 bit EFI rom? He already has the 2006 version of the card, that already carries 32 bit EFI rom. It sounds to me like he has used it for quite a while too, but then something hardware broke down, which is normal with the 8800GT.:(

Yes, I think the problem is hardware but I try again :rolleyes:

[poopdedoop]

Hey everyone, So i've managed to flash my sapphire HD 4870 using the included rom in Cndori's ATI Flasher app.

I've noticed that in OS X and windows I am getting graphical errors.

I've read in this thread that in os x it's a bug with all of them,

but in windows, when I run any 3D apps (games etc) i get garbage all over my screen.

I've attached some screenshots of what is happening.

When I'm just running the ATi cataclyst software, adjusting the 3D options, thats that starts to happen, and the fan speed increases untill i close the window.

Could this all be because of the rom I flashed? I could try re-flashing, but I'm not too sure which rom to use, there's just so many floating around...

oh and the card is

Sapphire HD 4870 1GB
SKU# 11133-19-20R

[popiko]

Its talking about 4870 2Gb:
Just I install Snow Leopard of 0, I dont make upgrade on Leopard.I format the HDD and install Snow Leopard with the HDD clean.

Its talking about 8800GT:
I have a card for MacPro 1.1 upgrade, just in the box I can read:
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT for first generation Mac Pro.
Requieres Mac Pro (bus speed 1.33 Ghz) and Mac OS X v10.5.2 with graphic upgrade or later. Its in the original box of graphic card.

Just much people in forums wow have it problem... with 1 path (upgrade) .. muchs graphic cards 8800 of macpro fail.. I read muchs threads with this problem. I try flashed the bios but the machine cant look the card 8800GT, the fan work good.. for this question I think change the chip bios.

More info: I have the ATI 4870 2Gb in the Slot 2 and keep the 7300 in Slot 1, I have only 1 monitor connected in the connector DVI of ATI 4870.
Tomorrow I try quit the card 7300 and use the 4870 2Gb alone.

[Chaos Deadlock]

After I gave up on the 4870 I decided to install it into my Linux Computer which is hooked up to the TV in the sitting room. It had a Palit nVidia 9800GT in it....so I though, what the hell, and stuck it into my Mac where the ATI card had been.
IT WORKS!!!

So good bye to living with a 7300 card and hello 9800GT nVidia.
I know this is not a story of getting a 4870 working, but if anyone else is having problems and looking for a card upgrade on a Mac Pro 2006, then (although not as powerfull as the 4870) there is the nVidia 9800GT from Palit.
I have just tested it with NeverWinter Nights 2 on max everything and it rocks.
So the 9800, not as powerfull as the 4870, but a damn good runner up.
Oh, I've nto touched it's firmware, I do already have nvkush.kext installed though.
Now I'm off to get some long over due sleep.

[The Rominator]

Hey everyone, So i've managed to flash my sapphire HD 4870 using the included rom in Cndori's ATI Flasher app.

I've noticed that in OS X and windows I am getting graphical errors.

I've read in this thread that in os x it's a bug with all of them,

but in windows, when I run any 3D apps (games etc) i get garbage all over my screen.

I've attached some screenshots of what is happening.

When I'm just running the ATi cataclyst software, adjusting the 3D options, thats that starts to happen, and the fan speed increases untill i close the window.

Could this all be because of the rom I flashed? I could try re-flashing, but I'm not too sure which rom to use, there's just so many floating around...

oh and the card is

Sapphire HD 4870 1GB
SKU# 11133-19-20R

Reflash with the original ROM and see how it behaves in WIndows.

If the artifacts are still there, you have a hardware issue.

If it runs without artifacts once it has it's original BIOS, it is time for you to write a custom one with your BIOS as center.

[poopdedoop]

Reflash with the original ROM and see how it behaves in WIndows.

If the artifacts are still there, you have a hardware issue.

If it runs without artifacts once it has it's original BIOS, it is time for you to write a custom one with your BIOS as center.


okay i got that working. I have done the same thing as before (running ccc) and i get graphical problems, just not as many.

I've tried running S.T.A.L.K.E.R and the game gets to the menu, then i lose display and the fan goes full speed. I'm starting to think it's a hardware issue, has anyone else had problems like this?

[The Rominator]

sounds shot

[popiko]

After I gave up on the 4870 I decided to install it into my Linux Computer which is hooked up to the TV in the sitting room. It had a Palit nVidia 9800GT in it....so I though, what the hell, and stuck it into my Mac where the ATI card had been.
IT WORKS!!!

So good bye to living with a 7300 card and hello 9800GT nVidia.
I know this is not a story of getting a 4870 working, but if anyone else is having problems and looking for a card upgrade on a Mac Pro 2006, then (although not as powerfull as the 4870) there is the nVidia 9800GT from Palit.
I have just tested it with NeverWinter Nights 2 on max everything and it rocks.
So the 9800, not as powerfull as the 4870, but a damn good runner up.
Oh, I've nto touched it's firmware, I do already have nvkush.kext installed though.
Now I'm off to get some long over due sleep.

hahaha, Im so happy for you.:)
Yesterday I play during 5 hours and zero problems.
Later of play I look tv and I make little words in Allias Maya 3D.. Zero problems.... I quit the card 7300 and now work only with 4870 2G in slot 2.. al really good and I can install the drivers and Catalyst for windows on XP with bootcamp. The next Step pending is replace the heatsink for other more fine and move the 4870 2Gb to slot 1 and try work with x16 ;)

[Mark Booth]

Oh, and Mark, don't use the rom I made for you as it will be corrupt....If you want me to I can make you another.
Any tips on how to fix the Quartz Extreme issue please let me know.

Chaos,

Thanks for the heads-up on the corrupted ROM. I have been perfectly happy with how my 4870 has been working just simply using the virgin 4870.ROM file (Apple's pure 4870 ROM). So, I've not been inclined to flash using the ROM file you created. I just deleted it from my HD so I wouldn't accidentally end up using it in the future.

As for Quartz Extreme... I'm running Snow Leopard and, frankly, when I open System Profiler, the info for my card and monitors doesn't say anything about Quartz Extreme at all:

ATI Radeon HD 4870:

Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 4870
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x9440
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-B7710C-176
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.318
Displays:
Cinema HD:
Resolution: 1920 x 1200
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Rotation: Supported
SyncMaster:
Resolution: 768 x 1024 @ 75 Hz
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Rotation: 90

However, I did download a Utility Program (http://www.entropy.ch/software/macosx/#quartzextremecheck) that checks to see if Quartz Extreme is working and it shows Quartz Extreme acceleration for both of my displays.

I guess I just got lucky in buying the right 512MB card. Actually, only a little bit lucky. I read these topics over and over again and it seemed the XFX cards ending in HFC were the most compatible. So, when I found a 512MB XFX card (YHFC) for $134.99 shipped, I jumped on it. Unfortunately, TigerDirect has since sold out (within a day or so of me placing my order).

Mark

[poopdedoop]

sounds shot


yupp it was a bad card. I returned it to the store. It was the only one they had so it would be another 2 weeks or so before they got anymore.

I did order one off Newegg for $184 total, so it'll be sometime next week that it'll come and I'll try over again.,

[Cindori]

can someone please tell me:



Device ID using ATI Flashing Tool "Test" button on their 4870

[popiko]

can someone please tell me:



Device ID using ATI Flashing Tool "Test" button on their 4870

How I can look it? its on mac os or windows? what program I need?

[Cindori]

lol... go to my sig...

[jfm010]

I've tried to flash this card:

Sapphire 4870 1GB GDDR5
SKU# 11133-19-20R

This is the same card several people reported success with in this thread. The Problem is I can't even boot when this card is installed. If I try with both cards installed (X1900) I get 2 red lights on the motherboard (CPU A+B Fail). I'm running power from the optical bay. Can the power be insufficient? I have ordered a proper power cable which should be arriving soon. Getting a bit nervous about this!

I'm on a Mac Pro 1,1


Finally I got it to work! :)
As mentioned earlier I couldn't boot into OS X. Always got the CPU A+B fail lights. I installed Windows XP Bootcamp and managed to boot the machine with the 4870 installed. From there I followed the instructions on this page:
http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html
I used Rominators rom written for the 11133-19-20R (earlier in this thread) and it worked! Only drawback so far is the power cable warning but I can live with that. Next step will be to replace the somewhat loud 4870-fan with an Accelero Twin Turbo.
Special thanks to Rominator and Cindori! :D

[popiko]

lol... go to my sig...

xDDD

Its with me graphic 4870 2Gb

[Altimeter88]

Looking to get one of these for my 2006 Mac Pro but Newegg is out of stock on the actual SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL.
They do however have what looks like the same card although the numbers are a bit different:
SAPPHIRE 100279-1GL
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102849&cm_re=4870-_-14-102-849-_-Product

Does anyone know if this card will work with the ROM posted or does it have to be the actual 100259 card?

[Flaz]

Hey everyone, So i've managed to flash my sapphire HD 4870 using the included rom in Cndori's ATI Flasher app.

I've noticed that in OS X and windows I am getting graphical errors.

I've read in this thread that in os x it's a bug with all of them,

but in windows, when I run any 3D apps (games etc) i get garbage all over my screen.

I've attached some screenshots of what is happening.

When I'm just running the ATi cataclyst software, adjusting the 3D options, thats that starts to happen, and the fan speed increases untill i close the window.

Could this all be because of the rom I flashed? I could try re-flashing, but I'm not too sure which rom to use, there's just so many floating around...

oh and the card is

Sapphire HD 4870 1GB
SKU# 11133-19-20R

I was originally running the Sapphire Rom from Cindoris ROM folder on my XFX 4870 ZWFK card and it worked great. But then I had the same pixel spots coming up on my screen after a few days of use. So I flashed the card with the ZWFL ROM also in Cindoris applications folder and I have not had the same spotty pixel problem. :)

Although this morning a new problem has arisen, My card would just freak out, I would hear the fan speed up for a second like it was hit with a bolt of electricity and then the screen would go black and my OS would freeze. After 2 reboots and it happening again, I decided tot take of the side panel of the mac pro to let some air in and it has remained stable enough for me to be able to write this post. Anyone else having a unusual card crash like I have had with the 4870?

[poopdedoop]

Looking to get one of these for my 2006 Mac Pro but Newegg is out of stock on the actual SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL.
They do however have what looks like the same card although the numbers are a bit different:
SAPPHIRE 100279-1GL
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102849&cm_re=4870-_-14-102-849-_-Product

Does anyone know if this card will work with the ROM posted or does it have to be the actual 100259 card?

I actually ordered that card the other day. it came to $184 total from the .ca site because they were having 10% off everything for Canada. I did notice the card is slightly different but i don't see why it shouldn't work..

UPDATE: I just got the card today. it is the same SKU as the other one. The only difference on this is the heatsink and fan.

I was originally running the Sapphire Rom from Cindoris ROM folder on my XFX 4870 ZWFK card and it worked great. But then I had the same pixel spots coming up on my screen after a few days of use. So I flashed the card with the ZWFL ROM also in Cindoris applications folder and I have not had the same spotty pixel problem. :)

Although this morning a new problem has arisen, My card would just freak out, I would hear the fan speed up for a second like it was hit with a bolt of electricity and then the screen would go black and my OS would freeze. After 2 reboots and it happening again, I decided tot take of the side panel of the mac pro to let some air in and it has remained stable enough for me to be able to write this post. Anyone else having a unusual card crash like I have had with the 4870?

I re-flashed the original bios back to it and was still having problems with video. They did a test and it turned out the card it self was faulty....

[poopdedoop]

hey everyone. I got my new HD 4870 and i can't get any video in windows. I have an x1900 and i have to have them both connected so i can get video in windows. I'm using GPU-Z and it's not detecting the card.

I need to backup my rom, but i don't know how I can get the card detected. Any suggestions?

[SteveW25561]

After reading all these posts I decided to try the XFX HD487AZWFC. I also ordered 2 of the power cables for the motherboard.

Mine is a MacPro 2006 (1,1) with 5 G RAM, Snow Leopard (10.6.2 - latest version) installed on an SSD. No other expansion cards.

I moved the original Nvidia 7300GT card to the topmost slot and installed the XFX in the lowest slot (where the GT was originally).

Unfortunately, anytime the XFX card is in the macPro, my system will hang on bootup: I get the grey Apple with the spinning wheel, but then a Kernel Panic (curtain of dark telling you to press the Power button). Removing the XFX card allows booting.

I tried preinstalling the nvinject via the ATI flash tool but this didn't help, nor did booting with ONLY the XFX card: there was no video despite installing Nvinject. In fact, shortly after the fan on the XFX card spins really loudly.

Any ideas? I don't have easy access to a PC to try and backup the ROM and since I can't even get the MacPro to boot with Leopard, I can't use the great ATI flashing tool. I'm scard to flash w/o backup since I may return this card if I can't get it working.

[Cindori]

put 7300 in first slot, and 4890 in 2nd

then it should boot, and then you can flash

[F.A.D.]

Hey SteveW25561, same here. I just got my Sapphire 512 MB Card with the big black fan in the middle. I installed the two powercables and tested the card in all slots but the computer always fails to boot (the dark grey screen appears saying me I have to restart. I have my 7300 installed with the screens attached to it. I also installed Natit and booted just with the 4870 but also no luck... :-(

who has an idea?

kind regards from germany,

David

[Cindori]

dl AFT (my sig)

run natit remover

download
http://groths.se/atiflashingtool/sapphire_4870_new.zip

install .app

try boot with only 4870



if that does not work,
1. test card in windows if broken
2. dump rom with GPU-Z in windows and give me

[F.A.D.]

Hi Cindori,

thanks so much for your support, I will donate if my card will work.
Sadly the new Natit you posted did not work, my screens stayed black the whole time (23" Cinema Display). I installed bootcamp and installed the latest catalyst drivers and it seems to work in XP, GPU-Z also showed a working card.
I managed to save the original Bios from the card and attached it (thanks in advance for you efforts).
I tried to use winflash to try some roms but winflash never started :-( it´s the newest version. Is there another tool to flash the 4870 under windows.

Kind regards,

David

[Cindori]

is this your card?
http://www.jayceooi.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/sapphire_hd4870_04.jpg



i researched your ROM and indeed it is not compatible with no natit or mac modified roms we have made yet.


so I will make new natit for you that should work.
natit is not necessary for you since you have only nvidia cards and they wont be harmed in flash,
but its a good way to check if card works before starting to get into flashing.

[Cindori]

so try this:

http://groths.se/atiflashingtool/sapphire_4870_512_natit.zip



edit:

my first upload was bad, replaced now with good natit. same link.

[SteveW25561]

In the end, I went the long way to ensure things were reversible: I installed Windows 7 on the MacPro via Bootcamp so I could take a rom dump using GPU-Z, then burned a CD rom with the atiflash utility plus the modified 4870 rom.

I basically followed this guide to the letter (but used Fusion for the building of the bootCD):

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

one thing is when I booted using the bootCD to flash the ATI card, while booting into the DOS prompt, my MacPro seemed to hang: in fact, it was running but I had to wait a few minutes (!) before it got through whatever it was doing. In the end, it all worked exactly as listed.

After I flashed the XFX HD 4870, and all is fine now. With the new modified ROM, MacOS doesn't kernel panic and I can boot into bootcamp Win7 no problem.

Thanks for all your help.

- Steve

[F.A.D.]

Hi Cindori,

the card is exactly the one one the picture, I bought it on ebay because it looked exactly like the one on the picture you have in the folder of your OSX ATi flashing tool. But the rom in this folder is just for the 1GB card you said.
So the new Natit worked for me, so I would just need a working rom and flash the card when the I booted it with the new natit? I will search the forum if any Sapphire rom will work, if not I´ll sell the card since I´ve absolutely no clue how to make a rom file.

again, thanks for your great support.

David

[F.A.D.]

have tried to make my one rom using the manual here in the forum but it always says "no such file or directory" in the terminal. Had all files in the same folder and tried different locations for the files.


kind regards,

David

[Cindori]

hi FAD, you can remove natit using ati flashing tool as you will not need it anymore. I only wanted to see if it would work.


i will make a mac rom for your card so you can flash.

[Cindori]

hello again

try flash with this in ATI Flashing tool:

http://groths.se/atiflashingtool/saph_512_nogirl.zip

as mentioned before you should remove natit before (so you know youre running off flash not running only of natit)

I also would like a part number from you so I can put roms in my database.

[F.A.D.]

Hi Cindori,

first of all I just donated you 20$ for your support !!! Thanks for your rom, sadly I flashed a non working rom on the card when I got it to boot under OSX with your Natit. Now it won´t boot with the Natit because the rom I flashed to it was not made for the card (my fault). If I just would have waited for your rom :-)

To the numbers on the card:

HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI-E DUAL DVI/TVO

PN 288-10E85-030SA SKU# 11133-03

The next two weeks I´ll have no access to my mac pro, but when I´m home again I´ll get back on the flashing stuff an WILL get it to work.

Thanks again for your support, I really appreciate.

kind regards from cold, dark and rainy norther germany,

David

[Cindori]

If your mac still boots with 7300+4890 you can flash no problem since the tool does not harm nvidia cards so you don't need natit.

if your mac dont boot with 7300+4890, you can still make a boot CD and flash.

thanks from, snowy woods of northern sweden ;)

[F.A.D.]

yesterday I managed somehow to boot in osx with 4870+7300, flashed using the atiflashing tool and the rom you made for me, removed natit and installed the Quarz and Core image support, restarted osx... it now takes 7 minutes to boot and the screens stay white all the time, there is no apple logo. Without the 4870 it boots in 30 seconds with apple logo etc.

In OSX there are just funny white and coloured things happening on my screens when attached to the 4870... Flashed again, but nothing changed. In Windows the card runs perfect with the original rom, very strange...

this time with regards from southern germany (will be back on 1.12)

David

[Cindori]

Yeah I made mistake when sewing rom for you, I used EFI from 4890 card.

I will make new one for you later today.

[ntdogg511]

Anyone interested in buying my flashed card and the cables off me? I'm parting out and selling off my mac pro, going to be buying the 27" imac. SO I figured if anyone here wants to do this but is worried about doing it or just doesn't want to mess around with all this stuff I would offer them my card.

I haven't been following the thread, but I do know they changed some stuff on the cards. This is the XFX card from before they did that, it's about 6 months old.

If not I'm going to leave it in it when I put it on ebay, but I figured if anyone from MacRumors wants it I would much rather sell it to someone who needs one.

It has always worked great for me, I ran dual 23" cinemas off of it with nary a problem since I flashed it.

$210 via Paypal takes it and the cables. the $10 is to cover paypals retarded fee system.

Just PM me if intersted.

[leveex]

Hi, i have noob question.
I have as title says Gigabyte 4870 (http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2857) with 512Mb and I want to flash it to work on PC with installed Snow leopard 10.6.2
So I have searched this forum upside down to find rom for my graphic card and I have found some roms that are for Gigabyte 4870, but I am not sure that it is my card.
So if I patch my card with wrong rom what's happen than?
Can I re patch it again with rom for my card or my card is dead and I can't use it any more.

[Cindori]

if you dump your rom with GPUZ in windows, we can modify it for you

[leveex]

Ok, I will do it for the weekend I have to install windows first. I will contact you when I dump my rom. Thanks

[F.A.D.]

Hi Cindori,

any news on my rom for the 512MB 4870 Sapphire with the black fan in the middle? Last time you made one with an 4890 EFI. I really don´t want to rush, especially because I don´t have acces to my computer right know, just to prevent things get forgotten.

Thanks again for your great swedish support !!!

Kind regards,

David

[Cindori]

Yes I have you in the back of My head dw just been very busy with developing the tool

[Cindori]

You didnt notice thread is 86 pages long? Rom was uploaded almost a year ago ;)

[leveex]

if you dump your rom with GPUZ in windows, we can modify it for you



Here it is Rapidshare (http://rapidshare.com/files/309646530/Gigabyte_4870_RV770.bin.html)

[LcTrKiD]

I flashed the rom of my XFX 4870 and I can start Snow Leopard but my TV, connected in the second DVI (I can't connect my ACD 30" there), is the principal Display. How can I change that ? I want to have my ACD in dvi 1 and being the principal display.

PS: sorry about my bad english :)
PS2: Thank to all that help me writting this awesome thread !!!

[F.A.D.]

Hey,

to make the 30" ACD the primary Display go to System Preferences/Displays and choose the arrange Displays Setting. You should see two blue screens that you can arrange, to make the 30" ACD the primary display just drag the grey menu bar from the one screen to the other.

Kind regards,

David

[LcTrKiD]

Hi F.A.D. I knew that and I did it first before posting. I posted from Snow Leopard but I can't see the Apple Logo at the start.

[Liffride]

Just flashed an XFX ZWFL card for my mac pro 1.1,

And it works like a charm!!! Just the power cable message on startup,
but i can live with that.

Thank you very much!!!

Regards

Stefan

[aminoff]

Just flashed an XFX ZWFL card for my mac pro 1.1,

And it works like a charm!!! Just the power cable message on startup,
but i can live with that.


Which tool, ROM and instructions did you use?

[antares74]

Hi,
i've a ASUS 4870 1Gb and a MP 1,1. I've tryed to flash the vga 2 times.
1st) i 've used 4870.rom but then it dosn't work (the mac dosn't start) so i've re-flashed with original ROM.
2nd) i've followed the istructions of The Rominator to make a personal ROM.
now the MP start but the video is black, but if i plug the monitor on 7300 (in the 2nd slot) i see the desk and icons.
Any idea?

Thanks

[Cindori]

There is a rom pkg in my aft thread, gl

[matthew.russo]

I bring good news, with the Apple ATI OEM cards, I have sucessfully got crossfire working!

I am running windows 7 x64, and the latest drivers from ATI 9.11. No ROM changes.

Straight away it allowed me to enable crossfire :)

[Ferrari904]

I bring good news, with the Apple ATI OEM cards, I have sucessfully got crossfire working!

I am running windows 7 x64, and the latest drivers from ATI 9.11. No ROM changes.

Straight away it allowed me to enable crossfire :)

WHAT?! :confused: :eek: Is this with two Apple cards or an Apple OEM and a 3rd party card? Either way that's amazing. I just bought Windows 7 yesterday. Do you think this will work between my 4870 and 4890? :)

[matthew.russo]

WHAT?! :confused: :eek: Is this with two Apple cards or an Apple OEM and a 3rd party card? Either way that's amazing. I just bought Windows 7 yesterday. Do you think this will work between my 4870 and 4890? :)

It is with 2 Apple OEM ATI 4870's

I was shocked and amazed that it finally worked :D

edit: see attached screenshot, proof that it is working. Would love to hear if anyone else gets sucess with the same card either paired with another 4870 flashed or not. 3DMark 06 got a respectable 17018.

[lbodnar]

I have bricked a Sapphire HD4870 512Mb PN 288-10E85-030SA SKU# 11133-03 and now looking for help.

I have placed it into a spare slot in my stock 2006 MacPro and foolishly used this guide: http://boeglin.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry090918-031702

After rebooting the Mac just stays dead. It does not even try to boot and red LED "CPUB FAIL" lights up on the logic board.
Correction: it repeatedly chimes. After first chime red LED comes on and it does not react to anything but forced power-down.

It happens both with nVidia card in and without. With power cables attached or not. In any PCI-E slot.
Correction: Without power cables the 4870 is disabled and its own set of LEDs become red and its own fan blasts at full speed.


Taking the 4870 out makes Mac Pro work as usual.

Is there any chance to revive the card? I can't see any way to boot MacPro with this card in.

I don't have any PC at hand. Would it be re-flashable if plugged into a PC with on-board video?

Thanks

[F.A.D.]

Hi Cindori and everyone else,

after some struggeling I created a working rom for my Sapphire card.

HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI-E DUAL DVI/TVO

PN 288-10E85-030SA SKU# 11133-03

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/screenshots/medium/2008/12/01-graka-sapphire4870-373187.jpg

It works very well with my two 23" ACD´s but one thing confuses me: in my system profiler I see two 4870`s, see the following image.

http://www.orchidproductions.de/pictures/systemprofile.png

And where can I see if my cards support Core image and Quartz? There is no evidence in the system profiler.

Kind regards,

David

[F.A.D.]

Hi lbodnar,

put your 7300 in the first slot (the lowestone) and your 4870 in the second slot. It takes about up to 10 minutes to start, it took 10 minutes on my system anyway. Maybe that helps,

Kind regards,

David

[Cindori]

ibodnar: pretty sure you need a PC



FAD: aty,motmot is the audio device of the 4870 popping up. it does on some cards. it has no drivers in OSX. nothing to worry.


you can chek qe/ci support with atiflashingtool, QE_CI --> test button.

[lbodnar]

Hi lbodnar,
put your 7300 in the first slot (the lowestone) and your 4870 in the second slot. It takes about up to 10 minutes to start, it took 10 minutes on my system anyway. Maybe that helps,
Kind regards,
David
Hi David, before seeing your message I have actually just had another go and it was repeatedly chiming in this very configuration. I switched it off after 1-2 minutes. Did it chime all 10 minutes before it booted up?

I have now tried again and after waiting for 15 minutes nothing has changed. FAIL CPUB LED is lit and repeated chiming.

[F.A.D.]

cindori: everything is supported so you could add this rom to your rom package. Thanks !!!

Ibodnar: it didn´t chimed all the time just once at the beginning but that was after I installed natit.

To all of you, how hot does your 4870 get?

I have no experience with such high end cards but my 4870 gets very hot when doing standard stuff in finder etc. I have two 23" ACD attached. Since I have a bigger cooler (see picture) I thought it would be cooler. Just touched the pipes you can see on the picture and for my impression they seem to be very hot, should I worry?

http://www.orchidproductions.de/pictures/sapphire.jpg

[Liffride]

Which tool, ROM and instructions did you use?

I used rominators ROM, flashed it in dos with freedos.
i chose windows as startupdisk and installed the 4870 directly,
that way i didn´t have to keep my old x1900 card installed when flashing.


Cheers.

[The Rominator]

multiple chiming in a row foretells your future............

it predicts that:

A: soon you will be flashing that card in a PC

or .......

B: You will be looking into an RMA from whence you bought it

or......

C: You have a fun new paperweight!!! Of the highest grade ! Will hold an entire Tax Return down in near-gale force winds !

Liffride : Glad to hear the ROM worked. In Snow Leopard it is really pretty solid. And available from Newegg for $150 or less usually. No worries about updating QE/CI support for each OS point update as with 4890.

[lbodnar]

multiple chiming in a row foretells your future............
C: You have a fun new paperweight!!! Of the highest grade ! Will hold an entire Tax Return down in near-gale force winds !

I am quite a seasoned hardware hack so while I am looking for a PC to try this 4870 in I was having a quick look at the PCB. I can identify most of the components but I can't see the flash EEPROM that would store the firmware. Is it inside the ATI chip or have a I missed some serial EEPROM that is used for initing a shadow RAM at startup?

Correction: I have found a 1Mbit SPI EEPROM that would be easy to flash in my standalone flash programmer.

[lbodnar]

multiple chiming in a row foretells your future............

it predicts that:

A: soon you will be flashing that card in a PC

or .......

B: You will be looking into an RMA from whence you bought it

or......

C: You have a fun new paperweight!!! Of the highest grade ! Will hold an entire Tax Return down in near-gale force winds !

Neither looked appealing so I have unsoldered EEPROM, stuck it into my programmer, flashed it with "Sapphire 512Mb" ROM from the latest ATI flashing tool package 1.2 and put EEPROM back on the video card. So I am back to business.

However, I cannot get it to work without Natit injector. Even if I flash it with "4870/Sapphire 512mb/mac modified.rom" it just shows black screen unless injector is applied.

Any ideas?

Card is Sapphire HD4870 512Mb PN 288-10E85-030SA SKU# 11133-03
http://www.sapphiretech.com/images/product/gallery/0174/174_20090430_3171.jpg

[lbodnar]

Hi Cindori and everyone else,

after some struggeling I created a working rom for my Sapphire card.

HD4870 512MB GDDR5 PCI-E DUAL DVI/TVO

PN 288-10E85-030SA SKU# 11133-03

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/screenshots/medium/2008/12/01-graka-sapphire4870-373187.jpg

It works very well with my two 23" ACD´s but one thing confuses me: in my system profiler I see two 4870`s, see the following image.

Kind regards,

David

Hi David,
I am a bit confused. I have exactly the same card as you do. Your linked image seems to be different from the one included in latest ROMS.zip in the folder "Sapphire 512Mb". Does image in the ROMS.zip work for you?
Cheers
Leo

[F.A.D.]

Hi Ibodnar,

I have exactly the same card as the one on your picture. The Rom in the ROMS.zip package did NOT work for me. I bought the card because I thought it would be the same card but it is a different one. Cindori made a Natit for my card a page ago which worked fine, maybe you could use that to boot and than flash the card with my rom.

Did you have both power cables connected to your card?

On my card I shortened the srews under the card so it won´t bend to much, maybe you have no contact on the lower pins because the cards is bend to much because of the srews being to long.

Kind regards,

David

[lbodnar]

Hi Ibodnar,
Did you have both power cables connected to your card?

On my card I shortened the srews under the card so it won´t bend to much, maybe you have no contact on the lower pins because the cards is bend to much because of the srews being to long.

Yes, David, I had to replace the heatsink screws with shorter ones to be able to slide it into the 1st (bottom) slot.

I have both cables attached to optical drive bay connectors for now. I have bought Molex mini-jacks and will convert the cables to logic board connection soon.

I am confused because our cards have the same PN and SKU as the ones at the beginning of this thread so I assumed ROMS.zip contains images that came from exactly the same card.

[TheStrudel]

What size screws do you use for that? I hate to digress, but it's something I keep forgetting to go back and do.

[F.A.D.]

Ibondar: maybe it will work when connected to the mainboard, maybe it´s a different power source. The Rom from the ROMS.zip will not work but the one I made and uploaded works like a charm !!!

The Strudel: I just used my Dremel and shortened the screws with a cut of wheel.

[lbodnar]

Ibondar: maybe it will work when connected to the mainboard, maybe it´s a different power source. The Rom from the ROMS.zip will not work but the one I made and uploaded works like a charm !!!
I have tried your ROM and it works for me as well - thank you for that! :D
I also have two entries for PIC-card in the profiler.

[sbeehre]

Hi Everyone! ive been reading this thread with interest and have bought a Saphire 4870 with the SKU of 11133-19-20R which i believe will work fine with a ROM attached earlier in the thread... I've decided to make my own cables from the 2 that came with the card as my super drive bay only has SATA power and i cant find a SATA to Molex connector. Ive ordered the molex connecters mentioned in the first post and was wondering where i connect each wire, could anyone give me any tips? Attached is a pic of the connector that goes onto the card itself, the other end has a standard 4 pin molex connector which i want to change to the mini one to fit onto my motherboard.

[lbodnar]

Hi Everyone! ive been reading this thread with interest and have bought a Saphire 4870 with the SKU of 11133-19-20R which i believe will work fine with a ROM attached earlier in the thread... I've decided to make my own cables from the 2 that came with the card as my super drive bay only has SATA power and i cant find a SATA to Molex connector. Ive ordered the molex connecters mentioned in the first post and was wondering where i connect each wire, could anyone give me any tips? Attached is a pic of the connector that goes onto the card itself, the other end has a standard 4 pin molex connector which i want to change to the mini one to fit onto my motherboard.I have done the same. It is, basically, one-to-one connection. In fact all pins near the tab side (4,5,6) are connected to GND and all pins on the other side (1,2,3) are +12V so if you swapped two yellow wires - don't panic. I have left one +12V pin unconnected on logic board side because the wires are quite thick and difficult to make a jump wire on the micro side.

[Supaklaw]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270464636969&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

This guy's selling them on eBay for $15.

[sbeehre]

I have done the same. It is, basically, one-to-one connection. In fact all pins near the tab side (4,5,6) are connected to GND and all pins on the other side (1,2,3) are +12V so if you swapped two yellow wires - don't panic. I have left one +12V pin unconnected on logic board side because the wires are quite thick and difficult to make a jump wire on the micro side.

thanks mate that was exactly what i was after :) When i first got the card i plugged it in without the power cables and just wanted to make sure that i havent done any damage in doing that?

[Gigsou]

Hello everybody !
I try to follow all the tread but it is very long and my english is very bad ...
I bought a saphire 4870 512 mb to be sure to don't have trouble but i recieved a powercolor like this one http://omarberrio.com/images/powercolor%204870%20512%20stalker.jpg (whithout the drawing)
Did someone try the manip with this model ?
It works with the natit of the saphire 512 mb but i can't go on windows bootcamp.

Where can I find the good modified rom ?

Thx to all and one more time sorry to take your time and sorry for my english

[Cindori]

If it works with "sapphire 512mb" natit, then it will work with "sapphire 512mb" ROM.

[Gigsou]

Sure ?
I tried but it doesn't boot (with ati flashing tool). So I reput the natit and it works again. Maybe I have done it wrong ?

Thx for the quick answer.

[lbodnar]

Sure ?
I tried but it doesn't boot (with ati flashing tool). So I reput the natit and it works again. Maybe I have done it wrong ?
Thx for the quick answer.
Try F.A.D. image a dozen of posts earlier (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=8898603&postcount=2162). I also have Sapphire 512MB card and ROMS.zip image for it did not work but F.A.D.'s does!

[Gigsou]

What is F.A.D. ?
And I don't have a saphire but a powercolor card.

[Cindori]

A user

[lbodnar]

When i first got the card i plugged it in without the power cables and just wanted to make sure that i havent done any damage in doing that?No, you are OK. It is designed for consumer market ;)

[Gigsou]

I found the good rom and all is ok :)
Thx

[sbeehre]

No, you are OK. It is designed for consumer market ;)

i know it was a bit of a silly question but it did have a sticker on the bag with a big stop sign saying you must connect this to the power supply of your PC :)

[maxfan1]

I hope you guys know what you are doing is illegal. You're only allowed to run OS X on Apple hardware. There is a reason Mac capable graphics cards are more expensive. It's because they're better made and are more reliable. If you are so concerned about price then you wouldn't have bought a mac in the first place. If you want cheap, then stick to hackintoshing, because that's basically what you're doing.

[PurpleLogix]

I hope you guys know what you are doing is illegal. You're only allowed to run OS X on Apple hardware. There is a reason Mac capable graphics cards are more expensive. It's because they're better made and are more reliable. If you are so concerned about price then you wouldn't have bought a mac in the first place. If you want cheap, then stick to hackintoshing, because that's basically what you're doing.

You are so correct, thanks for giving Apple your money.

Stop being naive and brainwashed by the Kool-aid

[maxfan1]

You are so correct, thanks for giving Apple your money.

Stop being naive and brainwashed by the Kool-aid

The moment you bring in third party hardware into Macs, the more chance of them breaking down.

Apple are the most reliable hardware makers exactly because they control everything that goes into their machines.

[lbodnar]

I hope you guys know what you are doing is illegal. You're only allowed to run OS X on Apple hardware. There is a reason Mac capable graphics cards are more expensive. It's because they're better made and are more reliable. If you are so concerned about price then you wouldn't have bought a mac in the first place. If you want cheap, then stick to hackintoshing, because that's basically what you're doing.
Could you please elaborate? :eek:
I hope you realise that video card is a peripheral device - this is what P in PCI stands for. It does not "run" OS X. I also have non-Apple made mouse, display and a power cable attached to my MacPro. Should I be worried?

[The Rominator]

Ha Ha hA....

wait, what's that knocking at my door?

EEEEK !!! Its Steve Jobs and the police !!!!

They've come to get me for using a PC 4870.

Someone help me please..........I'm SSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOO sorry !!!

Help !!! No !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lbodnar]

Apple are the most reliable hardware makers exactly because they control everything that goes into their machines.
LOL. Please reveal your true identity! Your experience with Apple must be a month or two, right? Some people here used Apple stuff before :apple: made a giant leap and migrated to PowerPC.

I would call Apple most beautiful hardware makers (both engineering and aesthetic) but hardly most reliable. Compared to IBM mainframes anyway.

[PurpleLogix]

The moment you bring in third party hardware into Macs, the more chance of them breaking down.

Apple are the most reliable hardware makers exactly because they control everything that goes into their machines.

Yep, I'll buy some Apple HDD's and RAM as well next time.

They all come from the same place. Pay 300% more for a little :apple: logo on the goods. No thanks

[combat]

Ha Ha hA....

wait, what's that knocking at my door?

EEEEK !!! Its Steve Jobs and the police !!!!

They've come to get me for using a PC 4870.

Someone help me please..........I'm SSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOO sorry !!!

Help !!! No !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have come to REPOSSESS your computer. (Yanks power cord and hops into microsoft limo)

[MacRumorUser]

The moment you bring in third party hardware into Macs, the more chance of them breaking down.

Apple are the most reliable hardware makers exactly because they control everything that goes into their machines.


Dont feed the troll....


this is MacAddict1985 (he was previously perma-banned, now trolling under new pseudonym).

[Casa]

Good morning and sorry for being another oblivious newbie asking for buying advice in this thread.
Last night my 8800GT finally died (this is the 3rd card after a dead x1900xt and another 8800GT), and this time I'm unfortunately out of warranty and out of cash too. Since I'm doing a lot of game design lately though, I can't live with the old 7300GT I have lying around. I wouldn't have considered a 4870 normally, but I just stumbled over a dirt cheap demoware card from Asus for under 100 Euros (a Sapphire would be 140).
Sadly, after a few hours of reading I haven't seen any confirmation on Asus cards, neither confirmed working nor confirmed failures.. the closest I got was this post that remained unanswered:


Hi,
i've a ASUS 4870 1Gb and a MP 1,1. I've tryed to flash the vga 2 times.
1st) i 've used 4870.rom but then it dosn't work (the mac dosn't start) so i've re-flashed with original ROM.
2nd) i've followed the istructions of The Rominator to make a personal ROM.
now the MP start but the video is black, but if i plug the monitor on 7300 (in the 2nd slot) i see the desk and icons.
Any idea?

Thanks

I'm almost exactly in the same boat, also using a Mac Pro 1.1, just that the card I'm looking at is a 512MB version - here's the description (sorry, german site):

http://www.schiwi.de/shop4/product_info.php?info=p33107_ASUS-EAH4870-HTDI--512MB-DDR5-PCIE--HDTV-2xDVI--ex-Demorechner.html

If this card's confirmed not working, I'd rather get an even cheaper card just for Bootcamp and keep the old 7300GT in the 2nd slot for OS X. If there's a fair chance to get it to work in OS X though, I might be willing to bite the bullet and starve for the rest of the month.
Any experience, anyone?

Alternatively, they sell a GF 9800GT for 79,90 - any chance to get that working instead (I'd prefer Ati though)?


Edit: Forgot to say I still have the two power cables from the dead GeForces. Those would work with the new ATI I hope?

[Casa]

Oh well, looks like that Asus card is not exactly a standard for flashing experiments. Pity, because paying €40 more doesn't make it easier. :(

I need a new card fast, so I looked around what 4870 brands are still in stock at my local dealers. It seems that XFX cards are the best working ones, followed by Sapphire. Sadly, XFX is not available anywhere nearby, the only card I can find for a reasonable price is the Sapphire 4870 1GB.

After re-reading this thread though I'm all but sure about the flashing results, it seems only the older cards starting with a 1xxxxxxx number are safe. The card I found is a newer 21133-04-20R model, did anyone have positive results with this one (http://www.schiwi.de/shop4/product_info.php?info=p31430_SAPPHIRE-Radeon-HD4870-------1024MB-DDR5-PCIE--TV-2xDVI.html)?

I must say I'm quite confused about the various Sapphire results and also Cindori's Ati flashing tool that simply mentions "Sapphire new edition". So what exactly is a Sapphire new edition, maybe the card I'm looking at (a question I couldn't answer myself after re-reading all hese 90 pages)?

Another question, before I shed out that money in vain, do the Sapphire cards fit into Slot#1 of a Mac Pro 1.1 without problems? At this moment I have an old GF 7600GS (Windows only) which really hasn't a thick cooler, neverthesless I couldn't get it into Slot 1 and have to use it in a slower slot, something I'd rather avoid with the 4870. Besides only one DVI port working (no problem, single 20" display), do I have to expect any other issues?

[The Rominator]

The Asus card actually looks promising...IF IT HAS THAT FAN ON IT.

Many Asus cards had much simpler, 2 wire fans.

The early cards with that fan were closest to the reference design, closest to Apple's design.

9800GTs are usually flashable but sometimes have 64K/128K EEPROM issue and sometimes have fans at 100% toujour.

[Casa]

Thank you for the reply, rominator. However, I'm even less sure what to do now. The Asus card is damn cheap, but I've not seen a single success report on Asus cards (however, nobody tried the 512MB version it seems).
As for the Sapphire, I saw that BEIGE actually had success (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=7381712&postcount=672) with that very same card.
I plan to look at the cooler anyway (one reason I want to buy at a local store) to make sure it fits into the Mac Pro's 1st slot, so maybe I could let the heatsink of the Asus card decide for me.

If I tried the Asus card, I guess I'd have to make my own ROM, right? Which is rather intimidating, I must admit. My head's already smoking from all these reports. At this moment I'm leaning towards Sapphire.

Edit: Ack dammit, he also mentions the screws on the Sapphire being too large for slot 1. Now I'm completely lost. :)

And then there's of course the 9800GT question. I couldn't find any thread like this anywhere for nVidia cards, are there some brands that work for sure? Being low on cash, the difference between 80 Euros for a 9800GT vs. 140 for the "almost safe" Sapphire means a lot.

[Casa]

*the hunter returns with an arrow-pierced 4870 on his shoulder*

In the end it turned out to be a MSI R4870-MD1G card, once again a card without a ROM in the Atiflasher app, sadly.
However, I found this thread here (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=780486) and it looks like I can indeed get this card to work. There's just one thing, and that is I can't get the ROM he posted without a Rapidshare premium account. :((
Can anyone do me the favor and repost it, or point me at the best way to make my own? Is the original Mac ROM used as a base in this thread still the most recent one, or have there been updates? For the record, I already dumped the original MSI ROM using GPU-Z.
It looks like a lot of the flashing procedures from the beginning of his thread are obsolete now, or there are better "recommended" methods.
Heh, sorry for being a pain, I'm extremely nervous now, especially because the card seems to work flawlessly in Bootcamp already and I'd like to keep it that way. :p

Edit: Just figured I can't even get the original Mac ROM from this thread without a Rapidshare premium account, so I'm kinda stuck at this point.
Edit: The original ROM as attachment

[The Rominator]

the method for making a 4870 ROM hasn't changed a lick...the great & mysterious genius Pipomolo42 posted method and I think it is linked from begining.

all that is changed is that Cindori has made it easier to flash in OSX using a trick that was again discovered by pipomolo42.

As you already have Windows loaded, you should probably flash in DOS

If you have done all right, when fixrom.py runs it will show 2 @ "oproms", one of which will have a different checksum in "after" section.

Also, the first "oprom" will have the 80 "last rom" flag changed to 00 as I recall.

[Casa]

Alright, I'm feeling really stupid now and have some very basic questions regarding the "do it yourself ROM" method.
I found a 4870 Mac ROM, so that's no issue anymore. The basic, maybe stupid first question though is about the PC ROM file. As suggested, I used GPU-Z and got the file I attached to my last post. That's a bin however, not a ROM file.
So for the scripts, I had no better idea than to rename the file including it's extension to "pc4870.rom". This might have not been right but I had no clue, and the script spits this at me:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "fixrom.py", line 104, in <module>
op_rom = OpRom(f.read())
File "fixrom.py", line 40, in __init__
raise TypeError("OpRom at %d is not valid" % offset)
TypeError: OpRom at 0 is not valid


Edit: And yes, I think flashing in DOS (or Windows) is my only option, since OS X boots into a Kernel panic immediately with the card installed.

[Casa]

Oh well, here we go, MSI paperweight.

I dumped the ROM again using Winflash this time, the script worked fine and I was under the impression I got something useable.
Went through all the steps from making a DOS ISO with Atiflash, flashed the card successfully, and upon restart all I got was a black screen. On both cards. I couldn't get the Mac to boot any system with the 4870, it just sits and does nothing while the fan of the card runs at full speed and the thing's getting hotter and hotter. Guess I broke it, huh? :(

Attached is the ROM I ended up with.

[lbodnar]

Oh well, here we go, MSI paperweight.

I have done the same earlier with my HD4870. I have been told to try it in a PC but I have just taken EERPOM off the card and reflashed it in standalone programmer.

[Casa]

Ooof, I revived it... after trying out any possible PCI slot mixture, I managed to boot into OS X with the ATI card installed and was able to reflash it quickly using Cindori's utility. I'm now back at the original ROM and could give it another try. I'm still wondering if I made some mistake during the terminal part which is the most obscure step for me - extraction, DOS disk and flashing from that bootable disk is no real brainer.

All right, I'll post exactly what I do regarding the ROM editing part.

1. Save ROM with Winflash as "pc4870.rom", the result is a 128kb file

2. Take the Mac "4870.ROM", the "pc4870.rom" over to the Mac side. To make it easier for the terminal stuff, I store both files in the root directory of my user fiolder so I don't have to adjust any paths, the same goes for the python script.

3. Run the first command dd if=4870.ROM of=efi.part bs=1 skip=63488 count=49152 simply by copy and paste from the post, which results in: 49152+0 records in
49152+0 records out
49152 bytes transferred in 0.367152 secs (133874 bytes/sec)

4. Run the second and third command blocknum=`printf %d "'\`dd if=pc4870.rom bs=1 skip=2 count=1 2>/dev/null\`"`
size=$(($blocknum * 512))just by copy and paste which the terminal accepts without feedback.

5. Run the 4th command dd if=efi.part of=pc4870.rom bs=$size seek=1 conv=notrunc which results in: 0+1 records in
0+1 records out
49152 bytes transferred in 0.000135 secs (364237509 bytes/sec)

6. run the last command python fixrom.py pc4870.rom pc4870.rom which results in:

Before:
OpRom (size=64512, indicator_offset=0x279, indicator=0x80, checksum=0xff)
OpRom (size=49152, indicator_offset=0x31, indicator=0x80, checksum=0xff)
RawData (size=17408)

After:
OpRom (size=64512, indicator_offset=0x279, indicator=0x0, checksum=0x7f)
OpRom (size=49152, indicator_offset=0x31, indicator=0x80, checksum=0xff)
RawData (size=17408)

I then grab the pc4870.rom from the User directory again, burn that on my CD along with ATIFlash and proceed to the flashing process.

Is there anything in these steps I'm missing or doing wrong?

[The Rominator]

OK...you are doing this right, but this ROM apparently is one of the ones that need a little extra work.

Specifically, the finished product fails the "MCUC" test. ie.....the DDR5 lookup table at the end has been partially overwritten.

Peloche wrote a pretty thorough explanation of this, I think mine was a bit more cryptic.

Peloche wrote about making 4890 ROM, but the actions are same, you just use the original Mac 4870 ROM instead of the "rosetta stone" 4890 ROM written by Netkas.

I am sitting at JFK waiting for a delayed flight and on my Macbook....if I was on my Mac Pro at home I would write it for you. Be nice to Peloche, he may help out if you can't do yourself.

DON'T GIVE UP !!!

[mazungu]

Trying to get the Asus EAH4870 to work, i dumped the rom using atiwinflash and followed the steps:

dd if=4870.ROM of=efi.part bs=1 skip=63488 count=49152
blocknum=`printf %d "'\`dd if=pc4870.rom bs=1 skip=2 count=1 2>/dev/null\`"`
size=$(($blocknum * 512))
dd if=efi.part of=pc4870.rom bs=$size seek=1 conv=notrunc
python fixrom.py pc4870.rom pc4870.rom

Everything is good till:
dd if=efi.part of=pc4870.rom bs=$size seek=1 conv=notrunc
it outputs:
sh-3.2# dd if=efi.part of=pc4870.rom bs=$size seek=1 conv=notrunc
dd: bs must be between 1 and -1

I have the correct naming and i made sure i got all 128kb in the rom file..
any ideas?
I have uploaded the rom file if anyone has any time to look at it.

Thanks!
Jared

[Casa]

Thanks for the reply, Rominator.
At the moment though I'm having the problem of lacking the basic access to the card again. I was stupid enough to give the original Mac ROM a shot after my own failed, and at least it was able to calm down the fan. However, that was hours ago, since then I never managed to boot with the card again. I can't count anymore how often I changed slots and rebooted, I think if not by the wrong ROM, I'll soon ruin the card and my Mac physically.

[Casa]

Well, the Mac 4870.ROM finally killed it, there's no way to boot the Mac with the card installed anymore. I noticed it's bootable if no power cables are attached, however the card's not visible nor flashable like that.

There's one last chance though, and that's a PC I have access to over the christmas days. Which leads to another problem: There were no cables in the box. I know the PC I can use has 1 cable (there's a x1950 in it), and now I wonder if the card would be recognized and be flashable with just one power cable attached. Could anyone try if their 4870 is still visible (in Windows or OS X, as you prefer) with only one power cable?

Unless someone can help me with that modified ROM, I plan to just reflash it and keep it for Bootcamp, which probably means that my Mac Pro won't see OS X for a long while, since booting with the original MSI ROM leads to a Kernal panic. I might build a PC for it though, sooner or later.

[Cindori]

you should be able to flash with my tool without power.

[Casa]

I tried that, Cindori.
The card simply doesn't show up if there's no power, I tried your tool in Snow Leopard (it tells me that the flashing is done, in fact though nothing happened), and I tried booting from the DOS CD and flashing using ATIFlash, which tells me it can't find an adapter. Same story in Windows, Neither GPU-Z nor Winflash nor the Hardware Manager see any other card than my 7300GT.
I wish there was a way to make the Mac ignore the faulty ROM at startup and just get over the critical point of "Check PCI-Slots > hangup" when the card is on power.

[Cindori]

ok firmware is corrupt or bad, you need pc to reflash

[lbodnar]

I had the same problem as you, Casa. I even tried hot-plugging the card after the EFI started up (PCIe hardware is OK with that but it won't init it until soft restart where EFI would crash again.)

[Casa]

lol, I didn't want to admit it, but I tried hot-plugging too. :o

The only remaining question now is, do I need two power cables in the PC for reflashing the card? I'd hate to travel all the way with the box only to find out I can't do anything, and I can only get a 2nd power cable after christmas.

[Casa]

A small update, the card is functional again, reflashing it to the original ROM worked fine in the PC (although I had to talk the PC into booting with it for a while, there's just a 400W noname PS in it and a few times the comp wouldn't start until I switched some cables around) .

The Rominator, I'd appreciate any help if you think there's still a good chance for making a Mac ROM, otherwise I'm not too keen on another failing experiment anymore - it'll be a while until I can get to this PC again. :)

I wonder if there might at least be a fix for the very annoying Kernel Panic issue, that is, with the original PC ROM OS X panics on boot even if there's no display connected to the card. If there was at least a fix for this, I'd be okay with having to plug in and out the display when I want to use OS X. Having to pull out the whole card though is a major pain.
The Kernel panic occurs later in the boot process, in other words, I can get to the OS select screen just fine (alt) and only after selecting OS X, the Mac crashes a couple of seconds later. Maybe there's some kext fix for this I'm not aware of, something from netkas' side by chance?

[leveex]

Hi Cindori, I was waiting rom from you for a lot, so I flashed my 4870 Gigabyte card with matthew.russo (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=7922245&highlight=gigabyte#post7922245) rom, but I still can’t use it without evoenebler.
And I have some kind of flickers. So I am wondering have I did something wrong?
I have used your ATI Flash tool.
Do I have to do something else except flash card?

[Casa]

Unbelievable, and no idea what happened exactly, but I got it to work in OS X without another flashing experiment.
What I did was the following:

- Tried if the Mac boots from the Snow Leopard DVD with the ATI installed (ATI in slot 1, nVidia in slot 4, display connected to nVidia). Test passed, booted fine.

- 2. Tried booting in safe mode (holding shift). Mac boots again, reports ATY_whatever in system profiler under "graphics/displays", but returns an error on the PCI devices tab.

- 3. Thought to myself "what the hell..." and installed netkas' Enabler for nvidia and multiple ATI cards (http://netkas.org/?p=104). After the installation is done, the installer gives me a success report, but OS X gives me an error message about non-working extensions I just installed. This was still in safe mode.

- restarted normally (no safe mode), again the Mac boots fine, this time System profiler reports a fully working 4870 in the graphics tab.

- connected the display to the ATI's DVI port (the MSI has one DVI, one VGA, one HDMI port), restarted. After a while, the display wakes up and I get an extended desktop picture. Yay! But... err... how the hell do I get to the display preferences to enable it as 1st or mirrored display, so I can see the damn menu bar?

- Threw out the 7300, rebooted. The card works as 1st display. What can I say... thanks Netkas?

- Played a quick round CoD 4. Absolutely smooth gameplay, impressive! But... no noise? This card is incredibly loud in Windows XP, so loud I already thought about either returning it or getting a 3rd party cooler. Sidenote: MSI cards come with a non-standard cooler already. Anyway, in OS X the fan is spinning absolutely silent.
Played about 10 minutes, the fan doesn't seem to spin up. The card is very hot too touch, however, it's also very hot in Windows, so I'm not sure if it's a bad sign. However, no crash or artifacts occur.
I'd really like to know the temperature the card is running at. I'm very very happy I got it to work in OS X, finally, even if it's just an injector hack, but at this moment I'm not sure if I'd risk long gaming sessions, I'm not even sure about running OS X at all for a long time.

Anyway, this is a lot of progress for a day, I'll sleep well tonight. :o

[scott4862]

Hey guys,

I am not a frequent poster, but this thread and the work of everyone here was extremely helpful to me getting my PC 4870 to work in my Mac Pro. Because of that, I wanted to say thanks and post my working ROM. I bought a 1 GB Powercolor 4870 from New Egg (open box item). It resembles the included picture:

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/screenshots/medium/2008/07/Powercolor_HD4870_PCS_1G_01.png

I only have one monitor hooked up and it is non dual-link so I don't know to what extent the ports are working under OS X. I can say that the fan--while louder than the 2600 that I had--runs at a reasonable 7% of max speed under OS X. Hopefully others will find this ROM helpful.

[Cindori]

Hi Cindori, I was waiting rom from you for a lot, so I flashed my 4870 Gigabyte card with matthew.russo (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=7922245&highlight=gigabyte#post7922245) rom, but I still can’t use it without evoenebler.
And I have some kind of flickers. So I am wondering have I did something wrong?
I have used your ATI Flash tool.
Do I have to do something else except flash card?

you dont need flashing with hackintosh

[Stratoukos]

I got my MSI 4870 1gb working with the original ROM (ie no flashing required) doing what Casa did. The only difference is that I installed netkas' injector without the power cables on because I couldn't boot my mac otherwise. The only problem is that the vga isn't working, but after days of frustration, I couldn't care less.

[leveex]

you dont need flashing with hackintosh
Than what?
I have already flashed as I mention before with mathew.russo's rom but with no success.
Still won't work out of box.

[The Rominator]

Than what?
I have already flashed as I mention before with mathew.russo's rom but with no success.
Still won't work out of box.

FLASHING DOESN'T HELP WITH A HACKINTOSH

YOU ARE ON THE WRONG FORUM

[Gry Sql]

Than what?
I have already flashed as I mention before with mathew.russo's rom but with no success.
Still won't work out of box.
Try finding an answer to your problem here. (http://aquamac.proboards.com/)

[leveex]

FLASHING DOESN'T HELP WITH A HACKINTOSH

YOU ARE ON THE WRONG FORUM
But I already flashed. How can I restore to oiginal bios?
I have backed up with gpuz and now I have rv770.bin and when I extract bin i have rv770.cpgz can I restorit to original with ati flash tool?

[The Rominator]

.bin = .rom

rename and reflash

then get thee to a hackintosh forum

[kez]

if anyone needs a rom for the 11133-00-20R card, i created one yesterday which worked perfectly :)

[Casa]

Hmmm... I hate to sort of bump this thread, but if anyone's still able and interested in helping out with that MSI card ROM, it would be highly appreciated. From my understanding after reading Rominator's post on the last side, it simply takes someone a little more tech-savy than me. I sort of understood the script to make an EFI-ROM, but editing the ROM furthermore (for RAM issues or whatever) is way beyond my horizon.

Even though the package provided by netkas makes the card work in OS X somehow, it's still a rather problematic solution. As I said before, I'm sure fan control doesn't work at all, even under heavy load the fan spins at a very low rate barely audible, so I'm constantly waiting for overheat symptoms. In Windows the card overheats fast in games if I reduce the fan speed manually, so I'm quite sure things are not right in OS X.

Second problem is lack of sleep support, which is really annoying. If the Mac falls asleep and I wake it up again, it simply restarts! As you can imagine, this is rather annoying, no way I can leave the computer alone for a while without saving all my stuff, or better, shutting it down.

Last but not least, keeping both the ATI and the old 7300GT in the Mac is still no option, either things in Windows don't work anymore (as soon as I install the nVidia drivers, the ATI won't work as main VGA anymore... I blame nVidia for that), or OS X gives me trouble with showing me an extended desktop even though no 2nd display exists... however, my main concern is heat and lack of sleep in OS X.

Here's the original MSI ROM again, if anyone's willing to try. I'm sure Stratoukos would appreciate the help too, I assume he'll run into the same problems I did.

[sbeehre]

Hi Everyone

Ive got a Saphire 1GB 4870 with a PN of 1113-19-20R i found a possible rom for it on page 80 as it appears blunderbus has the same card as me. I grabbed the attached rom in The Rominators post and it works absolutely fine in OSX but in windows games are un-playable and are all distorted and artifacted. The original ROM for my card is attached... if someone could figure out or let me know what the problem could be that would be awesome!

cheers

Simon

[Cindori]

apple 4870.ROM @ rapidshare, full slots all the time, can't download


any1 care to send? or attach to msg here. thx.

[Cindori]

finally got trough...


here it is btw

[sbeehre]

Hey Cindori

What was the reasoning in combining the 4870's vga bios with the efi rom? wouldnt the card still work ok in windows just with the efi rom?

[Cindori]

the efi rom is from apple 512mb card, it wont work if you flash it straight onto a 1gb card. you have to combine them both.

[sbeehre]

the efi rom is from apple 512mb card, it wont work if you flash it straight onto a 1gb card. you have to combine them both.

i just found out that the hard way! :lol: I'm going to have to re-flash it in a PC now... I have a small problem as i cut the molex connectors off the power cable's that came with the card because i was going to make my own, but in the end bought some. I need a high res photo of the molex connectors so i can re-wire up the original cable, if anyone can help that would be awesome!

[The Rominator]

any newer PC actually has at least one of those connectors already wired to it's power supply

if you are in LA area, I have a dozen or so of those adapters littering a drawer

The HDD plug has 2 voltages I think 5V and 12V...the PCIE plug is just 12V

[sbeehre]

any newer PC actually has at least one of those connectors already wired to it's power supply

if you are in LA area, I have a dozen or so of those adapters littering a drawer

The HDD plug has 2 voltages I think 5V and 12V...the PCIE plug is just 12V

unfortunately im in new zealand mate so its a bit far :) if you could take a couple of pics that would be a really great help.

[Cindori]

Rominator had made a rom for ZWFL earlier, well I got a ZWFL Revision E.0 today and it wasnt compatible. so i made one


so here is working rom for ZWFL Rev. E.0

http://groths.se/atiflashingtool/ZWFLE-0.zip

[sbeehre]

any newer PC actually has at least one of those connectors already wired to it's power supply

if you are in LA area, I have a dozen or so of those adapters littering a drawer

The HDD plug has 2 voltages I think 5V and 12V...the PCIE plug is just 12V

ok well ive put some 4 pin molex connectors back on and im going to re-flash the card... but i still have graphics corruption issues in windows! I attached the original rom a few posts back and have used Pipomolo42's ROM writing instructions to create a new rom but as i said games are un-playable in windows. Is there any chance you could take a look at the Rom and maybe come up with some ideas?

[MacRumorUser]

Rominator had made a rom for ZWFL earlier, well I got a ZWFL Revision E.0 today and it wasnt compatible. so i made one


so here is working rom for ZWFL Rev. E.0

http://groths.se/atiflashingtool/ZWFLE-0.zip


Interesting. Does it still have the power warning on boot ?

If not.... would it work with older rev ZWFL already flashed with Romintator's version. ? I assume just a reflash with ATI TOOL ?

[Cindori]

still warning. also this revision did not work to flash with tool.

[The Rominator]

Buy a couple of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812123301

Clip off the female end.

Buy 2 of these:

http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=43025-0600virtualkey53810000virtualkey538-43025-0600

And 14 of these:

http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=43030-0001virtualkey53810000virtualkey538-43030-0001

Strip 4mm or so of the insulation at end of each wire. You only need 12 of the little pins but I'm gonna guess you might screw a couple up, they ARE small. Get more if your are especially clumsy.

Using care and steady hands, crimp the little connectors over the ends. Take time to make them round & tight...not place for sloppy work.

Insert in the connectors you bought. They are a pin-for-pin match for the original larger plug....the particular one I have linked to is ideal...yellow on top for 12V + , with black for three pins on bottom for...guess if you can....12V -.

And I don't want to hear from any whiny Europeans that those vendors don't deliver to Lower Slobovia. The Mouser pages give the Molex part numbers...there must be someone who carries these everywhere. (Everywhere with electricity anyway)

As far as the cable from Newegg, I am sure you can find this same part OR SOMETHING SIMILAR at a local Electro Parts retailer. Point is, it has the important PCIE plug end already wired with wires of a good length. Takes much work out of "doing it yourself". It seems ATI hasn't bothered to restock them and I have had a bad experience with S-Video.

I tried to convince Monoprice to make/stock them but there seems to be a language barrier between me and their offices 40 miles East of here.

Speaking of Monoprice...don't buy this:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10245&cs_id=1024503&p_id=2883&seq=1&format=2

It has incorrect PCIE end. I tried to bring this to their attention but they pretended not to understand me. They even erased my customer review.

So there it is....GET TO WORK !!!!

[Ikyo]

I am wondering what my options are needing 2 outputs for my display and Cintiq tablet. The last time I check this thread the PC version of the 4870 only allowed for 1 display. Has anything been done to use 2? If not, what are my options as far as getting a PC card and putting it in my '09 Mac Pro? I would also consider purchasing one that is already ready to go from someone. Just make sure you have be around awhile and in the US.

[Mackilroy]

I am wondering what my options are needing 2 outputs for my display and Cintiq tablet. The last time I check this thread the PC version of the 4870 only allowed for 1 display. Has anything been done to use 2? If not, what are my options as far as getting a PC card and putting it in my '09 Mac Pro? I would also consider purchasing one that is already ready to go from someone. Just make sure you have be around awhile and in the US.

That was a long time ago. Both the 4870 and 4890 have supported dual displays under OS X since at least Snow Leopard's release.

[Ikyo]

Now the hard part is trying to find a compatible card.

[The Rominator]

Hard to believe we could buy the perfect 1 Gig 4870 from Newegg for $150 just a few months ago.

Now the 4870s are VERY sparse and even the 4890s have thinned out due to the 5XXX cards taking the limelight.

[Ikyo]

Yeah, I loved it back when the 8800GT was the hot card. I could pick them up every day at Microcenter near me.

[Mackilroy]

Hard to believe we could buy the perfect 1 Gig 4870 from Newegg for $150 just a few months ago.

Now the 4870s are VERY sparse and even the 4890s have thinned out due to the 5XXX cards taking the limelight.

Indeed, I managed to snag my 4890 at an excellent time. Here's hoping we'll be able to flash the 5870s soon.

[Ikyo]

Has anyone been able to get the ASUS EAH4870 DK flashed?

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=n82e16814121291

[Ikyo]

What would we need to test it? I can get a copy of the ROM if needed I am sure.