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PowerMac G5 Graphics Card - 2 VGA/DVI

H

Heisler98

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 30, 2010
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I'm the proud owner of a late-2005 PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz. It came with the standard DVI and ADC ports on the graphics card. I need a specific graphics card for the G5 that has either two VGA ports or two DVI ports - any suggestions?

There might be a thread already out there with this same issue, but I couldn't find it. I've been looking around for a long time, but I'm having trouble determining what would work with my G5 and if it would work correctly. I'm trying to run a dual-monitor setup with some specific circumstances that won't let me use an ADC port.

Thanks for any input. Ask questions as needed.
- Hunter
 
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A

AdrianK

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Feb 19, 2011
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If you used an ADC to DVI adaptor you'd have 2x DVI, though the second would be digital only.
 
Intell

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
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I don't think you have a late-2005 PowerMac G5. Those don't have support for ADC screens or cards with ADC.
 
666sheep

666sheep

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Dec 7, 2009
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Intell said:
I don't think flashed ATI X800's output DVI signals, only VGA. For DVI signals, he'll need a flashed FireGL Pro.
Click to expand...

True, but one from the link is flashed Fire. There was no Dual DVI AGP X800. But why overpay $100 if you can grab PC one for $30 or less and flash it? ROM and flashers are available and whole procedure takes less than 10 minutes.

Other cards that will have 2 working DVI are 6800 Ultra (Mac or PC to flash) – but not not GT – or Quadro FX 4000.
 
H

Heisler98

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 30, 2010
73
0
Okay, so I should've mentioned this:

I have two VGA-only HP monitors that I want to have a dual-display (extended display, not duplicated display) setup with my PowerMac G5. My mistake, yes, the G5 is early-2005, not late, I'm mixing up my machines. The only reason I would think of putting a graphics card with two DVI ports in is that I thought that I could use two DVI-to-VGA adapters to have my monitors work.

The reason that I think the ADC port doesn't help me is because I would have an ADC-to-DVI adapter, then a DVI-to-VGA adapter, and with my experiences in using daisy-chained adapters, something goes wrong somewhere. That was my only problem. I can't seem to find an ADC-to-VGA adapter anywhere.

Graphics cards aren't my cup of tea, but I'm not looking for anything stellar great and expensive - just something that will get the job done with the ports I need.

----------
Intell said:
I don't think flashed ATI X800's output DVI signals, only VGA. For DVI signals, he'll need a flashed FireGL Pro.
Click to expand...

Graphics cards, again, aren't my field of expertise, but the monitors I have only accept VGA - they aren't DVI. Not sure, but I don't think I need DVI signals...only VGA, right?
 
666sheep

666sheep

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Dec 7, 2009
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Heisler98 said:
Okay, so I should've mentioned this:

I have two VGA-only HP monitors that I want to have a dual-display (extended display, not duplicated display) setup with my PowerMac G5.
Click to expand...

If you have access to PC with PCI slots, you can grab PCI FX 5200 256MB with dual VGA (~$20), flash it and it will be perfect and dead silent (if you'll choose one with passive cooling). That way, you'll be able to run up to 3 VGA and 1 ADC monitor and leave with your current card in place. In case of using 2 or more displays on one card, video memory is divided between them. Running dual displays on dual card setup allows to have full video memory for each display.

If you aren't able to flash a PC card, your cheapest choice would be Mac Radeon 9600 with dual DVI + 2 VGA adapters or preflashed 9700/9800 with DVI + D-Sub + one VGA adapter.
 
H

Heisler98

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 30, 2010
73
0
666sheep said:
If you have access to PC with PCI slots, you can grab PCI FX 5200 256MB with dual VGA (~$20), flash it and it will be perfect and dead silent (if you'll choose one with passive cooling).
Click to expand...

How would I go about "flashing" it? Sorry, not that informed on the topic. If I were to get this, I'd need to know. Any good websites that explain it? And this would be able to get me my dual-display extended desktop, right?
 
666sheep

666sheep

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Dec 7, 2009
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Here you go: http://themacelite.wikidot.com/start – all about flashing and ROMs.

Search FX 5200 PCI on eBay and you'll find plenty of them. Get 256MB one.

Adding dual port PCI video card, you'll be able to have up to quad display setup in either mode: extended or mirrored.
 
H

Heisler98

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 30, 2010
73
0
666sheep said:
Search FX 5200 PCI on eBay and you'll find plenty of them. Get 256MB one.

Adding dual port PCI video card, you'll be able to have up to quad display setup in either mode: extended or mirrored.
Click to expand...

Sorry I was so long in replying - was looking into this in more detail. Awesome, thx for the info. I'll be getting one shortly. Appreciate it.
 
H

Heisler98

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 30, 2010
73
0
666sheep said:
If you'll have any doubts, post them here.
Click to expand...

Okay, so a few questions:

I have a PNY NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 PCI card I got off of eBay - works perfectly in a Windows machine. Now, when I follow the instructions on the link you gave me (@666sheep), I plug it into the PCI slot on the PC and boot to my MS-DOS boot media.

When I do that, the PC has the PCI card (the PCI card is the one I want to flash with Mac ROM) as the primary display adapter - it outputs the video feed through the PCI card instead of the included VGA port on the motherboard. My question: is that a problem when I go to flash it with the "nvflash" command? I'm assuming that when I flash it, my display will go blank and I won't be able to see what I'm doing, or that it'll fail mid-way as it flashes. How do I change the feed output to the included VGA port with the PC?

The other question is, that on the site you gave me, it says that there will be a "display adapter number" for my graphics card. I don't see it. Here's what comes up:

Code: 
C:\>nvflash --check

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.127)

Adapter: GeForce FX 5200  (10DE,0322,196E,01AD) H:--:NRM B:01,PCI,F:06,F:00

Identifying EEPROM...
EEPROM ID (9D,007B) : PMC Pm25LV512 2.7-3.6V 512Kx18, page

Apparently, in here, I'm supposed to find a display adapter number. Idon't know if it's the "F:00" or "B:01" or any other number on here.

Anyone with help, please do explain how I can fix BOTH problems.
 
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Jethryn Freyman

Jethryn Freyman

macrumors 68020
Aug 9, 2007
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If flashing is the way you're going, go for a PC ATI FireGL X3 256MB. They got for about $30 on eBay. Flash to a Mac Radeon X800 XT with great overclocking potential... and it's got 2x DVI ports capable of driving dual monitors beyond 1080p resolution with no lag. Pre-flashed ones with drivers on a CD and installation instruction cost about $150, that's what I got. I was lazy :rolleyes:
 
666sheep

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
Heisler98 said:
My question: is that a problem when I go to flash it with the "nvflash" command? I'm assuming that when I flash it, my display will go blank and I won't be able to see what I'm doing, or that it'll fail mid-way as it flashes. How do I change the feed output to the included VGA port with the PC?
Click to expand...

No, it will output video after flash, until restart or power down.

The other question is, that on the site you gave me, it says that there will be a "display adapter number" for my graphics card. I don't see it. Here's what comes up:

Code: 
C:\>nvflash --check

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.127)

Adapter: GeForce FX 5200  (10DE,0322,196E,01AD) H:--:NRM B:01,PCI,F:06,F:00

Identifying EEPROM...
EEPROM ID (9D,007B) : PMC Pm25LV512 2.7-3.6V 512Kx18, page

Apparently, in here, I'm supposed to find a display adapter number. Idon't know if it's the "F:00" or "B:01" or any other number on here.

Anyone with help, please do explain how I can fix BOTH problems.
Click to expand...

Just type:
Code: 
nvflash --index=0 -4 -5 -6 -j romname.rom

0 is default number if you have only one nvidia card installed.

Remember to name rom using 8 (or less) characters + extension and place it in nvflash directory.
 
H

Heisler98

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 30, 2010
73
0
666sheep said:
Just type:
Code: 
nvflash --index=0 -4 -5 -6 -j romname.rom

0 is default number if you have only one nvidia card installed. Remember to name rom using 8 (or less) characters + extension and place it in nvflash directory.
Click to expand...

I typed exactly what you put up there, and I got this as an error:

Code: 
C:\>nvflash --index=0 -4 -5 -6 -j mac.rom

NVIDIA Firmware Update Utility (Version 5.127)
ERROR: Unsupported code type: 0x01. FCode support deprecated.

Any ideas on further steps? Should I have an earlier or later version of nvflash.exe? I'm positive the ROM is named mac.rom, already checked with dir.

EDIT:
Checked the site's WikiDownload page that you (666sheep) gave me - there are four specific entries for a GeForce FX 5200 - mine is a 256MB, but it has device ID 0322, and there's a listing for a FX 5200 that has device ID 0322, but it doesn't mention it supports 256MB, and says it uses something other than "nvflash" (obviously, I could be all washed up and not knowing what I'm talking about) but since this ROM doesn't work, should I try another?

This is the link: http://themacelite.wikidot.com/wikidownloads2
About 3/4 down the page you'll see the 4 listings - could you tell me which ROM I want? I can give you any info that I can find thru nvflash.

2nd EDIT:
I downloaded each ROM from the same website and compared each one with this command:
Code: 
nvflash --compare ROMname.rom
Each of them presented the same error above. I tried nvflash v. 4.46 and it would let me flash the ROM with the other types of it, but it always presented a warning that there was "mismatch at offset 2" when you compared and then would warn you about mismatches when you tried to use the flash command.

Any other ideas for what I could use as ROM? Because, unless I'm just not doing something right, none of them work for me.
 
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666sheep

666sheep

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Dec 7, 2009
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5.127 is too new. They must have dropped FCode support yet if you got this error. 4.46 is too old for GF 5 series.

I use builds from 5.13 to 5.63 when comes to 5/6/7 series.

There's only one ROM for your card: the last one "For 256MB cards". Rest may work too, but you'll get only half of video memory.
 
Jethryn Freyman

Jethryn Freyman

macrumors 68020
Aug 9, 2007
2,329
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Australia
OK, I suggest you do what I did. I bought an ATI FireGL X3 [256MB] that had been already flashed to a Mac ATI Radeon X800 XT. It came with installation instructions [easy], plus the driver CD. It does provide a good boost, although I'll warn you with a 2GHz clock speed [as with my similar 1.8GHz], with the upgraded GPU you'll be bottlenecked, sometimes quite badly, by the slow CPU clock speed [multi-core, multi-CPU support wasn't that common when Apple was making PowerPC Macs.]

~$165 on eBay.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Apple-Ma..._Computers_Apple_Desktops&hash=item4609b16596

EDIT: It features two fully functional DVI ports, I have personally verified that they can run two displays over DVI at 2048x1152 resolution with absolute buttery smooth performance. It also overclocks like a maniac, I've run it at 160% core clock and 110% memory clock several times.
 
H

Heisler98

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 30, 2010
73
0
666sheep said:
5.127 is too new. They must have dropped FCode support yet if you got this error. 4.46 is too old for GF 5 series.

I use builds from 5.13 to 5.63 when comes to 5/6/7 series.

There's only one ROM for your card: the last one "For 256MB cards". Rest may work too, but you'll get only half of video memory.
Click to expand...

Awesome, thanks! I'll try that out!
 
H

Heisler98

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 30, 2010
73
0
666sheep said:
5.127 is too new. They must have dropped FCode support yet if you got this error. 4.46 is too old for GF 5 series.

I use builds from 5.13 to 5.63 when comes to 5/6/7 series.

There's only one ROM for your card: the last one "For 256MB cards". Rest may work too, but you'll get only half of video memory.
Click to expand...

I tried it, and I get this as an error when I do the "nvflash --index=0 -4 -5 -6 -j mac.rom" command:

Code: 
Checking for matches between display adapter and images...
...
Overriding SUB_VENDOR strap.
WARNING: Firmware image PCI Device ID (10DE.0321) does not match adapter PCI Device ID (10DE.0322).
WARNING: Firmware image PCI Subsystem ID (10DE.0026) does not match adapter PCI Subsystem ID (196E.01AD).
WARNING: Firmware image Board ID (0000) does not match adapter Board ID (341C).

When I go ahead and compare the ROMs with "nvflash -k mac.rom" I get this:
Code: 
Mismatch at offset 0x00000002

Should I go ahead and flash anyway, or is there something I'm missing that I need to get/do? These errors seem very familiar from when I was trying to use nvflash v4.x.
 
666sheep

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
Heisler98 said:
I tried it, and I get this as an error when I do the "nvflash --index=0 -4 -5 -6 -j mac.rom" command:

Code: 
Checking for matches between display adapter and images...
...
Overriding SUB_VENDOR strap.
WARNING: Firmware image PCI Device ID (10DE.0321) does not match adapter PCI Device ID (10DE.0322).
WARNING: Firmware image PCI Subsystem ID (10DE.0026) does not match adapter PCI Subsystem ID (196E.01AD).
WARNING: Firmware image Board ID (0000) does not match adapter Board ID (341C).

When I go ahead and compare the ROMs with "nvflash -k mac.rom" I get this:
Code: 
Mismatch at offset 0x00000002

Should I go ahead and flash anyway, or is there something I'm missing that I need to get/do? These errors seem very familiar from when I was trying to use nvflash v4.x.
Click to expand...

Go ahead and flash it. It's reversible. Device, Subsystem and Board ID will differ between card and ROM, because ROM is based on Mac 5200 Ultra AGP and it's edited to work with most of regular 5200s.
If you have integrated graphics on your PC board or AGP card, you'll be able to reflash card in case of any problems.

Mismatches between these 4 ROMs are normal, because each is slightly different. You don't need to compare them.

And of course make backup of original PC ROM first.
 
Last edited:
H

Heisler98

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 30, 2010
73
0
666sheep said:
Go ahead and flash it. It's reversible. Device, Subsystem and Board ID will differ between card and ROM, because ROM is based on Mac 5200 Ultra AGP and it's edited to work with most of regular 5200s.
If you have integrated graphics on your PC board or AGP card, you'll be able to reflash card in case of any problems.

Mismatches between these 4 ROMs are normal, because each is slightly different. You don't need to compare them.

And of course make backup of original PC ROM first.
Click to expand...

Great! Thanks, I was wondering about that. I've made a backup of the original ROM - in the case that I would need to restore the card back to the old rom, I'd use the same command (nvflash --index=0 -4 -5 -6 -j romName.rom) right?

Thanks so much for all of your help.
 
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