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Mac 7950 on the ground, EFI works in 1,1 Mac Pro but drivers don't

M

MacVidCards

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OK, just got done unboxing.

Pretty white thing.

First thing I did was toss in a 1,1 testing machine. BOOT SCREENS !!!

Box says requires 10.8.2 or....wait for it.......10.7.5. Has a drivers disc for OSX.

So while Nvidia gave up on 1,1 long ago, AMD still remembers us !!!

Going to try in the 4,1 and post screenies, etc.

Who wants to know if it works in 10.7.5?
 
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MacsRgr8

MacsRgr8

macrumors G3
Sep 8, 2002
8,284
1,753
The Netherlands
Gr8!!!

So, will definitely work in the 3.1! :cool:

Just wondering how long it will take for us over here in ol' Europe that we can get our hands on one...
 
K

kudukudu

macrumors regular
Oct 24, 2007
198
4
yes awesome. Thanks for posting your results. I am a 3.1 owner looking to get another 5 years out of my machine.
 
M

MacVidCards

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Sweet card, running 4 displays with ease.

So...about to try the 10.7.5 functionality.

Discovered that there is nothing keeping reg cards from being flashed, but once flashed they run at PCIE 1.0. For the 1,1/2,1 crowd, won't be any loss at all.

Does beg the question, why does AMD care enough to continue supporting 1,1 and 2,1 while Nvidia tossed them under the bus when they introduced GTX285?

Is AMD smarter? They sell a card that works in ALL Mac Pros and even include drivers in an OS that runs on 1,1 and 2,1. Seems like a much smarter business move.
 

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D

dtechlogic

macrumors regular
May 15, 2011
203
3
What is the speed difference of this video card from GTX 670. The only reason i bought GTX 670 is for mercury playback. I am still stuck on CS5.5 production premium. Do i need to upgrade to CS6.0 to add 7950 to the unsupported card list. One of the benefit is EFI boot screen with 7950 i guess
 
Macsonic

Macsonic

macrumors 68000
Sep 6, 2009
1,706
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MacVidCards said:
Does beg the question, why does AMD care enough to continue supporting 1,1 and 2,1 while Nvidia tossed them under the bus when they introduced GTX285?

Is AMD smarter? They sell a card that works in ALL Mac Pros and even include drivers in an OS that runs on 1,1 and 2,1. Seems like a much smarter business move.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the news on the new AMD card working on Mac Pro 1,1 This is great news and hope will encourage people to continue using Mac Pros.

Maybe AMD is more business minded and aiming for expanded higher sales than Nvidia.
 
M

MacVidCards

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So, the EFI is enough to get it running on one screen in 10.7.5, with no acceleration.

The package has driver installers.

Going to install now.

Please follow the special procedure below if you are installing a new graphics card for the first time.
Please see requirements above. 

Double-Click the installer icon and follow the on-screen instructions.
The Sapphire RADEON HD 7950 Installer contains the following items:
Mac*OS*X 10.7.5:
ATI1300Controller.kext
ATI1600Controller.kext
ATI1900Controller.kext
ATI2400Controller.kext
ATI2600Controller.kext
ATI3800Controller.kext
ATI4600Controller.kext
ATI4800Controller.kext
ATI5000Controller.kext
ATI6000Controller.kext
ATI7000Controller.kext
ATIFramebuffer.kext
ATIRadeonX1000.kext
ATIRadeonX1000GA.plugin
ATIRadeonX1000GLDriver.bundle
ATIRadeonX1000VADriver.bundle
ATIRadeonX2000.kext
ATIRadeonX2000GA.plugin
ATIRadeonX2000GLDriver.bundle
ATIRadeonX2000VADriver.bundle
ATIRadeonX3000.kext
ATIRadeonX3000GA.plugin
ATIRadeonX3000GLDriver.bundle
ATIRadeonX3000VADriver.bundle
ATIRadeonX4000.kext
ATIRadeonX4000GA.plugin
ATIRadeonX4000GLDriver.bundle
ATIRadeonX4000VADriver.bundle
ATISupport.kext


Mac*OS*X 10.8.2:
AMDRadeonAccelerator.kext
AMDRadeonVADriver.bundle
AMDRadeonX3000GLDriver.bundle
AMDRadeonX4000GLDriver.bundle
ATI2400Controller.kext
ATI2600Controller.kext
ATI3800Controller.kext
ATI4600Controller.kext
ATI4800Controller.kext
ATI5000Controller.kext
ATI6000Controller.kext
ATI7000Controller.kext
ATIFramebuffer.kext
ATIRadeonX2000.kext
ATIRadeonX2000GA.plugin
ATIRadeonX2000GLDriver.bundle
ATIRadeonX2000VADriver.bundle
ATISupport.kext


The installer application will install the above components.
NOTE: Do not remove any previously installed nor built-in ATI/AMD files. This installer will overwrite/remove any files that need to be updated. Do not manually remove any existing ATI/AMD files,
If you wish to remove the Sapphire card drivers and restore your original set of ATI/AMD drivers, you can re-run the Sapphire RADEON HD 7950 Installer. It will auto-detect that you currently have the Sapphire drivers installed, and it will uninstall those drivers and restore your original ATI/AMD drivers.
 
666sheep

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
AMD fills empty space after Nvidia :) There is still many people with 1,1/2,1.
You've said something about flashing...;) Any chance for ROM dump and 10.7.5 driver package?
Regardless, thanks for testing and info!
 
K

Kissaragi

macrumors 68020
Nov 16, 2006
2,340
370
Wow thats great that they have offered support right back to 1.1.

Whats the noise from the fan like? Youd hope sapphire would include a decent cooling system at this price point.
 
D

dnbblah

macrumors newbie
Feb 8, 2008
9
0
awesome! any chance you can provide the drivers for 10.8.x (not listed on the sapphire page yet..) , i wanna RMA my 7950 windows card because i've some troubles with it and would like to try the drivers before sending it back tmr..
 
alphaod

alphaod

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Feb 9, 2008
22,183
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Mine should be arriving tomorrow. Just wondering what's the deal with the switch; can you still work in Windows with the switch set to Mac mode?
 
M

MacVidCards

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The switch should only be needed for a UEFI Windows machine.

On the "bad news" front, I have installed the included 10.7.5 drivers on 2 separate 10.7.5 discs, once the drivers are installed I get KPs when trying to boot with 7950 or even a 6870.

I have repaired permissions and still same thing.

The only thing about my 10.7.5 that would be "off" would be that they would both have the OpenCl fix for greater than 2GB cards.

And if you think about it, the 7950 with 3GB would IN THEORY need it, but perhaps there is some conflict?

So, all I did with 1,1 was see the boot screens, curious if anyone else has 10.7.5 working.

The drivers package is 80MB. If someone wants to host it somewhere, PM me.
 
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I

Inconsequential

macrumors 68000
Sep 12, 2007
1,978
1
I can host.

Can you also upload the efi bios?

I'd like to know if with the efi a PC Card will run at full speed, I.e 5GT/s, not 2.5 in windows.

Would it be possible to extract the efi part and apply it to say, a 7870?

Cheers!
 
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alphaod

alphaod

macrumors Core
Feb 9, 2008
22,183
1,245
NYC
MacVidCards said:
The switch should only be needed for a UEFI Windows machine.

On the "bad news" front, I have installed the included 10.7.5 drivers on 2 separate 10.7.5 discs, once the drivers are installed I get KPs when trying to boot with 7950 or even a 6870.

I have repaired permissions and still same thing.

The only thing about my 10.7.5 that would be "off" would be that they would both have the OpenCl fix for greater than 2GB cards.

And if you think about it, the 7950 with 3GB would IN THEORY need it, but perhaps there is some conflict?

So, all I did with 1,1 was see the boot screens, curious if anyone else has 10.7.5 working.

The drivers package is 80MB. If someone wants to host it somewhere, PM me.
Click to expand...

Okay, I was afraid I would have to flip a switch every time I wanted to boot into Windows and flip it back when working with OS X.

As for your conflict, have you tried installing a vanilla copy of 10.7.5 (booting with another GPU), install the drivers, and then doing the swap?

Also I can also host if you need.
 
M

MacVidCards

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The EFI is useable on other cards. I have already gotten 7870 and 7770 working with boot screens, though the 7770 only shows on VGA. We will need to try different personalities.

Flashed cards will run at PCIE 1.0 without further work, though I have gotten 7970 to 2.0.
 
L

lastmile

macrumors regular
Mar 10, 2008
117
7
A PC 7970 can be flashed to work in a Mac Pro at PCIe 2.0 speeds AND will show boot screens (at least on some ports)? Is that correct?

So there's hope for a fully or near fully functioning flashed PC 7950?

Don't all 7970s use one 6-pin and one 8-pin power connection which would require a potentially problematic 6-pin to 8-pin adapter or an external power supply?
 
M

MacVidCards

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If you flash a 7970 with stock Mac 7950 BIOS/EFI you end up with a slightly faster Mac 7950, that runs at PCIE 1.0.

To get it to run as a full EFI 7970 with boot screens and running at PCIE 2.0 requires some rom modding and is specific to each card.

The OpenCl results only go up a little but the bandwidth numbers are impressive.

Doable though.
 

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L

lastmile

macrumors regular
Mar 10, 2008
117
7
MacVidCards said:
If you flash a 7970 with stock Mac 7950 BIOS/EFI you end up with a slightly faster Mac 7950, that runs at PCIE 1.0.

To get it to run as a full EFI 7970 with boot screens and running at PCIE 2.0 requires some rom modding and is specific to each card.
Click to expand...

It'd be nice if those mods were available... I assume you'll be selling cards?

So one could have a modded 7970 with boot screens running at PCIE 2.0 for less than the price of a 7950 Mac Edition?

And what about flashing a non-Mac 7950 with Mac Edition firmware? Possibly a cheaper 7950 with boot screens and PCIE 2.0?
 
PowerPCMacMan

PowerPCMacMan

macrumors 6502a
Jul 17, 2012
800
1
PowerPC land
This is because of AMD/ATI's EBC firmware. The card is EFI32/64 backwards compatible. Remember, while Apple calls us obsolete or vintage(1,1 and 2,1 Mac Pro users), AMD wants to make a profit and what better way then to make their video cards backwards compatible..

Just wish they had a snow leopard driver.. dunno, has anyone tried to run this with 10.6.8?


MacVidCards said:
OK, just got done unboxing.

Pretty white thing.

First thing I did was toss in a 1,1 testing machine. BOOT SCREENS !!!

Box says requires 10.8.2 or....wait for it.......10.7.5. Has a drivers disc for OSX.

So while Nvidia gave up on 1,1 long ago, AMD still remembers us !!!

Going to try in the 4,1 and post screenies, etc.

Who wants to know if it works in 10.7.5?
Click to expand...


----------

In case you did not know, AMD/ATI always defied Apple against forced obsolecense. EBC firmware is what makes this all possible. Kudos to AMD for keeping older Mac Pros alive with a beefy video card!!!

Although I have a 2010 6-core Mac Pro, I might also consider this card.. but I wonder if it would even work under 10.6.8, or would I get a black screen?


666sheep said:
I hoped so. Great news! EBC FTW.
Click to expand...
 
J

jamer72

macrumors newbie
Sep 12, 2011
9
0
Hi, I´m a newbie in this graphic cards world.
Where could I download this application to test my GTX570?
Thanks in advance. :eek:
 
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