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

XFX XXX edition 1GB ROM with revision F EFI

rhildinger said:

As per multiple forum requests, I am posting the custom ROM file that I made using pipomolo42 instructions (with slight adjustments for the original bios size). As I indicated earlier, this ROM was built for a XFX Radeon HD4870 XXX Edition 1GB PCI-Express Video Card purchased from a local Fry's, model number HD-487A-ZD. So far this ROM seems to be working great - the card is fully functional in both OS X and Windows, though it does have the same issue everyone else is getting where the secondary DVI port will only function in single-link mode.

Obligatory CMA: I am no way responsible if this ROM bricks your card. Use it entirely at your own risk.

Click to expand...

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

Problem with custom rom

Hi everybody,
I have just custom my ROM with the 4870.ROM & my rom of my ATI (HD4870 512M SAPPHIRE) and flash it.
I have the monitor HANNSG HG281D, but my 4870 not detect this monitor but just "unknow monitor" and not détect its frequency.
So I have less frequency on this monitor than an other monitor on the ATI HD2600

But If I plug my HANNSG on the HD2600, my monitor is detected.

So, I'd like to know if anybody even meet this problem ?
And I would like tested the perf of my installation so anybody know a graphic benchmark for MacOSX?

Thanks

shallmar said:

Hi everybody,
I have just custom my ROM with the 4870.ROM & my rom of my ATI (HD4870 512M SAPPHIRE) and flash it.
I have the monitor HANNSG HG281D, but my 4870 not detect this monitor but just "unknow monitor" and not détect its frequency.
So I have less frequency on this monitor than an other monitor on the ATI HD2600

But If I plug my HANNSG on the HD2600, my monitor is detected.

So, I'd like to know if anybody even meet this problem ?
And I would like tested the perf of my installation so anybody know a graphic benchmark for MacOSX?

Thanks

Click to expand...

That you lost your monitor's name and its refresh rate does not seem a big deal, as long as it woks at its native resolution and refresh rate (right?). I suppose it is an LCD (since the flashed card will not output analog video), so you don't want to change its res or refresh rate. It could be problematic in games, though.
You may try several tricks: connect you monitor on the other DVI port, add a DVI to VGA converter on the upper DVI port (but no display connected on it), remove the HD2600... and see what it does.

For benchmarks: try cinebench and glview.

Ok, since you guys seem to be making good progress on getting 3rd party 4870's working....

Is there any way to make something in the Radeon 46xx series to work? I have a new Mac Pro coming with the Mac Radeon 4870, but I need something to drive my 2nd+3rd monitors with DVI ports on it... I could go for a 2600XT, but they seem very overpriced for a 2 generation old card... The newer 46xx series seems to not require the additional power plugs and they come in dual DVI out...

Just wondering if it's possible to use a flashing setup similar to what you guys are doing here on the 46xx series as well and if it'll work under OSX...

Thanks!

--Mike

jeanlain said:

That you lost your monitor's name and its refresh rate does not seem a big deal, as long as it woks at its native resolution and refresh rate (right?). I suppose it is an LCD (since the flashed card will not output analog video), so you don't want to change its res or refresh rate. It could be problematic in games, though.
You may try several tricks: connect you monitor on the other DVI port, add a DVI to VGA converter on the upper DVI port (but no display connected on it), remove the HD2600... and see what it does.

For benchmarks: try cinebench and glview.

Click to expand...

Ok , I'll try that tomorow,
But instead, I have installed the pilote : MacOSX_10.5.6_radeon_hd_48x0_drivers.pkg
And when I reboot my three screens are blue with black lines !!!!!!
Is it normal that my 4870 works without driver and dont works with driver?!

Thanks

shallmar said:

Hi everybody,
I have just custom my ROM with the 4870.ROM & my rom of my ATI (HD4870 512M SAPPHIRE) and flash it.
I have the monitor HANNSG HG281D, but my 4870 not detect this monitor but just "unknow monitor" and not détect its frequency.
So I have less frequency on this monitor than an other monitor on the ATI HD2600

But If I plug my HANNSG on the HD2600, my monitor is detected.

So, I'd like to know if anybody even meet this problem ?
And I would like tested the perf of my installation so anybody know a graphic benchmark for MacOSX?

Thanks

Click to expand...

try switchresx to create modes u need.

------

46xx arent currently working,

framebuffer drivers (Motmot/Quail) works only with 48x0 series

shallmar said:

Ok , I'll try that tomorow,
But instead, I have installed the pilote : MacOSX_10.5.6_radeon_hd_48x0_drivers.pkg
And when I reboot my three screens are blue with black lines !!!!!!
Is it normal that my 4870 works without driver and dont works with driver?!

Thanks

Click to expand...

The unrecognized display and refresh rate may be due to the lack of drivers. Try reinstalling them, repair permissions... or alternatively wait for 10.5.7, which should be around the corner.

shallmar said:

Ok , I'll try that tomorow,
But instead, I have installed the pilote : MacOSX_10.5.6_radeon_hd_48x0_drivers.pkg
And when I reboot my three screens are blue with black lines !!!!!!
Is it normal that my 4870 works without driver and dont works with driver?!

Thanks

Click to expand...

Are you running on a hackintosh or a macpro? I was under the impression that on true blue macpro's that the initial package supplied here of the drivers had a natit.kext that barfed when the 2600 was present (thus you wer instructed to not install on macpros). In short macpro did not need the natit.kext and in this instance was detrimental. This was in prior early instructions if I recall.

So... try removing natit.kext and see if that helps (if you are on a macpro).

medsource said:

Are you running on a hackintosh or a macpro? I was under the impression that on true blue macpro's that the initial package supplied here of the drivers had a natit.kext that barfed when the 2600 was present (thus you wer instructed to not install on macpros). In short macpro did not need the natit.kext and in this instance was detrimental. This was in prior early instructions if I recall.

So... try removing natit.kext and see if that helps (if you are on a macpro).

Click to expand...

Ok,
I'm on MacPro 2008 2X3ghz MacOS X.5.6
HD 4870 on slot1
HD 2600 on slot3 (for a beter ventilation)

Yesterday I have installed the driver, and befor the reboot, I removed the natit.kext, and after the reboot : Bleu screen+black lines

After :
Format DD
Reinstall MacOs10.5.6 = OK
Install driver without remov natit.kext = Bleu screen+black lines
Remov the 2 VGA screens on HD 2600 = Bleu screen+black lines
Remov the 2 adaptators on HD 2600 = Bleu screen+black lines
Remove the HD 2600 = Bleu screen+black lines



Perhaps a bad driver? It come from this tuto : http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html

Is it normal that my 4870 work without driver but no with driver?

Thanks

Natit.kext in drivers pkg will not do anything on macpro, so leaving it or removing will change nothing

I'm tempted to upgrade the video card in my '06 Mac Pro to a 4870. How does the noise level of the 1GB XFX card (which seems the easiest to get running, thanks to the excellent tutorial posted earlier) compare to the rather noisy ATI 1900 card?

shallmar: are you sure you've got the correct ROM file? Does the card still output correctly if you boot into Windows?

Glen Quagmire said:

I'm tempted to upgrade the video card in my '06 Mac Pro to a 4870. How does the noise level of the 1GB XFX card (which seems the easiest to get running, thanks to the excellent tutorial posted earlier) compare to the rather noisy ATI 1900 card?

shallmar: are you sure you've got the correct ROM file? Does the card still output correctly if you boot into Windows?

Click to expand...

It should be a lot better than the 1900. I recommend upgrade to the Accelero S1 Rev. 2 which fits the Mac Pro.

Anybody tried the newer ROM with the Sapphire 4870 1GB card? Just curious if anybody has and whether or not it has fixed any issues or introduced new ones.

Glen Quagmire said:

I'm tempted to upgrade the video card in my '06 Mac Pro to a 4870. How does the noise level of the 1GB XFX card (which seems the easiest to get running, thanks to the excellent tutorial posted earlier) compare to the rather noisy ATI 1900 card?

shallmar: are you sure you've got the correct ROM file? Does the card still output correctly if you boot into Windows?

Click to expand...

I should have mentioned that in my tutorial. I am super impressed with how quiet the card is. I don't hear it anymore than my 7300 or the 2600 I also had. My Mac Pro is next to me under my desk and I don't hear anymore noise now that the XFX card is in it. The DVD burner is way louder.

swissmann said:

I should have mentioned that in my tutorial. I am super impressed with how quiet the card is. I don't hear it anymore than my 7300 or the 2600 I also had. My Mac Pro is next to me under my desk and I don't hear anymore noise now that the XFX card is in it. The DVD burner is way louder.

Click to expand...

Does the fan spin up when you do things like move windows around? I just installed the 10.5.7 ATI drivers and my 3870 card's now far noisier than it was before. If all windows are stationary and I'm typing etc then its no louder. As soon as I drag windows around or do anything even remotely using any form of 2D acceleration then the fan on my 3870 spins up considerably. Odd.

Spanky Deluxe said:

Does the fan spin up when you do things like move windows around? I just installed the 10.5.7 ATI drivers and my 3870 card's now far noisier than it was before. If all windows are stationary and I'm typing etc then its no louder. As soon as I drag windows around or do anything even remotely using any form of 2D acceleration then the fan on my 3870 spins up considerably. Odd.

Click to expand...

Nope. When I'm stressing the card big time gaming or lots with Aperture and Motion and such it gets a tiny bit louder but not nearly as loud as it could be - in my failed flashing attempts I heard how loud it can get. I think I remember reading somewhere that the users with both the 3870 and 4870 said the 4870 was much quieter. I never had a 3870 so can't say myself.

TheStrudel said:

Anybody tried the newer ROM with the Sapphire 4870 1GB card? Just curious if anybody has and whether or not it has fixed any issues or introduced new ones.

Click to expand...

I have a 1 GB Sapphire HD 4870 PN 288-20E85-130SA running fine in my Mac Pro using the method shown in this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/7473867/
I'm not sure if this is the newer ROM or not. I've copied the System Profiler info so you can check. It boots fine in a PC tower too.
It's slightly noisier than the 8800 GT it replaced but still hardly noticable. I haven't tried to connect a 2nd monitor not having a spare one to try with.

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro3,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per processor): 12 MB
Memory: 16 GB
Bus Speed: 1.6 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP31.006C.B05
SMC Version: 1.25f4

ATI Radeon HD 4870:

Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 4870
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 1024 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x9440
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-B7710C-176
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.318

It rocks my WoW.

swissmann said:

Nope. When I'm stressing the card big time gaming or lots with Aperture and Motion and such it gets a tiny bit louder but not nearly as loud as it could be - in my failed flashing attempts I heard how loud it can get. I think I remember reading somewhere that the users with both the 3870 and 4870 said the 4870 was much quieter. I never had a 3870 so can't say myself.

Click to expand...

I think I may have jumped to conclusions there. I noticed the fans spinning up after putting the new drivers in but then after posting I realised that my office had got pretty hot. I've since had the window ajar and now no more fan spin ups.

I need help please

Hello Mac fellows!

I followed this tutorial to flash my card:
http://web.me.com/jacobcroft/4870Flash/4870Flash.html

Everything went perfectly, only the last part, when I shut down and plug my monitor to the new card and restart, The startup screen shows up with the Apple logo and the loading spinner. After that the monitor went black and my Mac pro continued to load into Mac OS X with completely no signal to my monitor. I plug out and connect my monitor to the old card and everything went normal, the display worked just fine. I tried connecting different ports on the new card but nothing happened.

I looked into System Profiler and saw that Mac OS X recognized my 4870, is just that it doesn't have any signal to the monitor.

I plugged my monitor into the new card and load up Boot Camp. everything went smoothly. Windows recognized my card, drivers installed and everything looked perfect, games ran fast. So I think my card is working fine.

Any help to get it working, thanks.

Phong Vu

www.iphong.com

My problem is solved

Hi everybody,
I have found the solution of my problem.
That was that my original DVD of MacOSX was 10.5.4 and not a 10.5.6
So I have formated my HD, installed MacOSX with the DVD and updated MacOSX10.5.4 to 10.5.6.
After, I have installed the driver and all is right.
All screens, all résolutions and all frequencies are detected.
My benchmark are ok too.

Thanks everybody

Just a last question : Why, two 4870 cards are detected? 1 ATY, Motmot and 1 ATY, MotmotParent?

Why are two cards detected? I am not sure, but this does not happen on the original 4870s, only on newer cards which apparently have a different design. I suppose this has something to do with the absence of signal from the upper DVI port, no VGA output, lower link speed, etc... as we could only get one half of the card to work.

Interestingly, it seems that the 4890 cards than can be made to work without flashing, but with ATI_init and modified kext's do not suffer these problems.
As reported on Macbidouille, they work correctly, except for the upper DVI port, which is single-link only (but this may have something to do with the fact that the apple card has a mini displayport).
How could un-flashed 4890's work better than flashed 4870's, with should be more similar to apple cards?

Phong: be sure that you flashed the exact same card as the one in the tutorial. If not, I would suggest that you flash it with a custom ROM.
However, since you see the gray apple logo, I guess that the flash went OK, but that you have driver problems. Be sure to install drivers on OS X 10.5.6, repair permissions, or wait for 10.5.7.

Yes, i bought the exact same card. Ans mine is 10.5.6; and what do you mean by repair permission? You meant repair permission in Disk Utility?

some sites reported about 4890 success and wrote this about pkg - " extensions include part of the EFI code required for the card to be recognized by the Mac and to have them active in Mac OS X."

those extensions doesnt include part of efi code at all, it sets the keys for display device in ioreg(which is inserted normaly by efi rom) and initializes (POSTs) the card.