Test the First Flashed GTX285 ?

MacVidCards · Jun 20, 2009

Any curious souls in my area? I have flashed a GTX285 with Mac ROM and need an EFI-64 machines to test on. Seems like there is a HIGH concentration of these machines around, just not at my house.

I CAN get access to them, but they are in Edit Bays at a friend's Production Office...and the Editors keep weird hours.....and they are wired in with lots of extra video/audio/disk drive stuff that I have to disconnect/move....and if one died or I caused bad Hard Drive corruption I would be SHOT ON SIGHT......etc.

So, if there is a video card enthusiast in Hollywood,CA area who has an EFI-64 Machine and would like to be part of this experiment, PM me.

FYI...there is a good chance this will work...on the other hand, there is also a good chance that Apple/Nvidia/EVGA placed an additional STOP to flashing and upon boot we will see a lovely black screen.

Whats in it for you? Immortal, undying glory ! A beer ! And when I figure out full process, I will make one for you with GTX285 you bring me. gratis

I have removed the 128K chip it came with and installed a 256K chip. I then flashed Mac EFI ROM onto it. On my first Gen it runs exactly as before. Boots into OSX with help of Netkas Injector Package, but not until desktop. (also requires additional Nvidia card)

It appears to be ignoring the Mac EFI due to it being 64 instead of the 32 it "requires".

So, anyone wanna help?

Andrew Henry · Jun 20, 2009

The Rominator said:
Any curious souls in my area? I have flashed a GTX285 with Mac ROM and need an EFI-64 machines to test on. Seems like there is a HIGH concentration of these machines around, just not at my house.

I CAN get access to them, but they are in Edit Bays at a friend's Production Office...and the Editors keep weird hours.....and they are wired in with lots of extra video/audio/disk drive stuff that I have to disconnect/move....and if one died or I caused bad Hard Drive corruption I would be SHOT ON SIGHT......etc.

So, if there is a video card enthusiast in Hollywood,CA area who has an EFI-64 Machine and would like to be part of this experiment, PM me.

FYI...there is a good chance this will work...on the other hand, there is also a good chance that Apple/Nvidia/EVGA placed an additional STOP to flashing and upon boot we will see a lovely black screen.

Whats in it for you? Immortal, undying glory ! A beer ! And when I figure out full process, I will make one for you with GTX285 you bring me. gratis

I have removed the 128K chip it came with and installed a 256K chip. I then flashed Mac EFI ROM onto it. On my first Gen it runs exactly as before. Boots into OSX with help of Netkas Injector Package, but not until desktop. (also requires additional Nvidia card)

It appears to be ignoring the Mac EFI due to it being 64 instead of the 32 it "requires".

So, anyone wanna help?

I'm in Seattle, WA you can send it to me for further testing.

teeck2000 · Jun 20, 2009

Hey Rominator,

I'd like to help, I'm in Glendale, CA with a 2008 Mac Pro 2.8 Octo if you want to test it out, email me and we can setup a time.

MacVidCards · Jun 20, 2009

Email sent. I would recommend you remove your email address from your post.

We will hopefully be able to meet up by Tuesday or Wednesday and have answer on GTX285 flash. In a perfect world, this could lead to other cards too. Fingers crossed.

Cynicalone · Jun 20, 2009

The Rominator said:
I would recommend you remove your email address from your post.

Yes you'll want to remove that quickly.

MacVidCards · Jun 21, 2009

Houston We Have Liftoff !!! Gtx285 Victory !

TEECK2000 just left my place with his Mac Pro Early 2008..........and a shiny new GTX285 !!!!

The flash worked !!!

We tested multiple things, all A-OK. Even a 5.0 GTs link speed.

Windows was good too. He tried XPlane in both and said it was smoother than his 8800GT had been.

So a RESOUNDING SUCCESS.

Thanks to TEECK2000 for dragging his Mac over here. He decided to keep the GTX285 that I had already done the surgery to...I'll be ordering another one.

BTW.please note that I forgot to change OGL test to 1920x1200....and it scored beautifully anyway.

Cuda · Jun 21, 2009

240 Unified Shaders, that's what I'm talking about.

In September when Snow Leopard Ships, it's going to put the Radeon 47xx to bed, Good Morning, Good afternoon, and Good night.

We're talking 2x the speed of the 8800's, with half the Power/Heat/Failure Rate.

Great Job Rominator, now break out that 2GB version.

I'm so keyed, in 10.6 I'll be able to put my Apps and large chunks of Data up in VRam. That should help cut down x264 encoding in HD from DAYS to Hours.

I can't wait to get my hands on one and 10.6

10THzMac · Jun 22, 2009

Wow. I'd vote for a test on the 2G. Could you spell out what you did with Rom chips?

MacVidCards · Jun 22, 2009

I desoldered 128K chip and replaced it with a 256K chip.

Then I flashed with the EFI 156K ROM file.

Here is card I used:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130442

Quite likely that other cards will work.......BUT IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT THEY HAVE A 256K CHIP...........RUN "NVFLASH -C" TO GET A READOUT OF WHICH CHIP YOU HAVE AND GOOGLE THE PART NUMBER !!!

If you have a 128K chip (technically 1024k in 8 pages of 128k each) then the file WILL NOT FIT ON THE CHIP AND YOU WILL SEMI-BRICK THE CARD if you flash it.

netkas · Jun 22, 2009

The Rominator said:
We tested multiple things, all A-OK. Even a 5.0 GTs link speed.

this makes me think they setup pcie2.0 in efi rom, and somehow it doesnt work on flashed 4870

i can setup pcie2.0 speed in aty_init, but I need to find out code for it first (like what to write to some MMIO adresses , or via pci config space)

If you have a 128K chip (technically 1024k in 8 pages of 128k each) then the file WILL NOT FIT ON THE CHIP AND YOU WILL SEMI-BRICK THE CARD if you flash it.

it will still work as pc card i think

can you share rom with me?

btw, what nvcap value you had with flashed gtx285 ?

Dr.Pants · Jun 22, 2009

I would just like to offer congratulations on the achievement. Since I can see one of these in my future, I would also like to say "thanks" early.

MacVidCards · Jun 22, 2009

netkas said:
btw, what nvcap value you had with flashed gtx285 ?

didn't check...will be a couple days til I have another GTX285 to play with

is NVCAP something I find in IOREG?

teeck2000 · Jun 22, 2009

Thanks again Rominator for the card, it's awesome.

I have been playing with the card for about 6 hours now and everything is working great, so I thought I would post a followup. I don't have any framerates for games but everything is playing and working smooth. Dual 24" displays work great and the card is running quieter than my 8800GT.

I was just playing the Crysis Demo at 1920x1200 with everything set to max and 2xAA and it was VERY smooth, 60+ fps I would say. There is one weird thing though that only happens with Crysis and no other app/game in OSX or WinXP. When the game is loading or at the menu screen before loaded, the card makes this really high pitched wine, but as soon as you finish loading and start playing it goes away, very weird.

I have not ran into any overheat issues or any other problems, works fantastic. Let me know if anyone wants me to run a specific task.

Great Job Rominator!

jeanlain · Jun 22, 2009

The Rominator said:
I desoldered 128K chip and replaced it with a 256K chip.

Then I flashed with the EFI 156K ROM file.

Here is card I used:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130442

Quite likely that other cards will work.......BUT IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT THEY HAVE A 256K CHIP...........RUN "NVFLASH -C" TO GET A READOUT OF WHICH CHIP YOU HAVE AND GOOGLE THE PART NUMBER !!!

If you have a 128K chip (technically 1024k in 8 pages of 128k each) then the file WILL NOT FIT ON THE CHIP AND YOU WILL SEMI-BRICK THE CARD if you flash it.

Why is the apple ROM so big? Any way to shrink it?

nightfly13 · Jun 22, 2009

Could this work on a 1,1 (2006) Mac Pro?

I need a new card, and I think I'm having conflicts mixing ATI and NVidia presently, so I'd like an NVidia card... would this solution work for a first gen Mac Pro?

10THzMac · Jun 22, 2009

The Rominator said:
didn't check...will be a couple days til I have another GTX285 to play with

is NVCAP something I find in IOREG?

I found this mac app called NVCAPmaker that read the rom and spewed out a number.

ventro · Jun 22, 2009

Wow, fantastic work, Rominator! Once you post the in-depth tutorial I will definitely pick up a 285. Thanks so much for doing this!

Cuda · Jun 22, 2009

netkas said:
i can setup pcie2.0 speed in aty_init, but I need to find out code for it first (like what to write to some MMIO adresses , or via pci config space)

I think OS X Boot loader ( Still BootX? ) locks PCI Config Space Read Only for Nvidia cards.

I beleve you'd have to do this in EFI.

Cuda · Jun 22, 2009

10THzMac said:
I found this mac app called NVCAPmaker that read the rom and spewed out a number.

OR

Code:

ioreg -l w0 | grep NVCAP

Better is both, so we can see if the NVCAP is in the EFI Rom and is not the same as the one in the Bios( That is the one NVCAPmaker Reads)

icyderguru · Jun 22, 2009

Grats Rominator, glad yours worked.

Could you please post the Rom so others can try as well.

Thanks

10THzMac · Jun 22, 2009

Cuda said:
OR

Code:

ioreg -l w0 | grep NVCAP

Better is both, so we can see if the NVCAP is in the EFI Rom and is not the same as the one in the Bios( That is the one NVCAPmaker Reads)

NVCAP maker on the 285 ROM gives

0400000000000f00000000000000000700000000

the same as my Palit 2G 285. But your command gives

bash-3.2$ ioreg -l w0 | grep NVCAP
| | | | "NVCAP" = <05000000000003000c0000000000000b00000000>

which is clearly different. This is with just the mac 285 live. I wonder what this difference can affect?

netkas · Jun 22, 2009

Cuda said:
I think OS X Boot loader ( Still BootX? ) locks PCI Config Space Read Only for Nvidia cards.

I beleve you'd have to do this in EFI.

its boot.efi the bootloader

pcie setup is made by efi rom i believe

10THzMac

NVCAPMake is joke, it has a nvcap value hardcoded inside, and only calculates two digits analyzing rom, it doesnt create a real nvcap, it just guesses one. ioreg -l -w0 | grep NVCAP is better

MacVidCards · Jun 22, 2009

So, I 'm confused. Is there something I need to check on when I get another GTX285?

IN any case, if you need something checked on the flashed one, you could ask TEECK2000 since he has the card now.

netkas · Jun 22, 2009

btw, looks like apple uses ancient old tianocore, thats why their drivers failz to work in latest duet i think

"C:\p4\sw\main\efi\edk\Tiano20061117\Foundation\Library\Dxe\EfiDriverLib\EfiDriverLib.c..gRT != ((void *) 0)"

that from decompressed rom

10THzMac · Jun 22, 2009

netkas said:
NVCAPMake is joke, it has a nvcap value hardcoded inside, and only calculates two digits analyzing rom, it doesnt create a real nvcap, it just guesses one. ioreg -l -w0 | grep NVCAP is better

That explains a lot of wasted time! Thanks netkas.

Test the First Flashed GTX285 ?

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