Flashing R9 280X for boot screens/PCI System Information

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

I have a 2006 Mac Pro running Yosemite (thanks Pike!) and now on to "fit and finish" nits to make it work.

I got an MSI R9 280X Gaming 3GB video card, and it worked great out-of-the-box, but I wanted to get boot screens and get it recognized in the PCI section of System Information. I chose this card because it's not too expensive, and clearly others have had good compatibility experiences in Mac Pros with Mavericks and Yosemite.

So, I read the AMD EFI firmware thread on netkas for a general understanding, grabbed Rominator's 7970 EBC firmware, and used them to make my own MSI EBC Mac ROM.

Works. Dive in. The water's fine. Boot screens and all.

Next step: figuring out how to change the "AMD Radeon HD 7970" text string in System Information.

 

[MacVidCards]

Glad you liked the EFI.

If you look carefully over there, there are also R9 280X versions of same thing.

 

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

I've spent the last hour combing through post-by-post looking for one.

UPDATE: ok, found one. Appreciate you egging me on to keep looking.

The ROM I made from your work is attached in case it helps others. Thank you so much!

The card I used:

MSI RADEON R9 280X GAMING 3G (TWIN FROZR IV, OC EDITION)
part number 912-V277-067 (on box)
EAN 4 719072 314026 (sticker on card)
UPC-A 8 24142 01599 5 (sticker on card)

Information on the EBC firmware attached here:

Subsystem ID: 0x2775
Device ID: 0x6798
PC BIOS (stock as shipped): 113-MSITV277MS.350 TAHITI B0 XTL C38650 GDDR5 3GB, BIOS Version 015.041.000.000.003435, ROM Revision 113-C3865001-TU5
Mac EBC EFI: (replaced stock UEFI): ATY,Hamachi, ROM Revision 113-E2080C-101, EFI Driver Version 01.00.624

 

[asus321]

I've spent the last hour combing through post-by-post looking for one.

UPDATE: ok, found one. Appreciate you egging me on to keep looking.

The ROM I made from your work is attached in case it helps others. Thank you so much!

The card I used:

MSI RADEON R9 280X GAMING 3G (TWIN FROZR IV, OC EDITION)
part number 912-V277-067 (on box)
EAN 4 719072 314026 (sticker on card)
UPC-A 8 24142 01599 5 (sticker on card)

Information on the EBC firmware attached here:

PC BIOS portion: MSI TV277MS.350, ROM Revision 113-C3865001-TU5
Mac EBC portion: ROM Revision 113-E2080C-101, EFI Driver Version 01.00.624

Hi,
nice work!
I got the same problem with my Gigabyte R9 280X. I used the script from Netkas but the card was identified as 7970 :-(
What is the "trick"? Please help
Thanks!

 

[theitsage]

Hi,
nice work!
I got the same problem with my Gigabyte R9 280X. I used the script from Netkas but the card was identified as 7970 :-(
What is the "trick"? Please help
Thanks!

Open 7950mac.efi in the "bundle" folder that you downloaded using a Hex Editor. Search for a text string which contains either 7970 or 7950. Then replace it with whatever name you want your card to appear on System Profiler. Redo the whole process of creating a Mac rom for your card and reflash. I have a Gigagyte R9 280X V.2 and was able to get it done this way. There may be another procedure to accomplish the same goal though.

The Gigabyte card has been working wonderful for me. My 5,1 is able to run 4 monitors simultaneously (3 22" LCDs and 1 82" TV @ 1920x1080). The temp never got above 70 C.

 

[stmp]

Thanks much for this helpful info!

Apologies if I missed it, but does this EFI also enable PCIe 2.0?

Or is that still a resistor removal trick?

Cheers + Thanks again

 

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

Apologies if I missed it, but does this EFI also enable PCIe 2.0?

Or is that still a resistor removal trick?

I don't know, there's no PCIe 2.0 support in my 2006 Mac Pro.

 

[stmp]

Doh sorry, I was staring at the signature in the post above my reply while writing...

Thanks all the same.

 

[digitalmatt]

what is the power requirements for that? I am looking at the xfx double d r9 280a, but i can't seem to find if i will need an additional power supply and what the damn thing consumes for power.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150706

 

[theitsage]

Thanks much for this helpful info!

Apologies if I missed it, but does this EFI also enable PCIe 2.0?

Or is that still a resistor removal trick?

Cheers + Thanks again

R17 resistor has to be removed for 5GT/s.

 

[theitsage]

what is the power requirements for that? I am looking at the xfx double d r9 280a, but i can't seem to find if i will need an additional power supply and what the damn thing consumes for power.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150706

I read somewhere R9 280x uses upto 245W. I use nothing more than the 2 mini PCIe power cables. The video card is getting 225W this way. My R9 280x is fully functional as far as I can tell.

 

[digitalmatt]

okay, did some reading at netkas. will this rom work on any 280x? and which cables adapters did you get for the power? somehow that looks like it was an issue for people over there.

 

[theitsage]

okay, did some reading at netkas. will this rom work on any 280x? and which cables adapters did you get for the power? somehow that looks like it was an issue for people over there.

I only have experience with the Gigabyte card. I use the stock mini PCIe 6 pin to 6 pin and a mini PCIe 6 pin to 8 pin.

 

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

what is the power requirements for that?

While the MSI R9 280X GAMING 3G has both a 6-pin and 8-pin power port, it runs fine off two 6-pin PCIe power cables using the 6-pin-to-8-pin PCIe power adapter that's included in the box.

 

[digitalmatt]

i cant seem to find how to flash a card....

 

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

I used ATI Winflash in Windows 7 (using Boot Camp).

Some benchmarks of my EBC-flashed MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming 3G in my 2006 Mac Pro attached. I tried to duplicate a few of the benchmark tests from Bare Feats when they originally tested the Mac 7950 in a 'Mid 2010' Mac Pro 3.33GHz Hex-Core, although using Yosemite with Pike's boot loader:

• PART ONE: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 versus other Mac Pro GPUs
• PART DEUX: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 versus other Mac Pro GPUs

My assumption was that on-card GPU tests would likely be faster, but likely not when relying on my slower 5300 series CPUs, 667MHz memory, or 2.5 GT/s bandwidth PCIe 1.1. That seems to be generally true. All in all, not bad considering not many eight-year-old machines can Geekbench around 11000.

I didn't really try to optimize very much, leaving it in 2560x1600 resolution and with iStat Menus running and some other background processes. I did use Quartz Debug set to Force QuartzGL and Beam Sync Disable.

 

[Zwhaler]

I'm using it with an ePower 450W external PSU. Did a sick mod and drilled holes in a spare side cover with grommets and the PSU sits on top of the case, with cables running thru it on the side. Card was rated above 225W and if I ever do 24+ hours of rendering I want to ensure that I don't overdraw the logic board.

 

[dub*man]

Is there a list of "approved" 280x cards or are all 280x cards compatible?

I need to buy one today and I have my sights set on the Sapphire 280x Tri-X

This one specifically with the Mini Display Port out options.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202126

 

[Zwhaler]

Here's what I did: MSI Gaming R9 280X 3G ... then sent to MVC for himto flash and on the alternate BIOS switch setting a custom OC flash ... Bought ePower 450W external GPU PSU. Decided to mod a spare Mac Pro side cover to allow cables to run into it. Pics attached

 

[Zwhaler]

Is there a list of "approved" 280x cards or are all 280x cards compatible?

I need to buy one today and I have my sights set on the Sapphire 280x Tri-X

This one specifically with the Mini Display Port out options.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202126

MSI Gaming 3G R9 280X works OOB but I had a lot of graphical tearing glitches until it was properly flashed.

 

[theitsage]

^^^ That's what I call dedication!

Do you have any benchmark and power draw while in heavy usage?

I play Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor with a 3x22" Widescreen Eyefinity setup and my 280x seems to hold up fine. There are times when it struggles a bit though. My best guess is lack of sufficient power to the card.

 

[Zwhaler]

^^^ That's what I call dedication!

Do you have any benchmark and power draw while in heavy usage?

I play Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor with a 3x22" Widescreen Eyefinity setup and my 280x seems to hold up fine. There are times when it struggles a bit though. My best guess is lack of sufficient power to the card.

Not yet, I finished the grommet just some minutes before posting the pics of the case, refer me to some benchmarks and software to monitor the power draw and later on I might be able to get you some useful data.

 

[dub*man]

Will I have issues with the Sapphire card?

 

[h9826790]

Some benchmarks of my EBC-flashed MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming 3G in my 2006 Mac Pro attached.

Do you have the OceanWave performance figure for Mavericks?

It seems the VRAM speed in OceanWave under Yosemite significantly slower than what it shows under Mavericks.

 

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

Do you have the OceanWave performance figure for Mavericks?

It seems the VRAM speed in OceanWave under Yosemite significantly slower than what it shows under Mavericks.

Nope. I had an external drive with Mavericks but it seems to have failed, unfortunately, so I don't have an easy way to try in Mavericks.

I was attributing the VRAM speed to my older 2006 Mac Pro PCIe 1.0 architecture. If there's something I can change in Yosemite as a work-around I'll happily run the test again.