How to flash a NVidia Geforce 7800 GS for mac (inquisitive)

[xxxshooter]

I was wondering how to flash a nVidia Geforce 7800 GS video card so that it will work with my PowerMac G5 Dual 2.5 (AGP slot)

Thanks ahead of time,

~xxx~

 

[disconap]

Google "strangedogs". There used to be forums (i think most of the info has been transferred to a wiki); if it's flashable for Mac, it'll be listed there, along with working ROMs.

 

[xxxshooter]

thanks Disconap

 

[wpc33]

Someone's proud of their profession!

ahem

I just did this, 4 weeks ago! I ignorantly thought, right up to the day I got the 7800GS, that I could flash it in my mac. You only have 1 AGP slot and you must have access to:

A PC with:
AGP slot for 7800GS
PCI video card with monitor for boot/flashing
floppy drive
bootable floppy
appropriate Mac ROM, and flashing app.(either seperate or together. I did it all on one floppy)

You'll also need a 4-pin molex-splitter to split power from the optical drive to this card. It's safe, but I got possibly coincidental crashes when I tried to add an ATA/IDE media drive to the optical bay. No probs here with the burner, though. Get your splitter from a computer shop for about $2-4.00. It's easy to find, and you only need a short one. I was surprised how much slack I had with a worryingly short cable.

Then, having the instructions provided by those amazing cats at strangedogs(it's in their wiki, along with the ROM) handy, you do the DOS typing of the flash info on the PC. When it's done, you may install into your G5 and boot up. If you don't succeed, try again. My flash was successful, so I don't know if you need the original PC ROM to start again with or not...

Make sure you get a card that has a BIOS number starting with 5.70 and NOT 5.71. The ROM's available are for 5.70.xx.xxxx.xxx blah blah

I got the BFG OC offa eBay, and it ha a good copper heatsink. The fan was so damn loud, that I could swear my lady had left the hairdryer on in the bathroom, no joke. It has a 4 pin fan connector, but because this is a flashed PC card, on a PPC, you cannot by any means control the speed.

I used iStat to do a test... I unplugged the fan, and tried to see how much leeway I'd retain with just the good heatsink...Don't even try it. I slowly but steadily climbed to 103 degrees(from a fan-on 54!) and after it hit 103, the dragging of a window left huge smears and I raced to the off button to ABORT!

The card somehow still works, but gave me shutdowns for a few days(I THINK that's why)
I even tried after this, to take the heatsink off entirely....103 degrees just after booting! ABORT!!
You need the heatsink, and a fan. I took the awful stock fan off, along with the plastic cover. I asked around and every brand of 7800GS is loud.
I got a $6.00 Sansu(the quietest, along with panasonic) 80mm PC fan. It had a 3-pin connector, and incompatible with the built-in 4-pin slot. I cut off the 3-pin connector, stripped the wires about 5mm, and spliced it into the card's molex power! I replaced the original, permanent head of the 4-pin molex splitter with a snap-able one do do the splice.

I wrapped the excess wire around the fan, put two thin, elastic bands over it, and voila! This rigging takes up some extra space, possibly hindering my 2nd of 3 PCI slots, but I don't care. Silent....but deadly Only 54 degrees, 57 max!
Oh, BTW, the S-video out will not work without Mac drivers that never existed. You can get a Mac native, ATI PCI card for about $100 used that has working S-video, along with DVI.

Best of luck!

 

[wpc33]

Oh, I almost forgot. I installed the patch that was provided on the MacElite wikidownloads...I run Leopard, and it borked my OS. Don't use it unless you know it's for you, you've hit some brick wall and have a backup to go back to.

PS Much love to Strangedogs and The MacElite!

PPS I used NVFLASH 5.67 to flash