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

[netkas]

>ps. anybody with 4850, 4830 flash this rom please.

really bad idea, and btw, 4830 doesnt work even on hackintosh, 4850 does tho

if anyone want to test 4850, here is modified rom, changed device-id, memory clocks, gpu clocks, to match 4850:

EDIT, dont use posted rom, its borked

 

[grue]

Looks like Newegg has a "Weekend Special" on the Sapphire 1GB 4870, only $189 compared to the Sapphire 512MB 4870 which is $179. I'm really tempted to pull the trigger on this one! LOL.

Yeah, I saw this… I have a friend coming to visit from the US and I was thinking I'd have one shipped to her, but if it turns out not to work, it'd be a huge waste of time, money and effort.

 

[SpecialB]

VGA won't work? Hmm, I am currently using one old 17" VGA TFT, when the 4870 won't give me a VGA Signal on my adapter, i need to keep my 2600...

But, what about the 4870 X2? Works this ROM on that card, too?


SpecialB

 

[grue]

>ps. anybody with 4850, 4830 flash this rom please.

really bad idea, and btw, 4830 doesnt work even on hackintosh, 4850 does tho

if anyone want to test 4850, here is modified rom, changed device-id, memory clocks, gpu clocks, to match 4850:

http://rapidshare.de/files/46086145/4850.rom.html

Do you know if there's been any success with 1GB 4870s on Hackintosh units?

 

[v0n]

Any of you guys have any links to UK distributors of the small mac molex to 6 pin PCIe power cables so the flashed, regular 4870 can be powered from rail on motherboard?

 

[netkas]

Do you know if there's been any success with 1GB 4870s on Hackintosh units?

they work fine there, but thet doesnt have to be flashed to work in hackintosh

 

[grue]

they work fine there, but thet doesnt have to be flashed to work in hackintosh

Oh duh, good point. It's late here, I'm not thinking.

What's really weird is that now that I'm looking at benchmarks for the 4870 for Flight Simulator X, the 8800GT is actually better for that… weirdddddd

 

[pipomolo42]

I live in europe, and ordered those cables from http://www.svideo.com/x1900.html

FYI, there are two official references : the apple one (922-7128) and the ati one (6110024100G).

 

[iBug2]

Oh duh, good point. It's late here, I'm not thinking.

What's really weird is that now that I'm looking at benchmarks for the 4870 for Flight Simulator X, the 8800GT is actually better for that… weirdddddd

Can you test with other more standard games please? Like WOW, COD4?

 

[grue]

Can you test with other more standard games please? Like WOW, COD4?

4870 lays waste to the 8800GT for CoD4… WOW I have no idea, since I've never played it and thus never pay attention to benchmarks for it.

The weirdness seems to be confined to Flight Simulator X for whatever reason.

 

[iBug2]

4870 lays waste to the 8800GT for CoD4… WOW I have no idea, since I've never played it and thus never pay attention to benchmarks for it.

The weirdness seems to be confined to Flight Simulator X for whatever reason.

But this will be the same case with Apple's own 4870 as well right?

I'm not a total hardware newbie, but I've never flashed a PC video card and used on Mac before. If it works, and people say it works, it's the exact same performance as the Apple card right? On open GL games and everything else?

PS: Can be even better since 3rd party cards are overclocked sometimes etc?

 

[grue]

But this will be the same case with Apple's own 4870 as well right?

I'm not a total hardware newbie, but I've never flashed a PC video card and used on Mac before. If it works, and people say it works, it's the exact same performance as the Apple card right? On open GL games and everything else?

PS: Can be even better since 3rd party cards are overclocked sometimes etc?

Apparently Apple slightly underclocks their 4870, but that's easy enough to fix as netkas mentioned above.

 

[netkas]

8800gt in cod4 lags when 4xAA enabled (in osx, with native cod4)
4850/4870 doesnt

 

[iBug2]

8800gt in cod4 lags when 4xAA enabled (in osx, with native cod4)
4850/4870 doesnt

Good to know. I use a 30" ACD. Should I wait and see if the 1 GB 4870 works or should I just go to the store now and get a 512 MB?

 

[grue]

8800gt in cod4 lags when 4xAA enabled (in osx, with native cod4)
4850/4870 doesnt

To be honest, I wouldn't expect this to be as much of an issue under Windows. MacOS ports tend to run significantly poorer than their Windows counterparts on the exact same hardware.

A quick check shows that according to Tom's Hardware, CoD4 gets the following framerates at 1920x1200, 4xAA, 8xAF, and Max quality:

Radeon 4870: 94.70
GeForce 8800GT: 57.70


Don't get me wrong, the 4870 is tooling it there… but 57fps is nothing to sneeze at, either.


I'm kinda torn, since CoD4 and Flight Simulator X are the two games I play most, and the cards that work best for those are completely at odds with each other. I suppose I could do twin installs of Vista, one with ATI drivers for Call Of Duty, and one with NVIDIA drivers for Flight Simulator X… sigh.

 

[vicentk]

May I know is all ATI 4870 can flash this rom? Because I live in HK, may be some can bought in HK, so can anyone tell me which brand you flash, thank you so much.

 

[pprior]

Let me make sure I understand this - with this ROM flash, I can take an off the shelf 4870 card today and flash it and then it will work in my 2008 mac pro?

Will it use the same drivers as the official apple version? if there are upgrades in the future will it upgrade automatically?

I don't mind paying some apple premium for STABILITY, but I don't want to wait another 7 weeks for my card, which is what Apple is saying it will take. I am having horrible problems with my 8800 and want to upgrade NOW.

So after the flash, this is plug and play from thereon out?

 

[macz1]

Is there really no way to get an analog signal out of this card? That's unfortunately what my good old CRT needs... sigh!

 

[BConvery]

I'm with grue....very interested in a 1 gig card.

Forgive my nubishness....but I can take the ROM files and flash the card with RBE and thats the whole process or are there more steps?

tyvm in advance

 

[Rankrotten]

How does the 4870 compare with a 3870x2 ?

I only ask as I'm running the 3870x2 crossfired to a 3870 Mac/PC in bootcamp and it does nothing in OS X.

 

[netkas]

if anyone else wants 4870 osx drivers - ask guys around, Im out.

 

[MacVidCards]

Yeah !!! It Works !!!

Darn!!! I sleep in on a Saturday and miss the excitement.

Just flashed my 4870 and running in OSX.

Oddly, my OpenGl View scores are lower than with a 9800GT....guess that's not a good bench app anymore.

Working fine on my 30" ACD with big exception....upper DVI only outputs at 1280x1024. Either the EDID isn't going down cable right or the upper port is borked due to it not being Mini DIsplay Port, but currently not doing Dual-Link.

Gonna drag a Dell 2407 in here to test the other port functions.

I am AMAZED that Apple / ATI didn't block this in any way. The 3870 is a puzzle, this one is easy (but mildly flawed)

Oh, and this is on a Mac Pro 1,1....so much for the "PCIE 2.0 is needed" NONSENSE

 

[iBug2]

Darn!!! I sleep in on a Saturday and miss the excitement.

Just flashed my 4870 and running in OSX.

Oddly, my OpenGl View scores are lower than with a 9800GT....guess that's not a good bench app anymore.

Working fine on my 30" ACD with big exception....upper DVI only outputs at 1280x1024. Either the EDID isn't going down cable right or the upper port is borked due to it not being Mini DIsplay Port, but currently not doing Dual-Link.

Gonna drag a Dell 2407 in here to test the other port functions.

I am AMAZED that Apple / ATI didn't block this in any way. The 3870 is a puzzle, this one is easy (but mildly flawed)

Oh, and this is on a Mac Pro 1,1....so much for the "PCIE 2.0 is needed" NONSENSE

So upper DVI only works at that resolution but the secondary DVI works at full 2560x1600?

 

[MacVidCards]

Correct...lower port working A-OK with 30" @ 2560x1600

I am going to attach the Flash screen.

If different boards give different results, we should start tracking which ones work better.

With the 2407 I just tried.

The upper port works on DVI up to it's 1920x1200 just fine.

HOWEVER.....as already stated, I can get NO ANALOG from either port.

 

[Ronchande]

Any clue if this ROM will work on a 1Gb version of the 4870?