Zeus - Modern Options for GPU Update...

[jc.farley]

So, I think that I am almost ready to flash...but if I am using ATIWinFlash, do I need to also use FreeDOS or will ATIWinFlash be all I need?

h9826790 mentioned:

All you need is just FreeDOS and ATIFlash to flash the 7950. If you have Windows, ATIWinFlash will be even easier.

So, if I understand this correctly, I only need ATIWinFlash? ...and the Mac EFI Rom, which I should be able to get from this thread in Netkas: http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,5619.0.html

Am I understanding this correctly?

------

UPDATE:

After backing up the ROM, I tried to flash the GPU using ATIWinFlash. I loaded the new ROM from Netkas and hit "program" and I received an error: "Subsystem ID's mismatch"

Any thoughts? Really appreciate any assistance.

 

[h9826790]

So, I think that I am almost ready to flash...but if I am using ATIWinFlash, do I need to also use FreeDOS or will ATIWinFlash be all I need?

h9826790 mentioned:


So, if I understand this correctly, I only need ATIWinFlash? ...and the Mac EFI Rom, which I should be able to get from this thread in Netkas: http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,5619.0.html

Am I understanding this correctly?

------

UPDATE:

After backing up the ROM, I tried to flash the GPU using ATIWinFlash. I loaded the new ROM from Netkas and hit "program" and I received an error: "Subsystem ID's mismatch"

Any thoughts? Really appreciate any assistance.

Correct, you don't need DOS because you have Windows now.

The ROM you downloaded is for another brand.

It's very easy to create your own EFI ROM for 7950.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/help-overclocking-12-core-mac-pro.1762165/#post-19497121

P.S. You can ignore the OC part on the above link. The procedure there is just turn the PC ROM into the EFI ROM.

 

[jc.farley]

Correct, you don't need DOS because you have Windows now.

The ROM you downloaded is for another brand.

It's very easy to create your own EFI ROM for 7950.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/help-overclocking-12-core-mac-pro.1762165/#post-19497121

P.S. You can ignore the OC part on the above link. The procedure there is just turn the PC ROM into the EFI ROM.

Nice! Do I need to have Mac OS upgraded before I do this? Currently, I am still running 10.7.5. I was going to wait until the card has been flashed, because I would like to avoid any lagging GPU issues. Thanks!

 

[h9826790]

Nice! Do I need to have Mac OS upgraded before I do this? Currently, I am still running 10.7.5. I was going to wait until the card has been flashed, because I would like to avoid any lagging GPU issues. Thanks!

No, the script is good for 10.7.5

 

[jc.farley]

You can install drivers if you're running Mountain Lion 10.8-10.8.3 with Tiamo boot.efi

Do you recommend going with Mountain Lion/Maverick with Tiamo, or just moving to Pike's and running El Capitan or Yosemite?

On one hand, I want good compatibility…I am noticing things where Lion is so old…yet, on the other hand, I don't want to bog down the system.

With my current setup, I am at 8 cores (2x 3ghz Quads) and 32gb RAM. So, it is in the best position possible (for this system) to handle El Capitan...

 

[owbp]

They all work great on 1,1 so you won't go wrong with either of them. Personally I didn't have any problems that people with newer Macs (Macbooks and iMacs) were mentioning with El Capitan on 1,1 so i would recommend you go with that if you don't have any software/hardware need for older system.
El Capitan is a bit slower that Mavericks if you install it on HDD but nothing to complain about (none of them are fast as Snow Leopard, but that's for another thread...).
Down the road you could put it on SSD for the flying experience of 2016 OS on 2006 hardware

P.S. I have 1,1 with 2 x 2.66 Quad Xeons, 16GB RAM and HD7950, so you are in a head start already.

 

[jc.farley]

Great! I am probably going to put El Capitan on it then. I am having some functionality issues on viewing certain web pages. A part of what I do is web design. So, I need to be able to see things correctly, such as HTML Canvas, which doesn't show up. Like in this site: https://blue-phoenix.net... If you are on Lion OS, you can't see that particle field. I've noticed some other inconsistencies too…hopefully the new OS will fix all or most of that.

 

[jc.farley]

So I finally managed to get my hands on a copy of El Capitan and Yosemite. So, I turned to YouTube to see if I could get a tutorial of sorts for installing Pike's boot.efi, which I did find:

From what I am gathering, this is going to load El Capitan onto a completely different drive, so not the current one?

 

[jc.farley]

El Capitan on 1,1 so i would recommend you go with that

So, I have an El Capitan install file…the ".app" extension. How do I get that converted to a ".dmg" file?

 

[owbp]

Why would you want to convert it to .dmg?

Did you find THE topic about 1,1/2,1 and El Capitan?
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2006-2007-mac-pro-1-1-2-1-and-os-x-el-capitan.1890435/

 

[jc.farley]

Why would you want to convert it to .dmg?

Did you find THE topic about 1,1/2,1 and El Capitan?
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2006-2007-mac-pro-1-1-2-1-and-os-x-el-capitan.1890435/

I did actually! I just followed along with the video on page 56.

I have El Capitan running, but it seems that I made a mistake when flashing my GPU....it's not bricked, but I think I should not have used the 7950.rom that I used. Does it need to be specific to my setup?

I have flashed the GPU with the original BIOS and it is running.

 

[owbp]

Every HD7950/7970 has dual bios switch, so you should always flash one and use second as a backup.
You shouldn't flash you card with 7950.rom, since it is specific bios for Sapphire Mac GPU, but use it to make your own.
You can:
- run the automated script from netkas' forum with your bios inside the bundle folder, or
- copy and paste (in Hex Editor) EFI part of the rom from 7950.rom to your original bios and run fixrom.py script.

That way you'll still have your cards bios (clock speeds, power and fan management) and EFI part will give you boot screen and proper recognition in OS X.

 

[jc.farley]

Okay, I definitely still have the original BIOS installed. I backed it up before I had tried to flash it, then restored it again.

Where do I get the Fixrom script?

 

[owbp]

Where do I get the Fixrom script?

http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,5619.0.html

If your card has UEFI Bios, then you could only copy/paste the EFI part (Gigabyte and MSI R9s have it).
Look where i left the cursor in the screenshot (65536)

From there to the end of file you copy from MAC EFI rom and paste (from the same spot to the end) into your original BIOS (it should be the same length in the end - 131072 bytes). Anyway, you should go through the first few pages of the above topic (netkas' forum link) and everything should be a lot clearer after that.

 

[jc.farley]

http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,5619.0.html

If your card has UEFI Bios, then you could only copy/paste the EFI part (Gigabyte and MSI R9s have it).
Look where i left the cursor in the screenshot (65536)
View attachment 691803
From there to the end of file you copy from MAC EFI rom and paste (from the same spot to the end) into your original BIOS (it should be the same length in the end - 131072 bytes). Anyway, you should go through the first few pages of the above topic (netkas' forum link) and everything should be a lot clearer after that.

I am running AMD Sapphire. Not sure the second option will work. Looking into the first option.
[doublepost=1489204757][/doublepost]

http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,5619.0.html

If your card has UEFI Bios, then you could only copy/paste the EFI part (Gigabyte and MSI R9s have it).
Look where i left the cursor in the screenshot (65536)
View attachment 691803
From there to the end of file you copy from MAC EFI rom and paste (from the same spot to the end) into your original BIOS (it should be the same length in the end - 131072 bytes). Anyway, you should go through the first few pages of the above topic (netkas' forum link) and everything should be a lot clearer after that.

I tried doing the Netkas sequence in Lion and then I flashed the card. It didn't seem to work. Does it need to be done in El Cap?

 

[jc.farley]

http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,5619.0.html

If your card has UEFI Bios, then you could only copy/paste the EFI part (Gigabyte and MSI R9s have it).
Look where i left the cursor in the screenshot (65536)
View attachment 691803
From there to the end of file you copy from MAC EFI rom and paste (from the same spot to the end) into your original BIOS (it should be the same length in the end - 131072 bytes). Anyway, you should go through the first few pages of the above topic (netkas' forum link) and everything should be a lot clearer after that.

I just booted it up!! It is working with the boot screen!! So happy!

Major thanks for the loads of assistance on this!! I couldn't have done it without your help (I probably would have helped my computer tower out with a hammer, hahaha!).

 

[jc.farley]

So, I only had one screen up before. When I went to System Report>Graphics/Displays, I can see that it is only reading one of the displays.

The one that IS working is the DVI port, the one NOT working is the HDMI.

I double checked my connections, rebooted, installed all OS updates (it seems there was an issues with this in El Cap at one time)...

Any suggestions? I can't seem to find anything on what would be causing this.

 

[owbp]

The one that IS working is the DVI port, the one NOT working is the HDMI.

Any suggestions? I can't seem to find anything on what would be causing this.

Look at this post and two smaller pictures in the bottom of it.

If your card has resistors like in the first pictures (stairs like) you won't have working HDMI after flashing (DVI and mDPs are still ok).
The reference board (the bottom one) will give you all working ports after flashing, assuming you bought HD7950 with DVI, HDMI and two mDP ports to begin with.

Again, assuming you bough reference output layout card, you could live with 3 working outputs and EFI rom, or all four with PC BIOS and then switch to EFI bios only when you need boot screens.

 

[jc.farley]

Alright, so I just pulled the card and I have the staggered design. Probably just get the new cords.

Just a thought, but I ran across something earlier about a hack for this issue, but I don't really know if I trust it...or if it even works for hacking the r17 resistor. Are you familiar with this or even the site credibility? Here is the link: http://revyourmac.com/blog/hdmi-7950-mac/ ...also seems to not go above Mavericks...

Another thought...because I sometimes do video, if I wanted to add another GPU (perhaps the same design even) would the two cards compete with or complement one another?

 

[h9826790]

Alright, so I just pulled the card and I have the staggered design. Probably just get the new cords.

Just a thought, but I ran across something earlier about a hack for this issue, but I don't really know if I trust it...or if it even works for hacking the r17 resistor. Are you familiar with this or even the site credibility? Here is the link: http://revyourmac.com/blog/hdmi-7950-mac/ ...also seems to not go above Mavericks...

Another thought...because I sometimes do video, if I wanted to add another GPU (perhaps the same design even) would the two cards compete with or complement one another?

The R17 mod is true, I did that on one of my card, and more than one members did that as well. However, I don't recommend this to anyone. As long as you install the card in a x16 slot, the performance difference is virtually zero. So, why take the risk? This mod can cause permanent damage to the card (e.g. You accidentally damage the resistors around). That mod only worth if you install the card in a x4 slot.

 

[jc.farley]

The R17 mod is true, I did that on one of my card, and more than one members did that as well. However, I don't recommend this to anyone. As long as you install the card in a x16 slot, the performance difference is virtually zero. So, why take the risk? This mod can cause permanent damage to the card (e.g. You accidentally damage the resistors around). That mod only worth if you install the card in a x4 slot.

Yeah, I have the card in slot zero. I watched a video on it, it seems like a risky move.

 

[owbp]

Also, you are using it in 1,1/2,1 so it wouldn't even be a cosmetic thing since your Mac have PCIe 1.1 in all four slots. It would still report 2,5GT/s after the mod.

 

[Fl0r!an]

Losing the HDMI port isn't uncommon when flashing GPUs with modified layout. I think I've uploaded a modified EFI @netkas.org some time ago which disables IOReg injection, causing the GPU to behave like a unflashed one in OS X (thus retaining HDMI funcitonality).
Personally I'd live with it, as long as I didn't need all 4 output ports.

The R17 mod is pointless as long as you use the card in a 1,1.

 

[jc.farley]

Also, you are using it in 1,1/2,1 so it wouldn't even be a cosmetic thing since your Mac have PCIe 1.1 in all four slots. It would still report 2,5GT/s after the mod.

WOW, didn't realize that! Definitely no point!

 

[jc.farley]

I bought a second MacPro 1,1 and am about to do this whole process over again.

However, I bought an AMD ATI Radeon 5770. Does this (here) also work for making a boot efi for the 5770 or do I need to take a different approach?

@owbp @h9826790