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2009 MP and video cards??

G

goin3d

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 10, 2009
41
9
Got my 2009 2.26 today and I'm just getting things setup. My initial plan was to place the 8800gt from my 2007 2.6 quad core in the machine along with the default 120gt until i could get the 4870 upgrade. To my dismay I have not been able to get the 8800gt to work :( It appears as if the 8800gt that I have isn't recognized!! Does anyone know why this might happen? Was there an EFI change between the two? I also tried the orig. 7300gt that came with my previous box and received the same results.
 
Hi,

2006 and 2007 Mac Pro use 32bit EFI, whereas 2008 and 2009 use 64bit.

You need to get a 64bit EFI 8800 GT firmware, and flash it on your video card.

For the 7300 GT, there is simply nothing you can do, as no firmware was ever made available.
 
Nvidia uses native EFI firmwares, that are compiled as either 32bit or 64bit binaries, and only run on a similar platform.

ATI uses EBC firmware, which stands for EFI ByteCode. Just like Java, or .net bytecode, it can run on any platform that has a virtual machine for it.
 
pipomolo42 said:
Nvidia uses native EFI firmwares, that are compiled as either 32bit or 64bit binaries, and only run on a similar platform.

ATI uses EBC firmware, which stands for EFI ByteCode. Just like Java, or .net bytecode, it can run on any platform that has a virtual machine for it.
Click to expand...
I forgot about that fact about ATI's firmware. Thanks
 
I put together a bootable flash drive that should do the trick for me. Will I need to go and find a PC to execute the flash? IE I can't just do this from my MP can i?

Thanks again!
 
Flash the 8800GT

Actually, you can do this on your Mac Pro...while doing the community a favor.

There are instructions in my "Dump the 4870 ROM" thread. Basically, you simply need to have a way to boot from DOS...easier even than it sounds.

And once you have the EFI64 firmware on there, your card should be fine.

But while you have the machine booted up in DOS.....why not do the community a favor and dump the ROM from the Nvidia 120?

Basically you will have 2 @ Nvidia cards in there, so you will need to:

1. Do 1 card at a time.....ie, the Mac Pro should boot DOS just fine on the EFI32 8800GT, so it can be hooked to monitor for this, just don't be put off by long boot where nothing seems to happen, suddenley DOS will break out.

2. Use the "index" command in NVFlash. This is how you choose one adapter or another. First do a "Nvflash -c" or "nvflash -a" to find out which card is which, one will be "0" and one will be "1". When you wish to save the 120 ROM, you will type "nvflash -i=X -b Mac120.rom". WHen you wish to flash the 8800GT you will type "Nvflash -i=Y 88gt64.rom -4 -5 -6 -j"

X= slot the 120 is in
Y= slot the 8800GT is in

The only worry is going to be what the device id is of the 88GT and ROM.

The original ROM for EFI64 was 0611 while I have heard rumors that there is a newer one with id of 0602. Even if new Mac Pro doesn't light up the 8800GT, it should "see" it from 120 and be able to tell you the device id.

And we would love a look at that 120 ROM.....
 
I check out the thread! If i can get it all working i'll be sure the dump the 120

**Update: was able to flash the 8800gt just fine. Thus far though I haven't been able to boot with the freedos disc AND have any type of writeable storeage :( so far the bootcamp partition trick does not seem to be working**
 
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