5870 flashing questions

[Daily]

I'm sorry, for not reading through every forum topic, flame me if you choose

I'm kind of confused on the process of flashing a PC 5870 card into a Mac compatible one.

I've skimmed through "The Golden Guide to Flashing Graphic Cards" and read up on the Zeus Flashing tool, but it seems it confused me more then I expected.

I'm running a MacPro 3,1 8 Core with a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT.
To my understanding, if I throw in a PC 5870 card it won't be recognized. How am I supposed to run Zeus then? I don't think I can fit both cards in at the same time.

The power cables in my MacPro won't function with PC power cables so i need to modify them?

Roms I look for in netkas?

Is there a list of preferred 5870 models to choose from? ones that my have a lower cost or might have less compatibility issues?

Thanks in advance!

 

[C. Alan]

You may want to head over to the forums at netkas.org.
Netkas wrote most of the roms that people are using with the Mac Pros.

 

[Daily]

You may want to head over to the forums at netkas.org.
Netkas wrote most of the roms that people are using with the Mac Pros.

Seems that most of netkas tutorials ask that you complete everything in windows/dos. Does the Zeus flashing tool require a secondary video card that i can boot up under OSX?

 

[neckarb]

I'm not really sure mate, I just flashed my 5870 in windows, if I were you, I'd either install windows and do it from there or look for a DOS boot disk image and do it from there...

 

[Delameko]

If you've got Windows in Bootcamp (or if you're willing to temporarily install it, maybe on a spare HD you can remove after) flashing the card is super easy.

I have the same Mac Pro as you and I had the 8800 as well.

I got the Sapphire 5870 1GB Vapor-X when I got sick of waiting for the Apple model.

1. Turned off the machine.
2. Installed the card (you'll either need an extra G5 PCIe Graphics Power Cable or a molex to sata converter to connect to the extra DVD power cable, if you only have one DVD drive - I went for the graphics power cable, the motherboard socket is in plain sight, so it seemed the easier route).
3. Booted into windows.
4. Downloaded WinFlash.
5. Using WinFlash I saved the current ROM just in case (didn't even need to set anything up, just hit the save button).
6. Opened the Sapphire rom file from Netkas (http://mirror.netkas.org/5700/m5870sap.rom.zip) and it flashed instantly.
7. That was it - sorted!

I was surprised how easy it was and wished I bought one early.

In fact the hardest thing for me was finding the extra power cable as I couldn't find anywhere that sells them in the UK (this is the one: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/9227128/).

The only thing that doesn't work yet is the Apple logo/spinner on boot-up - but as my machine boots in 8 seconds I don't really miss it

 

[Pencil]

What about performance? Is it as fast as the "original" Apple HD 5870?
Are there any bugs (besides the boot screen)?
Does it work with bootcamp (Windows 7 x64)?
Thanks in advance

 

[Atomic101]

I have the same setup as you guys:

1) I burned a disk image of free dos boot disk
2) Made a dos partition on my HD & put onto it atiflash & the Rom to flash
3) plugged in my 5870
4) connected my new graphics power leads
5) booted up dos from cd
6) launched atiflash & made a copy of my original rom then flashed the new rom
7) then restarted

-I also had to use a DVI to VGA Adaptor for the flash as my dos boot would not display on DVI display (once flashed works fine).

Pencil:
1) I use my mac mostly for Cinema 4D & I get the same results in cinebench as the latest hex cores -I also run my Pro for Days at a time rendering with no issues.
2) No other bugs
3) I don't run windows so can't comment
4) your welcome


Andy ;o)

 

[Erlang]

If you've got Windows in Bootcamp (or if you're willing to temporarily install it, maybe on a spare HD you can remove after) flashing the card is super easy.

I have the same Mac Pro as you and I had the 8800 as well.

I got the Sapphire 5870 1GB Vapor-X when I got sick of waiting for the Apple model.

1. Turned off the machine.
2. Installed the card (you'll either need an extra G5 PCIe Graphics Power Cable or a molex to sata converter to connect to the extra DVD power cable, if you only have one DVD drive - I went for the graphics power cable, the motherboard socket is in plain sight, so it seemed the easier route).
3. Booted into windows.
4. Downloaded WinFlash.
5. Using WinFlash I saved the current ROM just in case (didn't even need to set anything up, just hit the save button).
6. Opened the Sapphire rom file from Netkas (http://mirror.netkas.org/5700/m5870sap.rom.zip) and it flashed instantly.
7. That was it - sorted!

I was surprised how easy it was and wished I bought one early.

In fact the hardest thing for me was finding the extra power cable as I couldn't find anywhere that sells them in the UK (this is the one: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/9227128/).

The only thing that doesn't work yet is the Apple logo/spinner on boot-up - but as my machine boots in 8 seconds I don't really miss it

http://www.isolder.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=9&zenid=44e6ncb7bbeb86896qfcp2vhj5

About £8 +PP

 

[Pencil]

1) I use my mac mostly for Cinema 4D & I get the same results in cinebench as the latest hex cores -I also run my Pro for Days at a time rendering with no issues.

Thanks for your reply.

Three last questions:
What is the highest supported resolution in OS X? How many monitors can be connected (simultaneously)? Is audio output via HDMI and/or DisplayPort supported?