A1259 Unknown Card Mystery Solved ATI 3870

[sarthak]

Came across this listing for an Apple A1259 Unknown specs Video Card.

Looks very similar to a GT120, elongated with a large fan. Anyone know what in the world this is?

Specs known or assumed:
- MODEL: A1259
- Three Display Outputs (2X DVI + 1X Unknown)
- 6 Pin PCI-E Power Connector
- Dual Slot Card

I tried to score it in auction so I can test and report back to the MR community. Unfortunately someone outbid me at the last moment over the ridiculous $ I put in to prevent snipers (which did not work).

Link: removed (sold for $103 USD) as parts/asis/untested.

 

[goMac]

Hm. Interesting. I'm aware of several unreleased cards (that now will never be released with the nMP and all), but I'm not sure that matches a config I know. It's a dual DVI, which I don't know would mean it's a pre-2009 card as a DVT.

 

[funwithdesign]

That fan is odd, it's cooling nothing. Also it, requires power.

Could be a G120 early test. I had a 9600GT which is the same as the G120 (or maybe it's a 9500) and it required power.

 

[goMac]

That fan is odd, it's cooling nothing.

I'm pretty sure that fan in this style of cooler is not meant to directly cool the GPU. Rather, it's running air through the cooler to pull the hot air off of the GPU.

So it doesn't actually need to be directly over anything.

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I'm going to make an educated guess it is a 2010 or 2011 GeForce card.

Although the auction has ended so we may never know!

Edit: I take it back, I misread something on the board. Back to square one...

The EMC number is weird.

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That fan is odd, it's cooling nothing. Also it, requires power.

Could be a G120 early test. I had a 9600GT which is the same as the G120 (or maybe it's a 9500) and it required power.

Definitely not, the board config is way too different.

 

[MacVidCards]

"Silver Arrow" 3870 AMD

 

[ScottishCaptain]

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/ATI Technologies/630ATI3870/

Doesn't look prototype to me. I thought prototypes had red PCBs?

-SC

 

[sarthak]

"Silver Arrow" 3870 AMD

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/ATI Technologies/630ATI3870/

Doesn't look prototype to me. I thought prototypes had red PCBs?

-SC

I had insight into all the common models but never came across this. The rarity of these cards make them quite strange indeed. Now that is one awesome looking card with a great name. Hours of "googling" and I couldn't find anything with the part numbers/model/serial etc from the pics the seller uploaded.

It only took a few moments before the MR community knew what it was. Fantastic!

Source of image from older thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/599295/

 

[MacVidCards]

yeah, I actually have one

it's borked but runs well enough to dump rom

Uses a different personality then the shipping ones, not sure why

Certainly an odd looking beast

The blue ones from Sapphire that did ship were a disappointment. They used a super-cheap 2 wire fan that roared like a jet plane.

We were the first to solve 3870 flash mystery and were able to flash the red PCB ones that used a 4 wire fan and were mucho quieter.

Even did a rare 1GB version. Sadly, though they have OpenCl in Windows Apple decided not to bother in OS X so they are red-headed step kids. Nobody wants them anymore.

 

[bigdaddyg]

Hello MacVidCards, you mentioned you were able to solve the ATI 3870x2 flash mystery on the large red cards... Were those cards with 128K bios rom chip or with 64K bios rom chip that you somehow 'reduced' the firmware+EFI to fit inside a 64k rom chip that is found in the common PC cards, which are also hard to find.

Do you know if anyone has posted this ATI 3870 rom flash file? Using google I found the following file in one of the other threads but some people say it doesnt work. The info is not consistent. Would you be willing to take a look at this file and see if it is the 128K firmware file with EFI? Supposedly it would work with all MacPro 1,1 to 5,1 from 2006 to 2013 series.

Thanks!

yeah, I actually have one

it's borked but runs well enough to dump rom

Uses a different personality then the shipping ones, not sure why

Certainly an odd looking beast

The blue ones from Sapphire that did ship were a disappointment. They used a super-cheap 2 wire fan that roared like a jet plane.

We were the first to solve 3870 flash mystery and were able to flash the red PCB ones that used a 4 wire fan and were mucho quieter.

Even did a rare 1GB version. Sadly, though they have OpenCl in Windows Apple decided not to bother in OS X so they are red-headed step kids. Nobody wants them anymore.