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ATI fireGL X3 NOS on ebay
- Thread starter LightBulbFun
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I looked at ur Picture it looks mostly fine but I think the tape on Pin 11 is slightly over lapping to pin 12 by a bit and also it extends past the pin and PCB into free air thats not good either cut it off or stick it down I will also attach a picture of the tape Job on my FireGL X3 and as I said Before Also Try Cleaning your Cards Pins and Your AGP slot.
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Okay, I cleaned up the tape on pin 11 a little bit. Unfortunately, any further testing will have to wait. I'm in the process of replacing the hard drives in this computer, and am cloning Leopard from its current 120gb drive residence to a 325gb partition on a lightly-used WD Caviar Blue 500gb drive that I've been meaning to put in this computer for a while 
I actually have a replacement for this Quicksilver coming this week-it's a legitimate dual 1ghz model which will give me the L3 cache that I'm not getting on my current computer. I'm doing the hard drive migration in anticipation of this.
Plus, the University of Kentucky is playing basketball this afternoon, so I really probably won't get to it until after the game .
I actually have a replacement for this Quicksilver coming this week-it's a legitimate dual 1ghz model which will give me the L3 cache that I'm not getting on my current computer. I'm doing the hard drive migration in anticipation of this.
Plus, the University of Kentucky is playing basketball this afternoon, so I really probably won't get to it until after the game
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I'm calling it an almost success with the MDD.
I was able to get my MDD to boot to the Apple(10.5.8), but it would hang there. I tried to get it to boot in verbose mode, but it would hang before even switching over to that screen.
So close, yet so far away...
I was able to get my MDD to boot to the Apple(10.5.8), but it would hang there. I tried to get it to boot in verbose mode, but it would hang before even switching over to that screen.
So close, yet so far away...
what you are describing sounds Like an issue with your OS as at that stage Open Firmware is loading the OS X Kernel and Kext cache and the GPU has little impact at that stage if the GPU was causing a problem with open firmware you would not even get to that stage so I would suggest trying to boot from an OS X DVD or some other OS X installation to rule out OS problems. But its good to see progress Try it in the quicksilver now that you sorted the taping issue heh
Try it in the quicksilver now that you sorted the taping issue heh
The computer boots fine with every other card I've tried(including the 9600 PC/Mac edition that didn't work in the QS), so I think I can pretty safely tie it to the card.
Still no luck in the QS.
Just for the heck of it, I'll try a PRAM reset and see if that does anything...
Still no luck in the QS.
Just for the heck of it, I'll try a PRAM reset and see if that does anything...
any luck with the FireGL X3? Im hoping some one can get it to work... if its not working in 10.5.8 you can also try booting an older OS say tiger (or hell even OS 9 it just wont have any drivers under OS 9 LOL)
I tried booting off the Leopard install disk-it worked but gave me a badly distorted grayscale screen(like what I got with the 9600 PC&Mac before installing the drivers) and locked up as soon as I tried to do anything.
I stuck a GEForce 4MX in the AGP slot and booted the computer to 10.5.8(off the hard drive) just fine. I spent some time scouring the internet and found a set of X800 drivers for 10.3 and later, so tried installing those. It still hangs at the Apple with 10.5.8. This particular computer only has 10.2 and 10.5-I may stick another HDD in it(Lord knows I have enough lying around) and installing 10.4 on it.
I have another MDD around here that has every version of OS X from 10.2 to 10.5 installed on it, so I may try the card in that one.
I stuck a GEForce 4MX in the AGP slot and booted the computer to 10.5.8(off the hard drive) just fine. I spent some time scouring the internet and found a set of X800 drivers for 10.3 and later, so tried installing those. It still hangs at the Apple with 10.5.8. This particular computer only has 10.2 and 10.5-I may stick another HDD in it(Lord knows I have enough lying around) and installing 10.4 on it.
I have another MDD around here that has every version of OS X from 10.2 to 10.5 installed on it, so I may try the card in that one.
Real fun reading this thread. The "taping the 3 & 11 pins" guide was mostly written by myself, the pictures taken on my back porch.
Really happy to see that my little experiments with X3 so long ago are still leading to useable cards. I am fairly certain that first time I did it was on a QS, but the early model, not 2002. But I also recall that it would go several boots sometimes and not work.
It ended up being a fair compromise, the X3 would work in a MDD but was trouble in QS while the 6800 cards worked in a QS but not a MDD. In my dream world I would still do PPC cards. There is much knowledge that seems to have been lost.
We had wonderful working roms for 6600GT cards. Some supported Dual Link DVI. There is a Quadro card that flashes into an awesome 6800 that has the Dual Link chip and thus runs a 30" display, like the Apple G5 card. But that one required a mod of some sort that I can't recall.
I guess one reason the 6800 and 6600 flashes aren't very popular is they required EEPROM swaps.
The really wonderful card was the 7800GS. I was especially proud of that one.
But if you go digging at Strangedogs pro-board you could likely find the posts where I first flashed the X3. I was quite nervous as it was like $800 at the time and we had no way of knowing what was going to happen.
From memory I seem to recall that the X3 has lower clocks than the Mac X800 and some cards needed their clocks lowered to be stable. I don't recall what rom got posted. Ideally you would use the full size one instead of reduced.
FWIW, many of the issues you are describing were found back then. I'm pretty sure when I did the first X3 I documented that booting in my QS was sporadic, it was happier in the Dual 2.0 G5 I got later.
Have you guys dug through old Barefeats articles? When I was creating these cards (with help from T Perrier (did 9800 256 meg) and A. Itra (6200 and 6600 and 6800 cards) I would have them tested at Barefeats.
My dad still has one of the Uber-rare Gainward 7800GT AGP cards in his basement in my ancient G5. Pity we never got the full 512 Megs to show up, always told myself I'd go back and figure out but maybe it isn't doable.
But you guys should dig at Strangedogs, many of these things you are finding were found before.
Wow I did not expect MacVidCards to comment on this thread heh I Have been browsing the strangedog forums and I have read the 28 Page long X800 Flashing post LOL it has some very interesting info about GPUs for PPCs heh. I have taken a screen shot of my FireGL X3 (X800XT) Under leopard to prove it works on an MDD under 10.5.8. at bunnspecial when You say You looked for X800XT drivers what did you download/get? as the what you need is the ATI Displays 4.5.7 update (like you see in the screen cap on my desktop ignore the OS X10.3.6 xtender update i believe thats not needed since the 4.5.7 update contains it already)
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I never did get it to boot successfully in the MDD.
I'm going to try it in my "new" Quicksilver(which is really a duplicate of my other one). The 9600 PC & Mac worked in it where it didn't in my "old" Quicksilver, so I figure it's at least worth a shot.
So far, the only success I've had with this card is in the G5. I don't want to leave it there, however, because-as I said-I prefer the 6800 Ultra.
I had a chance to play with my Fire GL X3 today (thanks Erik!). Two of the capacitors had come loose during shipping, so I soldered new ones back on and checked everything was working in an old Win XP box. Thankfully, the card worked fine.
Having established that the card was fully functional, I taped pins 3 & 11 and installed it in my G4 along with an old PCI Rage 128. I used the 64K reduced Fire GL X3 ROM from The Mac Elite and the ATI flash utility that comes with Graphicceleator. It flashed without problems and after a restart worked first time. By the way, it did show up in System Profiler before it was flashed with Mac firmware.
I can say that it's quite a bit more powerful than my Radeon 9800XT, especially running games at high resolutions (Halo plays at around 40 FPS running at 1080p). It also runs considerably quieter than the 9800XT as the variable fan speed works. Overall - I'm happy with the performance increase and maybe now I can stop spending money on this machine!
Having established that the card was fully functional, I taped pins 3 & 11 and installed it in my G4 along with an old PCI Rage 128. I used the 64K reduced Fire GL X3 ROM from The Mac Elite and the ATI flash utility that comes with Graphicceleator. It flashed without problems and after a restart worked first time. By the way, it did show up in System Profiler before it was flashed with Mac firmware.
I can say that it's quite a bit more powerful than my Radeon 9800XT, especially running games at high resolutions (Halo plays at around 40 FPS running at 1080p). It also runs considerably quieter than the 9800XT as the variable fan speed works. Overall - I'm happy with the performance increase and maybe now I can stop spending money on this machine!
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Damn, I wish it had gotten there undamaged! Still, I'm glad you were able to fix it. I'm not really that good with a soldering iron.I had a chance to play with my Fire GL X3 today (thanks Erik!). Two of the capacitors had come loose during shipping, so I soldered new ones back on and checked everything was working in an old Win XP box. Thankfully, the card worked fine.
Having established that the card was fully functional, I taped pins 3 & 11 and installed it in my G4 along with an old PCI Rage 128. I used the 64K reduced Fire GL X3 ROM from The Mac Elite and the ATI flash utility that comes with Graphicceleator. It flashed without problems and after a restart worked first time. By the way, it did show up in System Profiler before it was flashed with Mac firmware.
I can say that it's quite a bit more powerful than my Radeon 9800XT, especially running games at high resolutions (Halo plays at around 40 FPS running at 1080p). It also runs considerably quieter than the 9800XT as the variable fan speed works. Overall - I'm happy with the performance increase and maybe now I can stop spending money on this machine!
Anyway, that's an MDD you have it in?
No worries about the minor damage - I doubt there's much that could have been done to prevent it, the packaging was fantastic. I suspect that it's just the vibration that did it. It took maybe 5 minutes to solder on a new pair of caps so I'm really not fussed.
That's right - an FW800 MDD. (with the CPU from an XServe)
If I ever spend the money to get my FW800 fully functional(it has a dead PSU, but boots with a borrowed one) I'll have a good card to put in it
Allright…then the jury is still out on if this will work in a QS or not.
Sounds like there's an MDD in my future.
I'll just comment now though about something else that is maybe a clue in regards to this card and the QS.
I was poking around a week ago and ran across some comments about the Radeon 9600 when it was first released. Apparently there was enough issue with that card that ATI decided to declare that it was not compatible with the Quicksilver. However, it was such a random issue. Newegg at the time was flashing some PC 9600 cards and selling them modified to work in G4s and this is how Newegg found out about it. In their testing some of the cards were working with the QS and some weren't.
What it came down to once ATI ran some tests was that the AGP bus was looking for a certain power level on boot. For whatever reason these particular cards were causing the Quicksilvers to step down. When that happened, the card was unrecognized. Which is the same issue we are having here.
So, I'm wondering if this is the same thing and if it's therefore affecting the QS in the same way. The MDDs then would seem to have a different AGP slot or design, or something. One person in my research mentioned that that was so.
In any case, it seems that either it doesn't work, or perhaps that you have to really try and make it work in regards to the QS.
Sounds like there's an MDD in my future.
I'll just comment now though about something else that is maybe a clue in regards to this card and the QS.
I was poking around a week ago and ran across some comments about the Radeon 9600 when it was first released. Apparently there was enough issue with that card that ATI decided to declare that it was not compatible with the Quicksilver. However, it was such a random issue. Newegg at the time was flashing some PC 9600 cards and selling them modified to work in G4s and this is how Newegg found out about it. In their testing some of the cards were working with the QS and some weren't.
What it came down to once ATI ran some tests was that the AGP bus was looking for a certain power level on boot. For whatever reason these particular cards were causing the Quicksilvers to step down. When that happened, the card was unrecognized. Which is the same issue we are having here.
So, I'm wondering if this is the same thing and if it's therefore affecting the QS in the same way. The MDDs then would seem to have a different AGP slot or design, or something. One person in my research mentioned that that was so.
In any case, it seems that either it doesn't work, or perhaps that you have to really try and make it work in regards to the QS.
its good to finely see some good luck with the FireGL X3 I am glad it all works in ur FW800 MDD. My MDD is a 1.42Ghz FW800 one But I downgraded the Boot ROM To the FW400 one to let me boot into OS 9 (this was before the OS 9 unsupported machine rom was made) Sadly it disabled my air port card slot... if any one has the ROM image for a FW800 MDD do let me know as I want to upgrade back to stock now the new OS 9 ROM exists
I am glad it all works in ur FW800 MDD. My MDD is a 1.42Ghz FW800 one But I downgraded the Boot ROM To the FW400 one to let me boot into OS 9 (this was before the OS 9 unsupported machine rom was made) Sadly it disabled my air port card slot... if any one has the ROM image for a FW800 MDD do let me know as I want to upgrade back to stock now the new OS 9 ROM exists
I have secured one of these! The seller is even willing to tape the pins for me prior to shipping AND will hold one for me Anyone want pics of my MDD once i aquire this card?
Anyone want pics of my MDD once i aquire this card?
has any one here had any luck installing a FireGL X3 in something other then a MDD or a G5? (speaking of a G5 I have since fitted my FireGL X3 To my newly acquired Dual 2Ghz Power Mac G5 7,3 and it works lovely ) I also found that a flashed FireGL X3 makes PowerPC Ubuntu throw a hissy fit I think its due to the lack of a NDRV in the reduced rom...
) I also found that a flashed FireGL X3 makes PowerPC Ubuntu throw a hissy fit I think its due to the lack of a NDRV in the reduced rom...
has any one here had any luck installing a FireGL X3 in something other then a MDD or a G5? (speaking of a G5 I have since fitted my FireGL X3 To my newly acquired Dual 2Ghz Power Mac G5 7,3 and it works lovely
I've tried, but it seems to be a no-go in several Quicksilvers.
I'm also still having issues in a non-FW800 MDD, although admittedly I haven't played with it in probably a month.
It does work great in my G5, but I'm still running the 6800 Ultra(Mac edition) in my single 1.8. My only other G5 is PCIe, so I can't use the FireGL in it.
Thanks for the quick response its a Pity it hasn't worked I have been looking for a Quick silver my self to test this in... I did find something interesting tho That the X800XT had a few ROM revisions and that the early ones Worked in a quick silver but there are a few reports of the later ones not working in QS, Sadly I have not been able to find any of the older ROMs.
its a Pity it hasn't worked I have been looking for a Quick silver my self to test this in... I did find something interesting tho That the X800XT had a few ROM revisions and that the early ones Worked in a quick silver but there are a few reports of the later ones not working in QS, Sadly I have not been able to find any of the older ROMs.
I am going to speculate on my own situation. Maybe someone has something to add
The FireGL X3 I bought in response to this thread of course is not recognized in my QS. Now, I had a spare 9800 Pro lying around that was either a flashed PC version (don't know if that's possible) or one of the G4/G5 versions. Recently, I tried using that card in my QS. In order to use it, the pins had to be taped.
QS booted, zero recognition of that 9800 Pro card. The only 9800 Pro card being recognized in my system is the one I bought that is the retail G4 version for Mac.
This to me adds some veracity to an earlier speculation I had in this thread about the AGP bus stepping down and therefore not providing a sufficient speed for the card to be recognized. That was an issue with some of the early 9600XT cards in Quicksilvers. To the point that ATI specifically stated that the 9600XT was not supported in the QS.
Now, given Bunn's past statements about his base model QS not having L3 cache, I am also going to throw this in to my speculation stew. My QS is 1.2Ghz, but that is ONLY because it was a Sonnet upgrade. The original CPU (which I do not have) in my QS was the 733mhz CPU. That makes my Quicksilver the same as Bunn's in that it was the base model without that cache.
So, my thinking then is that perhaps the AGP slot on the base QS is somehow different than the other model Quicksilvers. But I have no way of verifying that short of posing the question here.
Anyone else care to speculate on this? It seems my QS will not accept ANY AGP card that has to have it's pins taped.
The FireGL X3 I bought in response to this thread of course is not recognized in my QS. Now, I had a spare 9800 Pro lying around that was either a flashed PC version (don't know if that's possible) or one of the G4/G5 versions. Recently, I tried using that card in my QS. In order to use it, the pins had to be taped.
QS booted, zero recognition of that 9800 Pro card. The only 9800 Pro card being recognized in my system is the one I bought that is the retail G4 version for Mac.
This to me adds some veracity to an earlier speculation I had in this thread about the AGP bus stepping down and therefore not providing a sufficient speed for the card to be recognized. That was an issue with some of the early 9600XT cards in Quicksilvers. To the point that ATI specifically stated that the 9600XT was not supported in the QS.
Now, given Bunn's past statements about his base model QS not having L3 cache, I am also going to throw this in to my speculation stew. My QS is 1.2Ghz, but that is ONLY because it was a Sonnet upgrade. The original CPU (which I do not have) in my QS was the 733mhz CPU. That makes my Quicksilver the same as Bunn's in that it was the base model without that cache.
So, my thinking then is that perhaps the AGP slot on the base QS is somehow different than the other model Quicksilvers. But I have no way of verifying that short of posing the question here.
Anyone else care to speculate on this? It seems my QS will not accept ANY AGP card that has to have it's pins taped.
FWIW, when I started experimenting I was using the base model QS2002 that started life with an 800mhz and which I upgraded to a dual 1ghz(no L3 recognized).
I'm now using a real, honest to goodness dual 1ghz as my main computer.
The taped Radeon 9600XT worked fine in both computers
The 9600 Pro(no taping required) would not work in the base model. It worked for a little while in the dual 1ghz, but was touchy and I finally just gave up on it. This card also worked in my Digital Audio G4, although not the first time I put it in.
The flashed FireGL(taped) will not work in either Quicksilver.