Best Ati 4870 card to flash?

[zenZen]

Researching on flashing PC video cards to work into Mac. There seems to be A LOT of 4870 versions out there...

Granted they're getting harder to find due to phasing out for the 5770 and 5870.

The successful 4870 cards seem to be the Sapphire 512MB or 1G and XFX ZDFC. I was pretty sure I was going with the 1G 4870 Sapphire (none of the exotic versions like Toxic or Vapor) but I came across some reading that Diamond and XFX ones are better and Sapphire have some problems.

Any truth to that? And what are these problems (or that 1 DVI working, HDMI not working, etc) Or does anyone has any thoughts or experience in which cards work best to flash?

Cheers!

 

[Mackilroy]

A card that's closest to ATI's reference design is best, but if you want better luck I'd go with a 5770 and read this topic carefully.

 

[zenZen]

I read netkas post on flashing the 5770 here.
http://netkas.org/?p=503

Looks like he uses Sapphire Vanilla model to write the ROM. Since the 5770 and 5870 are still at the working stages, I think it's safe to go the 4870 route cuz it's been around longer. I will search for a Sapphire 4870 ROM when flashing.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Mackilroy]

You might as well go for Apple's 5770 solution then – it's not much more expensive than your HD2600 and PC 4870 idea, and it's less hassle.

 

[zenZen]

True less hassle to buy the 5770 from apple. But for $249, then I look at the PC versions on newegg for $149, $179, etc. It's like wtf?

 

[gpzjock]

Why HD4870 and not 5770 or 5870?

New HD 4870 cards are insanely hard to get hold of now, 2nd hand PC ones are fairly cheap but getting rarer and potentially unreliable as most will be around 2 years old already.
The Sapphire HD 4870 1 GB Vapor-X model was the one I went for last year and it flashed easily, ran cool and smooth till Sept. this year when I upgraded to a Sapphire HD 5870 1 GB Vapor-X instead.
I sold on the HD 4870 to a friend and it is happily running in his Mac Pro 3,1 now.
I can't vouch for any other brand or model and suggest you stick to Sapphire.
The 5770 or 5870 will be more future proof in the long run.

 

[zenZen]

There are very few new 4870 cards out there as they're out of production cuz of the 5870. I'd like the try to flash a used 4870 pc version as a test, they're being sold used for $100. If it works great and if it gives out, then I will replace it with a new 5870 pc version (still cheaper than apple) and hopefully by then there will be a good 5870 ROM floating around out there, to flash. As far a brands I've read Sapphire and XFX as most successful to flash, but most importantly to get a card closest to the reference model Apple sells.

Where did you get the ROM for the 4870 and 5870 Vapour(X) versions?

 

[gpzjock]

Sapphire still my choice.

To flash the HD4870 I followed the instructions on the Flashing threads here and used the rom suggested in them.
For the 5870 Vapor-X I went to Netkas.org and followed their advice.
I strongly recommend you do the same. Good luck on your adventures.