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Flash 1GB 8800GT - possible?

F

frankiee

macrumors regular
Original poster
has anyone tried this? I want to flash a PC 8800 Card and it would be very nice to be able to use a 1GB Version, at least under Windows.

Is it possible to flash such a Version of the 8800GT? If so, what specific model would be suitable?

TIA!
Frank
 
The only problem is OS X. If you want to use the card only with Windows, no flash is necessary, you boot in Windows and your mac behaves like a normal PC.
 
Well, the card should be usable in both Vista and Leopard. But I wouldn't mind if OS X only detects 512MB. The problem is if the cards works with the original Mac 8800GT ROM (other PC cards with 512MB do, so this could be possible).

Another approach would be to use the original BIOS version from the card, combined with the EFI portion of the original card. But I also don't know how I could achieve this.
 
Go check out some benchmarks with the 1GB 8800GT's, there's a negligible difference between them and the usual 512MB ones. Don't waste your money or time.
 
The extra 512mb VRAM wont provide nearly as much performance increase as you think it will. Its more of a gimmick.
 
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it is not possible. I tried flashing the EVGA 1GB version and although the flash appeared to go fine. After rebooting I was inundated with artifacts and major video corruption. OS X and Vista simply did not work. Had to flash back to the stock firmware and everything was fine once again. The 512 MB version exhibited no such problems and I am still using it to this day on my Mac Pro
 
So Executor, you also had the right ROM Size and also used the original Mac 8800GT ROM? And you can boot in both OS, but get Video Corruption? So if I understand this right, this indeed bad news. In this case, even "mixing" the ROMs - if possible at all - would not make anything better, since you also get probs in OS X. Think I have go with an 512 Card 😡

About performance: I heard that at least Age of Conan profits from this memory size. Its not only the performance, but also the permanent changes from low-res to high-res Textures. With more memory, this should be much smoother, as the card don't has to shift so much data around.
 
frankiee said:
So Executor, you also had the right ROM Size and also used the original Mac 8800GT ROM? And you can boot in both OS, but get Video Corruption? So if I understand this right, this indeed bad news. In this case, even "mixing" the ROMs - if possible at all - would not make anything better, since you also get probs in OS X. Think I have go with an 512 Card 😡

About performance: I heard that at least Age of Conan profits from this memory size. Its not only the performance, but also the permanent changes from low-res to high-res Textures. With more memory, this should be much smoother, as the card don't has to shift so much data around.
Click to expand...

That is correct. Prior to flashing I made sure the rom was the right size and used the 8800 GT Mac rom. No dice. Corruption galore. I would suggest you go for the 512 MB version. I bought the EVGA Akimbo version. Works like a dream.
 
OK, so I have actually talked with some guys from Asus and Gainward and I am now pretty sure it won't work. Why? Very simple: the memory configuration is set in the BIOS. So this would explain why you got problems. So at least you would have to modifiy the ROM to get this working.
 
What I REALLY want to know is if the new 9800 GTX cards flashed with an 8800 GT Mac bios would work? (They use the same processor). I am tempted to try it out.
 
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