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Flashed Sapphire 4870 in Mac Pro - How to install Snow Leopard and configure it?

L

Legolover64

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 24, 2008
149
0
Hi there!

I have a MacPro3,1. It currently runs 10.5.7, and I use it for development. I bought Snow Leopard on Friday, and I'm worried about installing it. I have a flashed Sapphire 4870 card running in addition to my 2600 XT (stock.) I made the BIOS with which I flashed the card using a python script I found on MacRumors.

I know the card works pretty well in 10.5.7. I have Dual-DVI, rotation support, and Quartz Extreme working. Sleep does not work (crashes the machine) but I'm pretty okay with that; I seldom sleep the Mac anyways.

I understand that to get everything working in Snow Leopard, I have to add the device ID to a .kext file that is installed with Snow Leopard.

I've found the device ID in System Profiler on this line:

Device ID: 0x9440

Is this the right line to look for a device ID? Should I be looking somewhere else?

Also, on http://netkas.org/?p=128, netkas says "just need to add dev-id into ATI4800Controller.kext." for my kind of card. How do I add the device ID to the kext? I think it goes somewhere in info.plist, but I'm not sure...

Will I still have Dual-DVI? It's very critical that I have it working, so I'd like to make sure before installing the new OS.

Thanks so much everyone!

Legolover64
 
Legolover64 said:
Hi there!

I have a MacPro3,1. It currently runs 10.5.7, and I use it for development. I bought Snow Leopard on Friday, and I'm worried about installing it. I have a flashed Sapphire 4870 card running in addition to my 2600 XT (stock.) I made the BIOS with which I flashed the card using a python script I found on MacRumors.

I know the card works pretty well in 10.5.7. I have Dual-DVI, rotation support, and Quartz Extreme working. Sleep does not work (crashes the machine) but I'm pretty okay with that; I seldom sleep the Mac anyways.

I understand that to get everything working in Snow Leopard, I have to add the device ID to a .kext file that is installed with Snow Leopard.

I've found the device ID in System Profiler on this line:

Device ID: 0x9440

Is this the right line to look for a device ID? Should I be looking somewhere else?

Also, on http://netkas.org/?p=128, netkas says "just need to add dev-id into ATI4800Controller.kext." for my kind of card. How do I add the device ID to the kext? I think it goes somewhere in info.plist, but I'm not sure...

Will I still have Dual-DVI? It's very critical that I have it working, so I'd like to make sure before installing the new OS.

Thanks so much everyone!

Legolover64
Click to expand...

should work otb
 
Netkas,

If it doesn't end up working out of the box, what should I do? Post back here?
 
Legolover64 said:
Netkas,

If it doesn't end up working out of the box, what should I do? Post back here?
Click to expand...

First of all, be sure to be able to recover the old system with an uptodate time machine backup. As stated on an other thread.. I have problem with dual DVI on SL. I put back the leopard CD ROM and choose install from time machine ... everything went well.

Best solution, the one I have now.. is to install SL on a different drive to make sure everything is OK before crashing your working system.

xav
 
The whole benefit of flashing the 4870 is that OSX believes it is a "legitimate" 4870 down to the hardware level. This means you should be able to upgrade the OS and basically do everything without having to worry about drivers, injectors and so on.
 
Legolover64 said:
Hi there!

I have a MacPro3,1. It currently runs 10.5.7, and I use it for development. I bought Snow Leopard on Friday, and I'm worried about installing it. I have a flashed Sapphire 4870 card running in addition to my 2600 XT (stock.) I made the BIOS with which I flashed the card using a python script I found on MacRumors.

I know the card works pretty well in 10.5.7. I have Dual-DVI, rotation support, and Quartz Extreme working. Sleep does not work (crashes the machine) but I'm pretty okay with that; I seldom sleep the Mac anyways.

I understand that to get everything working in Snow Leopard, I have to add the device ID to a .kext file that is installed with Snow Leopard.

I've found the device ID in System Profiler on this line:

Device ID: 0x9440

Is this the right line to look for a device ID? Should I be looking somewhere else?

Also, on http://netkas.org/?p=128, netkas says "just need to add dev-id into ATI4800Controller.kext." for my kind of card. How do I add the device ID to the kext? I think it goes somewhere in info.plist, but I'm not sure...

Will I still have Dual-DVI? It's very critical that I have it working, so I'd like to make sure before installing the new OS.

Thanks so much everyone!

Legolover64
Click to expand...

Boot with the SL DVD. If two displays work fine, then SL must work on your graphics card after it is installed.

Always backup everything so you can go back with Timemachine backups.
 
Alright guys, I decided to just cross my fingers and go for it. I was extremely pleased to find out that everything "just works" exactly like it had before. I'm going to try sleep, but supposedly that has been fixed now too.

Thanks everyone!
 
Legolover64 said:
Alright guys, I decided to just cross my fingers and go for it. I was extremely pleased to find out that everything "just works" exactly like it had before. I'm going to try sleep, but supposedly that has been fixed now too.

Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...

Hey Lenglover, I have the same Macpro as you! I also still have the original ATI Radeon HD 2600

I have been scouring these Forums for the last 2 weeks and reading about how people are able to upgrade their graphics card in an economical way.

I am looking into doing the same with either ax XFX card or Saphire in the 1Gig range. To be honest I need it mostly for the Bootcamp partition and it is less important for me to use it for Mac OSX Leopard.

Having said this, what happens with SNow Leopard if I just pop in one of theses cards without any sort of flashing? Can I tell my Bios to boot with only the ATI Radeon HD 2600 HD and use the new card solely for my WIndows Bootcamp partition.

Any additional info would be great!
 
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