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Flashing A Quadro FX 4500 For Power Mac G5 Compatibility
- Thread starter SuperKerem
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Regardless, it works in a PPC Mac despite having VRAM on one side, which is supposed to be impossible according to the first post. That's the point.
Maybe try going into Maya 2008 and rendering some big scene? See if it uses all of the VRAM properly, although I don't know how you would track it tbh. Not many applications or programs for doing that on Mac OS X this old but there's probably something on MacPorts.
Popping in late to say that I managed to do this with a QFX I got from ShopGoodwill for a whopping $17!
It's nice for gaming but is unfortunately rife with issues trying to run Linux or BSD. I'd like to pick up a top-line ATI card to see how it compares.
It's nice for gaming but is unfortunately rife with issues trying to run Linux or BSD. I'd like to pick up a top-line ATI card to see how it compares.
Sadly, I couldn't figure out a way to monitor VRAM consumption on Leopard. But Prey launched in 1600x1200 with maxed-out settings and 4x AA. The framerate was about the same as on my other FX 4500 with double-sided VRAM.
I dumped the ROM of the "mystery" card in case someone else is willing to play with it.
I made a version of that ROM that should make the card work on Old World Macs (with a PCI to PCIe adapter) in Mac OS X. Mac OS 9 might be able to use the Open Firmware framebuffer (no depth or resolution changing, no acceleration).
Such modifications are discussed in the thread at:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ll-work-in-a-beige-power-macintosh-g3.2303689
I haven't tested it. I use a nvflash.v5.95.0.1-win in Windows 10 to apply modified ROMs to my Nvidia 7800 GT Mac Edition.
I wonder what's supposed to happen when you take a PC version of the FX 4500 with single-side VRAM and flash it with the Mac ROM for the dual-side version. Will the card refuse to function at all or will it crash when accessing VRAM above 256 MB? Knowing that, it'll make it easier to confirm if the ROM I dumped is "legit" or not.
Can anyone check whether the ROM of my single-sided FX 4500 any different from the dual-side Mac ROM? Unfortunately, the link to the archive in the original post is dead.
I'm also a little confused about the physical design of the Mac versions of the FX 4500. Before the "mystery" card I had a FX 4500 variant which was sold by third parties back in the day as an upgrade, and it has a matte bracket with Mac-style display symbols (like the stock GeForce 6600). In the Apple service manual for the PowerMac G5, the FX 4500 has a regular smooth bracket. Another one of my FX 4500 cards, which came from Apple in a sealed box, also has a smooth bracket with number markings instead of the display symbols. Does that mean Apple never bothered to make the bracket of the FX 4500 consistent with the design of the G5 and only third-party vendors did?
Can anyone check whether the ROM of my single-sided FX 4500 any different from the dual-side Mac ROM? Unfortunately, the link to the archive in the original post is dead.
I'm also a little confused about the physical design of the Mac versions of the FX 4500. Before the "mystery" card I had a FX 4500 variant which was sold by third parties back in the day as an upgrade, and it has a matte bracket with Mac-style display symbols (like the stock GeForce 6600). In the Apple service manual for the PowerMac G5, the FX 4500 has a regular smooth bracket. Another one of my FX 4500 cards, which came from Apple in a sealed box, also has a smooth bracket with number markings instead of the display symbols. Does that mean Apple never bothered to make the bracket of the FX 4500 consistent with the design of the G5 and only third-party vendors did?
All the differences appear to be in the NVDA,BMP property. I don't know much about that.