PART 1
Intro
Well, I've pretty much confirmed the card is stable, so I figured I'd post this for others that might be interested in this upgrade. I have succesfully flashed a PC GeForce 6800GT into my Digital Audio G4! BOTH DVI ports work, and NO SOLDERING was required!
EDIT 1/25/2016: Card still works!!!
EDIT 3/30/2011: Just an update to report that after 5 years of sterling service, this card is still running in my G4 without any issues.
The Strangedogs video card flashing community sadly no longer exists, but the cubeowner forum does, even though it is less active than it once was. You can find some flashing advice here, though the focus is on cards that work in the Cube.
First off I'd like to thank the people at the Strangedogs forum: Arti, Rubytuesday,Gotoh, Azureal and others. They did the R&D that makes this possible and gives Mac users options that Apple doesn't! They also burned up a lot of $$$ cards in the process. I just followed their instructions (and asked dumb questions) over at the Strangedogs forum. I encourage you to join the forum and participate in the continuing R&D going on there. Currently they are working on getting PCI-E cards like the 6600GT, and 7800GT flashed to the G5. Development is in the early stages but the more people there are helping the faster it willl get done. What with Mac 7800GTs being so scarce I think this is a worthy project.
This post is intended to allow you to gauge whether you think you are up to the attempt or not; as such it isn't a detailed how-to, though I describe every step at least briefly. It is mostly a story showing the risks, costs and benefits involved in flashing a higher-end card. Personally, I think this project would best benefit G5 owners who don't want to spend gobs of money on an Apple 6800GT/Ultra. For those people a couple comments - you DO NOT need to tape pins 3&11 in the G5, in fact it would be a bad idea. Also , I don't think that my dual-DVI card will support a 30" display, though I'm not sure.
Deciding Which Card to Flash
A couple weeks back I decided to buy a Radeon 9800 Mac Edition. I was looking at Newegg at some unrelated stuff and wandered into the video card section...I could buy GeForce 6800s and Radeon 9800XT or X800XT cards for LESS than a Radeon 9800 Mac edition! Now I was keenly aware that there was a sizeable markup on Mac video cards but I just couldn't accept that I'd be paying $250 for a card sold for $150 as a PC card. I'm paying $100 for a Mac rom file?! Nonsense!
So I decided to seriously consider flashing a 9800. I've done research on this before so I knew that the cubeowner forums and the Strangedogs forums in particular would be the place to go to find out how to do the flash. The 9800 Pro is a pretty straightforward flash as flashes go, especially if you do the plain vanilla 9800 Pro 128MB. It is also historically the best card you can officially get in G4. But research at the Strangedogs forum convinced me that I could play a more dangerous game and go for a bigger, badder card. The GeForce 6800GT/Ultra and Radeon X800XT had been successfully flashed by a few people, but there were still a lot of unknowns in terms of compatiblity, and many of the cards did not have working DVI, which I required. Also the differences between G4 and G5 AGP slots are not totally understood, leading to a few burned cards or failed flashes. Most of these problems may be related to running a flashed 6800 in both a G5 and G4, there are still questions.
The Radeon X800XT was probably the better card, but the only way that it has been flashed so far with total success is by starting with the $$$ FireGL X3 card and flashing that with a Mac rom to get a working X800XT. An OEM Mac X800XT is cheaper than an X3 so no-go. PC X800XTs have been flashed but had VGA only so I passed there too.
However Strangedogs, through endless toil, HAS produced a 6800GT rom for Mac that can flash cards so that they have working dual DVI - now that sounds good! Only a few cards had been tested though, and though a few had been working in various G4s some had inexplicably fried. I accepted the risk and ordered an XFX GeForce 6800GS from Newegg. I chose this card for a couple reasons:
1. It was the same brand as a 6800GT that had already been successfully flashed by others, and proven to be one of the most reliable 6800 cards in a variety of systems.
2. It had dual DVI and 256MB VRAM.
3. It was fairly inexpensive.
You'll notice that this card is NOT a GT or Ultra, but a GS. A GS is basically a GT with 12 pixel pipes instead of 16 and 2 disabled shaders. However they are listed as running at the same clockspeed as a GT...More on this later.
Card Prep: Taping the Pins
Once the card arrived, I had to tape pins 3 & 11 as per standard G4 flashing procedure. Taping these pins tells the 8X AGP card to run at 4X, which is the maximum speed a Digital Audio, Quicksilver or MDD Mac's AGP slot can run. The Sawtooth and Gigabit Ethernet G4s are limited to 2X and fall outside the scope of this post. Taping is simple but requires patience: I used a scalpel to carefully cut the scotch tape around the pins and then peel away the excess to leave the two pins effectively masked. This must be done correctly so it behooves you to go slow. With these taped the card is ready to go into the Mac once flashed. (I taped my card before flashing it but you don't necessarily have to if you have a PC with an 8X slot). Check the Strangedogs forum for a great pictoral taping guide.
Performing the Flash
Which brings me to an embarrassing revelation - I didn't have PC with an 8X or even 4X slot! My trusty old Dell PIII server had an old-school AGP 1X or maybe 2X slot, and the card wouldn't physically fit in the slot.... A stupid oversight. By this time I was committed to the project and headed up to Microcenter with some cash I'd been saving for something else. I bought the cheapest barebones PC I could find along with the cheapest 2.53GHz Celeron D (20% off sale that day, w00t). The whole rig cost less than the GeForce card and coupled with a copy of Windows XP, hard drive, floppy and DVD-RW I had laying around served as my flashing machine.
You also should have a second video card in the PC, in case you wish to flash the card back to run diagnostics etc. on the PC. I have a PCI Radeon 7000 that I used (the PC's onboard video wouldn't work if a video card was in the machine, even if it was non-functional with a Mac or corrupted rom). I also practiced flashing the $40 Radeon before trying it with my $220 GeForce.
In order to flash the card on the PC you must boot into DOS from a boot floppy, on which you have copied the Mac rom file and flashing software. In the case of the Geforce you must use the nvflash software(some cards can be flashed using only a Mac but the 6800 series must be done using a PC). First copy the original rom file out of the card and put in a safe place (or two!). Next flash the Mac rom onto the PC card. The flashing process took several tries and failures, since I was unused to the flashing software. In the end, however, I succesfully flashed the card with the Strangedogs 6800GT rom file using the command "nvflash -4 -5 -6 -j <Mac rom filename>". Putting it in the Mac I was delighted to see it boot happily and the "About This Mac" system summary showed a GeForce 6800GT!
Riva Tuner and "Pipes"
Now to return to the 6800 "GS". There is an application called riva tuner that can play with low-level settings on many video cards. Reading their support forum showed me how to use the software. Using this software I was able to "softmod", or unlock, the disabled pixel pipelines and shaders so that my 6800GS became a "true" 6800GT with 16 pipes and 6 shaders. I did this after my first successful Mac flash, so I had to flash to the PC, mod it and then flash back to the Mac. By now I had a handle on the flashing process so it went smoothly the second time 'round.
A warning though - not ALL cards can be softmodded this way. Sometimes, after opening the pipes, you will get artifacts on the screen when running 3D apps. This means that the pipes are not only disabled but broken; you'll have to go back to riva tuner and turn them back off. But not to worry, on a G4 you probably won't notice the missing pipes. A 12-pipe 6800 is still a monster card.
To be continued...
Intro
Well, I've pretty much confirmed the card is stable, so I figured I'd post this for others that might be interested in this upgrade. I have succesfully flashed a PC GeForce 6800GT into my Digital Audio G4! BOTH DVI ports work, and NO SOLDERING was required!
EDIT 1/25/2016: Card still works!!!
EDIT 3/30/2011: Just an update to report that after 5 years of sterling service, this card is still running in my G4 without any issues.
The Strangedogs video card flashing community sadly no longer exists, but the cubeowner forum does, even though it is less active than it once was. You can find some flashing advice here, though the focus is on cards that work in the Cube.
First off I'd like to thank the people at the Strangedogs forum: Arti, Rubytuesday,Gotoh, Azureal and others. They did the R&D that makes this possible and gives Mac users options that Apple doesn't! They also burned up a lot of $$$ cards in the process. I just followed their instructions (and asked dumb questions) over at the Strangedogs forum. I encourage you to join the forum and participate in the continuing R&D going on there. Currently they are working on getting PCI-E cards like the 6600GT, and 7800GT flashed to the G5. Development is in the early stages but the more people there are helping the faster it willl get done. What with Mac 7800GTs being so scarce I think this is a worthy project.
This post is intended to allow you to gauge whether you think you are up to the attempt or not; as such it isn't a detailed how-to, though I describe every step at least briefly. It is mostly a story showing the risks, costs and benefits involved in flashing a higher-end card. Personally, I think this project would best benefit G5 owners who don't want to spend gobs of money on an Apple 6800GT/Ultra. For those people a couple comments - you DO NOT need to tape pins 3&11 in the G5, in fact it would be a bad idea. Also , I don't think that my dual-DVI card will support a 30" display, though I'm not sure.
Deciding Which Card to Flash
A couple weeks back I decided to buy a Radeon 9800 Mac Edition. I was looking at Newegg at some unrelated stuff and wandered into the video card section...I could buy GeForce 6800s and Radeon 9800XT or X800XT cards for LESS than a Radeon 9800 Mac edition!
Now I was keenly aware that there was a sizeable markup on Mac video cards but I just couldn't accept that I'd be paying $250 for a card sold for $150 as a PC card. I'm paying $100 for a Mac rom file?! Nonsense!So I decided to seriously consider flashing a 9800. I've done research on this before so I knew that the cubeowner forums and the Strangedogs forums in particular would be the place to go to find out how to do the flash. The 9800 Pro is a pretty straightforward flash as flashes go, especially if you do the plain vanilla 9800 Pro 128MB. It is also historically the best card you can officially get in G4. But research at the Strangedogs forum convinced me that I could play a more dangerous game and go for a bigger, badder card. The GeForce 6800GT/Ultra and Radeon X800XT had been successfully flashed by a few people, but there were still a lot of unknowns in terms of compatiblity, and many of the cards did not have working DVI, which I required. Also the differences between G4 and G5 AGP slots are not totally understood, leading to a few burned cards or failed flashes. Most of these problems may be related to running a flashed 6800 in both a G5 and G4, there are still questions.
The Radeon X800XT was probably the better card, but the only way that it has been flashed so far with total success is by starting with the $$$ FireGL X3 card and flashing that with a Mac rom to get a working X800XT. An OEM Mac X800XT is cheaper than an X3 so no-go. PC X800XTs have been flashed but had VGA only so I passed there too.
However Strangedogs, through endless toil, HAS produced a 6800GT rom for Mac that can flash cards so that they have working dual DVI - now that sounds good! Only a few cards had been tested though, and though a few had been working in various G4s some had inexplicably fried. I accepted the risk and ordered an XFX GeForce 6800GS from Newegg. I chose this card for a couple reasons:
1. It was the same brand as a 6800GT that had already been successfully flashed by others, and proven to be one of the most reliable 6800 cards in a variety of systems.
2. It had dual DVI and 256MB VRAM.
3. It was fairly inexpensive.
You'll notice that this card is NOT a GT or Ultra, but a GS. A GS is basically a GT with 12 pixel pipes instead of 16 and 2 disabled shaders. However they are listed as running at the same clockspeed as a GT...More on this later.
Card Prep: Taping the Pins
Once the card arrived, I had to tape pins 3 & 11 as per standard G4 flashing procedure. Taping these pins tells the 8X AGP card to run at 4X, which is the maximum speed a Digital Audio, Quicksilver or MDD Mac's AGP slot can run. The Sawtooth and Gigabit Ethernet G4s are limited to 2X and fall outside the scope of this post. Taping is simple but requires patience: I used a scalpel to carefully cut the scotch tape around the pins and then peel away the excess to leave the two pins effectively masked. This must be done correctly so it behooves you to go slow. With these taped the card is ready to go into the Mac once flashed. (I taped my card before flashing it but you don't necessarily have to if you have a PC with an 8X slot). Check the Strangedogs forum for a great pictoral taping guide.
Performing the Flash
Which brings me to an embarrassing revelation - I didn't have PC with an 8X or even 4X slot! My trusty old Dell PIII server had an old-school AGP 1X or maybe 2X slot, and the card wouldn't physically fit in the slot....
A stupid oversight. By this time I was committed to the project and headed up to Microcenter with some cash I'd been saving for something else. I bought the cheapest barebones PC I could find along with the cheapest 2.53GHz Celeron D (20% off sale that day, w00t). The whole rig cost less than the GeForce card and coupled with a copy of Windows XP, hard drive, floppy and DVD-RW I had laying around served as my flashing machine.You also should have a second video card in the PC, in case you wish to flash the card back to run diagnostics etc. on the PC. I have a PCI Radeon 7000 that I used (the PC's onboard video wouldn't work if a video card was in the machine, even if it was non-functional with a Mac or corrupted rom). I also practiced flashing the $40 Radeon before trying it with my $220 GeForce.
In order to flash the card on the PC you must boot into DOS from a boot floppy, on which you have copied the Mac rom file and flashing software. In the case of the Geforce you must use the nvflash software(some cards can be flashed using only a Mac but the 6800 series must be done using a PC). First copy the original rom file out of the card and put in a safe place (or two!). Next flash the Mac rom onto the PC card. The flashing process took several tries and failures, since I was unused to the flashing software. In the end, however, I succesfully flashed the card with the Strangedogs 6800GT rom file using the command "nvflash -4 -5 -6 -j <Mac rom filename>". Putting it in the Mac I was delighted to see it boot happily and the "About This Mac" system summary showed a GeForce 6800GT!
Riva Tuner and "Pipes"
Now to return to the 6800 "GS". There is an application called riva tuner that can play with low-level settings on many video cards. Reading their support forum showed me how to use the software. Using this software I was able to "softmod", or unlock, the disabled pixel pipelines and shaders so that my 6800GS became a "true" 6800GT with 16 pipes and 6 shaders. I did this after my first successful Mac flash, so I had to flash to the PC, mod it and then flash back to the Mac. By now I had a handle on the flashing process so it went smoothly the second time 'round.
A warning though - not ALL cards can be softmodded this way. Sometimes, after opening the pipes, you will get artifacts on the screen when running 3D apps. This means that the pipes are not only disabled but broken; you'll have to go back to riva tuner and turn them back off. But not to worry, on a G4 you probably won't notice the missing pipes. A 12-pipe 6800 is still a monster card.
To be continued...
Last edited:
