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Possible to Flash/Use other ATI Cards? (4350/4670/4850)

matthewtoney

matthewtoney

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 17, 2009
183
1
Charlotte, NC
I know how well it works to flash the right PC 4870 card (since I have an XFX 1GB card that I've done it on as my primary) but I need to add a secondary card that's another ATI and I'm wondering if anyone has done something similar with any of the lower-end ATI cards in the 4000 series? (like the 4350, 4670 or 4850)

I know I can grab an older Mac ATI 2600XT and use that as my secondary, but the lower-end 4000-series stuff sure is cheap and I'm curious as to whether it's possible either thru a flash or using injectors?

(I've searched, but it seems like the 4870 is all that's ever discussed)
 
Oh well, I read thru everything I could find here on the discussions relating to the 4850 anyway (found those - think I was searching on the other cards I mentioned before) and I see how it *is* possible to use it, definitely not as straightforward as it is with the reference-board 4870s.

I didn't find any mention on other lower-end-than-4850 boards and even googling that only turned up a few discussions on the hackintosh sites about using any of the ATI cards - none of which was terribly helpful unfortunately. I'm going to assume that there are no easy roms floating around then for things like the 4350 or the 4670...
 
For Rominator....WRT the 4850, I've search and read the "Flash the 4850" thread and am not clear on the ROM chip issue. Does the 4850, 512 MB board require you to replace the 64K chip with a 128K? By the way, could you attach a working 4850 ROM? Thanks!!
 
It is possible that there are 4850 cards with 128K chips, mine had a 64K. I replaced it with a 128K.

I am out and about on a Macbook, no ROMs with me.

Last I checked, the 4850 didn't do Dual-Link, it looked rather silly on a 30" at 1280x800. There were so many issues that nobody has really bothered much. With the 1 Gig 4870s @ $150 there was little reason.
 
Actually, my current set up is a pair of flashed 4870s, 512mb cards but a pair of diamond 4850s were given to me for free. I like the idea of only using one power cable per card for the 4850s, just to clean up the bay and make the wiring simpler. I could also get my spare molex back to use the other OD bay.

I'm not a big MAC/PC gamer, have the PS3 and Wii for that. I just need to drive two 22" at 1620x1050. I was doing that with the one 2600 but went with the 4870 for a little extra horsepower. By the way, I went with the 4870 based on the work I read you and some of the other guys doing. I very much appreciate it!!

Don't get me wrong, I like the 4870s! For the price the flashed 4870/4890 are the best deals going for the MP (non-very high end user).
 
The Rominator said:
You could run these with just a single 4870
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm doing that myself now with my flashed 4870 - one connector running dual-dvi my 30" LCD and the other running a 24" LCD.

The reason I started the thread to begin with is that I'm trying to find a good candidate for a card to run along with my current 4870 to drive my third monitor. I'm doing it right now with a GT120, but I've found some nasty issues with VMware Fusion when you combine an ATI card with an Nvidia one.

Seems like the general conclusion is that the easiest swap for me would just be to find an old ATI 2600XT and swap that for the GT120, but I'm finding that's not so easy. I've found a whole 2 on ebay at the moment and they seem to be going at around $100 when the bids close - that seems steep for a card thats long gone and I figured one of the other 4XXX series cards might be a better solution.

(actually I guess at this point it seems like a 4850 is the only real option from those I listed and as it only requires one power connector I could work that easily enough, but I'm sure that's more card than I really need to just drive a third monitor)
 
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