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Radeon HD 7950: Mac Edition only?

Grogfoot

Grogfoot

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 26, 2012
40
33
I'm sorry for the naive question here. I see the FAQ about Nvidia cards, but I'm not sure I quite understand this.

What exactly is the difference between this card (Radeon HD 7950) and this one (Radeon HD 7950, "Mac Edition")?

If I tried to use the non Mac edition in my 5.1 Mac Pro (mid2010) would it not function at all? Is it really $135 extra just to work with OS X vs. Windows?

Thanks.
 
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The PC version will work fine in your 5,1 under 10.8.3 with two caveats... you will not get the grey boot screen allowing easy swapping of boot drives and it will only work at PCIE 1.0 2.5GT/s instead of the full PCIE 2.0 5GT/s.

The first issue can be got round relatively easily by flashing a Mac EFI bios onto the card and there are instructions at Netkas.org. You are stuck with the second issue (unless you purchase a card from MacVidCards who can modify the card for you).

I have a Sapphire PC 7950 3Gb Flex with Boost in my Mac Pro right now and I did the bios flash after some reading here and at netkas. I get the boot screen but not the PCIE 2.0 speeds.
 
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Excellent! Thank you for the reply.

I think I'd be ok with using that Bootchamp I've read about on these forums here, or trying the EFI bios flashing, but is there a noticeable performance hit due to the smaller PCIE bandwidth?

This would mostly be to enhance gaming. Any opinion on whether its worth the additional money for the EVGA GeForce GTX 680 instead?
 
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The nVidia cards tend to depend on nVidia for drivers but if you can get the 680 4Gb with 2x 6-pin for power (the MSI Twin Frozr is one) it is a really sweet card.

Consider the 7950 as equivalent to the 670 rather than the 680.

For gaming you will rarely notice the PCI 1.0 limitation. The 7950 is very fast and excellent value for money.

BootChamp is an excellent tool and I use it regularly but I must admit it is very nice to have the boot screen.

If you get the exact same 7950 as I have (11196-17-40G) then I can PM you a copy of the original ROM and the EFI-modified ROM. You do still have the dual BIOS switch for an emergency fallback if you mess it up. I used ATIWINFLASH to do the flashing.
 
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You have to chip off a resistor on the 7950 to get 5GT/s :)

It is easy, compared to soldering on a new chip like the nVidia cards!!
 
Concorde Rules said:
You have to chip off a resistor on the 7950 to get 5GT/s :)

It is easy, compared to soldering on a new chip like the nVidia cards!!
Click to expand...

x2, you can get 2.0 Speeds by removing a resistor on the card, however the performance in games is like 1-2 FPS, so not worth it unless you know how to solder\take the risk to remove the resistor.
 
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I went the route of buying an ATI 7970 3GB ddr5 from macvidcards and am very pleased with it. Best of both worlds IMO. Cheaper cost for a EFI card with boot screens and a better card!
 
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For gaming purposes it's certainly better to get PC version of 7950 with boost. Sapphire Mac Edition runs with GPU clock 800 MHz, while PC boost versions run @925 MHz. And they could be overclocked quite easily, if you're don't afraid of Hex editor and ROM flashing.
7970 is of course even better.
 
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snarfquest said:
I went the route of buying an ATI 7970 3GB ddr5 from macvidcards and am very pleased with it. Best of both worlds IMO. Cheaper cost for a EFI card with boot screens and a better card!
Click to expand...

I've seen several references to macvidcards on here. A google search provides one website where there doesn't seem to be a way to purchase anything, and then a seller of modified GPU cards on ebay. I assume everyone is talking about the latter?

The cards he's offering on ebay aren't even remotely competitive. For example he's offering a flashed PC version of the 7950 for Mac Pro for $440. The thing is even used. I could get the official Sapphire 7950 Mac Edition from Amazon brand new and shipped for less. What am I missing here?

----------
666sheep said:
For gaming purposes it's certainly better to get PC version of 7950 with boost. Sapphire Mac Edition runs with GPU clock 800 MHz, while PC boost versions run @925 MHz. And they could be overclocked quite easily, if you're don't afraid of Hex editor and ROM flashing.
7970 is of course even better.
Click to expand...

Thanks, more good news. :)
 
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Grogfoot said:
I've seen several references to macvidcards on here. A google search provides one website where there doesn't seem to be a way to purchase anything, and then a seller of modified GPU cards on ebay. I assume everyone is talking about the latter?

The cards he's offering on ebay aren't even remotely competitive. For example he's offering a flashed PC version of the 7950 for Mac Pro for $440. The thing is even used. I could get the official Sapphire 7950 Mac Edition from Amazon brand new and shipped for less. What am I missing here?
Click to expand...


I don't know if caring about competitive pricing matters as some of these cards are not available anywhere else for the end user that does not want to hack it themselves. You are paying a little more for you (or I) not messing up the cards. Removing transistors and flashing and voltage tweaks to keep them in the power envelope of the Mac Pro PSU seems to be work worth a bit more money to me. Things like the 7970 for $490.00. Better deal by far. Way faster. Slightly more $ for the convenience is a normal thing in the market place. You are paying an individual not a corporation with deep stock.
 
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derbothaus said:
I don't know if caring about competitive pricing matters as some of these cards are not available anywhere else for the end user that does not want to hack it themselves. You are paying a little more for you (or I) not messing up the cards. Removing transistors and flashing and voltage tweaks to keep them in the power envelope of the Mac Pro PSU seems to be work worth a bit more money to me. Things like the 7970 for $490.00. Better deal by far. Way faster. Slightly more $ for the convenience is a normal thing in the market place. You are paying an individual not a corporation with deep stock.
Click to expand...

We have a winner. Exactly.
 
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Hi Daniel,

I´m just new to this forum as a registered user - but have been around for quite a long time.
I own exactly the same card as you and I´m very interested in those rom-files.

Could you please be so kind to send it to me?

regards from Austria

Wolfgang :)
 
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Ha! I just learned a new word! Necrobump. Been around these forums since way before 2013 and never seen that before. Thanks!
 
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DanielCoffey said:
The PC version will work fine in your 5,1 under 10.8.3 with two caveats... you will not get the grey boot screen allowing easy swapping of boot drives and it will only work at PCIE 1.0 2.5GT/s instead of the full PCIE 2.0 5GT/s.

The first issue can be got round relatively easily by flashing a Mac EFI bios onto the card and there are instructions at Netkas.org. You are stuck with the second issue (unless you purchase a card from MacVidCards who can modify the card for you).

I have a Sapphire PC 7950 3Gb Flex with Boost in my Mac Pro right now and I did the bios flash after some reading here and at netkas. I get the boot screen but not the PCIE 2.0 speeds.
Click to expand...
I have a 7970 purchased from MacVidCards. Could not be happier - flawless in all aspects AND they use Radeon drivers on BootCamp (not Apple's old drivers.)

It is actually a Gigabyte GV-R797OC-3GD - slightly overclocked. Runs cools with big fans, unless you are using it in a game. Then you can hear the fans spin up a little.
 
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I have a flashed HIS HD7950 with bootscreens & runs at 5.0 GT/s.
It is perfect for my needs and not too power hungry.


Some people claim that the 5.0 GT/s mod yields negible results but I run X-Plane 10 & 11 and the whole experience is smoother, faster, slicker.

I did the mod with a 5h lead pencil on this card and also on an HD 5870.

Look at my "Post #199" for the 5.0 GT/s mod and on Netkas for MAKING the ROM.
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-and-nvidia-card.1547340/page-8#post-24856990

PM me if you get stuck
 
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Hi community

I am new to mac and was looking to if I buy a regular Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 to upgrade my mac pro 4,1 (converted to mac pro 5,1 using this https://thehouseofmoth.com/turning-a-2009-41-mac-pro-into-a-2010-2012-51-mac-pro-2021-edition/ ) ,

how do I flash the regular card Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 for upgrade my mac pro to mojave. I dont really care too much about PCIe speed as I am not using that system for too much graphics intensive apps.

If someone could give me the links for procedure to flash this for apple boot screen , would be great. I know some information has been already shared but with some links I got lost :(
 
newtomac13 said:
Hi community

I am new to mac and was looking to if I buy a regular Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 to upgrade my mac pro 4,1 (converted to mac pro 5,1 using this https://thehouseofmoth.com/turning-a-2009-41-mac-pro-into-a-2010-2012-51-mac-pro-2021-edition/ ) ,

how do I flash the regular card Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 for upgrade my mac pro to mojave. I dont really care too much about PCIe speed as I am not using that system for too much graphics intensive apps.

If someone could give me the links for procedure to flash this for apple boot screen , would be great. I know some information has been already shared but with some links I got lost :(
Click to expand...
forums.macrumors.com

Flashing R9 280X for boot screens/PCI System Information

1) download and install in windows - https://www.techpowerup.com/download/ati-winflash/ 2) save your rom in file 3) download bundle.zip 4) for flash r9 280x need in macosx native terminal: find your 4 digit deviceid (if its 697a1002, then obviously you need only 697a, since 1002 is ATI vendor...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
 
startergo said:
forums.macrumors.com

Flashing R9 280X for boot screens/PCI System Information

1) download and install in windows - https://www.techpowerup.com/download/ati-winflash/ 2) save your rom in file 3) download bundle.zip 4) for flash r9 280x need in macosx native terminal: find your 4 digit deviceid (if its 697a1002, then obviously you need only 697a, since 1002 is ATI vendor...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
Click to expand...
Excellent , thank you for summarizing this very clearly. I downloaded those and just waiting for my card to arrive :)

Very excited , just one more question , as I look at the makerom.sh and fixrom.py , what version of python and java I should have installed on mac pro running 10.13.6 ?
 
So I followed the procedure to flash sapphire hd 7950 with device id 679a and mac pro kept repeating startup chime and did not finish boot and never got to login screen. Can someone guide me what is wrong ? Connected from miniDP to DP monitor
 
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