xfx 4870 zwfc v.e 10.6.4

[renoguy20]

This is a correction to my other post. The card i have is a zwfc not a zdfc.
Updating to 10.6.4 caused QE and CI not to function. I tried replacing the ATI kext files with ones from 10.6.3 combo update using pacivist but that caused the system to halt on boot and I had to put my ati x1900xt back in and re-install 10.6 and 10.6.3 combo update to get the 4870 functioning with QE and CI. I'm not sure if my other problem when playing wow and having the system hang with checkerboard overlay after a random amount of time still exists, but if it does I will open the case and see if any of the three LED's are lit on the back of the card. I compared the rom I wrote to one Cindori wrote for the exact same card model and they appear to be the same. I didn't do a byte-by-byte comparison but checked it visually with 0Xed.

 

[jshbckr]

What did you have to do to restore to 10.6.3? Did you have to format your drive?

I guess I have a time machine backup... but I installed 10.6.4 and my XFX 4870 (ZWFC) isn't working properly.

Launching Final Cut Pro gives me a "FCP Requires 128mb of VRAM. Your system has 0mb of VRAM." error message.

 

[renoguy20]

The glith did happen again, opened the case and no leds on on the back of the card... What to do now?

 

[Keita 1]

Hi. It sounds like your card is overheating. I would suspect that is the case especially if you are using the zwfc version of the card since it does not exhaust heat out of the case. You could modify the rom so that the fans run higher pulling heat away from the card. Also you may want to consider a fan controll utility such as SMC Fan Control (or something like it) to increase the fan speed of your mac pro during game play(or in general). This will help remove the extra heat from your system thus reducing the ambient temperature of the card.

I made patch that should allow your card to function properly in 10.6.4 here. It works on my non standard sapphire cards so it should work for the xfx as well. You may have to run it again if it does not work the first time to get it to work.

 

[iamsilvermember]

Hi. It sounds like your card is overheating. I would suspect that is the case especially if you are using the zwfc version of the card since it does not exhaust heat out of the case. You could modify the rom so that the fans run higher pulling heat away from the card. Also you may want to consider a fan controll utility such as SMC Fan Control (or something like it) to increase the fan speed of your mac pro during game play(or in general). This will help remove the extra heat from your system thus reducing the ambient temperature of the card.

I made patch that should allow your card to function properly in 10.6.4 here. It works on my non standard sapphire cards so it should work for the xfx as well. You may have to run it again if it does not work the first time to get it to work.

Wow, it worked on my zwfc 4870, Thank you so much, have waited for so long!!

 

[renoguy20]

I don't believe the card is overheating. I all ready use SMC fan control and the temps in the PCI area never excede 90 degrees f. I have also used RBE to edit the rom and turn up the fan speed. Also the card will hang sometimes after 10 seconds of play and sometimes after several hours. I read that there are status leds towards the back of the circuit board. One for a power low power state, one for over-temp state. Neither of those leds are lit when the card hangs.

To get back to 10.6.3 I had to re-install 10.6. This was a huge pain because 10.6 didn't support the 4870 which forced me to re-install my overheated x1900xt to do the install, then combo update 10.6.3 , the swap for the 4870.
I'm a bit reluctant to try that again. I might make an image of my partition before I try that again...