Graphics Question.....

Question

Graphics Question.....

Hey guys, looking for the Graphics expert here (Japamac respectively) because I have the Power Mac G5 DP 1.8GHz 4GB DDR 400, 1TB WD Caviar Black (boot drive) and a 1TB WD Caviar Green (Time Machine Backup Drive) it still has the stock 64MB NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 card, still works without a hitch...but I just obtained (for free) a VisionTek X1300 256MB PCI Graphics Card (its actually a rebranded ATI chip if Im correct...), but anyway Ill cut to the chase here...just wondering if I can flash it for use with this G5 (Its running Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8....(PS btw the Power Mac G4 MDD (2.5GHz DP has fried...the CPU daughtercard is done lol kinda saw that one coming. Anyway if anybody knows where on Earth one could obtain a DP 1.42GHz CPU board for cheap it would be much appreciated...or if somebody just has one laying around...Cause budget is EXTREMELY tight..

Power Mac G5-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Dual 1.8GHz, 4GB DDR, APE, BT, 4TB

Posted on Jan 30, 2012 2:35 PM

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Answer 1

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Jan 30, 2012 3:08 PM in response to Matthew Knice

The X1300 has no equivalent ROM so it can't be made into a Mac card.

A fried DP1.42 is a bummer, as replacements are few as compared to DP 1.25 cards.

Good luck on your search....

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Answer 2

Swampus

Level 2

180 points

Jan 30, 2012 4:15 PM in response to Matthew Knice

Anyway if anybody knows where on Earth one could obtain a DP 1.42GHz CPU board for cheap...

On eBay, expand your search to the entire computer section and use "G4, dual, 1.4" as search words. On the sticker on the CPU daughtercard, it's identified as 1.4 rather than 1.42. This is the way that high volume computer parts strippers often list them--Very often for under $30. Most people looking for them are using "1.42" in their search. Good luck. As always, purchase from someone with a good reputation.

I've upgraded four computers this way and came out ahead. I sold my dual 1.25s for more than what I paid for the dual 1.42s. :-)

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Answer 3

Jan 30, 2012 9:42 PM in response to japamac

Hello guys, Well I have good news, I figured what can it hurt to just simply pop in this card and see what happens...I mean the worst case scenario is a KP and all I have to do is remove the card. Lol I obtained it free anyways. So I put it in...Well it works...kinda. I only have an ADC Studio Display (LCD 19? or 20? inch display) BUT the card does indeed show up in System Profiler and It does have a jumper in the card (thats what really got me to try it out since Ive seen these on some Sonnet cards...) And THANKS to Swampus. I just got me a DP 1.42GHz board. Just gonna keep it as is, not much of a difference to go to 1.5GHz that will make it worth it anyway...SO. Back to the original question here..... here is what System Profiler reports this as...(with no changes to jumper): (Well before I get to that heres some goodies... http://www.beejblog.com/2010/03/ati-x1300-pro-on-mac-os-x-snow-leopard.html now lets get to this... this is under PCI (I have a Belkin 3 port USB 2.0 (two external one internal) in SLOT-2) This is what Slot 3 shows...

pci-bridge:

Type: pci

Driver Installed: Yes

Bus: PCI

Slot: SLOT-3

Vendor ID: 0x10b5

Device ID: 0x8111

Revision ID: 0x0021

Link Width: x1

Link Speed: 2.5 GT/s

pci1545,2350:

Type: VGA-Compatible Controller

Driver Installed: No

Bus: PCI

Slot: 6x0

Vendor ID: 0x1002

Device ID: 0x7183

Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x1545

Subsystem ID: 0x2350

Revision ID: 0x0000

Link Width: x1

Link Speed: 2.5 GT/s

pci1545,2351:

Type: Other Display Controller

Driver Installed: No

Bus: PCI

Slot: 6x0

Vendor ID: 0x1002

Device ID: 0x71a3

Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x1545

Subsystem ID: 0x2351

Revision ID: 0x0000

Link Width: x1

Link Speed: 2.5 GT/s

So what can I do? Did I make a discovery that it can indeed be converted? (Japamac Im NOT trying to best you or anything just thought you would be interested in seeing this.) =)

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Answer 4

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Jan 31, 2012 3:34 AM in response to Matthew Knice

Did I make a discovery that it can indeed be converted?

No.

What you discovered is that the card is recognized for what it is, but means nothing to OS X.

As drivers are not available, there is no way for the card to be used by OS X.

There is no way for Core Image, Quartz, Quartz Extreme, OpenGL, etc., to be used to provide graphics acceleration and desktop presentation.

And, since OS X doesn't know what the name or model of the card is, there is no way for the system to link the card to existing drivers via the identifiers in the ROM.

The Device ID would provide model and vendor ID if it were one that was included in OS X drivers, but, it isn't, so can't be used.

The identifiers in the ROM are part of the issue that is resolved in flashing a card to a Mac ROM.

Other issues are dealt with by editing the ROM to set memory values, core voltages and other basic necessities to allow the card to work within OS X and Apple hardware parameters.

Since the X1300 Mobility version was used by Apple in some portables, there are likely some elements in later versions of OS X that would be recognizable.

I'm pretty sure those "elements" are OS X 10.6.2 and later.

But, the interface used (not PCI) and the fact that the use was limited to Intel machines doesn't hold much hope for one who might want to try and write a new Open Firmware ROM based on an existing EFI ROM.

Likely, it would be pretty much, no, exactly like writing a ROM from scratch....

BTW, there is a PCIe (express) X1300 that works in first generation Mac Pro and XServe.

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