New radeon 6870 in Mac Pro, works great, but I don't get bootcamp screen for windows.

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Level 1

4 points

New radeon 6870 in Mac Pro, works great, but I don't get bootcamp screen for windows.

Main problem : I can't use see the bootcamp screen to pick which drive to bootfrom aka open windows. I tried to do it by memory and it still wouldn't load.. Curious if anyone knows how to get that screen back. also here's my specs etc. if that helps:

Processor: 2 x 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

Memory: 16 GB

Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 6870 2048M MB

Software : Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3

Also not sure if this makes any difference I got the consumer preview of Windows 8 and am running that in bootcamp ( or I was running it til the graphics card upgrade)

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Mar 3, 2012 8:28 PM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Mar 4, 2012 3:35 AM in response to Jaygyver

The 6870 is PC and even when you get those to work you never get the early EFI boot / Option screen.

Has nothing to do with drivers, only firmware is at work at that point.

I assume you learned all about using 6870 on netkas.org or somewhere.

And AMD does have 2/28 driver for Windows 8 (nVidia also posted a driver too)

And sound if it isn't working, which was normal anyway with 7, need to install RealTek driver also.

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Answer 2

Jaygyver

Level 3

739 points

Mar 4, 2012 12:40 AM in response to TommyDrama

Because your running on W7 Boot Camp drivers in W8?😉

Kinda like using Vista drivers in W7, doesnt work very well some times. Unlikely Apple will have BC drivers for W8 until after W8 final comes out.

You can always go to ATI and see if they have a W8 version.

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Answer 3

DPArt

Level 3

604 points

Apr 13, 2012 6:21 PM in response to The hatter

Pretty sure that 2.4 Ghz means your Mac is 3,1 or later.

You can have boot screens via lower DVI port if you use the EFI rom provided by Netkas.

You will need to flash the cad. Some can be flashed in OSX, but most require Windows or DOS.

It is an EFI64 EFI, only gives boot screen in 3,1 or later, and only from a single DVI display plugged into lower DVI port.

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Answer 4

Mar 9, 2016 9:41 PM in response to DPArt

This is correct. Also check out groths.org for OS X flash utilities - I pulled the original BIOS off my reference 6870 using a test PC logic board rig and a DOS boot flashdrive (just to be safe!), but was able to both patch the BIOS and flash it back onto the card using OS X tools (Zeus, at the time).

If Oskar has released 'Freya' then patching these cards should be very simple.

I've had the 6870 running in my MacPro3,1 for over a year, initially using both the DL DVI (for an Apple 30" display) and the Mini Displayport (for an Apple 27" LED Cinema) - but with only 1 GB of video RAM, it was a bit slow. I've thrown a non-reference XFX single-slot 5770 card in as well just for fun, and connected the 27" Apple screen using the Mini Displayport output on the 5770 - everything works.

I haven't flashed the 5770 yet so I'm now not getting a boot screen, though this could be due to shifting DVI ports around (i.e. I may have the 30" display connected to the 'wrong' DVI port on the 6870 - nice tip DPArt and I'll try that out presently)...

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