Radeon 5970 Snow Leopard Instructions

[Oxtie]

I'm not really sure how to check. Quicktime X has ~30% CPU usage for me when playing a 1080p h.264. VLC has ~20% for the same movie. Quicktime 7 has ~25% CPU usage.

 

Honestly, it really doesn't bother me if it's accelerated or not - I doubt I'd be able to tell. It's on my Mac Minis and my MacBook Pro that I care about acceleration where battery or cpu power are an issue.

Here is what I'm going to tell you, I have all catalyst drivers installed and when I play any movie (1080p) hardware acceleration offloads CPU by taking processing in Radeon's hand instead of CPU. On XP, I get CPU usage to 1 - 4%!!! and I've ALSO measured GPU usage via MSI After burner (1 to 2% on GPU1 AND 1% on GPU2). I'm having hard time reading responses where hardware acceleration is not given any importance! 

 

EDIT: In order to use hardware acceleration, you have to install AVIVO and/or FFDShow (latest if possible) and turn on Hardware acceleration on DXVA video decoder configuration (shortcut exists in start menu\programs\ffdshow). This is for Windows, but on OSX, QuicktimeX, XBMC, mplayer has hardware acceleration and starting from VLC 1.2, OSX versions will have hardware acceleration too! (its currently on feature freeze for 1.1x versions)

 

If you have a sound card that offloads Audio streams like mine, expect same result like mine (1 to 2% CPU usage)

[mrbrookman]

The bios could be it although usually if the bios doesn't work the fans just blow at maximum speed and I thought they had bioses for pretty much every manufacturer on there. Give Kabyl's bootloader a try since you don't need to dump the bios for that. Make sure to remove the UseAtiROM key and string though otherwise it'll mess it up.

 

it worked with my own graphiccards bios

probably I downloaded the wrong bios-version.

[tubbiesss]

[*]No matter what, the mini display port on standard 5970s remains unusable. If you have any success getting it working with any kind of adapter (display port monitor, dual link active adapter, single link adapter, vga active adapter) then please let me know. I've tried everything I can think of.

Is there any workaround for this yet?

I can't hold myself back from getting the 27" ACD, but not so keen on having to get a DVI to MDP converter to get it to work through the 5970 DVI port

[Spanky Deluxe]

Is there any workaround for this yet?

I can't hold myself back from getting the 27" ACD, but not so keen on having to get a DVI to MDP converter to get it to work through the 5970 DVI port

 

I'm afraid not. I really wish there were so that my triple display works. To be honest, I'm considering buying a 5870 when my next pay check comes through and try for a trifire setup.

[tubbiesss]

I'm afraid not. I really wish there were so that my triple display works. To be honest, I'm considering buying a 5870 when my next pay check comes through and try for a trifire setup.

I hope a 5970 upgrade option would pop up in the apple store real soon followed by another graphic driver update.

or would that not be happening anytime soon?

not that I could afford 3 new monitors nor 3x 5870s, but a trifire 5870 would be sweet to have =)

[Oxtie]

I hope a 5970 upgrade option would pop up in the apple store real soon followed by another graphic driver update.

or would that not be happening anytime soon?

not that I could afford 3 new monitors nor 3x 5870s, but a trifire 5870 would be sweet to have =)

Not going to happen!  AMD already announced removal of "ATI" name on their 6xxx series (which they already announced in their catalyst driver INF files)

[MadMungo]

Radeon 5970 Snow Leopard Instructions

 

You now need to modify 'ATIRadeonX3000.kext' to make sure that your second GPU is disabled so open it up, navigate to the Contents folder and open up the Info.plist. You need to add the following straight after the list of device IDs:

 

			<key>IOPCIClassMatch</key>
		<string>0x03000000&0xFFFF0000</string>

 

Spanky Deluxe, when I add the above key, the screen displays the verbose boot output. I know that OSX has mad it to the desktop because when I press the power key it goes to sleep. Looking in IORegistry Explorer my IOPCIClassMatch is shown as 0x03000000&0xFF000000 for both GPU's.

 

Should I change it so it matches my IOPCIClassMatch string?

 

Thanks

[Spanky Deluxe]

Spanky Deluxe, when I add the above key, the screen displays the verbose boot output. I know that OSX has mad it to the desktop because when I press the power key it goes to sleep. Looking in IORegistry Explorer my IOPCIClassMatch is shown as 0x03000000&0xFF000000 for both GPU's.

 

Should I change it so it matches my IOPCIClassMatch string?

 

Thanks

 

Are you sure you entered the string in right? IOReg Explorer says 0xFF000000 for ATISupport on both GPUs but in ATIRadeonX3000 for the first GPU it says 0xFFFF0000.

[MadMungo]

Are you sure you entered the string in right? IOReg Explorer says 0xFF000000 for ATISupport on both GPUs but in ATIRadeonX3000 for the first GPU it says 0xFFFF0000.

 

Not to worry I worked it out.

 

For my machine to work I add this to my ATIRadeonX3000.kext

<key>IOPCIClassMatch</key>

<string>0x03000000&0xFFFF0000</string>

 

But I also need to add this to my ATI5000Controller.kext to prevent a black screen at Boot

<key>IOPCIClassMatch</key>

<string>0x03000000&0xFF000000</string>

 

This works for all the drivers out there including Graphics Update 1.0 using Kabyl's Boot file. It also shows all three Display Connectors unlike ATY_init that only ever showed two.

[Oxtie]

hmmm, since this method of Spanky's works well, Its nice to have installer that automates all steps, BIOS extraction, installing Kexts, setup of card info strings, optimizing etc yeah? I'll try some...

 

 

http://s.sudre.free.fr/Stuff/PackageMaker_Howto.html

[Spanky Deluxe]

It also shows all three Display Connectors unlike ATY_init that only ever showed two.

 

Ah, but the million dollar question, do all three display connectors work? I can see three display connectors in the System Profiler but the MDP port doesn't ever work.

 

hmmm, since this method of Spanky's works well, Its nice to have installer that automates all steps, BIOS extraction, installing Kexts, setup of card info strings, optimizing etc yeah? I'll try some...

 

 

http://s.sudre.free.fr/Stuff/PackageMaker_Howto.html

 

Lol. What's really needed is a kext or couple of kexts that can go in /Extra/Extensions that can inject the devids and gpu disabler bits without having to modify the driver kexts. Those + Kabyl's bootloader (or the next version of Chameleon) = hassle free 5970s.

[Oxtie]

Ah, but the million dollar question, do all three display connectors work? I can see three display connectors in the System Profiler but the MDP port doesn't ever work.

 

 

 

Lol. What's really needed is a kext or couple of kexts that can go in /Extra/Extensions that can inject the devids and gpu disabler bits without having to modify the driver kexts. Those + Kabyl's bootloader (or the next version of Chameleon) = hassle free 5970s.

Well yea, its simple but rather faster if it ever came to that installation and setup point.

 

ok... then maybe when something more complicated need to be done perhaps I guess soon someone will pop an installer that won't ONLY target this model but others aswell. Guess then I'm aborting and limiting this to myself. 

[MadMungo]

Ah, but the million dollar question, do all three display connectors work? I can see three display connectors in the System Profiler but the MDP port doesn't ever work.

 

Don't know but I think I may be able to try it with a few different DP monitors in the next two weeks, including a Mac LED CinemaHD screen. Two monitors work well using DVI, DB15 via converter and HDMI via DVItoHDMI converter.

[slavke1976]

Hi, i tried with your guide for my ATI 5770 card, all was going well untll i put modified drivers ATI5000Controller.kext

and ATIRadeonX3000.kext in extensions folder and run kext utility , while kext utility is runing i got kernel panic,

Same happen with kext helper, it install kexts but when i try to rebote PC i got same Kernel panic and it is couse of this 2 kexts, even if i try to install them without modification.

pleas any help

[Spanky Deluxe]

Hi, i tried with your guide for my ATI 5770 card, all was going well untll i put modified drivers ATI5000Controller.kext

and ATIRadeonX3000.kext in extensions folder and run kext utility , while kext utility is runing i got kernel panic,

Same happen with kext helper, it install kexts but when i try to rebote PC i got same Kernel panic and it is couse of this 2 kexts, even if i try to install them without modification.

pleas any help

 

First of all, these instructions are for the 5970 not 5770. Nevertheless, they should still work although the GPU disabling part is superfluous.

 

The safest way to install drivers if you've been modifying them is to first uninstall the ATI drivers that are there. If you can't boot up then you can do this via single user mode by using these commands:

 

cd /System/Library/Extensions
rm -r ATI*
cd ../Caches/*kext*/Startup
rm *.mkext
cd /Extra
rm *.mkext

 

Then boot up into OSX (you may need to set GraphicsEnabler=no and/or disable the ROM flag etc) and when in OSX copy over the new ATI files - modified x3000, ati5000 and all of the unmodified graphics update ATI files. Then run Kext Utility.

 

I've had some problems in the past when I've tried simply overwriting the ATI drivers already there. If you can boot up into OSX then use that code above in terminal with sudo put in front of the rm commands before rebooting.

[Jdutch]

Spanky Delux,

 

Thank you for making your guide. I was at my wits end trying to find a way to make my Hack boot in 64bit goodness with my 5770 and so I gave your method a whirl. I can say that I had no issues, other that once I was done running kextUtility, I got that annoying "You must restart your machine" image which pops up when you mess around with sys files. I decided not to use someone else's ROM file and used GPU-Z in Windows to find my rom. I have subsequently put my own guide on Tonymacx86 forum in hopes that anyone else with my card would be able to take advantage of 64bit goodness as well. The only issue I have is that I STILL have to use a vga-DVI adapter to get an image on my screen. I was wondering if you might be able to shed some light on why that might be. My card is an Asus EAH5770 CuCore 1GB with 1XDVI, 1XVGA and 1XHDMI. I have read that Mac occasionally sends the wrong signal to the outputs on non Apple cards, and that some kind of port redesignation is required, though I haven't been able to find much else on exactly HOW to do this. Also, I thought that it might be that I am using the boot9 file, instead of boot8 or boot7. Does boot9 use the Uakari FB? I read on Netkas' blog that the Apple version 5770's use Hoolock instead.

 

 

 

 

Thanks again, even if you aren't able to help me with my port designation problem

 

J

[Spanky Deluxe]

Spanky Delux,

 

Thank you for making your guide. I was at my wits end trying to find a way to make my Hack boot in 64bit goodness with my 5770 and so I gave your method a whirl. I can say that I had no issues, other that once I was done running kextUtility, I got that annoying "You must restart your machine" image which pops up when you mess around with sys files. I decided not to use someone else's ROM file and used GPU-Z in Windows to find my rom. I have subsequently put my own guide on Tonymacx86 forum in hopes that anyone else with my card would be able to take advantage of 64bit goodness as well. The only issue I have is that I STILL have to use a vga-DVI adapter to get an image on my screen. I was wondering if you might be able to shed some light on why that might be. My card is an Asus EAH5770 CuCore 1GB with 1XDVI, 1XVGA and 1XHDMI. I have read that Mac occasionally sends the wrong signal to the outputs on non Apple cards, and that some kind of port redesignation is required, though I haven't been able to find much else on exactly HOW to do this. Also, I thought that it might be that I am using the boot9 file, instead of boot8 or boot7. Does boot9 use the Uakari FB? I read on Netkas' blog that the Apple version 5770's use Hoolock instead.

 

 

 

 

Thanks again, even if you aren't able to help me with my port designation problem

 

J

 

Great news! I'm glad you're up and running. Apple's 5770s do use Hoolock but I don't think that works with Hackintoshes. Boot9 uses what was seen as best for each different card. As a next step you could try Kabyl's boot rom. I've mentioned in this thread how to get it up and running (it doesn't need rom files anymore). It's also got a useful option to specify different framebuffers so you could give some of the others a try. I believe Vervet's the default for the 5770 but I think some have found Baboon and Eulemur to work as well.

[Jdutch]

Thanks mate, I appreciate the feedback. I just hate having to use a DVI/VGA dongle because I use my 7 box to game and switching means I have to pull my rig forward, switch cables, etc. Would be nice just to have one setup and not need to change it ever again! Have you heard or read anything about getting dual monitors to work? I seem to remember some people modifying a file so that the port designation was changed... would that be the rom file itself do you think? Anyway, if you don't know thats ok. I'll keep looking.

 

 

 

 

Cheers, J

[Spanky Deluxe]

Thanks mate, I appreciate the feedback. I just hate having to use a DVI/VGA dongle because I use my 7 box to game and switching means I have to pull my rig forward, switch cables, etc. Would be nice just to have one setup and not need to change it ever again! Have you heard or read anything about getting dual monitors to work? I seem to remember some people modifying a file so that the port designation was changed... would that be the rom file itself do you think? Anyway, if you don't know thats ok. I'll keep looking.

 

 

 

 

Cheers, J

 

To be honest, I don't know much about 5770s but I think I remember seeing in the 5770 thread that some people reflashed their cards with bioses from other makes, maybe that can do it. As a backup option though you could maybe just buy a cheap kvm switcher. They're dirt cheap these days.

[Oxtie]

Is there no way to enable second GPU? I was trying to understand this thread

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=101121

 

hmmm, Netkas showed up here... may have something radeon related aswell?

 

 

 

EDIT: Confirmed at IRC, second GPU won't work... for Now (at least). I still have video acceleration problems On windows, I see mplayerC.exe CPU usage max to 6% playing 1080p movie BUT on OSX, it sky rockets CPU and lags entire video (simple words, video acceleration is OFF)

[VoDKK21]

Good tutorial but i have a little problem... can't find the /Extra folder

can someone tell me or help me find that folder please.

[mfyd]

Good tutorial but i have a little problem... can't find the /Extra folder

can someone tell me or help me find that folder please.

 

Pull up a finder window, under devices should be your HD. Select it, youll find it there.

[mf9120]

hey, I have a saphire ati radeon 5870 in my computer, will this work for that? or will i need a different system string code id thing?

[Oxtie]

OK, I just screwed up (BADLY) my hdd is dead (meaning nothing is there its BLANK) all my collection of kext is everything is GONE! Fortunately I was able to install OSX, but the damn fan problem is back. NOW, can anyone upload the kext to mediafire? my strings are pretty much same as Spanky (i'm guessing he has same model as mine). I'm on windows for the moment (with macdrive installed) so far, managed to copy ROM to extra and set up com.apple.boot now without OSX start-up, I cannot extract those kext files from DMG

 

EDIT: OK, putting the ROM first solved it BUT kext Utility messed up my system kernel panicing around WT$

[sorandom]

maybe im just not that (?) ill just say 10.6.5 and my machine do not go together well. messy patch work screen and a new fresh install is all that Im left with. do not upgrade to 10.5.6 if you have a P55A UD6© F11. maybe im not reading right.