Jump to content

Info about flashing GTX 260 to be detected as a GTX 285?


andycorleone
 Share

11 posts in this topic

Recommended Posts

Have you seen what the price difference is on PC and Mac video cards? The 1GB EVGA GTX 285 for Mac goes for around US$ 400!

 

Keep in mind that this forum is mostly frequented by PC owners who can just buy a normal/real GTX 285 (or better) for less than half that amount and have it working right away.

 

If you're looking for information on crossflashing PC video cards so that they will work on a Mac Pro, go to a Mac hardware forum.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have been meaning to post this, now I am motivated.

 

This is a rom that will turn a GTX260 or GTX275 into a more Hack Friendly GTX285.

 

What this CAN DO:

 

1. Turn MOST GTX260 or GTX275 cards into "GTX285".

2. This ROM contains a more Mac Driver friendly version of ROM than those cards have. SHOULD require less injector fiddling. SHOULD have less trouble with multiple displays and proper resolutions.

3. Allow apps that look for "GTX285" or "05e3" to find that device instead of unexpected ids of original cards.

4. This ROM SHOULD fit on any EEPROM installed on those cards. In my experience, all GT200 cards have either a 64K EEPROM (usually has a part number with "512" in it) or a 128K EEPROM (usually part number with "1005" in it).

 

What this CAN'T DO:

 

1. Work in real Mac Pro

2. Make your card faster. It will be id'd as 285, but will still have fewer pipes, smaller RAM bus, etc. Card will run as 285 but at original speeds.

3. Run without injection...you will still need to use some form of injection, but in theory should have fewer troubles as ROM uses Mac friendly values that drivers work better with.

4. WILL NOT WORK IN A REAL MAC PRO !!!!!

 

I am not going to give a full tutorial on flashing, you should read more details elsewhere. Here is barebones version:

 

1. Use NVFlash to dump original ROM on your card .THIS IS ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL---DON'T SKIP THIS !!!!!

(NVflash can be run in Windows, DOS, or even OSX if you are especially clever...RESEARCH !!!)

2. Run this:

 

"nvflash --eraseeeprom"

 

you will be asked for confirmation...hit "y" DO NOT TURN OFF MACHINE UNTIL A PROPER ROM IS BACK ON CARD !!!

 

3. Now, run Nvflash to install the attached ROM. If you get some sort of error which reads "error in 256 byte page mode programming" then reflash with original ROM and call it a day. If it flashes without errors, restart and see what you have. If your machine is expecting a GTX260 with device id of 05e2, you might need to prep it for new id.

 

Don't do this with more than one Nvidia card in, and remember that you should NEVER turn off machine until a happy rom is on there.

 

This will work with MOST GTX260/275 cards. They must be 896 Meg versions. The 1.8G oddballs are a different story, don't waste your time trying this...IT WON'T WORK on them. The early GTX260 with enclosed backplate will work too, in most cases. I have seen a few ASUS cards that weren't happy with this ROM. But that is why you saved the original ROM. If for any reason you are unhappy with result, flash card with original again. Best to use the erase function in between, NVFlash tries to help otherwise and moves parts of one rom into another.

 

This is all at your own risk. Best case scenario, you should have an old ATI card lying around to "see" from if flash goes bad so that you can easily reflash to original.

 

I am NOTORIOUS for not answering questions that I feel can be answered via our friend "google" in under 5 seconds...SO DON'T ASK...RESEARCH.

 

In theory, this should work on the original GTX280 as well, but it will downclock card. If someone with a 280 tries it and it works, they should post the original 280 ROM and I will do a special one for it with proper clocks.

 

Good luck !!!

m260t285.rom.zip

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Why not just use a stock nVidia 260 896 MB card and "GraphicsEnabler=Yes"? That works on every install from 10.6.3-10.7 retail for me. All the iLife Apps and FCP 7 seem to work for me. The latest CUDA drivers installed no problem. The nVidia 260 896 MB is the easiest card to get to work on a hackintosh in my BRIEF experience.

 

Am I missing something? Is there an App that balks at using the 260? I've been evangelical about telling people to get the thing if they can. Am I giving out bad advice?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why not just use a stock nVidia 260 896 MB card and "GraphicsEnabler=Yes"? That works on every install from 10.6.3-10.7 retail for me. All the iLife Apps and FCP 7 seem to work for me. The latest CUDA drivers installed no problem. The nVidia 260 896 MB is the easiest card to get to work on a hackintosh in my BRIEF experience.

 

Am I missing something? Is there an App that balks at using the 260? I've been evangelical about telling people to get the thing if they can. Am I giving out bad advice?

 

 

i have 260 gtx 896 and been running mac on it pretty flawlessly. A couple minor issues. But in lion get pretty bad graphical artifacts in wow. And front row wont open. Screen saver works chess works so i think its fully working. But over heating or something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
i have 260 gtx 896 and been running mac on it pretty flawlessly. A couple minor issues. But in lion get pretty bad graphical artifacts in wow. And front row wont open. Screen saver works chess works so i think its fully working. But over heating or something.

 

Have you ever succesfully played Civ V in Windows? I used to get overheat problems with the GTX 260. The last driver update I did seems to have fixed the fan. I bought the computer over a year ago and last month was the first time I heard the fan rev up, so Lord knows what temps that thing was getting before. In Windows my PC would just shut down. I think I had over heat problems in Lion when using iChat in full screen mode for extended periods of time. I think its just some kind of fan control driver issue. Other than that the card works fine. I can surf the web and do other tasks for hours without a problem. I can even iChat for an hour with a smaller window and I don't have any problems. Until I read your post I kind of forgot about the issue. I assume the shut down problems in Lion are due to the GTX 260. I can't think of anything else.

 

Front row worked fine in 10.6.8. I did not install it in Lion. Since I dual boot I never thought of gaming in Lion. I have used FCP with the GTX 260. I haven't used FCP X though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 6 years later...

I have been meaning to post this, now I am motivated.

 

This is a rom that will turn a GTX260 or GTX275 into a more Hack Friendly GTX285.

 

What this CAN DO:

 

1. Turn MOST GTX260 or GTX275 cards into "GTX285".

2. This ROM contains a more Mac Driver friendly version of ROM than those cards have. SHOULD require less injector fiddling. SHOULD have less trouble with multiple displays and proper resolutions.

3. Allow apps that look for "GTX285" or "05e3" to find that device instead of unexpected ids of original cards.

4. This ROM SHOULD fit on any EEPROM installed on those cards. In my experience, all GT200 cards have either a 64K EEPROM (usually has a part number with "512" in it) or a 128K EEPROM (usually part number with "1005" in it).

 

What this CAN'T DO:

 

1. Work in real Mac Pro

2. Make your card faster. It will be id'd as 285, but will still have fewer pipes, smaller RAM bus, etc. Card will run as 285 but at original speeds.

3. Run without injection...you will still need to use some form of injection, but in theory should have fewer troubles as ROM uses Mac friendly values that drivers work better with.

4. WILL NOT WORK IN A REAL MAC PRO !!!!!

 

I am not going to give a full tutorial on flashing, you should read more details elsewhere. Here is barebones version:

 

1. Use NVFlash to dump original ROM on your card .THIS IS ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL---DON'T SKIP THIS !!!!!

(NVflash can be run in Windows, DOS, or even OSX if you are especially clever...RESEARCH !!!)

2. Run this:

 

"nvflash --eraseeeprom"

 

you will be asked for confirmation...hit "y" DO NOT TURN OFF MACHINE UNTIL A PROPER ROM IS BACK ON CARD !!!

 

3. Now, run Nvflash to install the attached ROM. If you get some sort of error which reads "error in 256 byte page mode programming" then reflash with original ROM and call it a day. If it flashes without errors, restart and see what you have. If your machine is expecting a GTX260 with device id of 05e2, you might need to prep it for new id.

 

Don't do this with more than one Nvidia card in, and remember that you should NEVER turn off machine until a happy rom is on there.

 

This will work with MOST GTX260/275 cards. They must be 896 Meg versions. The 1.8G oddballs are a different story, don't waste your time trying this...IT WON'T WORK on them. The early GTX260 with enclosed backplate will work too, in most cases. I have seen a few ASUS cards that weren't happy with this ROM. But that is why you saved the original ROM. If for any reason you are unhappy with result, flash card with original again. Best to use the erase function in between, NVFlash tries to help otherwise and moves parts of one rom into another.

 

This is all at your own risk. Best case scenario, you should have an old ATI card lying around to "see" from if flash goes bad so that you can easily reflash to original.

 

I am NOTORIOUS for not answering questions that I feel can be answered via our friend "google" in under 5 seconds...SO DON'T ASK...RESEARCH.

 

In theory, this should work on the original GTX280 as well, but it will downclock card. If someone with a 280 tries it and it works, they should post the original 280 ROM and I will do a special one for it with proper clocks.

 

Good luck !!!

Rominator, did you ever create a GTX 280 custom rom with the proper clock speeds, I tried flashing my video card last night, but I used the latest version of NVFlash64.exe and it would not let me force the flash with the posted rom, or the original GTX 285 Mac Rom which is much larger, and told me it they were mismatched. Using the -4 -5 -6 switch also would not work, or the over ride switch -0 . Any help would be very much appreciated, the card was free so I thought I would use it, but I really don't notice much of a performance difference from the OEM Nvidea GT120.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...