LioNEXT Posted July 30, 2008 Share Posted July 30, 2008 Okay, I must have been really naive to think that the officially mac supported ATI Radeon HD 3870 for Mac & PC card will work in a hackintosh just like in Mac, because of the officially supported drivers and EFI ROM. The required EFI is there in its ROM (confused it with EFI string; is it similar thing or not???), the drivers are provided (basically ATIradeonX2000 kexts and ATINDRV.kext). Therefore, it may be worth spending money and have peace of mind. And I bought it anyway since I am tilting towards buying a Mac Pro sometime in the future and this may help then. Here is reader news post when it was released and link to ATI's website: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=110283 So I bought it! But it turns out that after installing the drivers provided on the CD and then plugging in the card, the computer will hang at sometime during the login window process and give that DSOD (dotted screen of death) with ugly colored polka dots on the screen. As soon as I installed the natit.kext also from the famous ATI radeon thread of lastExile (http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=107526 ), everything worked pretty well. So the card behaves pretty much like a PC card version, and either EFI strings or Natit has to be used anyway for this card. The EFI on this card remains unused for the hack. (I am feeling really stupid ) Now, having gone through this, I wanna ask a few questions: 1) On a hack, is there any use of having this card rather than the regular PC card version (which you can buy for $130 or so)? GDDR4/55nm process or any other optimization?? 2) Can the official drivers be used for the PC card version on the hackintosh (of course with natit or triakis)? or are the available drivers from lastExile already so? 3) Can the ROM of PC card be flashed with ROM from Mac version? The first few trials that I have seen at macrumors seems to be ineffective. Here are the threads to read or for having hands on the ROM, EFI and drivers for this card: Macrumors: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php...;highlight=3870 Insanelymac: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=115326 Basically, I am thinking that now that I have a working 3870, which behaves like PC card version, I can buy the closest PC card, which seems to be the Saphire card (see the macrumors forum; its pretty much a saphire card). The device id is 9501. And I can stick it in instead of this card and just return the ATI one or sell it. Lastly, I must say as has been pointed out elsewhere, nvidia drivers cannot beat the ATI stuff as of now; the GUI's general feel is just so buttery and smooth. (However I did not see any remarkable change in Xbench score, particularly the graphics part and opengl; from my previous card 8600GT). Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/118397-ati-radeon-3870-for-macpc-drivers-and-rom-will-it-work-on-hackintosh/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
LioNEXT Posted July 30, 2008 Author Share Posted July 30, 2008 come on folks! no one using 3870 here or has any experience to comment on this topic! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/118397-ati-radeon-3870-for-macpc-drivers-and-rom-will-it-work-on-hackintosh/#findComment-839230 Share on other sites More sharing options...
krrr Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 ah, even i was thinking same about Ati Card for mac and was going do something like this, glad to see u tested the waters and posted the results. hopefully some Sapphire users will post soon about your query. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/118397-ati-radeon-3870-for-macpc-drivers-and-rom-will-it-work-on-hackintosh/#findComment-839820 Share on other sites More sharing options...
LioNEXT Posted July 31, 2008 Author Share Posted July 31, 2008 ah, even i was thinking same about Ati Card for mac and was going do something like this, glad to see u tested the waters and posted the results. hopefully some Sapphire users will post soon about your query. Well, lets say the experience wasn't that good. I was going to keep the card for future Mac Pro purchase, but it turns out this sucker has got other problems, likely linked to heat. I have a controller in my PC for various temp measurements. Tacking onto the heatsink shows its temp rising to 55-60 C very quickly. After that, the display starts showing artifacts, then it goes yellow lines here and there, then some more hue artifacts, and finally either the screen goes completely black or plain white. And then I have to hard shut down. And why does ATI and Sapphire make cards that blow air to the inside of the CPU case (unless of course if that's how you have your other fans set up). Most cases have air flow to the back rather than to the front. Now I am deciding right now to order 8800GT card or 3870 card (with air flow to the back; likely dual slot) or order both from Newegg and test them out. Hell, this was a painful experience. Does anyone know if the artifacts I described above are related to Natit or triaki for 3870s? I have tried both and give the same results. How are official ATI X2000 kexts different from the kexts provided in the natit installer? Or are they heat related? If it is heat related, how did you crank up your GPU fans. Any idea, anyone? I will appreciate your responses. I must say with heat issues that I have heard for 3870, 8800GT seems like a better choice, even though I liked 3870 general GUI response and its noted superiority for mac software (such as video applications). Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/118397-ati-radeon-3870-for-macpc-drivers-and-rom-will-it-work-on-hackintosh/#findComment-840371 Share on other sites More sharing options...
doof Posted August 8, 2008 Share Posted August 8, 2008 The Ati thermal management (powerplay)is not supported on X. Card runs full speed all the time. I go a visiontek dual slot cooler unit for $140. No artifacts yet. You might be able to edit the bios on the card to run the fan faster. I was thinking of getting the mac edition as well but bailed when I saw the fan design. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/118397-ati-radeon-3870-for-macpc-drivers-and-rom-will-it-work-on-hackintosh/#findComment-849339 Share on other sites More sharing options...
LioNEXT Posted August 10, 2008 Author Share Posted August 10, 2008 The Ati thermal management (powerplay)is not supported on X. Card runs full speed all the time. I go a visiontek dual slot cooler unit for $140. No artifacts yet. You might be able to edit the bios on the card to run the fan faster. I was thinking of getting the mac edition as well but bailed when I saw the fan design. well after getting stung, I returned the card to ATI (thank u ati, bye bye) and bought a dual slot 512MB evga 8800GT and I can't say how happy I am! Everything just works, gfx strings available and the fan does not run like a wind turbine. I know graphics wise it may not be as good as ATI's card but hey apple may improve the drivers in future or OpenCT may help. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/118397-ati-radeon-3870-for-macpc-drivers-and-rom-will-it-work-on-hackintosh/#findComment-851003 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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