Will my graphics card work on a Hackintosh

[spenceju]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm building a hackintosh and was wondering if my graphics card will work on it. My graphics card is VGA GIGABYTE GV-R489OC-1GD 4890 RT. Please let me know thanks. If not can someone recommend a card that will work? Thanks.

 

Spenceju

[spenceju]

I've done some reading on this forum and it looks my card probably won't work. That's ok I can return it. But can someone recommend a decent ATI Radeon card that is known to work?

 

thanks,

 

spenceju

[SunLizard]

your card will work.

 

 

There are two methods of getting this to work. the first through EFI 10.3 + EVOenabler. (ref netkas(dot)org for instructions and files.) the second method, more for the purests, is the EFI 10.3 + boot string hex method (also see netkas(dot)org for files and links)

 

S_L

[spenceju]

thank you very much SunLizard

[spenceju]

thank you very much SunLizard

 

SunLizard,

 

I've gotten my computer up and running using evoenabler.kext and PC EFI V10.4. Everything seems to be working and stable. I was wondering how I can test my graphics card to see if it's working 100%. I was trying to use VLC to play a movie but I don't get any video playback. I'm not sure if this means I haven't achieved 100% functionality on my graphics card or if its an ATI problem with VLC. Do you have any suggestions?

 

thanks,

spenceju

[BarryBar]

Besides the new HD 5850 which is currently not supported in OS X I am also interested in this video card. To check whether it is fully supported you need to know if core image and quartz extreme are working. For that it is important what system you are running Leopard 10.5 or Snow Leopard 10.6. I could not derive that from your post.

 

In Leopard click the apple symbol, in the top menu bar and click about this Mac. Then click more info and select Graphics/displays. In the summary it will tell whether or not ci and qe are supported.

 

In Snow Leopard this information is no longer present. But if the top menu bar is translucent that is an important indication that it is working. To know for sure you have to start the apple dvd player in the applications folder. That program will give an error it core image and quartz extreme are not working.

 

It would be nice if you could report back which os x you are using and whether the GIGABYTE GV-R489OC-1GD 4890 RTis fully functioning (like full resolution change) with core image and quartz extreme.

 

Also a tip, mention the Gigabyte 4890 card in the title of your post. It was by chance - although I do not believe in it - that I clicked on your post it since I tend to ignore generic questions in this forum about what hardware will work.

[spenceju]

Besides the new HD 5850 which is currently not supported in OS X I am also interested in this video card. To check whether it is fully supported you need to know if core image and quartz extreme are working. For that it is important what system you are running Leopard 10.5 or Snow Leopard 10.6. I could not derive that from your post.

 

In Leopard click the apple symbol, in the top menu bar and click about this Mac. Then click more info and select Graphics/displays. In the summary it will tell whether or not ci and qe are supported.

 

In Snow Leopard this information is no longer present. But if the top menu bar is translucent that is an important indication that it is working. To know for sure you have to start the apple dvd player in the applications folder. That program will give an error it core image and quartz extreme are not working.

 

It would be nice if you could report back which os x you are using and whether the GIGABYTE GV-R489OC-1GD 4890 RTis fully functioning (like full resolution change) with core image and quartz extreme.

 

Also a tip, mention the Gigabyte 4890 card in the title of your post. It was by chance - although I do not believe in it - that I clicked on your post it since I tend to ignore generic questions in this forum about what hardware will work.

 

BarryBar,

 

Thank you for your advice. I'm currently running Snow Leopard 10.6.1. My top menu bar is not translucent so I would assume that my card is not working 100%. I've been doing some research and I've found that most people are using the exotic card installer from Netkas.org. However when I use this installer my screen goes black after rebooting. Perhaps you could help me by explaining Netkas' instructions below. On his blog he writes,

 

0) boot with -x option to get gui

1) install pc efi v10.3 with GraphicsEnabler=y option in boot.plist

2) reboot with -x option and check if card recognized in system profiler, maybe u will need to retry with -pci0 boot option

3) all but 4870: install pkg from this post"

 

I'm wondering what the -x and -pci0 boot options are and how you boot with them? If you could help me understand this perhaps I could figure out what I'm doing wrong. Thanks.

 

spenceju

[BarryBar]

BarryBar,

 

Thank you for your advice. I'm currently running Snow Leopard 10.6.1. My top menu bar is not translucent so I would assume that my card is not working 100%. I've been doing some research and I've found that most people are using the exotic card installer from Netkas.org. However when I use this installer my screen goes black after rebooting. Perhaps you could help me by explaining Netkas' instructions below. On his blog he writes,

 

0) boot with -x option to get gui

1) install pc efi v10.3 with GraphicsEnabler=y option in boot.plist

2) reboot with -x option and check if card recognized in system profiler, maybe u will need to retry with -pci0 boot option

3) all but 4870: install pkg from this post"

 

I'm wondering what the -x and -pci0 boot options are and how you boot with them? If you could help me understand this perhaps I could figure out what I'm doing wrong. Thanks.

 

spenceju

 

spenceju

 

In regard to netkas instructions I have not used them (yet). What I do know is that -x is one of the boot options. When your Hac starts up, after you hit space within usually 4 to 5 seconds it is possible to enter -x at the bootloader prompt

 

What I am wondering though is whether you read this thread http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=182905

 

and more important did you follow the advice of bm2 in the third post. If not my advice to you is to try first that since it is easier to execute and success is reported by silca in that thread

 

Success with making your card work fully in os x

[spenceju]

spenceju

 

In regard to netkas instructions I have not used them (yet). What I do know is that -x is one of the boot options. When your Hac starts up, after you hit space within usually 4 to 5 seconds it is possible to enter -x at the bootloader prompt

 

What I am wondering though is whether you read this thread http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=182905

 

and more important did you follow the advice of bm2 in the third post. If not my advice to you is to try first that since it is easier to execute and success is reported by silca in that thread

 

Success with making your card work fully in os x

 

BarryBar

 

I have read through that thread and I did try the advice of bm2 in the third post. When I did this I got a black screen after rebooting. So I PM'd bm2 and asked for his advice. Below is the message I wrote him and his response. Not quite sure where to go from here but I will keep trying and will provide updates whenever I make progress.

 

spenceju

 

***********************************************************************

 

bm2,

 

I tried to use your instructions on how to install kext files for the ATI 4890. I downloaded evoenabler.kext, ati4800Controller.kext, and ATIRadeonx2000.kext from your post. Then I added them to the L/S/E folder and pasted the following code in my terminal.

 

sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions;

sudo chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Extensions;

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions;

 

Upon rebooting it starts to reload and then it goes to a black screen. Am I doing something wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

spenceju

 

 

Spenceju,

 

I'm no longer using EVOenabler, since PC_EFIv10.5 now sports a fully functional graphics enabler.

 

You'll still need the 4800Controller, and RadeonX2000 kexts. I use them in conjunction with Digital_Dreamer's ud5 install script. His script works with any motherboard, -- just remove any unwanted kexts from the installer directories.

 

I'm not sure what you did wrong, but something must have been off. What brand/model of 4890 do you have? ..do you have two dvi ports + s-video, on the back? ..or something non-standard?

 

Cheers,

bm2

[BarryBar]

BarryBar

 

I have read through that thread and I did try the advice of bm2 in the third post. When I did this I got a black screen after rebooting. So I PM'd bm2 and asked for his advice. Below is the message I wrote him and his response. Not quite sure where to go from here but I will keep trying and will provide updates whenever I make progress.

 

spenceju

 

***********************************************************************

 

bm2,

 

I tried to use your instructions on how to install kext files for the ATI 4890. I downloaded evoenabler.kext, ati4800Controller.kext, and ATIRadeonx2000.kext from your post. Then I added them to the L/S/E folder and pasted the following code in my terminal.

 

sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions;

sudo chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Extensions;

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions;

 

Upon rebooting it starts to reload and then it goes to a black screen. Am I doing something wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

spenceju

 

 

Spenceju,

 

I'm no longer using EVOenabler, since PC_EFIv10.5 now sports a fully functional graphics enabler.

 

You'll still need the 4800Controller, and RadeonX2000 kexts. I use them in conjunction with Digital_Dreamer's ud5 install script. His script works with any motherboard, -- just remove any unwanted kexts from the installer directories.

 

I'm not sure what you did wrong, but something must have been off. What brand/model of 4890 do you have? ..do you have two dvi ports + s-video, on the back? ..or something non-standard?

 

Cheers,

bm2

 

Sorry to hear your trouble. I am not using PC_EFIv10.5 yet it is great innovation for netkas. Your card is not standard since it sports hdmi displayport and dvi. Whether or not that is the cause for the black screen I do not know. On the other hand my knowledge is also limited. You could go also online on irc => irc.osx86.hu and visit the #radeonhd channel there and ask some help there with specific card.

 

Good luck