ATI Radeon 6xxx, working QE/CI

[Maniac10]

Try restoring the "original" 10.6.7 kernel, I had some issues with the one in the fix.

[rasmusth]

Hey guys.

 

First of all thanks for a ton of great information. I have a hackingtosh system running 10.6.7 with the following hardware:

 

• MSI P55-G65
  
• Intel i7 860 2.8GHz
  
• Inno3D GTX285 1GB
  

At the moment my system runs decently and I have both QE/CI and OpenGL working. Performance in games however, is absolutely terrible. I can't even play Minecraft at the lowest settings with a decent framerate.

 

I've tried everything in order to improve this, but I just don't see it happening as I've had help from a lot of the very talented people on the IRC channels, and we've had no luck. For this reason I am now looking to buy one(or two) of the ATI cards. I am unsure if I should get 6850 or 6870 and also, if I should get two of them for CrossFire. I noticed you write that OS X doesn't utilize both of the cards, but if they don't, then how come both Andy and Regae get almost twice as high benchmarks as the rest of the users with single cards?

 

Any advice on specific models and other information would be great. I am really looking forward to here more about Hexidecimal's gametests, as I am hoping to be able to play just a little bit when I get new GFX(s).

 

/Rasmus

[rominator]

Not very familiar with Minecraft but from a quick Google search it looks alot like Marathon or the original Quake. Something that simple should not be taxing your system.

 

So I don't think your issue has anything to do with a GPU.

 

If you know someone you can borrow an ATI card from, I would start there. Maybe you just don't have Nvidia drivers installed right. (Better GTX285 drivers from Nvidia than Apple)

 

Crossfire is done via cables and software that runs in Windows. Just not happening in OSX, no matter how much we might like to believe otherwise.

 

If they have better benchmarks they likely have better systems and/or smaller displays.

 

The 6870 so far seems to be easiest of the ATI cards. Haven't tried 6850 so I can't comment on it.

 

But there is no reason a GTX285 can't run a simple game like that.

[rasmusth]

Not very familiar with Minecraft but from a quick Google search it looks alot like Marathon or the original Quake. Something that simple should not be taxing your system.

 

So I don't think your issue has anything to do with a GPU.

 

If you know someone you can borrow an ATI card from, I would start there. Maybe you just don't have Nvidia drivers installed right. (Better GTX285 drivers from Nvidia than Apple)

 

Crossfire is done via cables and software that runs in Windows. Just not happening in OSX, no matter how much we might like to believe otherwise.

 

If they have better benchmarks they likely have better systems and/or smaller displays.

 

The 6870 so far seems to be easiest of the ATI cards. Haven't tried 6850 so I can't comment on it.

 

But there is no reason a GTX285 can't run a simple game like that.

 

I understand what you mean ROM, however I have tried every driver available on the planet, including playing around with the power management fixes here from the forums. I even had a guy called aschar overhaul my system and we simply couldn't get it to work no matter what we tried. If it isn't a GPU problem, then I don't know what it is. Maybe it could be my motherboard?

 

Has anyone got a card on which the DisplayPort works?

 

Anyways, I will try to lend an ATI card from someone. Thanks for the quick response and nice efforts.

 

/Rasmus

[Hexidecimal]

Ras,

 

It could just be the way your nvidia card plays with osx86. I had the same issue with nvidia way back I. The 10.5 days. I had an 8800gt that wouldn't run wow to save its life and it was all in the kexts that had been released for qe/ci support. I would guess the reason that people are able to play games with these kexts is they're designed by apple to be compatible with reference ati hardware. I'll be starting the game benchmarks tonight. Planning on running tf2, portal, star craft 2 and posting an fps reference for torchlight.

 

If theres something else specific you'd like me to test let me know. If I have it I'll run through it.

 

Sent from my iPad.

 

Edit: my HD6870 works on all ports including mini display using a mini display port to dvi adapter since I don't have any native display port monitors. I use 4 monitors on my setup and all work perfectly.

[jimmijimboy]

Hi ,

I'm Using ATi HD 5550 on Snow LEopard 10.6.7 , How to make QE/CI work ?

 

VGD info :

 

Unknown:

 

Chipset Model: Unknown

Type: GPU

Bus: PCIe

Slot: Slot-1

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 256 MB

Vendor: ATI (0x1002)

Device ID: 0x68da

Revision ID: 0x0000

ROM Revision: 113-B7710C-176

EFI Driver Version: 01.00.318

Displays:

Display:

Resolution: 1024 x 768

Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Display Connector:

 

Name: ATY,Megalodon

Type: display

Driver Installed: Yes

Bus: PCI

Slot: Slot-1

Vendor ID: 0x1002

Device ID: 0x68da

Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x1462

Subsystem ID: 0x2154

Revision ID: 0x0000

Link Width: x16

Link Speed: 2.5 GT/s

 

Thanks

[rasmusth]

Hi ,

I'm Using ATi HD 5550 on Snow LEopard 10.6.7 , How to make QE/CI work ?

 

....

 

Thanks

 

Hi Jim.

 

Do you honestly expect people to do the research for you? A quick google search gave me several hits on the same problem. If you want help from people here, you should atleast describe what you've tried.

 

/Rasmus

[Guest ^Andy^]

Hi Jim.

 

Do you honestly expect people to do the research for you? A quick google search gave me several hits on the same problem. If you want help from people here, you should atleast describe what you've tried.

 

/Rasmus

 

I'm still struggling to see how a 5550 fits into the ATI Radeon 6xxx working QE/CI thread in the first place!

[jimmijimboy]

Hi Jim.

 

Do you honestly expect people to do the research for you? A quick google search gave me several hits on the same problem. If you want help from people here, you should atleast describe what you've tried.

 

/Rasmus

I'm still struggling to see how a 5550 fits into the ATI Radeon 6xxx working QE/CI thread in the first place!

hi all ,

I'am sorry, I did not mean it, I'm just a little nervous . .

However thanks for your Ati PAckage andy , I have try it with i use cabyl boot , now my vga already recognized , but still not QE/CI , I think that is not appropriate framebuffer ?

[Guest ^Andy^]

hi all ,

I'am sorry, I did not mean it, I'm just a little nervous . .

However thanks for your Ati PAckage andy , I have try it with i use cabyl boot , now my vga already recognized , but still not QE/CI , I think that is not appropriate framebuffer ?

 

 

You probably just need to add your device ID into the ATI5000Controller.kext

[mineral]

Thanks guys for all efforts. Any chance for a install with the fix included? Unfortunately it´s not working for me (same problem than "Hexiadecimal" user).

[Guest ^Andy^]

Thanks guys for all efforts. Any chance for a install with the fix included? Unfortunately it´s not working for me (same problem than "Hexiadecimal" user).

This ones a bit of a puzzle, what do you and hex have in common? are you booting with chameleon on a different drive from the os? Would it help If I just gave you the boot file to replace your existing one?

[Hexidecimal]

Started doing gaming benchmarks tonight, here's my results.

 

Starcraft II: Extreme Settings, Solid 60FPS during game play no issues whatsoever.

 

Torchlight: Maximum settings, Solid 60 FPS during game play, no issues.

 

Bejeweled 3: Runs with no problems

 

Minecraft: Runs fine, have to set render distance to normal or there's a stutter.

 

Portal & TF2: I couldn't get to launch though I think my installs may have been corrupt. The osx_hl2 icon would show up in the dock then disappear. This is the only set of games that do it. I'm redownloading TF2 now to see if it was a corrupt install. So gaming is totally possible with these cards.

[rasmusth]

Started doing gaming benchmarks tonight, here's my results.

 

Starcraft II: Extreme Settings, Solid 60FPS during game play no issues whatsoever.

 

Torchlight: Maximum settings, Solid 60 FPS during game play, no issues.

 

Bejeweled 3: Runs with no problems

 

Minecraft: Runs fine, have to set render distance to normal or there's a stutter.

 

Portal & TF2: I couldn't get to launch though I think my installs may have been corrupt. The osx_hl2 icon would show up in the dock then disappear. This is the only set of games that do it. I'm redownloading TF2 now to see if it was a corrupt install. So gaming is totally possible with these cards.

 

Sounds awesome man. Looking forward to getting my card, I ordered the exact same one as you have. Thanks for doing the tests, I really appreciate that you included minecraft.

 

A new version of Lion was released today. Might be worth for the 69xx users to tak a look at the ATI kexts from there.

 

/Rasmus

[Hexidecimal]

No problem.

 

Also further tests TF2/Portal re-installs did nothing to fix that issue. I'm guessing they haven't been updated to work with the new MBP hardware yet. Not sure what causes the Minecraft stutter at Far viewing distance other then I think the chunk generation causes hiccups.

 

Also, The Dolphin Gamecube/Wii emulator crashes on load, but I'm pretty sure that's an issue with the emulator as people on proper apple hardware are reporting the same things. Not sure though, works great in Windows.

[haysoos123]

I was just about to post a question asking whether anyone could get Steam source games to work. I'm running the MBP drivers on an HIS 6870, and other games seem to work fine. When I try to run either of the Left 4 Dead games or TF2 or other source games, they try to load briefly and just quit with no error messages or anything.

I run chameleon RC4 on a GA-EP35-DS3R. I haven't run into any other problems other than the ones already documented.

 

No problem.

 

Also further tests TF2/Portal re-installs did nothing to fix that issue. I'm guessing they haven't been updated to work with the new MBP hardware yet. Not sure what causes the Minecraft stutter at Far viewing distance other then I think the chunk generation causes hiccups.

 

Also, The Dolphin Gamecube/Wii emulator crashes on load, but I'm pretty sure that's an issue with the emulator as people on proper apple hardware are reporting the same things. Not sure though, works great in Windows.

[Guest ^Andy^]

No problem.

 

Also further tests TF2/Portal re-installs did nothing to fix that issue. I'm guessing they haven't been updated to work with the new MBP hardware yet. Not sure what causes the Minecraft stutter at Far viewing distance other then I think the chunk generation causes hiccups.

 

Also, The Dolphin Gamecube/Wii emulator crashes on load, but I'm pretty sure that's an issue with the emulator as people on proper apple hardware are reporting the same things. Not sure though, works great in Windows.

 

Hex - I know you had problems installing the bug fix package so can you try manaually replacing your boot file with a freshly compiled one http://www.mediafire.com/?twdqa454new3ay6 instead of using the package installer please.

 

See if that one works for you. I've recompiled it to default to 'Gibba' for the 6870's as I beleive that's the correct framebuffer personality for that card but as always you can select whichever one you want by using the AtiConfig command. Be sure to set GraphicsEnabler to Yes in com.apple.boot.plist or use GraphicsEnabler=y kernel flag otherwise it will default to the standard RadeonFrameBuffer.

[Hexidecimal]

Hex - I know you had problems installing the bug fix package so can you try manaually replacing your boot file with a freshly compiled one http://www.mediafire.com/?twdqa454new3ay6 instead of using the package installer please.

 

See if that one works for you. I've recompiled it to default to 'Gibba' for the 6870's as I beleive that's the correct framebuffer personality for that card but as always you can select whichever one you want by using the AtiConfig command. Be sure to set GraphicsEnabler to Yes in com.apple.boot.plist or use GraphicsEnabler=y kernel flag otherwise it will default to the standard RadeonFrameBuffer.

 

Sure ^Andy^. Where should I put that file?

[Regi Yassin]

Sure ^Andy^. Where should I put that file?

just replace boot file on the snow leopard disk.

 

Cmiiw andy hhe

[Guest ^Andy^]

just replace boot file on the snow leopard disk.

 

Cmiiw andy hhe

 

Just replace the existing (hidden) boot file on the root of your boot drive. You may want to find a nifty little application called 'ShowAllFiles' to allow you to see and rename/copy/replace the existing file.

 

As a precaution make sure you have a working boot cd to hand just in case it doesn't work!

[Hexidecimal]

Tried it before I went to work this morning. Backed up my existing boot file first incase something went wrong. Still didn't work, same thing happens. When I attempt to boot to the snow leopard drive the machine just kicks back to the bios and loops endlessly.

 

Booted to windows and restored my original boot file with macdrive and everything is running fine again now. Could the problem be you're using the new sandy bridge stuff and I'm still on an i7 920? Not sure what the difference between our setups is otherwise. Like I said everything is running fine without the new boot file except geek bench and dvd player but I wont use either of those anyways. Hope that the source games get updated soon so i can test those again. Thanks for all your help Andy.

[mjgunn]

Is anyone in here using a Apple Cinema Display with these drivers on a 6xxx series card? Read a few people saying that their ACD that was working on a 5xxx card prior to these drivers doesn't work anymore, causing them to revert to the 10.6.6 solutions (which of course isn't an option for a 6xxx series card)

[Guest ^Andy^]

Tried it before I went to work this morning. Backed up my existing boot file first incase something went wrong. Still didn't work, same thing happens. When I attempt to boot to the snow leopard drive the machine just kicks back to the bios and loops endlessly.

 

Booted to windows and restored my original boot file with macdrive and everything is running fine again now. Could the problem be you're using the new sandy bridge stuff and I'm still on an i7 920? Not sure what the difference between our setups is otherwise. Like I said everything is running fine without the new boot file except geek bench and dvd player but I wont use either of those anyways. Hope that the source games get updated soon so i can test those again. Thanks for all your help Andy.

 

I suspect the difference is more likely that you are using a totally different version of chameleon - do you know which version you are using - If I can find the correct source code I can probably build the correct version for you.

[injectxnl]

Hi guys,

 

I'm mostly active on tony's osx86 forum but i had a question which you might know.

 

A user named "douche", got his Radeon 6870 detected correctly by System Profiler, everything works (even DVD player) with Andy's fix. He did the following:

 

1. Start with [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url]-Legacy & install MacOsx10.6.3

2. Upd 10.6.7 & install BridgeHelper

3. [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] (check repair permissions and chache)

check: ATI drivers, Chamelion SandyBridge, Boot 32 bit GE=No

4. restart from hdd & repair permissions in macos

5. install this fix from Andy (InsanelyMac) http://www.mediafire.com/?r52bv1otbovc9ci

6. restart, GE should be YES, and now you can try to boot in 64bit (arch=x86_64).

 

Well, since I have the same Radeon 6870 but no Sandybridge, I wanted the same. Because DVD player crashing.. ok I can live with that. But I do like to play a Steam game every once and a while. So I decided to reinstall my hackintosh and did the following:

 

1. Start with [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] + "GraphicsEnabler=No" & Install Mac OSX 10.6.3

2. Updated to 10.6.7 (no bridgehelper because that's for sandybridge chipsets, right?)

3. [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] with: ATI drivers, Chameleon standard, 32-Bit Apple Bootscreen, GraphicsEnabler=No

4. Reboot & Repair permissions using Disk Utility

5. Installed the fix. Worked this time! Except I got a message during install that ATIRadeon3xxx.kext didn't work on my system (or something like that). Install finished though.

6. Reboot .. Still Radeon NI40 and DVD Player crashing

7. Douche said something about GraphicsEnabler=Yes, so i did that also

8. Reboot but after the grey boot screen it's all black

 

Is it something with the SandyBridge Chameleon bootloader that is missing in the default?

[rasmusth]

Okay now I've received the card and I'm having problems. I tried the followong:

 

With my old GTX285 still in I installed the package with the new drivers from Andy and rebooted. Then I installed the fix package and rebooted again. I booted my computer down and installed the new Radeon card instead(XFX 6850 since 6870 was suddenly sold out). I booted my computer using GraphicsEnabler = Yes and experienced the same performance in everything as I had before. Then I tried with GraphicsEnabler = No, and it is exactly the same.

 

This is my Cinebench result with both Yes and No in GraphicsEnabler:

 

 

This is my info in system profiler:

 

 

My kexts in /Extra/Extensions/:

 

• EvOreboot.kext
  
• FakeSMC.kext
  
• IONetworkingFamily.kext
  

I had a DSDT but I tried deleting it and rebuilt permissions afterwards, rebooted and no luck.

 

I am obviously thinking that something else than my GFX is wrong, but have no idea what and how to solve it. Please help. If any of you experts have time you can send me a pm and maybe you can help me through teamviewer/chat or something similar.

 

/Rasmus