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Mac version of Graphics Cards in Hackintosh?


Wozza604
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Has anyone tried using a Mac graphics card with their Hackintosh instead of a PC one? Bootcamp comes with windows drivers for Mac graphics cards so you could still dual-boot your system with xp (possibly Vista?).

Can anyone confirm this would work before I go out and spend a premium on a Mac card?

Thanks!

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This would be really interessting to know!

 

I´m trying to get an nvidia 6600 made by Apple itself.

That is the card that was shipped by Apple with some of their G5 powermacs.

I think that this card might work "out of the box".

 

So if anyone has approved knowledge that this won´t work, please stop me now from buying this thing!

Otherwise I will let you know if it works or not.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Using Nvidia genuine mac cards in a hackintosh does work perfectly. The cards rom is split into 2 halves, the first part of the rom is fairly standard 64 kb rom and the second half is the EFI part. A hackintosh will use the first half and ignore the second EFI part so you will still need NVInject or Natit but it will work fine. I have used an Apple 7300 and Quadro FX 4500 with complete success.

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Would this mean that by flashing a PC Nvidia 6600 version, e.g., with a Mc ROM could provide a better working graphic card. My Nvidia MSI 6600 doesn´t work with any of the Natit/Titan/NVinject versions at all and I am now quite desperate to try anything just to get this damn thing to run in native mode.

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No, this is not the answer to your problem. For one, you need to replace the rom chip with a 128 kb chip (twice the size of a PC rom chip) but your PC will not understand the EFI part anyway and only read the PC part which is where you are at now, so will be no help at all. I was saying that the cards can work in a Hackintosh, but there is absolutely no point in installing a mac rom on a card that your PC Bios will not fully understand. It will only understand the PC part.

 

You don't say how much ram is onboard your card. If it is 512 mb, the rom will most likely need flashing with a modified one that has been corrected. What is the device id of your card also, check in System Profiler. A few makes of 6600 have strange device id's.

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Thank you for your fast reply, aqua-mac.

 

I am using OSX 10.5.2 kalyway, Gigabyte P965-DS3 motherboard, Intel Core2Duo E6200 (1,87Ghz standard clock), 4GB memory in Dual Channel mode at 667Mhz. Literally everything is perfectly working now, except for graphics

 

No, the device ID is standard for the card 0x0141. it comes with a revision ID, though: 0x00a2; but I think that one is unnecessary. Manufacture ID is 0x010de, standard, too.

 

I once had the luck to boot into the desktop screen while using an early version of Titan, but the OSX paniced immediately after moving some windows around.

 

It´s really weird: Now it stalls when the desktop should appear, with a black background, the native (!) resolution of my LCD (Eizo S1701, 1280x1024), and two pointers. One is stuck in the upper left corner, the other one can be moved. Shortly after doing so, the beachball comes turning endlessly. You still hear some harddisc performance, but not much else is happening otherwise.

 

With verbose booting I can´t come close to the event, as it happens after the desktop screen appears. The logs don´t show anything, no hints why the finder doesn´t start up.

 

I am also considering getting a Nvidia 7300GT or a ATI 2400 Pro, as I understand those natively supported by OSX and so more easily to support via hacks. But those dozens of different OEM manufactures in PC land drive me crazy. It seems a gamble, at least for cards older than one year. Or maybe a standard mac card, but they are eypensive, even when bought second hand.

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Hi Giffut,

 

How much memory is on your card. I will do a version of nvinject for your card forcing the memory and removing all other device id's except your one for 6600.. Also if you save your cards rom and send it, I will check it out.

 

Instructions on how to save are here.

 

There is another alternative, using GFX strings without NVInject or Natit. Instructions on how to do this are here

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  • 3 months later...

ATI RADEON 3870 pc mac edition 256-bit 512MB GDDR4 16x PCIe Video Card for the Mac Pro with two Dual-Link DVI Ports, supports two 30" displays! Supports HDMI output up to 1920x1080! (ATI100435928)

now there is a card that can do both again. in the past there were geforce 2 cards that were pc and mac compatible.

macsales are selling them :S price only 217 dollars :D any one going to give them a try?

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