Jump to content
6 posts in this topic

Recommended Posts

Anandtech has a review of this card and it looks to be pretty promising. I'd like to know if it works with OSx86 before I buy. If someone could post their results that would be fantastic! I'd also be interested in a dump of the cards BIOS, size and type of flash memory ect..

 

For those who haven't checked out the review yet, here it is.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2502

 

~tweaker

I, too, have thought about getting this card...

 

But I'm guessing that its going to detect its in a PC and use the PC BIOS, not the Mac, even in OS X. On top of that, ATi's mac drivers will be in PPC code, not x86... Therefore, they're useless unless Apple comes up with a way to translate PPC kexts into x86 kexts on the fly, with something similar to Rosetta, which currently does not exist.

 

The kexts that come with OS X x86 are considered incomplete and therefore useless, so its probably a useless buy unless a 9600 Pro is faster than the card you have now.

  • 4 weeks later...
I, too, have thought about getting this card...

 

But I'm guessing that its going to detect its in a PC and use the PC BIOS, not the Mac, even in OS X. On top of that, ATi's mac drivers will be in PPC code, not x86... Therefore, they're useless unless Apple comes up with a way to translate PPC kexts into x86 kexts on the fly, with something similar to Rosetta, which currently does not exist.

 

The kexts that come with OS X x86 are considered incomplete and therefore useless, so its probably a useless buy unless a 9600 Pro is faster than the card you have now.

 

Youre right. I bought a ATI 9200 PCI edition, and I flashed with MAC version bios......the mainboard couldnt recognize.

About this New ATI card...........

I for one think that this just may be the solution, although i haven't yet had the chance to test it.

If u think of it, the problem we have with the graphics is that none of our cars is mac compatible, cause the drivers in osx86 are for mac cards only (and gma900) and therefore cannot wok properly. And even if they are ppc drivers I don't think that should count, cause they are working (graphics, that is), although tey are recognized only as VESA compatible cards. So if there would be a mac graphic card that could work in a pc (we all know that u cannot just take the gc out of a mac and put it in a pc, cause they have different bios and connectors), there could be a possibility that it would work (with some adjusments maybe, or if nothing else maybe it would be easier to adjust that current drivers to work than we are doing now). I know there is also a chance that it would be the same with this new card as it was with all the other, but i guess no one has tested it yet.

And also ask yourself, why would ati be even introducing this new "3 year old" card that is pc/mac compatible if not for the purpuses of running it on intel mac (and also for upgrading current macs). The thing is that now all we have to do is see if it works. I am still waiting for the card as i have ordered it from a friends shop, so I'm gonna test it a.s.a.p., but as i am not a coder it would be good for all of us if someone else could test this also....

 

P.S.

I posted about this card also a couple of weeks ago but no one really cared about that too much, so I hope that this time some one else could also do some research about it....:))))))

It won't work, because the computer will power on, the video card will see the BIOS and be like "oh hey...this is a PC...it has a BIOS...no need to load this Mac ROM" and load as a normal 9600 Pro. Then it'll get into OS X which has no drivers for the ATi cards, and you'll be back to square one.

The Mac video card has nothing to do with it...those are designed for a PowerPC architecture with Open Firmware, and if thats what it finds it'll switch into Mac mode. But since the PC has a BIOS, it'll just run as a PC video card or won't boot at all (if Mac only).

×
×
  • Create New...