10.6.7 Native ATi 5xxx/6xxx Cards which work (and don't)

[injectx]

Yeah that card most probably will work but it hasn't been tested yet so if you wanna be 100% sure, go with one of the cards in the opening post.

 

[mjgunn]

I know a couple of people have been waiting to hear about this card so here goes

SUCCESS

Brand=XFX
Model=6870 HD-687A-ZDFC (New twin blade cooler model)
Device ID=0x6738
Multibeast=3.4 & Andy's Fix
MacOS=10.6.7
Reported by=MJGunn

Using duckweed all ports work and my Apple Cinema Display is working perfectly (want to say thanks to injectx for helping me with this). Cinebench, Steam Games, DVD player, etc, all work.

Cinebench score of 33.17. Never paid attention to Cinebench before so I don't know if that's good or bad. All I can say is I booted into WoW and flew around Stormwind for a few minutes (at 10:30 on a weekend so it was prime time) on ultra settings and it performed roughly equivalently to the 5850 it is replacing. Flew out to Twilight Highlands to spots which always tanked the FPS on the 5850 and again the 6870 performed very similarly.

The part I was most interested in with this card though was the cooler performance, specifically the noise level. I'm thrilled to say that the card is DEAD silent at idle, and pretty much the same at full load. Using MSI Kombustor in Windows along with GPU-Z shows the fan spinning at 21% when idle. I used Kombustor to stress the card at 99% for 10 minutes and the fan was still silent, it only spun up to 33% and kept the card running at only 74 degrees. This was with the side of the case open so in a closed computer the temp may go up a bit/spin the fan a bit faster, but I am not at all concerned about the noise level, I'm very impressed.

 

[jpa]

I know a couple of people have been waiting to hear about this card so here goes

SUCCESS

Brand=XFX
Model=6870 HD-687A-ZDFC (New twin blade cooler model)
Device ID=(Forgot to grab it! I'll edit it in when I build the rest of my machine this week)
Multibeast=3.4 & Andy's Fix
MacOS=10.6.7
Reported by=MJGunn

Using duckweed all ports work and my Apple Cinema Display is working perfectly (want to say thanks to injectx for helping me with this). Cinebench, Steam Games, DVD player, etc, all work.

Cinebench score of 33.17. Never paid attention to Cinebench before so I don't know if that's good or bad. All I can say is I booted into WoW and flew around Stormwind for a few minutes (at 10:30 on a weekend so it was prime time) on ultra settings and it performed roughly equivalently to the 5850 it is replacing. Flew out to Twilight Highlands to spots which always tanked the FPS on the 5850 and again the 6870 performed very similarly.

The part I was most interested in with this card though was the cooler performance, specifically the noise level. I'm thrilled to say that the card is DEAD silent at idle, and pretty much the same at full load. Using MSI Kombustor in Windows along with GPU-Z shows the fan spinning at 21% when idle. I used Kombustor to stress the card at 99% for 10 minutes and the fan was still silent, it only spun up to 33% and kept the card running at only 74 degrees. This was with the side of the case open so in a closed computer the temp may go up a bit/spin the fan a bit faster, but I am not at all concerned about the noise level, I'm very impressed.

mm 33 fps.. mmm is Macpro 3.1?

 

[mjgunn]

I THINK I have it set to a Macpro 3,1. I used my girlfriend's computer (which was mine until a few days ago) and plugged in my OS X hard drive and the card just to try it out. I'm building a new machine this week (all the parts will be here Wednesday) so I'll be able to get the device id and stuff then.

Is 33 any good? Like I said, never really paid attention to Cinebench scores previously.

 

[jpa]

I THINK I have it set to a Macpro 3,1. I used my girlfriend's computer (which was mine until a few days ago) and plugged in my OS X hard drive and the card just to try it out. I'm building a new machine this week (all the parts will be here Wednesday) so I'll be able to get the device id and stuff then.

Is 33 any good? Like I said, never really paid attention to Cinebench scores previously.

important yes, for games better and graphics...

points
viewtopic.php?f=79&t=16648&start=20

 

[eelhead]

OK I have my machine up and running with a Sapphire 6870 HD off minidisplay port on my 24" Apple display.

DvD and Geekbench crash. Cinibench was 31

Were do I get the device ID and how to I put the info in so It reads as such on the info spot in my computer?

I also don't have a clue with step 3
"Finder, go to /Extra > com.apple.Boot.plist and make sure you have the following lines:"
I don't see the /Extra and I also am not under standing how you change stuff. Maybe it's something very simple I am over looking?

Edit: I love google and youtube lol, I found what I need to do. I will do it later today when I get home.

 

[Gordo74]

Sorry if it's a bit redundant (long thread to dig through) but any news/experiences on application and game compatibility? Last I knew DVD Player wouldn't work and possibly other things - but with the other things it was never entirely clear whether it was user error or other unrelated issues.

Are they stable now that people have had them going for a few weeks?

If all that's broken is DVD Player I'm inclined to switch from my Fermi, as it'd beat freezing once or twice a day.

No problems once you install ^Andy^'s bootloader and set graphicsenabler to yes.

 

[snoopy12533]

I just wanted to report in on my ASUS EAH6850 DC/2DIS/1GD5/V2 Radeon HD 6850 1GB device id 0x6739. Using the standard Chameleon bootloader and the ati driver from multibeast 3.4 I have 2 monitors running one on hdmi and one on dvi. It seems to run almost perfect aside from the dvd player crashing and steam games not running. I also have tried the ati experimental boot-loader as well as andy s boot-loader with Graphicsenabler=yes and I went through 11 different frame-buffers and the best results that I got were a single monitor connected through hdmi dvd player ran with artifacts, and steam games ran but had graphics corruption. Unfortunately for me I hastily bought 2 new gfx cards without really researching first. My old 9800 gtx was fine but for some reason I could never get full screen games to work.

 

[eelhead]

Yeah as for me Sapphire 6870 HD I can't get Any's fix to work. Been at this for the day and still no DVD and Geekbench and of course the ID doesn't show.

I followed injectx guide but still nothing, don't know if I'm missing something or not.
The only thing I didn't do was step 4 because I dont know where the boot file is.

Also should I be staggering the plist line code he has listed in step three or is it supossed to be straight down or does it even matter?

 

[injectx]

@injectx I'm planning on getting a second XFX with the two fans on them but, im scared to find out if they are able to crossfire with the different type? the older 6870 vs the newer one with two fans etc). and then what would ya think about being able to crossfire both in mac osx is that even possible right now?

I'm not sure about the crossfire but i always thought that the GPU just has to be the same. So my guess is that it will work (in Windows). I once read about a crossfire setup working in OSX (2 gpu's detected), not sure which topic though, can't seem to find it anymore..

Sorry if it's a bit redundant (long thread to dig through) but any news/experiences on application and game compatibility? Last I knew DVD Player wouldn't work and possibly other things - but with the other things it was never entirely clear whether it was user error or other unrelated issues.

Are they stable now that people have had them going for a few weeks?

If all that's broken is DVD Player I'm inclined to switch from my Fermi, as it'd beat freezing once or twice a day.

I have it working for about 2 weeks now (Radeon 6870). Everything working, even Steam games. Thing is though, there is some kind of gamma issue which turns up the gamma to very high level in Steam games. Don't really know to what this is related yet (possible anti-aliasing). Apart from that I seem to have some issues with tearing and desktop effects but that could be card-related(defect), not really sure though).

Yeah as for me Sapphire 6870 HD I can't get Any's fix to work. Been at this for the day and still no DVD and Geekbench and of course the ID doesn't show.

I followed injectx guide but still nothing, don't know if I'm missing something or not.
The only thing I didn't do was step 4 because I dont know where the boot file is.

Also should I be staggering the plist line code he has listed in step three or is it supossed to be straight down or does it even matter?

Well step 4 is only if the package installation failed. Did it fail? And yes step 3 is essential for the correct framebuffer.