ATI 5770 and Apple 27"

[justr]

Ok. Not ideal, nor elegant.

Replace the following 3 kexts from System/ Library/ Extensions with the same kexts from 10.6.7 (then rebuild cache + repair permissions... I used multibeast for this).

-ATI5000Controller
-ATIFramebuffer
-ATISupport

I am posting this from 10.7 w/ rig in signature w/ XFX 5770 single slot.

 

[macspear]

Hey Justruss - many thanks for your reply!
would be cool if it works that way - if updates become to much of a hassle one could still go for the 6870....

 

[justr]

Hey Justruss - many thanks for your reply!
would be cool if it works that way - if updates become to much of a hassle one could still go for the 6870....

I'm just hoping I can hold off long enough to get a 7xxx series GPU. The 6870 is a GREAT GPU, but I'd wait, if I can, for a bigger jump (6950/70 also possible once OS X supports it). And I want 2 GB or more VRAM when I update-- for driving the big monitor.

 

[Say Heading]

Ok. Not ideal, nor elegant.

Not ideal - maybe: This solution drops my CineBench score from around 50 down to around 32. But definitely more elegant than having a dark unusable hole on the desktop...
So let´s just wait for a more ideal solution to come

For those who try it out: I got failure messages (like software extension could not be installed) right when replacing those kexts. Never mind, just run MultiBeast->SysUtils.
I actually did that twice, once after replacement, reboot -x and again, otherwise I could not get into desktop in the first place.

Update: Just noticed that the monitor control panel misbehaves. The DP monitor seems to be default primary, but moving the menu bar to the DVI monitor just changes menu and dock, but dialogs still pop up on the DP monitor. Maybe too early to rely on it...

 

[macspear]

Guys what are you using to activate the 5770?
Thing is when I used Snow Leopard - I used the Lion ATi Kexts to make it work via graphicsenabler = Yes. So it worked straight out of the box.

So, to use the older SL Kexts in Lion I will have to settle for another activation method right?

 

[macspear]

hmm straight replacing the kexts - and some next wizard treatment resulted in a kernel panic on boot.
I might have to spend some more time with this ..hmmm

 

[justr]

There seems to be different versions of the same video card-- without being labeled as different. Some people report trouble getting 5770 w/ DP to work with the ACD using the DP to mini DP cables. Others have no problems at all. This also applies to the 5870.

Of course this is strange, because DP to mini DP should just be a cable that doesn't actually do any conversion... just changes plug size. That said, the issue has been raised that it's the DP or mini DP and firmware issue that causes funky behavior with certain 5xxx cards.

Also, I have the XFX single slot 5770 with native mini DP. In runs my ACD 27 in 10.6.7 OOB. In 10.6.8 and 10.7, it won't run the ACD 27 OOB. There are two potential fixes, one involves setting a custom framebuffer and using a custom ATI5000Controller kext. I haven't done this yet. The other solution is to use the 10.6.7 ATI kexts (specfically: ATI5000Controller, ATIFramebuffer, and ATISupport) instead of those versions that come with 10.6.8 or 10.7. This solution isn't ideal because that means using slightly older drivers-- which might be slightly lower performance. I'm currently using that solution.

Funny, after upgrading to Lion, but using 10.6.7 kexts, my Cinebench FPS when from 32.32 to 35.75. So, presumably, even though I'm using the old kexts, Lion is feeding the card more efficiently.

 

[redratto]

Not sure what I can add to the discussion but here are my experiences on running Lion (10.7 below) with XFX HD-577X-ZMF3 and Apple Cinema Display on MiniDP. My system info is in signature.

OSX 10.6.7: Graphics work OOB. Used GraphicsEnabler=Yes.
OSX 10.6.8: Graphics work with modifications. Used GraphicsEnabler=Yes. Also, used ATISupport, ATIFramebuffer, and ATI5000Controller from 10.6.7 to get fully working graphics.
OSX 10.7: Black screen. I have found two solution, none of which are perfect:

I can get the ACD working in 10.7 if I replace the ATI kexts with the ATI kexts from 10.6.7 or from 10.6.8 (with modifications listed above). Problem with both these methods is that the system is really slow; for example, Launchpad take 5+ sec to load and iWork does not show cursor. My guess is no acceleration.

The second solution involves the vanilla 10.7 kexts, but with minor edit to the ATI5000Controller kext. In info.plist I rename the Langur framebuffer to Velvet. This gets 10.7 and ADP to load on MiniDP. Still, however, the system is really slow--no acceleration.

For what it is worth the problem seems to be that Chimera injects the Velvet framebuffer for my card. If you check ATI5000Controller on 10.7, however, only four framebuffers are listed and Velvet is not one of them. The first solution above use old kexts that include the Velvet framebuffer and the second solution simply tricks the system to load the Langur framebuffer.

From reading other posts here at tonymacx86 and the netkas forum, it seems that there may be a third solution. This solution assumes that the 10.7 kexts already work with fine my card, but that the MiniDP is not loaded with the vanilla framebuffer since my card is not a reference card. This can easily be verified by using another screen that has a DVI connector on my card (will try this weekend). If this is the case, then it should be possible to activate the MiniDP port on the card and run vanilla in 10.7.

Any comments and suggestions appreciated.

 

[justr]

Not sure what I can add to the discussion but here are my experiences on running Lion (10.7 below) with XFX HD-577X-ZMF3 and Apple Cinema Display on MiniDP. My system info is in signature.

OSX 10.6.7: Graphics work OOB. Used GraphicsEnabler=Yes.
OSX 10.6.8: Graphics work with modifications. Used GraphicsEnabler=Yes. Also, used ATISupport, ATIFramebuffer, and ATI5000Controller from 10.6.7 to get fully working graphics.
OSX 10.7: Black screen. I have found two solution, none of which are perfect:

I can get the ACD working in 10.7 if I replace the ATI kexts with the ATI kexts from 10.6.7 or from 10.6.8 (with modifications listed above). Problem with both these methods is that the system is really slow; for example, Launchpad take 5+ sec to load and iWork does not show cursor. My guess is no acceleration.

The second solution involves the vanilla 10.7 kexts, but with minor edit to the ATI5000Controller kext. In info.plist I rename the Langur framebuffer to Velvet. This gets 10.7 and ADP to load on MiniDP. Still, however, the system is really slow--no acceleration.

For what it is worth the problem seems to be that Chimera injects the Velvet framebuffer for my card. If you check ATI5000Controller on 10.7, however, only four framebuffers are listed and Velvet is not one of them. The first solution above use old kexts that include the Velvet framebuffer and the second solution simply tricks the system to load the Langur framebuffer.

From reading other posts here at tonymacx86 and the netkas forum, it seems that there may be a third solution. This solution assumes that the 10.7 kexts already work with fine my card, but that the MiniDP is not loaded with the vanilla framebuffer since my card is not a reference card. This can easily be verified by using another screen that has a DVI connector on my card (will try this weekend). If this is the case, then it should be possible to activate the MiniDP port on the card and run vanilla in 10.7.

Any comments and suggestions appreciated.

I've got the same card. I get full acceleration and speed using the 3 10.6.7 ATI kexts in S/L/E for my Lion install. To be more specific, those are kexts version 1.6.26. In fact, these kexts (1.6.26) in lion give me 35 FPS in Cinebech, vs. 32 with the same kexts but the rest of the system also 10.6.7.

Further, I can confirm that using this card-- same as you-- DVI works fine with Lion and Lion original ATI kexts. In other words, 10.7 works fine with this card-- but mini DP is simply not working when the ATI kexts included in Lion are used instead of the 10.6.7 kexts.

 

[redratto]

...

I've got the same card. I get full acceleration and speed using the 3 10.6.7 ATI kexts in S/L/E for my Lion install. To be more specific, those are kexts version 1.6.26. In fact, these kexts (1.6.26) in lion give me 35 FPS in Cinebech, vs. 32 with the same kexts but the rest of the system also 10.6.7.

Further, I can confirm that using this card-- same as you-- DVI works fine with Lion and Lion original ATI kexts. In other words, 10.7 works fine with this card-- but mini DP is simply not working when the ATI kexts included in Lion are used instead of the 10.6.7 kexts.

Right now I am running Lion 10.7 with vanilla kexts on ATI 5770 (XFX HD-577X-ZMF3) and ACD 27” connected to MiniDP with full acceleration. Cinebench score of 37.

Anyways, here is what I did. Used vanilla kexts for 10.7. In ATI5000Controller.kext, opened Info.plist and replaced Langur with Vervet. Saved and repaired permissions. That’s it.

The reason acceleration did not work before was that I was missing the ATIRadeonX3000 plugin and bundle files--not sure why they did not copy over.

Regarding the framebuffer discussion from above, turns out the drivers for the Vervet framebuffer, while not mentioned in Info.plist of the ATI5000Controller.kext, are present in the controller file. When you open the controller file in Hexedit you can see references to Vervet. Without a reference to Vervet in ATI5000Controller.kext only the DVI ports will work on the card. By replacing Langur with Vervet, the system activates the MiniDP on the card again.