Gigabyte Radeon HD 6670

[vienna01]

I have been reading this thread. As I understand it. Folks have gotten the Radeon 6670 to work in both 10.6.7, 10.6.8 and 10.7.2 with different .plist statements. Unfortunately I don't understand the postings well enough to actually do any video card fixes/installs.I am especially confused because folks talk about many steps not being required because latest Multibeast fixes them & yet everything still seems to be still required.

It would be great if someone WHO UNDERSTAND THIS, can summarize all the things you need to do to get the 6670 working with QE/CI etc.

Here are some issues that I think need to be included. [I'm sure I don't even know the correct questions to ask].

Does the 6670 need to be flashed to something else? If so what? What is the procedure for doing that? [I've seen several posts about that but can't understand how it is done.]
Do you need to adjust frame buffers as part of the flashing or where do you change frame buffers? What are the procedures for changing FBs to what is needed?[obviously I don't understand FBs].

After the 6670 is flashed, what needs to be done for:
10.6.7 ?
10.6.8 ?
10.7.2 ?

I saw that somebody said if we flash the 6670 we no longer can use it for a Windows build?
I think they said that was because the WIN 7 driver will no longer work with the 6670 masquerading as 5770.? True? Is there a solution to this problem for folks that need both OSX and Win7?

What are some 6670 cards that work using these procedures ?
What cards appear to add special extra problems and don't work yet?


With all the special fixes needed to get 6670 to work, is there another Radeon card that will work OOB or without flashing etc. which has about the same performance as the 5770/6670 and is in the same price range $75 [after rebate] to $110 ?

I know summarizing things, even using a lot of cut & paste, can be a great amount of work. It will be very helpful to the many folks who are posting problems concerning 5770/6670.

If I could understand these things, I would do it.

OBW: A little personal background. From my signature below you might notice that I am ready to take the big upgrade step from my very basic 8400 to something orders better [and around $100 USD]. I have been trying to edit video. I believe a faster card will help my output.
I am taking over 10 years of Hi8, 8mm, & VHS video tape, editing it, and converting to a DVD playable on a regular DVD player. I even bought a used camcorder to play some of the tapes. I no longer had a working camcorder.I plan to sell it after I complete the conversion. I use a digital camera for videos now.

 

[Gwattymoose]

I had trouble understanding parts of this thread, so your not alone! Have a look at this one.

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=27427

Shurt's instructions are simple, and if you look down to the bottom I've tried to put in simple terms what I did to get the card working.

I didn't need to flash this card, sounds dangerous, and I wouldn't know where to start!

 

[vienna01]

Were you able to get QE/CI in SL and Lion or just LION?

Glad to read that you didn't have to flash the card. Did you need to do anything in addition to adding/changing the frame buffer?

How does a person decide which frame buffer to install, trial & error? Is there any particular symptom that indicates there is a FRAME BUFFER problem?

Yes, the post from Shurt in the thread you listed, is clear in respect to installing FB.

I think it would still be very valuable for some expert-in-residence to summarize all that. Maybe the tonymac editors will do that in their blog HINT HINT

I hope they scan the posts for references to themselves.

 

[Shurt]

Were you able to get QE/CI in SL and Lion or just LION?

Glad to read that you didn't have to flash the card. Did you need to do anything in addition to adding/changing the frame buffer?

How does a person decide which frame buffer to install, trial & error? Is there any particular symptom that indicates there is a FRAME BUFFER problem?

Yes, the post from Shurt in the thread you listed, is clear in respect to installing FB.

I think it would still be very valuable for some expert-in-residence to summarize all that. Maybe the tonymac editors will do that in their blog HINT HINT

I hope they scan the posts for references to themselves.

Sorry I haven't been around, been busy these last few days.

The 6670, while not as easy as initially thought, is a great card if all you need is a bit more power than the HD 3000 offers. And the good news is that it does work, to varying degrees, in Lion (10.7, 10.7.1 and 10.7.2) and probably Snow Leopard as well (though, I never explicitly tried it, as I went straight to Lion with my Hackintosh).

In Snow Leopard, and indeed 10.7/10.7.1, the frame buffer that is used is Bulrushes. Using this, you get everything (QE/CI, GeekBench, DVD Player, etc). If you're running a Hackintosh with one of those versions and want to test it before you take the plunge, type "AtiConfig=Bulrushes" at the Chimera bootloader. To definitively test whether or not it worked, you need IORegistryExplorer from XCode or from this post. From there, after forcing the Bulrushes frame buffer and returning to your desktop, open up a Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/) window and then type, "ioreg | grep ATY" to get some information. If it says something about Bulrushes, you should be fine.

Now, in 10.7.2, things are a bit different depending on how you're using the card. Since 10.7.2, my DVI port is basically dead using the Bulrushes frame buffer, and I've yet to figure out a solution. Using HDMI, however, works perfectly fine.

Now, to answer your questions directly:

Does the 6670 need to be flashed?
Nope, though, it can be if you want to. From what I understand, it is the same hardware as the 5570, which works out-of-the-box in OS X.

Do you need to adjust frame buffers as part of the flashing or where do you change frame buffers?

Yup, unfortunately, frame buffers are one of the caveats of this card.

What are the procedures for changing FBs to what is needed?[obviously I don't understand FBs].

To force a specific frame buffer, use "AtiConfig=" (typed exactly like that) with the frame buffer after it. That will force Chimera to attempt to load a specific frame buffer during the boot up. Most of them are going to fail, and a number of them will refuse to load the desktop at all. In these scenarios, just reboot and the frame buffer won't be forced to whatever didn't work when you get back in.

What are some 6670 cards that work using these procedures ?

I'm using the Gigabyte Radeon HD 6670, 1GB, which was formally one of the recommended components on TonyMac's CustoMacs. For obvious reasons, he removed it. In regards to how well it works with these procedures, it works as great as can be expected, with the possible exception of the DVI port (in 10.7.2) which could be a deal-breaker for some.

How does a person decide which frame buffer to install, trial & error? Is there any particular symptom that indicates there is a FRAME BUFFER problem?

Yup, trial and error is the best way that I've found. I'm sure you could do some research on Gigabyte's or AMD's websites to find the technical documents for the cards and it might yield some results, but trial and error was faster (and more fun, for me at least). As for a particular symptom, well, not really. Until you need it, that is. Try to open up DVD Player, or download GeekBench and attempt to open it up. If they instantly crash, you're likely looking at a frame buffer problem. The more technical way to see this symptom would be to run "ioreg | grep ATY" in a Terminal window (as mentioned above). If you get something like this:

Shurts-Mac-Pro:~ Shurt$ ioreg | grep ATY
    | |   |   | +-o ATY,ATY,RadeonFramebuffer@0  <class AtiFbStub, id 0x1000002$
    | |   |   | +-o ATY,ATY,RadeonFramebuffer@1  <class AtiFbStub, id 0x1000002$
    | |   |   | +-o ATY,ATY,RadeonFramebuffer@2  <class AtiFbStub, id 0x1000002$

It'll be a frame buffer problem. What you want to get is this:

Shurts-Mac-Pro:~ Shurt$ ioreg | grep ATY
    | |   |   | +-o ATY,Bulrushes@0  <class AtiFbStub, id 0x100000314, register$
    | |   |   | +-o ATY,Bulrushes@1  <class AtiFbStub, id 0x100000315, register$
    | |   |   | +-o ATY,Bulrushes@2  <class AtiFbStub, id 0x100000316, register$

My apologies if that isn't very clear or if I missed a question. Bit late here. Let me know if I can help, though, I'll admit, I only built my first Hackintosh back in July, so I'm a bit new at this as well.

 

[Martytoof]

In Snow Leopard, and indeed 10.7/10.7.1, the frame buffer that is used is Bulrushes. Using this, you get everything (QE/CI, GeekBench, DVD Player, etc).

I don't want to nitpick, but you do not get everything. DPMS sleep is still broken as far as I know. This feature was important enough to me that I ended up ditching the 6670 for a 6870.

Having to worry about remembering whether I turned off my monitor if I walked away from my computer for any period of time was maddening. I understand that some people turn off their computers when they're away from their desk or put them to sleep and this doesn't affect them, but I think it's important to point out what doesn't work as much as it is to point out what DOES work so someone in my position can make a decision they won't regret down the road.

 

[Shurt]

In Snow Leopard, and indeed 10.7/10.7.1, the frame buffer that is used is Bulrushes. Using this, you get everything (QE/CI, GeekBench, DVD Player, etc).

I don't want to nitpick, but you do not get everything. DPMS sleep is still broken as far as I know. This feature was important enough to me that I ended up ditching the 6670 for a 6870.

Having to worry about remembering whether I turned off my monitor if I walked away from my computer for any period of time was maddening. I understand that some people turn off their computers when they're away from their desk or put them to sleep and this doesn't affect them, but I think it's important to point out what doesn't work as much as it is to point out what DOES work so someone in my position can make a decision they won't regret down the road.

Ah yes, you're right. I forgot about that. I just turn my monitor off when I'm done using it, so sleep wasn't something I was concerned with.

 

[vienna01]

Shurt,
Thank you for the very "generous" detailed reply to my questions. I brings me up a bit on understanding the Frame Buffer issues with ATI video cards.

Being a VERY old timer, I think I understand a tiny bit about frame buffers "in the day". They were mostly or all hardware that mapped to pixels to be displayed by the monitor. The CPU told the FB what to display and the FB "translated/mapped" that for the monitor. Correct?

Now when we assert a FB type such as "Bulrushes", are we telling the video card's frame buffer which one of several FB types it should use? Or is there a kext in between providing a layer of abstraction?

I guess Apple did that in any system release [the kernel?] that supports a new card? It's easier because they control the hardware and only support a limited number of video cards? Is that why a Hackintosh trying to use a video card not supported by Apple requires fixes like those described for the 6670?

Would it be better for me to ask questions like these in an other sub-forum? I don't want to hijack the thread.

EDIT: I just saw that a new Chimera version provides additional support for the 6670 and other recent ATI cards.I wonder what additional support means. The tonymac Blog also said "Proper drivers are required for full graphics support". Do you think that means modified kexts are also needed?

 

[Shurt]

Shurt,
Thank you for the very "generous" detailed reply to my questions. I brings me up a bit on understanding the Frame Buffer issues with ATI video cards.

Being a VERY old timer, I think I understand a tiny bit about frame buffers "in the day". They were mostly or all hardware that mapped to pixels to be displayed by the monitor. The CPU told the FB what to display and the FB "translated/mapped" that for the monitor. Correct?

Now when we assert a FB type such as "Bulrushes", are we telling the video card's frame buffer which one of several FB types it should use? Or is there a kext in between providing a layer of abstraction?

I guess Apple did that in any system release [the kernel?] that supports a new card? It's easier because they control the hardware and only support a limited number of video cards? Is that why a Hackintosh trying to use a video card not supported by Apple requires fixes like those described for the 6670?

Would it be better for me to ask questions like these in an other sub-forum? I don't want to hijack the thread.

EDIT: I just saw that a new Chimera version provides additional support for the 6670 and other recent ATI cards.I wonder what additional support means. The tonymac Blog also said "Proper drivers are required for full graphics support". Do you think that means modified kexts are also needed?

Honestly, I cannot say how the frame buffers work, as I have no idea myself. If I had to guess though, the card would be "programmed" with a certain set of frame buffers which the OS could tell the card to use. I only surmised that because, after 10.7.2, around 5 new frame buffers suddenly worked. Now, it could be that they were working all along, just not with the video connection that I was previously using, so who knows. So, from what I gather, when we use AtiConfig to force a specific frame buffer, we're basically using Chimera (or Chameleon) to override whatever frame buffer the OS wants to load. In OS X's case, I'm not sure that it has a frame buffer specified for the 6670 (since, as you said, Apple never supported it, so there would be no reason to create one) and as such, the default Radeon frame buffer is loaded unless the boot loader steps in and forces one.

As for Kexts, I don't know if that's where Apple goes about specifying the frame buffer, but they most likely do. I just poked around the Extensions folder (/System/Library/Extensions) and noticed two Kexts that might be of use to someone more motivated, ATI6000Controller.kext and ATIFramebuffer.kext. I'm sure these have been looked at before, but I don't know what, if anything that came from it. I'm sure that Apple uses these, as well as some other files in updating the OS for new graphics cards, as new models get released. Oh, and I don't think modified Kexts are needed, at least not for this card, though I could be very wrong (and likely am). I believe he was implying the Nvidia cards.

And you're free to make a new thread if you wish, but you're not "polluting" this thread by my reckoning, in fact, it might be a great deal of help to other people looking at this same card.

 

[theimageofall]

Has anybody been able to get this card working with two displays?

DVI has died since 10.7.2 & I thought I would hook up my old monitor via VGA as well as my current one (now via HDMI) just to see what happens & both display right up until the desktop loads, where my VGA connection disappears (much in the same way the DVI does)and only my HDMI connection continues to work.

If I set GraphicsEnabler to 'No' then both displays work fine but, obviously I lose all acceleration & dvd player/geekbench crash.

Just thought I'd find out what anyone else might be trying.

Cheers.

 

[Martytoof]

Ah yes, you're right. I forgot about that. I just turn my monitor off when I'm done using it, so sleep wasn't something I was concerned with.

Yeah, I figured this was the case. It's definitely a good enough card if you are looking for something cheap that is a drop in replacement, I just have a bad taste in my mouth from the DPMS issue that I'm trying to keep everyone informed in case it is important to someone. I have absolutely no problems with anything else you posted though, a very good rundown otherwise

e: At least it will be once they figure out the DVI issue with 10.7.2