On Sun, Aug 03, 2003 at 07:51:42AM +0200, Jeroen Roovers wrote: > On 3 Aug 2003 at 3:54, Michel D�nzer wrote: > > > Apparently, PC 3Dfx or Matrox cards might work, but possibly not out of > > the box either, so why not save the hassle and simply get a Mac version? > > :) (I understand some cards can also be reflashed, but you probably need > > a proprietary OS for that, and there's always the risk of frying the > > card in the process) IMHO a cheap Mac Radeon would deliver the most > > 'bang for the buck'. :) > > As you mentioned in another message, some low level initialisation of > the card needs to be done, but not necessarily by the firmware: for > x86 computers at least there are lots of overclocking utilities out > there. True, they don't initialise the card, but they do set > registers on the chip(s) as the firmware would have. Most firmware is > proprietary, so the possible is only limited by what the manufacturer > allows and shares. > > I once flashed the firmware of an ATI Radeon 8500 LE (RV200) with > some newer firmware somebody had scooped up and packaged. It didn't > really work because apparently any resolution over VGA stressed the > hardware too much I ended up with a garbled display on the monitor. > Apparently the firmware usually sets the chipset registers to very > specific values (timings, clock frequencies, maybe even voltages) > that differ from model to model, maybe even from batch to batch. > > So the problem isn't initialising the chips without the firmware, but > what to initialise them to. To get the firmware to run it on a PPC, > ATI usually asks just about double the price for a Mac edition. > compared with the x86 edition. The information with which to > initialise a card (any card) properly will likely be viewed and > handled as a business secret, and remain proprietary. I have no idea > if Nvidia, Matrox or 3DFX are any better in this respect.
You buy the card, put it in a x86 box which initializes it, dump the register information, and use these values to initialize the card, possibly with a specialized version of radeonfb or something such. To do it right, you need the cards spec or something such though. Friendly, Sven Luther
