> From: John Albert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Sapphire/Radeon 7000 32mb card - information > Date: Sun, 02 Mar 2003 14:23:35 -0500 > Flashing the Sapphire/Radeon 32mb DDR card -- information I've > gathered so far.
lots of snips... > In some ways, I sense this resembles one of those "open source" type > projects, > where the finished product results from "group effort", with bits and > pieces > coming in from all over, often without coordination. Trying to sort > out the > pieces can at times be downright confusing. John, Thank you for a very nicely written piece on the subject . Yes, I have to agree this is very much an "open source" project. > Early on, _two_ separate "flashings" were required to get the PC card > working > on the Mac. The "first flash" had to be done on the PC. Then, the card > had to > be installed into the Mac and a "second flash" performed. Only then > would it > become functional. > > However, someone was creative enough to use the "ROM extractor" on the > PC side > to extract a completed _Macintosh version_ of the ROM from an > already-flashed > card. I assume this card was first flashed on the PC, then on the Mac, > and > finally taken _back_ to the PC so that the updated ROM file could be > extracted > and saved to disk. Clever indeed! > > So, with the new "full Macintosh ROM file" is available, it's now > possible to > do the entire process in a "one shot flash" on the PC. All you have to > do > afterwards is take the card to the Mac, load the ATI driver software > (control > panel and various extensions), and [hopefully] it will be ready to use. > > The necessary components are: > - The card itself > - A PC that can be booted to MS-DOS (I'm unsure whether the flashing > can be > done within Windows) The card can not be flashed from within Windows. Nor does VPC on a Mac work nor simulated Dos which later versions of Windows may have for running Dos programs. People who've tested say it has to be true Dos. Windows 98SE was the last version which lets you restart from the start menu into Dos. Win Me.2000 & XP machines can be used but you need to boot into Dos from a Dos boot Floppy disk or perhaps CD ( not yet tested). Win NT can not be used to boot into Dos I've been told. > - The copy of the appropriate Mac ROM to be flashed, and some other > files > (listed below), that you can take to the PC. A 1.4mb DOS-formatted > floppy > should hold them. > > There have been so many "releases" of the required PC flashing files, > my head > is spinning along with my hard drive. "Mitch", the German guy who > started it > all, has been releasing stuff all over the place, but he doesn't > "document" > nor "package" his releases very well (I realize that he's German and > English > is his second language). I'm struggling to find what will become the > "right > combination" for a possible "Golden Master" disk compilation > containing the > files that can be used to flash the various cards out there, along > with easily > understandable instructions on how to get things working. > > > You will also need the appropriate ROM file. Which ROM file you need > to use > depends on which card you have, because the different cards run at > varying speeds. > > Running the card at the "correct" speed is important, because there are > reports from those who have succesfully flashed the Sapphire/Radeon > 32mb card > that "video artifacts" can appear if the card is "clocked" too fast. > In at > least one case, someone first flashed his card using the 183mhz ROM, > but after > getting video artifacts, he RE-flashed it "down" to 166mhz (correct > speed for > that card) and the artifacts cleared up (as the card was no longer > "overclocked"). > > Here are the speeds I believe the cards run at: > - ATI/Radeon 32 and 64mb cards: 183mhz (it's possible the ATI/Radeon > 32mb card > runs only at 166mhz, not sure about that) > - Sapphire 64mb card: 183mhz > - Sapphire 32mb card: 166mhz Testing seems to show the 64mb cards are 183mhz cards. ATI 32mb cards are likely 166mhz cards but most run fine at the 183mhz. Mine which has 4ns (40ns) ram runs fine with no artifacts at 183mhz but is likely running over-clocked based on available info but not sure. Sapphire 32mb cards are likely mostly 166mhz cards. This cards come with a wide range of Video ram speeds. cards have been found with 3.6 (36ns),40,50 & 60 ns ram! What ever is handy I guess ;-) The speed of ram on the card seems to control what speed the card will run at. There is even a 144mhz version of the flasher for I guess the 6ns (60ns) ram. A few people have flashed the Sapphire cards with the original flasher and the card runs at 183mhz must have the faster ram. The Sapphire 64mb cards are hard to come by but I know of maybe 3 and they all have flashed and ran well with the original flasher at full speed (183mhz) Mine is on it's way from London any day now! It is unknown if they also have a wide range of ram speed on the card sofar it seems no but the samples are small. > ALL the "full Mac ROM" files (which are needed for the one-step > flashing) > appear to be 131,072 bytes in size. However, their content varies > depending on > which speed you want your card to run at. > > It should also be noted that the various "Sapphire/Radeon 32mb" cards > out > there, while having the same part number, may actually have > _different_ speeds > of RAM and also may have _different_ sizes of their programmable > EPROMs. > > The "DDR RAM" speed can be determined by checking the 4 large RAM > chips on the > face of the card. On my card, the number on the chips ends in "-4", > which I > believe denotes 4ns RAM. Similarly, "-5" and "-6" would denote 5ns and > 6ns. > The lower number indicates faster RAM speed. > > The EPROM size must be determined by running the "identification" step > after > you boot up on the PC. When you type: > FLASHROM -i > you will see displayed various information about the card. The _last_ > item is > "romsize", and it will indicate either: > 0x20000 - denotes 128k ROM > or > 0x10000 - denotes 64k ROM > I'm reasoning that you can _only_ use the "full ROM" flasher if you > have the > 128k ROM on the card. Mitch said it is also possible the EPROM size maybe the same size on all cards and the identification info maybe wrong sometimes for unknown reasons.. This was based at least partly on the ability to flash a chip with 64k reading but still worked with the 128k flash...it can be very confusing...at least to me. Another point the Full rom files for 1 step flashing were only made as a fix for the Sapphire 32mb cards which would not run at 183mhz. It seems that card that won't run at that speed can not be flashed with the rom file in the Mac it fails at that stage! I'm not sure if anyone has yet used the full one step flash on the 64mb cards or ATI 32mb cards which work fine with the 2 step original files. > That's it for now. I would like to eventually create "DOS disk > images", with > one disk image containing the proper files for the 183mhz card, and > another > for the 166mhz cards. Along with this is needed one or two _good_ sets > of > instructions. And also, a list of the best ATI extensions to use, with > a > description of what each one does (working on that here). > - John I believe there is already a file on the german forum site which has a Dos Boot image included in the file. Well let us know how it goes when you have it running ! soon I hope ;-) I hope my attempt to fill in some info has been of at least some interest. Will S -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 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