Leadtek 7950 GT to Quadro?

[jds]

Hi,

a few days ago I began to set up my Hackintosh and finally got it working with NVInjector 0.2.2 (don't know if there is any newer version, whole Hackintosh story is quite confusing to me - so many forums, dead links, obsolet information...).

Unfortunately OpenGL isn't working at all in this configuration, and I don't think Quartz Extreme is working, though I have acceptable UI performance (measured with XBench).

I spent many hours in trying to get it fully working but didn't get more than that. Now I read about re-flashing the card to a fully working Quadro FX 5500 and tried to find information about how I can do it myself. But all I found were some ROMs for 7950 GT cards. No ROM for my Leadtek 7950 GT (0x10de 0295), no information about how to modify the ROM manually.

Can I simply take the PNY ROM for 7950 GT? Or could you provide me with information about how to modify the ROM or even a modified ROM? I attached my ROM file to this post.

Thank you very much

Attachments:

[aquamac]

Hi JDS and welcome. I think you need to get the card working in OSX first before you start flashing otherwise you cannot work out if the mods are OK. Can you tell me if this is a 512 mb card or 256 mb.

[jds]

Just in case: its a PCIe card with 512 MB. Card works with NVInjector ^^

I'm running Snow Leopard 10.6.3.

[aquamac]

So do you have Quartz Extreme & Core image enabled. I thought you said in your first post that it was not.

[jds]

Yes, I think I have QE enabled. I used OSx86 Tools to enable it. But when I try this again, I now get the AppleScript Error

'Can’t make "The domain/default pair of (com.apple.windowserver, QuartzGLEnabled) does not exist" into type boolean. (-1700)'

But it doesn't work: menu bar isn't transparent, OpenGL frame rates are minimal.

[aquamac]

When you launch a new dashboard widget do you get the ripple effect? If not your card is not working properly. It's pretty important to get this working before you start flashing. Other ways to tell are does DVD player work and does Chess work with all the bells and whistles?

[jds]

I seem to have no effects. No ripple effect for dashboard widgets. And no mirror effect for chess pieces (I have been told it should be there).

So I have to make this working *before* re-flashing the card? A working QE / OpenGL is my primary goal, I thought I will get this with re-flashing.

I use NVInjector and this makes my card working dual-head with full native TFT resolution, but I tried many things to go beyond this - without success.

[jds]

Any further hint for me? If I can't make the 7950 GT working properly I would buy a better supported card.

BTW: Apple's built-in "Preview"-App seems to use Quartz Extreme or Core Image - it not even displays pictures for me

[nikonnut]

jds,
Hi there and welcome to the forums. I had a eVGA 7950GT (256MB) running in my hack for many years with little problem but they were notoriously difficult to get running (I actually had to find a specific version of 10.4.9 to make it work way back in the day) but with GFX strings it went without a hitch. I've since moved on to an eVGA 8800GT Superclocked but I still have the string for the 7950. If someone far more gifted than I could mod it for 512MB of RAM I would be happy to send it to you. Let me know

Aqua, do you think my string would work to get him running. I would think it wouldn't recognize all the RAM but it might be a good stepping stone. I'm too far out of the loop I guess

[aquamac]

Hi Nikonnut,

Your string would be useful but it will need the PCI address modifying probably to work with jds's motherboard.

[jds]

Hi nikonnut,

would be nice if you can upload your GFX string for me Is GFX string = EFI string? Then I would be able to modify it to address my PCIe-slot correctly. Memory size also can be edited via PList I think.

I consider buying a 8800 Nvidia, but the 7950 GT would be enough for me if I can get QE / CI working.

[nikonnut]

jds,
Here you go, sir

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

I hope it works for you.

Best,
Nikon