GFX Strings - DUAL CARDS - How To

[aquamac]

Did you try making your DSDT with this:

pcwizcomputer.com/downloads/DSDTPatcherGUI_1.0.zip

It may be as I said in the post above that the first card needs to be this one:

PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0xC,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)

Here is the input file for this card:

rapidshare.com/files/327846780/in.plist.zip

You will have to make your own output file in Leopard only as I do not have that operating system where I am. This is just for 1 card.

By the way is your install made with the Apple disk. Are you on Leo or Snow Leo?

Before you do any of the above, please tell me what is showing in system profiler. Is your card reported as "display" or "GeForce GTX260M"?

[veblen]

First off, happy new year! Have been frequenting Insanelymac since the days of deadmoo and tiger but stumbled across this board when searching for a way to use my two video cards in snow leopard.

This thread seems to be loaded with much useful information but I still have a problem. After performing the steps in the first post, I still get a kernel panic when the GUI loads up; It appears to be related to the nVidia kexts. I have a gigabyte x48-ds4 (it was a pain getting it to work since its DSDT refuses to compile) and per instructions here, set it to boot from PEG2 but it still doesn't work. I have a retail install (updated to 10.6.2) with Chameleon RC4 as a bootloader and am attempting to run dual GTX 285 cards.

I generated my EFI strings in SL, and know that it gives me the wrong string but I'm unable to boot into my Leopard installation on my other partition for some reason. If I ran Leopard in VM Fusion, would it generate the correct strings? I really don't want to have to pull out one of my cards each time (I'm running SLI in Windows 7) I wanted to boot SL.

[aquamac]

Post your input file and I will generate the output file for you in Leopard.. You cannot do it in VMFusion.

[veblen]

I just succeeded! Well, not in Fusion but in Workstation on Windows 7. Dual GTX 285!

Thanks so much for this guide, aquamac! I couldn't have done it without the detailed steps and the in.plist you provided.

So for those who don't have Leopard, I guess a virtualized Leopard in Windows will generate the correct EFI strings.

[aquamac]

Hi Veblen,

That is good news, and good job for working it out. Yes if you have Vista or Windows 7, you can get the PCI addresses from device manager as well.

[etherealremnant]

Dec 30, 2009 8:43:17 GMT aquamac said:

Did you try making your DSDT with this:

pcwizcomputer.com/downloads/DSDTPatcherGUI_1.0.zip

It may be as I said in the post above that the first card needs to be this one:

PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0xC,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)

Here is the input file for this card:

rapidshare.com/files/327846780/in.plist.zip

You will have to make your own output file in Leopard only as I do not have that operating system where I am. This is just for 1 card.

By the way is your install made with the Apple disk. Are you on Leo or Snow Leo?

Before you do any of the above, please tell me what is showing in system profiler. Is your card reported as "display" or "GeForce GTX260M"?

I actually used DSDTSE and some terminal-based tool. Not in OS X right now...

I can tell you that both show up as Display in System Profiler and I'm running 10.5.8 - no DSDT patch at all, vanilla kernel.

[spanky]

Aqua, when you mention on the first page that "When making your output file - that must be done booted from Leopard only. Snow Leopard gives the wrong info in the output file and you WILL NOT get QE/CI working!", which output file do you mean? I was trying to use a similar method to get my two 4870s to work at the same time but ended up with a no boot scenario and I was just wondering if it may have been for the same reason.

[aquamac]

Hi Spanky,

You can work on the input file in Snow Leo and make changes if you need to, but when you type:

./gfxutil -i xml -o hex ./in.plist ./out.hex

into the Terminal, to convert the input file to an output file you must do it in Leopard. If you do it in Snow leo, it will produce an output file but it will be incorrect and will usually end up as a no boot, sticking just before the blue screen or at worst KP. I have converted the same output file in both operating systems and they produce a different result. After you have the long Hex (output file), you can copy it back to snow and copy it to make the com.apple.boot.plist. It is only the Hex making part that will not work in snow.

[spanky]

Aha, that's good to know. I'll give it a try, luckily I think I still have Leopard running on my webcam managing iMac in the garage. Cheers for the tip!

[spanky]

Used the new plist but still no joy. At least it didn't kernel panic at boot up though so that explains that. I'm going to have to give up on dual 4870s for now and just wait for 5xxx series support or if I can't wait, look for a reasonably priced 4870x2 to tide me over and sell the two 4870s.

[amwdrizz]

Hello All,

@aquamac Thanks for the great guide. Although I am posting a request for help and not success.

Anyways some Background info
The system is
EVGA nForce 750i Sli FTW (slightly different than a normal sli)
2 BFG-Tech 9800 GTX+ Oc'ed Edition
8gb DDR2
Intel C2D E8400 Oc'ed to 4.05ghz
Mac OS X 10.5.8

Now I am still trying to get the dual cards working correctly, I have uploaded my in.plist as a zip file to mediafire, link here www.mediafire.com/?c4ynytyizwg Hoping that you would spot something that may be preventing from dual cards to work. On all accounts it should be working flawlessly but it isn't

Anyways, I don't have the option for booting on PEG2 so no help there, I've already tried the GFX Strings still w/out luck. I was using the NVInject.kext with one card and had full QE/CI, Res Change, Multi Monitor Support. Now that works in either Slot.

I've tried NVCapMaker, using the roms off of each card and they come up as the same NVCap that was in the 9800 GTX+ Download on the first page.

I know from reading your first page that nForce Chipsets & Dual Nvidia cards really don't go together easily.

I don't know if this will help but my Locations are as follows from windows

Card 1 PCIROOT(0)#PCI(0300)#PCI(0000)#PCI(0200)#PCI(0000)
Card 2 PCIROOT(0)#PCI(0300)#PCI(0000)#PCI(0000)#PCI(0000)

Any what I believe it is for mac using your guidelines

Card 1 PCIROOT(0x1)/PCI(0x3,0x0)/PCI(0x0,0x0)/PCI(0x2,0x0)/PCI(0x0,0x0)
Card 2 PCIROOT(0x1)/PCI(0x3,0x0)/PCI(0x0,0x0)/PCI(0x0,0x0)/PCI(0x0,0x0)


Any help is greatly appreciated.

Jon

[aquamac]

I have corrected your PCI address below, looking at the windows addresses I think your mac addresses should be:

Card 1 PCIROOT(0x0)/PCI(0x3,0x0)/PCI(0x0,0x0)/PCI(0x2,0x0)/PCI(0x0,0x0)
Card 2 PCIROOT(0x0)/PCI(0x3,0x0)/PCI(0x0,0x0)/PCI(0x0,0x0)/PCI(0x0,0x0)

rapidshare.com/files/334818108/in.plist.zip

[amwdrizz]

Aquamac, I've tried the strings you gave me, and it still fails. I booted through -v and I got the following error twice (one for each card)

Display Specific Matching Fails

Do I need to alter any kexts so it sees my cards correctly?

Thanks again, Jon

Edit:: After remaking the hex with gfxutils, it was the same... I removed the old in.plist file, and replaced it with the one you provided. The only thing I did is I named the output file differently so I could compare them.

[rz]

Aquamac, I'm at a loss. I've followed the instructions a few times and can't get my cards to work. I'm trying to run two GeForce 9800 GTX+ on a Gigabyte motherboard (EP45-UD3P). Chamaleon 2, like the lifehacker guide suggests.

A few questions:

Are the PciRoot strings generated dependent on software in any way? Or once I have them they're good so long i keep the cards in the same slots? (it is really tedious to take the cards out, reboot, etc).

Secondly, I don't have access to a 10.5 machine. Is that crucial? If so, is there any chance I can get you to generate the out file. I've attached the in.plist that I'm using and here are my PciRoot strings:

PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)
PciRoot(0x1)/Pci(0x6,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)

Thanks!

Attachments:

[aquamac]

Yes you must generate the out file in leo only. That is crucial. I also don't have access to Leo at the moment as I am currently away on business in Germany all week.

You must set the bios to boot from PEG 2 and connect your monitor to the second card. This must be done.