[Softmod] AMD 6970m -> FirePro M8900 *UPDATE* 6990m works too!

[Enzino]

Hmm, I'm no expert when it comes to Mac OS or generally spoken unix-like systems. Driver compatibility is still a common issue. There should be Linux drivers for the FirePro Series, but I never heard about Mac OS drivers.

Exactly .. so far Apple has never released FirePro drivers.

Did you already try the mod with the Apple 6970m?

I have not had time to do tests on my graphics card yet..

The regular 6970m have the same hardware ID as the FirePro M8900, this means it might be possible to use a regular Radeon HD driver with a M8900. I haven't tried this yet, my 6970m isn't in my system at the moment.

Can you check the hardware ID of your card? Post a GPU-Z screenshot, or a copy of your VBIOS.

This is my iMac system booted in Win7x64 via Boot Camp

The hardware id seems to be the same as the rest of the technical characteristics with the exception of Subvendor.

In case the hardware ID is the same and the Apple driver works with the M8900 VBIOS there wouldn't be any need to flash the card all the time.

How would I know if the Mac OS X drivers for Apple's 6970m will also work on the M8900 VBIOS modified version even before trying to flash the VBIOS? You know, prevent is better than cure..

Otherwise I can't really help, the only other way I can think of would be reflashing the card everytime you boot to another OS. Flashing is a quick process, but there's always a slight chance of failure... I never had issues with it, but there's no warranty that you never get any corruption while programming the VBIOS chip.

I had already thought of this possibility, but I do not think is healthy for the chip card and also impractical for me that often switch from one system to another.

Another option would be a hardware mod, but you probably don't really want to do this. You could simply install a second VBIOS chip with another VBIOS on it and modify your card in a way that you have a switch which lets you choose between the two chips.

This is another great idea, shame that I have no knowledge to be able to face such a sophisticated transformation.

I look forward to a new opinion after you have assessed the data of the screenshot above.

In any case thanks for your time!

[kune]

Exactly .. so far Apple has never released FirePro drivers.

I have not had time to do tests on my graphics card yet..

This is my iMac system booted in Win7x64 via Boot Camp

The hardware id seems to be the same as the rest of the technical characteristics with the exception of Subvendor.

How would I know if the Mac OS X drivers for Apple's 6970m will also work on the M8900 VBIOS modified version even before trying to flash the VBIOS? You know, prevent is better than cure..

I had already thought of this possibility, but I do not think is healthy for the chip card and also impractical for me that often switch from one system to another.

This is another great idea, shame that I have no knowledge to be able to face such a sophisticated transformation.

I look forward to a new opinion after you have assessed the data of the screenshot above.

In any case thanks for your time!

RBE has fields that can be used to change the subsystem ID -- but this doesn't really matter as I am fairly sure that this information is only really used when deciding whether or not the drivers you are about to install have been created with your system in mind. Mostly it is an exclusion tool (again, as far as I know).

Anyway, because Autodesk is such an anal corporation, I'm going to need to figure out how to edit the subsystem ID from 04BA (6970M) to 04A4 (M8900). Simply changing the "ATI ASIC Include" value in drivers is not enough.

Ideas?

I just spent 4 hours fiddling around trying to accomplish this goal and just can't seem to figure it out.

[svl7]

Exactly .. so far Apple has never released FirePro drivers.

(...)

How would I know if the Mac OS X drivers for Apple's 6970m will also work on the M8900 VBIOS modified version even before trying to flash the VBIOS? You know, prevent is better than cure..

Hmm, I don't know, at least not for sure... quite some things can affect driver compatibility, e.g. the VBIOS, the hardware IDs etc. The VBIOS should be compatible with the normal and FirePro drivers. The question is whether the Mac OS drivers work with the FirePro VBIOS. Can you quickly check the hardware string of your card, e.g. with HWiNFO or check the device manager.

I had already thought of this possibility, but I do not think is healthy for the chip card and also impractical for me that often switch from one system to another.

True, not the best solution...

I'd say check your hardware ID and post it here. And then give it a try... that's the easiest way for such things (imo), trial and error... I simply don't have all the information about how exactly driver installation, compatibility checks etc. work, most things I've accomplished with my cards were kind of "learning by doing".

Windows should boot fine on your system with the FirePro VBIOS, then you can install the drivers. The question is whether the Mac OS GPU driver will still be doing its job... chances are that it works, if not we might find a way by modifying a hardware ID in the VBIOS.

RBE has fields that can be used to change the subsystem ID

Really? I thought it only allows changes of the subvendor ID?

but this doesn't really matter as I am fairly sure that this information is only really used when deciding whether or not the drivers you are about to install have been created with your system in mind. Mostly it is an exclusion tool (again, as far as I know).

Anyway, because Autodesk is such an anal corporation, I'm going to need to figure out how to edit the subsystem ID from 04BA (6970M) to 04A4 (M8900). Simply changing the "ATI ASIC Include" value in drivers is not enough.

Ideas?

I just spent 4 hours fiddling around trying to accomplish this goal and just can't seem to figure it out.

Your subsystem ID is 04BA? Check out the VBIOS, you might be able to find the entry, or upload it here and I take a look at it... never looked for this, but might be easy to find, dunno.

[kune]

m8900.zip

Yeah I have no clue where to find this info.

The vbios seems off to be honest. It's like Dell took a bunch of 6970s and called them M8900s after jamming them into Precisions.

Any help appreciated.

Edited October 16, 2011 by kune

[Enzino]

Hmm, I don't know, at least not for sure... quite some things can affect driver compatibility, e.g. the VBIOS, the hardware IDs etc. The VBIOS should be compatible with the normal and FirePro drivers. The question is whether the Mac OS drivers work with the FirePro VBIOS. Can you quickly check the hardware string of your card, e.g. with HWiNFO or check the device manager.

I'd say check your hardware ID and post it here. And then give it a try... that's the easiest way for such things (imo), trial and error... I simply don't have all the information about how exactly driver installation, compatibility checks etc. work, most things I've accomplished with my cards were kind of "learning by doing".

Windows should boot fine on your system with the FirePro VBIOS, then you can install the drivers. The question is whether the Mac OS GPU driver will still be doing its job... chances are that it works, if not we might find a way by modifying a hardware ID in the VBIOS.

Thank you very much for your help, as soon as I finish current projects , I will try the solution that you suggested and I'll publish the results of my tests on this page.

(my clients would not be pleased if I can not work because of a computer crash, they do not understand )

Here is my Hardware ID:

[Chaosstorm]

I have done pretty much the same thing with my mobility 5870, i flashed the bios of mine to an firepro 7820.

And it worked partly, it loaded the firepro drivers automatically and it only gave display on the dvi output and not the internal screen or the HDMI. It also crashed when I went from energy saver to peformance mode (my 5870m is a clevo card and doesnt even have powerplay normally (had to add that with an other brand card's bios )

Image

[svl7]

That's interesting, did you use a Clevo FirePro VBIOS? And how did you manage to get rid of the PP issue? Never used a Clevo 5870m, but people reported that it doesn't work with the Dell 5870m VBIOS.

[Chaosstorm]

"And how did you manage to get rid of the PP issue"

What do you mean by PP issue?, I did completely nothing at all, only thing I did was flash the bios and then it booted.

I got the vbios from here: http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m17x/900-mobility-radeon-hd-5870-firepro-m7820-firegl-flashing-2.html

It didnt seem to work for AssimilatorX in his M17X-R2 with the dell card.

Maybe there are more differences to the dell cards and clevo cards, because the dell's also clock higher and the clevo cards by default dont have powerplay. (I have also tested 5870m ASUS, MSI, Alienware bios files with my clevo card to enable powerplay correctly but that didnt work either for example the MSI bios did boot and powerplay worked very well but either the DVI or hdmi didnt work, I had to grab the first ever clevo ati bios to get manual powerplay )

[svl7]

Sorry... with PP I meant powerplay.

I think even slight differences can make a card better or worse, e.g. sometimes Dell uses better VRAM modules than Clevo, which results in a clearly better VRAM overclockability (e.g. 69xx series) or I can imagine if the card uses higher quality components for the voltage supply circuits it can run more stable at higher clocks.

[Chaosstorm]

Well I did have issue's with powerplay, when I switch from battery saver to balanced it crashes.

I set my battery saver to 300mhz mem/core at 0.5v (which is stable)

And balanced was set to default clocks and volt.

I have no idea what brand bios this is. Its from the thread I posted in my previous message.

Do dell's/alienware laptops have vga instead of dvi? Because I only had the dvi output working.

[Guest Swad]

Greetings. I found this thread while hunting around for information on doing the opposite of what is outlined here. I have a Dell Precision M6600 with a FirePro M8900 and want to see about getting it setup as a 6970M as I really don't have any needs for the CAD functionality, but could use some of the extra gaming horsepower that the 6970M / drivers would allow. Has anyone tried the M8900 --> 6970M move on one of these laptops? If so, I assume the same process outlined in the first thread could be followed? Can't really seem to find any information elsewhere on doing this with one of these Precision M6600 laptops. Also haven't found a 6970M BIOS that would work on one of these laptops.

Thanks for the information. Good to know that in theory it should at least be possible to do.

EDIT: Scratch that--just saw the 6790M BIOS posted in the first post.

Edited October 27, 2011 by Swad

[svl7]

Honestly, I can't think of a reason why it shouldn't work the other way too... let us now about your success. You might have to mod the drivers in case your system is making use of Optimus, check out the other posts in this thread... for example the M17x r3 had some issues at first.

[devillucifer]

Guys !at last, i found it the first openCL "Barts" supported (7820.1 = Firepro m8900 = 6900m series)

the best / latest driver for ATI desktop/mobility ! 8.92 (the one with catalyst 11.12, leaked version)

here the screenshot,

now i can render 3ds max with decent OC without worry about ...overheating the CPU lolz.

Using VrayRT in 3ds MAX 2012 with GPU openCL render

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Download

(for those using m8900 and 6900m seriesremember to copy and paste your folder "intel"

(for example : W76A_inf\Intel => the one from 8.51 driver of 6900m series, for Sandy bridge HD3000) into 8.92 folder "W76A_INF"

this package don't have them .. so you have to manual do it)

Read more about VRAY RT and 3ds max

Enjoy

Edited October 29, 2011 by devillucifer

[Chaosstorm]

My 5870m also works with the latest drivers + vray rt 2

[devillucifer]

My 5870m also works with the latest drivers + vray rt 2

yup firepro 7820m and 5800m series (Cypress) supported long ago, in catalyst 11.5 sdk 2.4

but not the 6900m series / firepro m8900

Edited October 29, 2011 by devillucifer

[Chaosstorm]

yup firepro 7820m and 5800m series (Cypress) supported long ago, in catalyst 11.5 sdk 2.4

but not the 6900m series / firepro m8900

Ok.. well I didnt know that, but thanks for the info.

Edited November 5, 2011 by Chaosstorm

[Guest rageltman]

I've got a pair of these cards driving me raging mad under linux - i need them for GPU hash analysis and the hardware seems great for that. Can i flash both cards to the firepro BIOS and use them in crossfire?

[Torai]

Thank you all very much for the helpful post. I am using M17x R3 with 6970M and now I want to flash it to 8900m to be able to use OpenGL in catalyst pro for 10-bit color support and other photo editing work.

I've follow exactly all the steps in your guide. However, no matter what catalyst firepro package I use, it wont detect my card. I have tried at least 6 different ATI FirePro package

I also tried modding the driver, no luck.

Could someone please give me a link to download the EXACT Catalyst FirePro package that you used ? I checked the VBios after flashing and now subsytem ID shows 04A4, does that mean I dont have to mod the driver anymore ?

I even tried the driver mod step but change PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6720&SUBSYS_04BA1028 to PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6720&SUBSYS_04A41028 but still no luck.

I guess I do not have the proper Catalyst FirePro package

Is there any chance that my card is brick ? I dont know how to check that

Please help me !!

Thank you !!!

This is my current GPU info:

in BIOS:

Error:

Edited December 7, 2011 by Torai

[kune]

I basically had to do this:

1. Install Dell 6970M driver

2. Mod a 8900M driver, then install over 6970M

As I understand things:

All of the info processed by GPU on r3 is sent to the screen via your i7's integrated graphics core.

Because of this, hybrid drivers need to be installed for the process to work properly - That's what Dell's drivers are; intel drivers modified with some AMD info, and AMD drivers modded with some intel info.

Without a hybrid driver, intel won't recognize your dGPU. When we install the only hybrid driver that we have, it tells iGPU that our model number is that of a 6970M. That's why must mod the drivers before installing over the old.

It'd be nice if someone were to make an actual modified driver. I used to do it myself for Optimus, but am way too lazy / un-knowledgeable to do it for this!

PS: 10-bit color doesn't work for me.

Here's DriverVer=02/01/2011, 8.800.7.2000 by Dell (certified drivers for AutoCAD 2011 and 2012)

and here's 8.851

sorry, fell asleep!

Edited December 7, 2011 by kune

[kune]

finally linked to 8.851 (fell asleep!)

Um....I don't even know what latest drivers are for firepro M8900. If anyone wants them modded as above, link me to them and I'll getrdone

[Torai]

Guys, thank you very much for all your help: svl7, kune, devillucifer. Especially kune !! Cant believe you spent a lot of time helping me modding the driver for me. I really appreciate it ! The 8.85 from Dell I tried yesterday and it did recognize my video card, but shows up as ati 6900M series. I didnt know about the "hybrid driver" at that time so I just uninstalled it.

However, I am really really in a hurry (I'll be out of town in a couple of days for quite a while) and I bought a M6600 today with Quadro 3000M because kune told me 10-bit colors wont work. Later today devillucifer told me 10-bit color does work. Im kinda confused especially when I couldnt get the driver installed successfully. Very sorry kune, I wish I had enough time to try the flash again, but.... however it's still useful for many other people who might need the professional card someday

So I decided not to take risk anymore (who knows what will happen the next time I flash ) plus I think it is not a good idea to use flashed BIOS and modded driver in long-term so I bought the M6600 with quadro 3000M w/ Optimus (the king of transformers ). I can still return it but only if someone can confirm that 10-bit color is supported and its ok to use flashed video card in long-term once successfully modded.

Anyone thinks that I should return the M6600 and give the 6970M another try ?

Edited December 8, 2011 by Torai

[kune]

I'll try 10-bit color again when I get to the office. I'm like 30 mins away. Apologies if I fed you incorrect information

[Torai]

No worries... I'll wait for your confirmation

[kune]

I stand corrected.

It disabled windows aero though

edit: which is apparently normal

Edited December 8, 2011 by kune

[Torai]

too bad I already got my M6600 in hand, and the R3 is sold ...