Following our previous news about the availability of the EFI firmware for Radeon HD 4890, two members of our team have tested the procedure, with a Mac Pro rev1 and a Mac Pro 2008.
Let's start with some reminder and the list of tools you will need and where to find them:
- A Radeon HD 4890 with a strict ATI/AND reference design
- The modified EFI firmware: http://netkas.org/?p=118
- Follow the flashing procedure previously described (not available in english yet, sorry): http://www.macbidouille.com/articles/281/page1
- Install the following files required to activate 3D acceleration with Leopard: http://rapidshare.de/files/47140484/...cards.pkg.html
Once completed, you will have a Radeon HD 4890 in your Mac Pro, perfectly recognized from the booting step (the apple on the grey background):
The second DVI port seems to work fine, however you will not be able to use two 30" display at full resolution, the second one will be "downgraded". The card works with Snow Leopard, but a patch is still missing to activate the 3D acceleration. It will always be required except if Apple finally decide to officially offer a Mac Edition Radeon HD 4890.
Regarding the Pc card to be purchased, you could find AMD/ATI reference cards with 1 GB of VRAM around 180 €, in other words almost 50% cheaper than the Mac Edition Radeon HD 4870 available on the Apple Store.
WARNING! As usual do not try this procedure is you do not feel confident or did not fully understand all steps. It requires skills and patience.
