> From what I read in the specifications for all Radeon cards, the
> bandwidth of the 8500 was greater than the 9000Pro

AFAIK, the bandwidth is the same. Do you have a link to those specifications?

I've modified a Radeon 9200 Mac Edition ROM for use in a Connect 3D Radeon 9250 256 MB. After properly removing the NDRV image--the "reduced" images I've seen so far were a bit sloppy--I also changed the core clock to 240 MHz (the rated speed for the card) and modified the memory initialization code to recognize 256 MB VRAM. (I enabled both channels and modified a table used, I think, to set the per-channel total.)

The registers and values I've changed aren't publicly documented, but Open Firmware and Mac OS X both recognize 256 MB of VRAM. I didn't simply modify the total VRAM register, which is just a reference value set by the ROM and referenced by drivers, but I don't know how to test whether or not the card is actually using the extra RAM. MorphOS only "sees" 128 MB.

Any ideas? EDIT: Haha. Ignore this for a bit. Mac OS X is running at 640x480 in greyscale, so I obviously fudged something somewhere. (Although MorphOS runs fine, albeit with a 128 MB limit.) If anyone has any real documentation on registers 0x140, 0x158, and 0x178, I'd love to see. Or, if the maintainer of the Radeon driver can clue me into how they detect how much RAM is on the card, it might provide a clue as to how to modify the FCode init appropriately.

[ Edited by Trev on 2010/11/18 16:24 ]

Quote:

use this package for OSX to solve the "greyscale":
http://strangedogs.wikispaces.com/file/detail/ati-aug2005-radeon-universal-rom-update.dmg.zip

and this one for OS9.x:
http://www.applemacanix.info/9200os9/9200os9.sit

and here the guide:
http://amiga.ikirsector.it/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=14669
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=7455&forum=3#77803
http://www.meta-morphos.org/download/docs/ATIRadeonFlash.pdf


Please, if possibile, send me your ROM modified, to test it here also

regards


[ Edited by Divinity on 2010/11/19 0:45 ]

> send me your ROM modified, to test it here also :-)

Go there:

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=7518&forum=3&post_id=78649#78649

...and follow the link therein.

Quote:

If we're lucky, we may see 3D support for the R300 before G5 support (personally I'm holding out for the R400).
I am curious to knowif 128MB Radeon 9100/8500LE video cards work correctly under MorphOS (I can't see why the wouldn't). This would be more attractive than the 9000/9200 (which I'm currently using).
As I've purchased a 1.8 Sonnett upgrade for my Quicksilver, I'm kind of locked into that system (when the MDD has better memory bandwidth, slightly faster i/o, and a better ATA controller). Still, the real world difference may not be that much.

I think that except for a video card upgrade, I'm set until G5 support is introduced..

@Andreas_Wolf

I haven't updated that image yet.

@Divinity

I don't need a tutorial anymore, but thank you. (I can read detokenized FCode now, and I know how to integrate changes into the tokenized FCode binary.) The ROM update from ATI will most likely undo the changes I'm making to support 256 MiB of SDRAM. If I roll back my changes, the card works perfectly well under Open Firmware, Mac OS X, and MorphOS, albeit with only 128 MiB of SDRAM.

What I really need is documentation for the MEM_CNTL (0x140) register. Bits 8..15 and 24..31 represent control information for memory channels A and B, respectively. The control bits and the amount of memory in the channel (in megabytes) are pulled from a lookup table, shown here in C for readability:

char mem[] = {
0x2e, 64,
0xad, 64,
0x2d, 32,
0xa9, 32,
0x29, 16,
0xa5, 16,
0x25, 8,
0x8d, 32,
0x0d, 16,
0x89, 16,
0x09, 8
};

The first entry is the one used by the Radeon 9200 Mac Edition. After initialization, you end up with 128 MiB total. Changing the memory value to 128 sets certain properties correctly in Open Firmware, but I get a black and white display under Mac OS X and only 128 MiB of SDRAM under MorphOS.

I'm still looking at the code that parses the table and initializes SDRAM. There's one word (function) I haven't looked at yet, and it will hopefully illuminate things. I don't know the significance of 0x2e yet, but I do know that 0x2e002e00 is the default MEM_CNTL value used during initialization.

@Divinity,

I have downloaded the necessary files to do the re-flashing of my recently acquired ATI Radeon 8500 w/128mb VRAM, but the only ROM images I have been able to find are for the 64mb VRAM models of the 8500. Do you know if the Mac ROM for the 64mb model will work for the 128mb VRAM model, or is there another ROM file that MorphOS users are using in their G4 PowerMacs? I see the "Universal" ATI update file, but don't see how one file can work on all the ATI video cards, so thought it might just be a file utility used to update card drivers, but have no idea what it really is.

If anyone is currently running an ATI Radeon 8500 w/128mb VRAM (not LE model) in their G4 PowerMac, can you please tell me where you got the Mac ROM for your card?

Also, has anyone thought of trying to use the PCI to AGP 90 degree adapter from their Efika to install an ATI Radeon video card in their G4 PowerMac as a second video card to do the ROM re-flash process without doing it blind with only one video card installed in your Mac? I don't know if it is possible, or a good idea to try it that way. I don't have a PC with an AGP slot to do the re-flash from a Windows PC as is suggested, instead of doing it in the G4 PowerMac, but suppose I could try the Efika PCI to AGP adapter in the Windows PC to do the re-flash, but would hate to damage the 128mb 8500 I just bought, or the PC that I tried the adapter in (it should work without harming anything, but I guess I could try it in my Son's old PC instead of my expensive quad core PC).

Any ideas welcome, plus the location of the correct ROM file for the 128mb 8500, thanks.

Rom for 64mb model will show 64mb even with 128mb card. So unless Trev can help us (by modifying existing 64mb rom), there's no way getting a 128mb Radeon 8500 for our Macs. That being said, 128mb 8500 seems to be really rare these days, but if I ever get a hold of one and Trev likes to give it a shot, I'd be happy to lend him the card :)

> If we're lucky, we may see 3D support for the R300 before G5 support

I think that's the order it was said to come: PowerBook G4 support (including full 2D and 3D support for R300) and only after that PowerMac G5 support.

> I am curious to knowif 128MB Radeon 9100/8500LE video cards
> work correctly under MorphOS (I can't see why the wouldn't).

They're listed as being supported at least:
http://www.morphos-team.net/hardware.html

Thanks Andreas,
I should have thought of that. Since the performance difference between the 8500 and the 9100 is fairly small and there are a lot of 128MB 9100s available that makes that card an attractive alternative to the 9000 or 9200.

Or I could just wait. The R300 should be able to greatly out perform the 8500/9000 series.

@Jim

"there are a lot of 128MB 9100s available " - could you point us to some directions regard of this, pls? :)