G73 5870 softmod to firepro 8800

[smile_gerard]

Quite surprised no one is giving this a go... I personally was thinking those using this baby for graphic work would be really interested in this as i was. Just an update, since i lost my overdrive in the process, i installed MSI afterburner as an alternative to overclocking. Honestly, i feel gaming performance wasn't really affected at all.

[Toby.T]

hey, would this 5870 softmod fix be compatible on the alienware m17x-r2? what if i have two 5870s in the alienware?

[smile_gerard]

hey, would this 5870 softmod fix be compatible on the alienware m17x-r2? what if i have two 5870s in the alienware?

It should work. For two cards i'm now too sure. You would probably have do the driver installation twice in device manager. Double check your device ID. There's a good chance that is different so you would have to modify the script.

In the first part u will find this line in the script i posted

Dst2_0 = BA 2E 00 00 00 48 8B CB E8 36 BA FF FF C7 03 68 A0 00 00 90 90

"68 A0" is the device ID of the G73 5870. U need to find out what is the Device ID for your Alienware. Then change it accordingly.

In step 3 of my guide u also have to amend.

ATI FirePro V8800 (FireGL)" = ati2mtag_EvergreenGL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A0

[Toby.T]

@smile_gerard

ah. alright then. thanks!.
just to make sure, is this fix is working fine for you? think it'll work fine for Rhino and Sketchup?
hmm imagine 2 cards.. one for gaming, the other for work as a firepro card in the same laptop..(which is exactly what i need) no crossfires but sounds like good anyway. think that's possible?

[smile_gerard]

On a single display i'm not too sure. Unless u can specify which display adapter you are using. Only then it would be possible. However, i do think it is possible to do that with an external monitor. Its not a 100% fix as this is just a patch. So don't expect it to work like a full fledge firepro. To be honest, you might as well make both firepro's. They somehow do quite alright for games. A little slower compared to a radeon but to crossfire them would in my opinion still be faster then a single card.

[SamuraiBuddha]

I am curious if you have looked at the specs on the Mobility FirePro m7820...

I think this is the card I want to mod to, from a Mobility Radeon 5870...

So far, the only company to offer the m7820 is HP on their elitebook 8740w workstation. I have found the FirePro driver on their support site and downloaded it. Even though the inf file numbers are different, I have opened every one of them and replaced the following lines: (they all have the same lines)

From
"ATI FirePro M7820" = ati2mtag_Manhattan, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A0&SUBSYS_1521103C
"ATI FirePro M7820 " = ati2mtag_Manhattan, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A0&SUBSYS_1521103C

To
"ATI FirePro M7820" = ati2mtag_Manhattan, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A0&SUBSYS_1028043A
"ATI FirePro M7820 " = ati2mtag_Manhattan, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A0&SUBSYS_1028043A

I got the subsys ID for the 5870 and replaced the 7820 ID. (103C-1521 to 043A-1028) I think the device & vendor ID are the same for both cards.

I have a couple questions about the atik2mdag patch script... is that script related to the specific card or the 64 bit system? I am a little cautious about using it before I have clarified. If it is just to modify the device ID, the 5870 and m7820 are both 68A0. So I may not need to patch?

The other part is the atiogl file... all this does is modify the caps for specific programs? Would it vary from the v8800 one you are using? Just another dumb question, the v8800 being a desktop workstation card, and you are modding a 5870 in a laptop, wouldn't the settings for the caps be higher than the 5870 can handle?

Any and all comments welcome, please advise if I am on the right track or a complete idiot about to destroy his brand new laptop.

[smile_gerard]

You cannot softmod a 5870 into a m7820. You can try but i really don't think it will work. Reason is because the equivalent card of a 5870 is a V8800.

v8800 = 5870
v7800 = 5850
v5800 = 5770
v4800 = 5670
v3800 = 5570

[SamuraiBuddha]

We are talking about the Radeon Mobility 5870? Aren't the v#'s desktop ws cards?

I'm not meaning to be a pest, but the desktop 5870 is the Cypress XT chip that matches the v8800. The Mobility 5870 is the Broadway XT chip, that matches the m7820. From what I have read on Guru3D, prior to the 10.3 Catalyst Control Center release, all of the mobile cards required drivers that were updated by the laptop manufacturer, not AMD. After 10.3, the same drivers can be used for both lap- and desktops, but most people on the forum who were trying to use the new drivers on their laptops were not having much success.

Also on Guru3D, they specifically said you could not turn a mobile GPU into a desktop GPU with a driver mod... it had to be the same chipset (based on the chips codename).

[smile_gerard]

You should take a look into the Guru3d Riva Tuner forums and advance riva tuner forums. It managed to install onto mine. Would be interesting to see if you can get it to work on yours. But if you do read further some of them managed to convert their mobility cards from even earlier versions. Anyway i opened up the file in the driver to edit "C7100464.ini" i do not see a m7820 in it.

[ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.1]
"AMD FireStream 9170" = ati2mtag_RV630, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9519
"AMD FireStream 9250" = ati2mtag_RV7X, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9452
"AMD FireStream 9270" = ati2mtag_RV7X, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9450
"ATI FireGL V3600" = ati2mtag_RV630GL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_958D
"ATI FireGL V5600" = ati2mtag_RV630GL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_958C
"ATI FireGL V7600" = ati2mtag_R600GL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_940F
"ATI FireGL V7700" = ati2mtag_RV630GL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9511
"ATI FireGL V8600" = ati2mtag_R600GL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_940B
"ATI FireGL V8650" = ati2mtag_R600GL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_940A
"ATI FirePro 2260" = ati2mtag_RV610, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_95CF
"ATI FirePro 2260 " = ati2mtag_RV610, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_95CE
"ATI FirePro 2450" = ati2mtag_RV610, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_95CD
"ATI FirePro 2460 (FireMV)" = ati2mtag_EvergreenGL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68F1
"ATI FirePro V3700 (FireGL)" = ati2mtag_RV620GL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_95CC
"ATI FirePro V3750 (FireGL)" = ati2mtag_R7XGL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_949F
"ATI FirePro V3800 (FireGL)" = ati2mtag_EvergreenGL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68C9
"ATI FirePro V4800 (FireGL)" = ati2mtag_EvergreenGL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68C8
"ATI FirePro V5700 (FireGL)" = ati2mtag_R7XGL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_949E
"ATI FirePro V5800 (FireGL)" = ati2mtag_EvergreenGL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A9
"ATI FirePro V7750 (FireGL)" = ati2mtag_R7XGL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_949C
"ATI FirePro V7800 (FireGL)" = ati2mtag_EvergreenGL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6889
"ATI FirePro V8700 (FireGL)" = ati2mtag_RV7XGL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9456
"ATI FirePro V8750 (FireGL)" = ati2mtag_RV7XGL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9444
"ATI FirePro V8800 (FireGL)" = ati2mtag_EvergreenGL, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A0

[smile_gerard]

Perhaps if you could get hold of the drivers of the M7820, you could ask "schoko" from Guru3d to have a look at it. He's the one making the scripts. I'm currently running the radeon drivers. The firepro drivers were not a 100%. But would love to see what your results are. This could also explain why the performance wasn't a 100%. But the script he made is for this drivers. I'm guessing the M7820 may be a different set of drivers so it would need a new script. I'm not sure... But hope u have better luck and you'll share your results.