ATI Radeon 4870 won't work in Windows via Bootcamp

Hi!

I have just received the ATI Radeon 4870 for my Mac Pro (Early 2008)and have upgraded my Leopard to 10.5.7 and works fine on the Mac side. When I reboot and hold the command key I can see my MAC and my BOOT CAMP 2 options as always before. When I click on boot camp I get a white screen with a black frome around it and there is NO hard disk activity and nothing happens no matter how long I leave the computer alone. Before I had no problem booting into my boot camp loaded with vista 64 bit. I have another partition with parallels and that is fine but not this boot camp partition.

I am using ONLY this card in the system. I removed the NVIDIA card.

ALso I tried putting in my Vista 64bit DvD into the drive and rem=booting and see the option when hold the option key to go into MAC,WINDOWS,DVD.... When I select DvD and computer adjust to work in a windows enviroment again the system halts. SO I believe it has nothing whatsoever to to do with drivers inside Vista. It would have to be something that needs upgrading for bootcamp to allow for this video card to work on Bootcamp?

Again I have the latest updates of the OS.

This is a cut an paste from other forum I trying. Since then I have bought a new HD and for a test put it in drive and went to Bootcamp assistant and had it partition and it asked for me to put the vista dvd in drive. I did that and it rebooted and as soon as looked at the DvD it again halted the system. I Put in the NVIDIA and did the same thing and worked fine. Because my system is 2008 my Bootcamp is 2.0. BUT the only way to get 2.1 is after you have windows loaded and can run an update.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for all your time!

Call Apple would be my suggestion. The first drivers for the card came with the 10.5.7 update, so you're in the very first group of anyone using this card outside of apple.

I went to the Mac shop and they said the card is set up to work on the Mac side and isn't their problem!! Also they said there isn't any drivers to update bootcamp to recognize this card yet but maybe someday release them. So I wasted $400 on a card from mac that is useless.!!!

That might be the response of the reps in a store, but I'll bet Apple is working on getting the drivers working for Bootcamp also. You might be in the cold now, don't think Apple will leave you out there.


I'd think that'd be a great card to have in OS X. If you're only using your Mac to run Windows, should maybe think about getting a Windows box.

Mac Pro 2008 w/ATI 4870 Bootcamp issues

I came to the same conclusion. It's not a driver issue in Vista. It's a bootcamp
or Mac firmware issue. I have 2 Bootcamp volumes, one 32 bit and one 64 bit
and had no problems with the 8800GT. There is just no disk activity at all and
I see the same white screen w/black border. I talked to Apple, (1st tier) and they seem to concur. No eta given for a fix. Works fine w/10.5.7. Only run windows to play. (don't intend to purchase a windows box for gaming) ;D

couple of comments here about 10.5.7 - A New Mac Tip Every Day May be applicable.

4870 issue w/Bootcamp

I figured out some workarounds that made it work. Here they are:

1) used VGA and not DVI cable (on display end)

2) used a mini display port to dvi adapter

3) changed the display to a different model number/manufacturer

I'm concerned with the fact that you paid $400 for a 4870.

SuperBiiz.com - Smoking HOT! XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB DDR5 2DVI PCI-Express Video Card
Newegg.com - XFX HD-487A-ZHFC Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards