Creating a Mac Pro EFI VBIOS with EnableGop

Thanks to the hard work done by Mikebeaton, it is now possible to easily create a 2009-2012 Mac Pro bootscreen-compatible VBIOS for any modern compatible graphics card.

See the MacRumors Thread for more details.

Supported Architectures

NVIDIA
Architecture Notes
Tesla 2.0* Untested, may require a larger EEPROM to store the modified VBIOS, GOP Update required for all cards
Fermi* Untested, may require a larger EEPROM to store the modified VBIOS, GOP Update required for all cards
Kepler Some low-end cards may require the EnableGopDirect variant, GOP Update required for some cards, recommended for all cards
Maxwell Requires NVIDIA Web Drivers for functionality under macOS, GOP Update recommended
Pascal Requires NVIDIA Web Drivers for functionality under macOS, GOP Update recommended
AMD
Architecture Notes
TeraScale 2 (HD 5XXX-6XXX) May require removal of legacy VGA code, GOP Update required for all cards
GCN (HD 7XXX-RX 3XX)
Polaris (RX 4XX-RX 5XX) GOP Update may be required
Vega Some cards may require the EnableGopDirect variant.
Navi (RX 5XXX-RX 6XXX) May require further VBIOS modification

Obtaining a VBIOS for your card

There are two methods to obtain a VBIOS for your card:
1. Download a copy from TechPowerUp
2. Using NVFlash/AMDVBFlash

Downloading VBIOSes from TechPowerUp
1. Open the TechPowerUp VBIOS database found at https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/
2. Use the filtering options to find your graphics card model
3. Download the VBIOS applicable for your card. Please ensure that the VBIOS is suitable!

Dumping your VBIOS using NVFlash (Windows, Linux, and DOS only)
1. Download NVFlash from https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-nvflash/
(Older versions may work better for older cards)
2. Open a command prompt window with administrator privileges and cd to the folder containing NVFlash.
3. Run the following command: nvflash —save VBIOS.rom

Dumping your VBIOS using AMDVBFlash (Windows, Linux, and DOS only)
1. Download AMDVBFlash from https://www.techpowerup.com/download/ati-atiflash/
2. Use the GUI to dump your ROM (Alternatively, the command line interface can also be used).

Updating the VBIOS GOP Driver

GOP is the UEFI implementation of a video handle. Many graphics cards can have their GOP Drivers updated to add features (E.g. DisplayPort 1.4) or fix issues. Updating a VBIOS’s GOP can only be done through Windows, however a virtual machine will work.

1. Download the GOPUpdate Utility from https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/amd-and-nvidia-gop-update-no-requests-diy/30917/1588
2. Drag and drop your VBIOS onto GOPupd.bat and follow the instructions

Adding the EnableGop driver to your VBIOS

EnableGop is the driver used to enable the bootscreen. The VBIOS modification process can be done from macOS.

1. Download OpenCorePkg and locate the EnableGop directory in the Utilities folder. Additionally, locate the efirom utility in the Utilities -> BaseTools folder.
2. Download the UEFIRomExtract utility from https://github.com/Ausdauersportler/IMAC-EFI-BOOT-SCREEN/blob/main/Tools/UEFIRomExtract.zip
3. Add efirom and UEFIRomExtract to your PATH. This can be temporarily achieved by placing both utilities in the same folder and running

export PATH="$PATH:/path/to/folder"

This change will be reverted once you close the terminal.
4. Install the grep formula from Homebrew. This can be achieved by running “brew install grep”
5. Open a terminal window and drag vBiosInsert.sh from the EnableGop folder into the terminal. Do not hit enter yet, the command needs to be appended.
6. Type in “-a” if you are using an AMD VBIOS, or “-n” for an NVIDIA VBIOS.
7. Drag the VBIOS file into the terminal.
8. Drag EnableGop.efi into the terminal. Alternatively, if your card does not display a bootpicker with the regular EnableGop.efi, substitute it for EnableGopDirect.efi.
9. Enter the desired output file name/location for the modified VBIOS.

Your command should look something like this:

./vBiosInsert.sh -n ./NVIDIAVBIOS.rom ./EnableGop.efi ./NVIDIAVBIOS_EnableGop.rom

After running the command, you should now have a Mac Pro EFI Bootscreen VBIOS.
If you encounter an AMD size limitation error, your card requires further manual VBIOS modification. Information can be found at https://github.com/Ausdauersportler/IMAC-EFI-BOOT-SCREEN/wiki/Deleting-the-VGA

Flashing the VBIOS

You can now flash the modified VBIOS. Guides for using NVFlash and AMDVBFlash can be found at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=essLaqHy-l0 (NVFlash)
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/amd-ati-flash-command-line-cmd-syntax-mini-guide-windows.291671/ (AMDVBFlash)

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