"So I had the same results as the others who installed this update. The Rom was updated to the .202 variant, and the EFI Driver (as reported in Apple System Profiler) was updated to 01.00.202 from 01.00.140. This is probably the reason for the absence of garbled Vista booting. (An earlier report below from a 30in Cinema/WinXP (Bootcamp) user noted the update may have fixed his garbled screen issue and included a link to an apple forum thread on the subject, although a 23in Cinema HD user said he's never seen that issue.-Mike) Now it's what I imagine all PC users see, instead of a blocky, pink mess I get the black screen with the green loading bar, sweet...
I checked in Vista for any changes to the clocks and they were the same as before. I will report back in a few days after I have time to see if the shimmering effect has gone away or not, since its so sporadic.
Cheers, CP "

"Hi Mike, Follow up to my email in March... just ran the X1900XT updater in the hope it would fix the horrid dithering I see on my Samsung SyncMaster 226bw... no luck, still looks awful compared to when I boot into Windows XP.
Cheers, Chris "

" Mike, I have installed the X1900 Firmware Update. The process was very quick and problem free. I have not noticed any changes or improvements in my limited use of the card with the new firmware (played Command & Conquer 3 for about an hour).
I have not had a problem with a scrambled display in bootcamp. I'm using an Apple Cinema HD 23" display though, so perhaps it's related to his display.
Thanks, Andy "

A bootcamp user with 30in Cinema display wrote:

" This update seems to fix my problems with boot camp video corruption. Until now, booting into boot camp (XP) required 6-10 reboots to get a boot without a scrambled screen.
I'm running XP with a 30 inch Apple cinema display. I'm hopeful that this fixed the problem, but I will have to wait and see if the good reboots continue. There is a thread where we discuss it at: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5578500#5578500
-Bill S."

I wondered if it fixes an old issue with no video at Windows install/boot reported in the past from X1900 XT owners (Boot Camp feedback/tips page here had older reports on this - workaround was to use a VGA (Analog display for initial setup.)
Kevan G. (of fix my mac in Scotland) sent screenshots from ASP on his card's before/after firmware versions - Before: 113-A52027-140, After: ......- 202 and the EFI Driver went from 01.00.140 to 01.00.202. (There may have been several different card firmware versions shipped in the past.) Kevan mentioned he's never had any overheating problems but he frequently cleans the X1900's heatsink/fins, although some claimed that was not the cause of their problems. Not everyone has had a problem, but here's a previous page with some ATI X1900 XT Artifacts/Overheating Notes/Tips.

"About ATI Radeon X1900 XT Firmware Update....

What's New in this Version
The ATI Radeon X1900 GT Firmware Update will update the firmware on all of the ATI Radeon X1900 GT graphics cards in the Mac Pro. The updater application will be installed in the /Applications/Utilities folder.
Please follow the instructions in the updater application to complete the process.

System Requirements: OS X 10.4.10, Mac Pro"

As usual no real details on any changes/fixes. If you apply this update let me know of any pros/cons you see. Thanks. I'm wondering if it fixes an old issue with no video at Windows install/boot reported in the past from X1900 XT owners on the Boot Camp feedback/tips page here - previous workaround was to use a VGA (Analog) display for initial setup.) For those that were curious especially with the "GT" in the doc, a reader said he checked and saw no GPU/VRAM clock speed changes after the update.
(Update- See our page with Feedback on the Mac X1900 XT firmware Update.)

" As you know I use a (Upgraded) G4 Digital Audio 733 machine (powermac4,3) from 2001. This machine falls under the specs for Leopard. (Apple's official Leopard minimum system requirements are posted below - it notes a 867MHz or faster G4.-Mike)
However I wanted to be sure it would support 10.5 anyway before going out and wasting money on the 26th (Apple's Leopard ship/preorder delivery date) so I downloaded and installed previous 559 seed on a second hard disk (clean install). The system installed without issue or hacking.
It fully ran on my G4 7448 2.0ghz upgrade (Newer Tech upgrade), as well as worked with the Sonnet branded SATA card with 2 WD 10k raptors (150GB), ATI 9800 pro (new one ROHC).

It was pretty snappy although admittedly slightly less snappy than 10.4.10. This is likely do to all the new pretty eye candy additions. (and beta versions usually have debug code). It's by far definitely runable and fully functional.

I'm pretty sure the installer checks cpu type and cpu freq and not machine id. In other words it checks current cpu speed and not assumed speed based on what machine id is supposed to have. So as far as cpus that do not REQUIRE CPUD, it should have no issues.
-Adam "

It remains to be seen what installer checks will be in the final/retail shipping release but as I mentioned earlier today, I don't think a CPU upgrade alone will be an issue.
BTW - If you've ordered Leopard and are going to run it on your older/upgraded Mac (or newer one), I'm looking for readers that are willing to keep a Blog here of their experiences with Leopard - if that interests you let me know. Thanks.

" Minimum System Requirements

Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor

512MB of physical RAM

DVD drive for installation"

I'm sure as always, CPU Upgrades are not "officially" supported, although I suspect the CPU upgrade alone is not an issue, but some software (like CPU Director, or firmware patchers that are run -before- some upgrades are installed) likely will not work. (CPUD has required an update for every OS X tiger update to date - although it's not really required, except I think for the 750FX/GX G3 CPUs that use it for CPU speed control.) FYI - Also see later post above for feedback on Leopard beta from a Digital Audio G4 tower running a newer tech 7448 CPU upgrade.
BTW - a reader sent a note on personal EDU pricing:

" So I went to the Apple store expecting to see the edu price set at half retail. (As it has been in the past for EDU OS upgrades.) Boy did I get a surprise! It's a whole $13 less! Whose bright idea is that? On the bright side, for the first time there is an edu price for Server - a whole $50 off retail.
-Randy S. "

NOTE: I had a couple readers sent a note that pricing for Schools is the same as before (one reader sent a screenshot - OS X 10.5 was $69, 10.5 Server $249).

" I was extremely disappointed to see Leopard's EDU price of $116. The previous OS versions have cost $69 for EDU affiliated individuals. There's also no discount with the 5 seat family pricing.
Interestingly, the volume license pricing is the same as it was with Tiger and Panther.
-Corey "

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