Radeon HD 5770 Framebuffer Injection Guide – Clover & OpenCore

The Radeon HD 5770, built on the Juniper XT core, was a staple in early Hackintosh builds running Snow Leopard (10.6) and Lion (10.7). Without proper graphics injection, macOS would fall back to VESA framebuffer drivers, locking resolution to 1024×768 and disabling Quartz Extreme acceleration. In the community, “Injection 5” refers to injecting a correct framebuffer for the Radeon HD 5xxx series (Evergreen family) — specifically using the fifth connector-type mapping found in Apple’s original ATI drivers. Here’s how to do it for both Clover and OpenCore, with safety tips to avoid bricking your setup.

Why Injection Matters for Radeon HD 5xxx

Apple supported the Radeon HD 5xxx series natively in OS X 10.6.3 through 10.9.5, but only with specific board-IDs and connector layouts. Retail cards often differ from Apple’s reference design, causing missing acceleration or black screens after boot. Injection tells macOS which framebuffer to load, how many ports are active, and what encoder types to use. Without it, the kernel extension (AMDRadeonAccelerator.kext) fails to initialize the GPU correctly.

Understanding Connector Types and Framebuffers

Each Radeon HD 5xxx card has a unique set of connectors (DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA). Apple’s drivers include several framebuffers — Hoolock (for 5770/5750), Vervet (for 5870), Uakari (for 5850), and others. The “Injection 5” method specifically targets the fifth connector index in the framebuffer table, which often corresponds to the second DVI or the HDMI port. Misidentifying this index can cause blank screens on that port.

Step-by-Step Injection via Device Properties (Clover)

For Clover-based Hackintosh systems (recommended for OS X 10.6–10.9), injection is done through the config.plist under Devices → Properties. Here’s the routine:

1. Identify your card’s PCI path — boot with -v and note the IORegistry path (e.g., PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)) or use a live Linux USB to find it.
2. Choose a framebuffer personality — for a 5770, start with Hoolock (0x68B8). For a 5870, use Vervet (0x6898).
3. Add the device properties — in Clover Configurator or manually, set the following keys under your GPU’s device path:
   • AAPL,ig-platform-id — leave empty for discrete GPUs.
   • ATY,FrameBuffer — string value, e.g., Hoolock.
   • ATY,Card# — string of your card’s device ID, e.g., 0x68B81002.
   • ATY,Copyright — optional, often set to Copyright AMD Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2005-2010.
   • device-id — data of the device ID (e.g., B8680200 for 0x68B8).
   • vendor-id — data 1002.
4. Add connector-type overrides — if you have non-standard ports, add connector-type data for each port (0x00 for VGA, 0x01 for DVI, 0x02 for HDMI, 0x04 for DisplayPort).
5. Save and reboot — boot with -v to see if the framebuffer loads. A successful injection shows “ATY, Hoolock” in IORegistry.

If you are using OpenCore (for Mavericks and later), the same properties go into config.plist under DeviceProperties → Add with the same key-value pairs. Note that OpenCore’s handling of legacy AMD GPUs may require boot-args like agdpmod=pikera for some cards, but Radeon HD 5xxx usually does not need that.

Troubleshooting Black Screen and Reverting

The most common failure mode is a black screen after the Apple logo. This indicates an incompatible framebuffer or wrong connector mapping. To recover, boot with -x (safe mode) which disables graphics acceleration. Then either remove the injection properties or switch to a different framebuffer. Always keep a backup of your working config.plist before editing. For Radeon HD 5xxx, trying Vervet when Hoolock fails is a typical next step. Also verify that your card’s ROM is not corrupted — use GPU-Z in Windows to dump the VBIOS and compare with known good versions.

Alternative: DSDT Injection

Some users prefer injecting graphics properties directly into the DSDT. This method is more permanent and works without a bootloader’s DeviceProperties. You can add a Device (GFX0) section with the same ATY,FrameBuffer and device-id under _DSM. However, this approach is riskier because a mistake can prevent boot even with safe mode. For a detailed walkthrough on extracting and editing your DSDT, refer to our guide on How to Extract Your Own DSDT for a Hackintosh: Three Methods and Verification Steps. We also recommend reviewing the Clover Bootloader Guide for Legacy Hackintosh to ensure your bootloader configuration is stable before tackling GPU injection.

Final Verification

After applying the injection, boot normally and open IORegistryExplorer. Search for “ATY,FrameBuffer” — it should show your chosen personality. Also check that the display is using full resolution and that transparency effects (like the menu bar translucency) are enabled. If not, double-check the connector-type values. For dual-monitor setups, test each port individually. Remember that Radeon HD 5xxx cards have a maximum of two active display outputs in macOS due to driver limitations — a third port will remain inactive unless you patch the framebuffer’s connector count.