PowerMac G4 Graphics card question

[xtreme1690]

Hey guys!

I have been looking around for a Core-Image capable graphics card for my PowerMac G4, and i have found a few, i have my eye on one specifically but theres a small hiccup.

The card im looking at is an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro, it has 128MB video memory, Dual DVI ports, and is of course capable of Core Image

The Hiccup? Its listed as being for G5 systems, its also 8x AGP and not 4x AGP which my PowerMac G4 is.

Now, as far as i can tell, my system will take the card as long as i force it down to 4x AGP by taping (or permanently removing) pins 3 and 11 on the back side of the card.

Does anyone know if thats all i need to do or if there is anything else involved?

Any information is appreciated.

[Paddy]

I don't know why you think you'd need to remove pins from it, or that it's not compatible with the G4. ATI/AMD list it as compatible, but see notes from xlr8yourmac below. Also, it has 256MB of video memory, not 128 according to the website, though I see a 128MB version on eBay. It is not compatible with all G4s though - you should tell us what model G4 this is for (might want to add that to your profile as 3,6 includes a number of different models: http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-looku...ds=PowerMac3,6) From the looks of it, your model is NOT one of the incompatible ones.

http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9600/rad...cmac/specs.html

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/9600_mac_pc_edition.html

I suspect that the best deals are to be found on eBay, but here's a new one through Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/ATI-Radeon-9600-256M...=pd_sim_sbs_e_2

One on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATI-RADEON-MAC-960...=item1e76d50f9d

[xtreme1690]

QUOTE(Paddy @ Feb 19 2013, 02:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't know why you think you'd need to remove pins from it, or that it's not compatible with the G4. ATI/AMD list it as compatible, but see notes from xlr8yourmac below. Also, it has 256MB of video memory, not 128 according to the website, though I see a 128MB version on eBay. It is not compatible with all G4s though - you should tell us what model G4 this is for (might want to add that to your profile as 3,6 includes a number of different models: http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-looku...ds=PowerMac3,6) From the looks of it, your model is NOT one of the incompatible ones.

http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9600/rad...cmac/specs.html

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/9600_mac_pc_edition.html

I suspect that the best deals are to be found on eBay, but here's a new one through Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/ATI-Radeon-9600-256M...=pd_sim_sbs_e_2

One on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATI-RADEON-MAC-960...=item1e76d50f9d

Apologies for the late reply, seems im not getting emails informing me of a reply even when i selected to when i first posted.


Anywho, this is definitely a 128MB card. Since it was listed as being for the G5, and of 8X AGP speed, i taped the pins and it works smoothly in my G4.
A pic of the system profiler is below.

Link with system specs wouldnt load so i just typed em below so if anyone stumbles accross this with same question + same system as me, they'll know it works

Power Mac G4
Identifier: Powermac3,6
Processor Name: PowerPC G4 (3.3)
Processor Speed: 1.25GHz
Number of physical CPUs: 1
L2 Cache: 256kb
L3 Cache: 1MB
Memory: 1.75GB DDR PC2700
Bus Speed: 167MHz
BOOT ROM: 4.4.8f2

[Xairbusdriver]

BTW, there are several keyboard combos that let you take screen shots of something less than the entire screen. shift-command-4 springs to mind... A 1600 pixel wide image, even when reduced 80% make a huge image on the TS boards. Many of us never use 'full-screen' mode so we end up having horizontal scroll bars because the image is so wide. I have my Chrome window set to around 1500pixels but still have a horizontal scroll bar. The whole screen is still not available for viewing an image at TS because of the ~200 pixels along the left-hand side and whatever borders a theme may insert.

Xairbusdriver, AKA: Self-appointed TS Window Width Monitor and Chief Complainer

[xtreme1690]

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Feb 23 2013, 04:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

BTW, there are several keyboard combos that let you take screen shots of something less than the entire screen. shift-command-4 springs to mind... A 1600 pixel wide image, even when reduced 80% make a huge image on the TS boards. Many of us never use 'full-screen' mode so we end up having horizontal scroll bars because the image is so wide. I have my Chrome window set to around 1500pixels but still have a horizontal scroll bar. The whole screen is still not available for viewing an image at TS because of the ~200 pixels along the left-hand side and whatever borders a theme may insert.

Xairbusdriver, AKA: Self-appointed TS Window Width Monitor and Chief Complainer

Whoopsies! My apologies about that, i did shrink down the 2nd image i wanted to link but it never showed up. But thanks for the reminder to shrink images in future, hehe.  

[Paddy]

Actually, Jim, the screenshot was hosted elsewhere - but the image was embedded full-size, so yeah, it was doing nasty things to the browser window! I downloaded the file and re-uploaded it as an attachment, extreme, so now it looks a whole lot better.

(The board system won't let you post an attachment that shows up full-size in a post that big!)

[xtreme1690]

QUOTE(Paddy @ Feb 23 2013, 05:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually, Jim, the screenshot was hosted elsewhere - but the image was embedded full-size, so yeah, it was doing nasty things to the browser window! I downloaded the file and re-uploaded it as an attachment, extreme, so now it looks a whole lot better.

(The board system won't let you post an attachment that shows up full-size in a post that big!)

Ahh thanks for that.  In future i'll be sure to shrink any images down to a suitable size  

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

In future i'll be sure to shrink any images down to a suitable size

NO, no! Then I'd be out of Chief Complainer job!!! We just tend to forget we can take screen shots of just parts of the screen. I use a little app that intercepts the normal commands and usually select a small part of any window, although it can also select the whole window, if desired. But it is very seldom that I want to capture the whole screen.

And thanks for posting/storing the image 'off-sire!' TS doesn't have any advertising to pay for adding storage space, so the more we can store somewhere else the better; more space for the threads with text. A picture may say a thousand words, but they take up tens of thousands more bytes!