I know the 9600 pro will work in 4x AGP with slight modification, but will the 9600XT with 128mb VRAM work the same way in any 4x AGP mac?
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Radeon 9600XT in 4x AGP
- Thread starter Ikstej24
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slooksterPSV
macrumors 68040
If its AGP 1.1 Compliant or is it 2.0 Compliant. Check ATI's website and see the specific specs on it. I would say yes. - Cannot Garuntee though. Heck I'll head over to ati and see what it says.
EDIT: THE 9600XT WILL NOT WORK IN ANY MAC - because the video cards are manufactured differently for Mac. They are specially made, just like the x86 ones. So no, they will not work.
EDIT: THE 9600XT WILL NOT WORK IN ANY MAC - because the video cards are manufactured differently for Mac. They are specially made, just like the x86 ones. So no, they will not work.
The one I am wondering about is the one that comes out of a G5, so it is an OEM apple card. OWC and others have modified 8x 9600 pro cards to work in 4x AGP G4's. I was wondering if you could do the same for the 9600XT.
It's simple to modify these cards to work in a G4...put a small piece of tape to cover pins #3 and #11 on the bottom of the card and the card is forced to function in 4x mode. If you're planning on upgrading though, the 9800 tends to be a much more powerful card....I was running a 9600 from OWC, then did some work with a 9800, and for newer games, wow...huge improvement!
Pin 3 and 11 are found by turning the card upside down (so the heatsink is facing down) and counting from the back of the card towards the front (back of the card is side the monitor connectors are not).
EDIT: Whoops, just checked out a card, and it's actually counting from the front towards the back, not the other way around. Otherwise, it won't boot cause my original post is counting the wrong way=)
wangahrah
Pin 3 and 11 are found by turning the card upside down (so the heatsink is facing down) and counting from the back of the card towards the front (back of the card is side the monitor connectors are not).
EDIT: Whoops, just checked out a card, and it's actually counting from the front towards the back, not the other way around. Otherwise, it won't boot cause my original post is counting the wrong way=)
wangahrah
This card is for a friend of mine and he would rather have the 128mb VRAM over the 64mb of the PRO. I wasn't sure if the XT had different power requirements or specs that would prevent it from working like the pro did in G4's.
Thank you for all of the input for far...it has been very helpful.
Thank you for all of the input for far...it has been very helpful.
law guy
macrumors 65816
wangahrah said:
Excellent tip - is that the case for all of the 8x AGP ATI cards? Any driver issues on the G4 for a specified for G5 card? I've been thinking about replacing the ATI 9000 card in dual 1.42 and with the 4x, 128 MB of VRAM appears to be the limit (9800 Pro), whereas the 8x cards provide access to twice the memory.
On the point of the PC and Mac ATI cards someone else made, I saw on Barefeats that they had modified a Fire GL PC card (X800 XT) with 256 for PCs for a G4 and it was MUCH faster at higher resolutions (wicked expensive though at over $800). The ATI workstation card notes that it supports OpenGL and that it's Linux compatible, along with Win. The Barefeats notes state that they covered two pins with tape, but do not note what other modifications were necessary to make it work in the G4. Here's the link: http://www.barefeats.com/firegl.html
slooksterPSV
macrumors 68040
It actually doesn't fry anything. It just keeps a signal from passing through those points and giving information to the motherboard which makes it 4x compatable.
slooksterPSV said:
Nope, just make sure not to use superconductive tape.
But, if you take the card out, make sure the tape stayed on the card, otherwise you'll need to take it out of the AGP slot one way or another. Make sure the machine is unplugged first though.
wangahrah
Lucky8 said:
The 9800XT 256MB for G5 was an OEM option from Apple and it does outperform the 9800Pro 256MB. Be warned though the 9800XT Apple OEM will occupy the adjacent PCI slot. $128 is a great price for a 9800XT I would say buy it. Where did you find such a deal?
Lucky8 said:
All PowerMacs use AGP only for Graphics cards. Most G4s are AGP 4x and Power Mac G5s use AGP Pro 8x. Radeon 9800XT, Geforce 6800 GT/Ultra are almost double thick due to the heatsinks and obstruct either the PCI or PCI-X slot (depending on what you have) which are adjacent to the AGP slot.