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OK, what about swapping video cards?

B

brianus

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 17, 2005
401
0
I posted earlier about swapping the startup disks between a QuickSilver and a Sawtooth G4; maybe I can't do that, but is it safe to swap the video cards? I want to use the dual-display capable card from the QuickSilver in the Sawtooth. They're both part of their respective systems' "AGP" (?) bus, so I would *think* they can be interchanged without any problems.. but then, maybe not. Comments/suggestions?

Here are the specs:

G4 #1: 450MHz PowerMac G4 (M7628LL/A)
ATY,Rage128Pro w/16MB VRAM, VGA and a useless DVI-D port

G4 #2: 800MHz PowerMac G4 (M8705LL/A)
ATY,RV200 (and ATY,BlueStone_B) w/32MB VRAM. VGA & ADC ports
(I intend to use both w/VGA monitors; I have an ADC-VGA adaper)
 
robbieduncan

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
What sort of AGP slots are they (AGP, AGP 2x, AGP 4x or AGP 8x are available choices). Some cards don't work in some of those slots...
 
B

brianus

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 17, 2005
401
0
robbieduncan said:
What sort of AGP slots are they (AGP, AGP 2x, AGP 4x or AGP 8x are available choices). Some cards don't work in some of those slots...
Click to expand...

I can't find that in the system profiler anywhere. According to MacTracker, the Sawtooth has "1 - 2x AGP" under the "expansion slots" category. The Quicksilver has "1 - 4x AGP". I thought that just meant the number of slots, though.. what does it mean then?
 
robbieduncan

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
brianus said:
I can't find that in the system profiler anywhere. According to MacTracker, the Sawtooth has "1 - 2x AGP" under the "expansion slots" category. The Quicksilver has "1 - 4x AGP". I thought that just meant the number of slots, though.. what does it mean then?
Click to expand...

This means that the Sawtooth has an AGP 2x slot and the Quicksilver has an AGP 4x slot. I think this means you can swap them but you really need to check to be sure.

AGP = AGP 1x. The number is a multiplier so 2x doubles the maximum data throughput. Cards should be able to step down from higher speed to lower but I seem to remember there were voltage changes and a few other things between some of the speed revision meaning total backwards compatibility does not work...
 
N

Norouzi

macrumors 6502
Aug 6, 2004
399
25
Philadelphia, PA
The cards should swap fine, but you will not be able to power an ADC display through the card since the Sawtooth does not have enough power running through the AGP slot. The card itself should work fine however, same thing with the Radeon 9000 I put in my Sawtooth. It has an ADC port but I would need an adapter to power the ADC display. If your only using VGA however it shouldn't be a problem as VGA monitors have their own power supplys.
 
7

7254278

macrumors 68020
Apr 11, 2004
2,365
0
NYC
OFF TOPIC: Why would you be using 2 displays on the sawtooth instead of the quicksilver, isn't the quicksilver a more powerfull computer, shouldn't that be your main system?
 
dukeblue91

dukeblue91

macrumors 65816
Oct 7, 2004
1,222
0
Raleigh, NC
Patmian212 said:
OFF TOPIC: Why would you be using 2 displays on the sawtooth instead of the quicksilver, isn't the quicksilver a more powerfull computer, shouldn't that be your main system?
Click to expand...

I was just thinking the same thing :confused:
 
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