B&W G3/640MB RAM and new 128MB ATI RADEON PRO Mac Edition - Slow

What's the clock speed of the P3?

800MHz...I'd say thats about the same speed as a 350 G3, wth the same specs.

Did you install any software with the graphics card? sometimes graphics cards have software that run multiple processes in the background you don't even know about (Mine did, till I killed most of em )

Also, as in any case...the more RAM the better...especially for DVD playback

SuperCompu2 said:

800MHz...I'd say thats about the same speed as a 350 G3, wth the same specs.

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Huh???

SuperCompu2 said:

Did you install any software with the graphics card? sometimes graphics cards have software that run multiple processes in the background you don't even know about (Mine did, till I killed most of em )

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You pretty much never should install third party drivers along with your third party card for OS X.

And since the system is all PCI, you have no Quartz Extreme, which all the AGP systems do. This is key for making OS X feel fast.

dpaanlka said:

Huh???

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jokingly of course...
I still use my PIII Laptop, feels quite fast when I use it.

With enough RAM, and of course proper Hardware arrangements, the G3 should still be chugging along. The Computer I'm on right now is a Dual 500MHz G4, and I find it plenty fast for all my regular everyday needs.

Alamac said:

Hi,

I have just installed an ATI Radeon graphic card with 128MB ram on my 350MHz B&W G3. I am using OSX 10.3. But I find the speed on my computer still quite slow. This is rather apparent when I try to play a DVD movie with my newly installed DVD-RW drive. The image is not smooth. But when I added another 128MB ram making a total of 700+, the video was slightly better.

My question is if anyone here can help me, is this normal for a B&W G3? I compared this with my Pentium III PC, when I installed a higher spec graphic card with all else remaining the same, my PC was nocticeably faster, unlike my Mac. Anyone can help me to solve this problem. Do I have to add more ram or maximise my ram for the speed to be faster? Thanks.

Alex

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I would do a reinstall of Your system software, I put a DVD-RAM drive in my B&W and it would not play DVD's at all hardly. After a re-install it ran just as smooth as my G4 also overclock that bad boy to 400MhZ that will give you a good boost http://www.lowendmac.com/macdan/02/0710ek.html

I swear DVD playback under OS X on the B&W G3's was never quite as good as it was under OS 8.5/9.0, but my parents are using that very machine almost exclusively for DVD playback these days with 10.3.9 installed and it's perfectly smooth. It has the original Rage128 (16MB VRAM!) and 256MB RAM.

Perhaps it's a video card driver issue, since you say you just installed the Radeon Pro.

I have problems with my G4 400/512mb playing stuff, so yeah maybe its time to get a 1ghz++....

Which Radeon, and is it a Mac Edition card or a flashed PC card?

I dont recall a Mac Radeon 9800 pro coming in a PCI version..........since B&W's dont have AGP slots............this must be a flashed pc card

SmurfBoxMasta said:

I dont recall a Mac Radeon 9800 pro coming in a PCI version..........since B&W's dont have AGP slots............this must be a flashed pc card

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well over half the mac video cards (pci or agp) I see on ebay are flashed x86 cards. I bought a radeon 7000 pci for my B&W (that I use as a dedicated bit torrent machine) that was flashed and it works perfectly. not bad for 18 bucks. I needed it because I run it off the vga port on my dell widescreen and the original rage 128 16mb couldn't power it. its only a 20"!

anyway.. I think the main bottleneck for you Alamac is your G3 350.

for now the best thing you can do is get about 6-7 hard drive jumpers and overclock the 350 to 400. mine is a 350 and it runs 24/7 @ 400 with no issues. a 50mhz boost may not sound like much but when you're already only running at 350 the extra 50 really helps in some ways. its very easy and safe to do.

here is a link to the jumper settings: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3-ZONE/yosemite/OC.html

zen.state said:

for now the best thing you can do is get about 6-7 hard drive jumpers and overclock the 350 to 400. mine is a 350 and it runs 24/7 @ 400 with no issues. a 50mhz boost may not sound like much but when you're already only running at 350 the extra 50 really helps in some ways. its very easy and safe to do.

here is a link to the jumper settings: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3-ZONE/yosemite/OC.html

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Did You not read my above post??

Spock said:

Did You not read my above post??

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I second over clocking. I got a good 100 MHz out of my G3. That and PCI Extreme on 10.4.3 rocks.

Eidorian said:

I second over clocking. I got a good 100 MHz out of my G3. That and PCI Extreme on 10.4.3 rocks.

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You managed to get Yours to overclock 100mhz? I couldnt get my 350 to boot set at 450 but runs good at 400

Spock said:

You managed to get Yours to overclock 100mhz? I couldnt get my 350 to boot set at 450 but runs good at 400

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It's entirely up to the chip. It could hit 100 MHz more. I just wasn't comfortable with it.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/170079/

Alamac said:

Thanks and sorry guys, I made a mistake. Just checked my VGA card box and found out my card is RADEON 9200 MAC 128MB PCI ENG/NA 100-436011. Any difference this make to the advice that have been given?

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Makes no difference, except that we now know you are using a real Mac card and not a flashed peecee card. But a re-install can still bring good results in most cases, as will maxing the ram to 1GB.......

also try using the "PCI Extreme" hack to enable QE. Alot of people here (me included) have used it to gain moderate speed increases on B&W's. You can find it on versiontracker.com

Alamac said:

Thanks and sorry guys, I made a mistake. Just checked my VGA card box and found out my card is RADEON 9200 MAC 128MB PCI ENG/NA 100-436011. Any difference this make to the advice that have been given?

Anyway I tried overclocking to 450 but my G3 just hangs when booting up. I assume its not comfortable with it. The reason I overclocked to 450 was that I didn't have enough jumper. So I just moved my 350 jumper setting to the 450 setting. Will try using HDD jumper to set the setting to 400 and see.

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Just pop into ANY computer shop and grab a couple more. most shop owners/employees I have dealt with don't even charge for them.

I have also seen 10 packs on ebay for 2-3 bucks.

Alamac said:

Will definitely try to enable QE but honestly I have no clue what that does.

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Quartz Extreme is 2D desktop acceleration. It offloads much of 2D bit crunching from the CPU to the GPU.

In simple terms it speeds up the user interface..