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watchmainspring

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 2, 2005
1,045
311
Boston
I just stumbled upon a 9800 pro 128 mb card. Are there any differences between a flashed card from pc and a regular ol' mac card?


its a 9800 pro 128mb. It's coming off a G4.
 
Winstonp said:
I just stumbled upon one. Are there any differences between a flashed card and a regular.

its a 9800 pro 128mb
The 9800 Pro Mac Edition (128MB) is for the G4, the 9800 Pro Mac Special Edition (256MB) is for the G5.

I don't know if there are any differences, however, I would make sure card has the right AGP specs on it for the machine you will be putitng it in before buying it.
 
Winstonp said:
the card is a PC card flashed to mac.

I was wondering if it will have any problems...
It might, the G5 (if you're replacing the current card) has an AGP 8x bus, so the card would have to have the same capability.

My suggestion would be if you feel the need for a better card is that you go for one with 256MB of memory.
 
he

well, I cant afford it. I'm paying 100$ for a 9800 128mb, which is all ill ever need.

I know that g4's use either 2X or 4X AGP...think thatll be an issue?
 
Winstonp said:
well, I cant afford it. I'm paying 100$ for a 9800 128mb, which is all ill ever need.

I know that g4's use either 2X or 4X AGP...think thatll be an issue?
Are you putting it in a G4 or a G5?

You have to make sure the card will run in an AGP 8x slot if you're putting it in a G5.
 
The 9800 Pro for PC's are designed to work with 4x or 8x AGP slots, according to ATI's web site. As for how well a flashed PC card works in a mac I do not no.
 
card

thanks for your help so far guys, but here's the deal:

I have a G5 1.6GHZ with AGP 8x

the card is a 9800 ati pro with 128mb ram, which should be AGP 8X



this is coming out of a G4 450 dual. It worked find in the dual. However, correct me if I'm wrong, but a G4 uses 4X or 2X AGP, meaning that the ati card had to be modded "down". or maybe it wasnt, the guy doesnt know.
 
Rocksaurus said:
AGP 8x cards do have to be modded down for use in AGP 4x, there is literally no way around that. This guy's card is modded down. The question now is, can it be modded "up"? I've only read a little on this topic as a whole, but I've never heard of anyone modding "up"... check this site out if you already haven't

Not true, plenty of 8X cards are backwards compatible...
 
If the guy who flashed the card merely taped the connectors over to reduce the AGP bus speed, you are good to go - just remove the tape. However, If he did something more exotic like removing the conductive leads themselves (OWC did this with their modded 9600 Pro cards), you may be in trouble, although even that could be reversible if you are handy with a soldering iron.

Other than that, the card should work fine in your G5, assuming it was successfully flashed.
 
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