Power Mac G4 - Best Graphics Card?

[user1690]

Hey guys,

I recently purchased a Power Mac G4 and im wondering what graphics cards you would reccommend?

Currently this is the card installed:
ATI RADEON 9000 PRO
64MB VRAM
AGP BUS


I'm hoping for a graphics card that will support Core Image and be 64MB or above in VRAM.

If it helps with your response(s), the specs of the system are below;
A side note too, i do not own a PC so will not be able to grab a graphics card that would need a ROM Flash.

Model Name: Power Mac G4
Model Identifier: Powermac3,6
Processor Name: PowerPC G4 (3.3)
Processor Speec: 1.25GHz
Number of CPUs :1 Processor
256KB L2 Cache
1MB L3 Cache
1.5GB DDR SDRAM
167MHz Bus Speed

 

[rabidz7]

Hey guys,

I recently purchased a Power Mac G4 and im wondering what graphics cards you would reccommend?

Currently this is the card installed:
ATI RADEON 9000 PRO
64MB VRAM
AGP BUS


I'm hoping for a graphics card that will support Core Image and be 64MB or above in VRAM.

If it helps with your response(s), the specs of the system are below;
A side note too, i do not own a PC so will not be able to grab a graphics card that would need a ROM Flash.

Model Name: Power Mac G4
Model Identifier: Powermac3,6
Processor Name: PowerPC G4 (3.3)
Processor Speec: 1.25GHz
Number of CPUs :1 Processor
256KB L2 Cache
1MB L3 Cache
1.5GB DDR SDRAM
167MHz Bus Speed

Flashed Geforce 6200 or 6800 ultra. They can be bought pre flashed.

 

[666sheep]

Flashed Geforce 6200 or 6800 ultra. They can be bought pre flashed.

None of above will work in MDD.

Radeon 9800 is best bang for buck. You can flash it on a Mac, but you'd need another Mac (for VNC method) or PCI card. You can also buy preflashed one.

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

Radeon 9600 XT. Unless it's only marginally more expensive, don't bother getting better. You're going to be far more CPU limited. If you got some kind of ~1.6GHz dual G4 CPU upgrade, you could go for a pre-flashed 256MB ATI FireGL X3 (they get flashed with Radeon X800 XT ROM.)

 

[Zotaccian]

Flash a Radeon 9800 Pro. Get the most common model. Radeo 9800 is totally overkill for single G4 as even with Dual 1.25GHz the CPU(s) limit its performance:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/g5/Dual_g5_9600_9800_tests.html

 

[cocacolakid]

A side note too, i do not own a PC so will not be able to grab a graphics card that would need a ROM Flash.

People seem to be missing this part of the post, or it was added later.

DVWarehouse has a good selection of available GPU's for G4's. I'm not sure how competitive their prices are, you might check ebay (just make sure the description specifically says it is for a Mac)

http://www.dvwarehouse.com/Power-Mac-G4-Video-Cards-c-256_5094.html

A couple of years ago there was a post here linking to a great website listing every G4 compatible GPU, including a section with flashed GPU's. Unfortunately I can't find it, maybe someone else can or has the link.

 

[user1690]

People seem to be missing this part of the post, or it was added later.

DVWarehouse has a good selection of available GPU's for G4's. I'm not sure how competitive their prices are, you might check ebay (just make sure the description specifically says it is for a Mac)

http://www.dvwarehouse.com/Power-Mac-G4-Video-Cards-c-256_5094.html

A couple of years ago there was a post here linking to a great website listing every G4 compatible GPU, including a section with flashed GPU's. Unfortunately I can't find it, maybe someone else can or has the link.

Yeah they are missing that, it was there when i first created the post. I'll check that link out now, thanks

 

[cocacolakid]

I still can't find the specific list I wanted to link for you, but here is a list of all Core image supported graphics cards for Macs (not all are G4 compatible):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_Image#Supported_Graphics_Processors

Some of these cards can still run $100 or a little more. I'm not sure how much you're willing to spend for "the best" or if you just want a much better card at a decent price?

 

[cocacolakid]

Here is another site with some useful information, some of it is geared towards G5's but most of these work with G4's as well.

http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Blog/4B4B7BA2-7ABB-47F1-87AC-B03D37942BEE.html

 

[rabidz7]

None of above will work in MDD.
Deleted.

Deleted.

 

[Intell]

They will w/ taped pins!

They still exhibit lots of problems like freezing, sleep problems, and kernel panics in MDD G4's and that's why it isn't recommended to use those cards in a MDD G4's.

 

[Dave H]

AGP Graphics Card Compatibility Chart

 

[OSMac]

I have a 9800 Pro for the PC, but no longer have a AGP PC.
I also have a PCI Rage 128 for our Quicksilver 2002.

Can I flash the 9800 in the QS? How?

I read using the 9800 under os 9 will have limitations, what are those?

 

[cocacolakid]

AGP Graphics Card Compatibility Chart

That's it, thanks!

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

For what it's worth, I took the original Radeon 9600 XT from my G5 into a Digital Audio G4 and got it to work by using an X-ACTO knife (I think blade #2) to slice through the two AGP x8 connector libes.

 

[user1690]

Found a GPU, but its listed for G5?

Hi guys!

In the ongoing search for a Core-Image capable graphics card for my PowerMac G4 (3,6) , I stumbled across an ATI 9600 Pro with 128MB of VRAM (Dual DVI Ports).

This seems fine for making things a little smoother on this system, at least for what i'd like.

One little hiccup, they are listed as being for G5 systems, from what i can tell however, the G4 will run it if i tape off pins 3, and 11, so the 8x AGP card speed is forced to 4x.

Am i correct in assuming thats all i need to do or is there more?

I took a peek at the link (http://themacelite.wikispaces.com/AGP+Graphics+Card+Compatibility+Chart (Thanks to Dave H) and it lists the 9600 as compatable with the pins taped but i just want to make sure, already sunk some money into this but didnt do research first and ended up buying unflashable 9600's for PC's (with slower TSOP memory)