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Quick inquiry about multiple graphics cards

Macman756

Macman756

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
I have a late 2005 G5 with a 6600 256mb graphics card that I think is on its death bed. I have another G5, an early 2005 with an ATI radion 9600 card. Can I put the ATI in another slot in my late 2005 and run two graphics cards? Thanks!
 
Macman756 said:
I have a late 2005 G5 with a 6600 256mb graphics card that I think is on its death bed. I have another G5, an early 2005 with an ATI radion 9600 card. Can I put the ATI in another slot in my late 2005 and run two graphics cards? Thanks!
Click to expand...

What makes you think the video card is failing?
 
G51989 said:
What makes you think the video card is failing?
Click to expand...

I'm not getting artifacts on the screen, but randomly it freezes with black text, almost like a kernel panic but no restart this Mac screen, just random black text top to bottom, and the fans go full blast, forcing me to pull the plug. Only happens when a monitor is connected, since it runs headless most of the time.

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So if I wanted to add a second card to this PCIe G5, can it be one just like the 6600, just in slot two? Are all 4 slots PCIe?
 
Macman756 said:
I'm not getting artifacts on the screen, but randomly it freezes with black text, almost like a kernel panic but no restart this Mac screen, just random black text top to bottom, and the fans go full blast, forcing me to pull the plug. Only happens when a monitor is connected, since it runs headless most of the time.

----------

So if I wanted to add a second card to this PCIe G5, can it be one just like the 6600, just in slot two? Are all 4 slots PCIe?
Click to expand...

Hmmm, could also be a software issue.

I've only ever had one video card actually fail on me, it caused random BSOD's on an XP machine I had. sometimes the screen would just go black, while the program kept running.

So it could just as easily be the video card, and no. I don't think you can put the ATi in that G5, wrong interface.

Best way is to pop open each case and look 😀
 
These are your choices for the gfx cards, 6600 and 6600 LE, ATI X1900, GeForce 7800GT/GTX and Quadro FX4500. Best if it is on slot 1 x16 pcie.
 
Macman756 said:
I have a late 2005 G5 with a 6600 256mb graphics card that I think is on its death bed. I have another G5, an early 2005 with an ATI radion 9600 card. Can I put the ATI in another slot in my late 2005 and run two graphics cards? Thanks!
Click to expand...

There is a way to save your GPU, although it is tricky and is for experienced individuals only.


http://www.addictivetips.com/hardware/fix-your-graphics-card-by-baking-in-oven/ A heatgun and some patience works just as well.

No, they will not work in unison. Why?

SLi (which is the dual video card setup for Nvidia GPUs) is Nvidia proprietary.
You cannot criss-cross different makes of GPU. (3rd party vendors are the exception like Sapphire, XFX, BFG and so on)

Crossfire is also ATi Proprietary dual GPU system.

The G5s were never configured to support dual video cards the way a PC system/Server is configured. There is the PC "Physx" card pairing method but it would never work on a PPC based system due to all the specialization needed for that architecture.
 
Nope, as they are both AGP cards and G5 Power Macs only have 1 AGP slot. If the NVIDIA fails, just toss the 9600XT in.

If you need dual monitors for something, I've got an ATI FireGL X3 that powers 2x 2048x1152 monitors without a hitch.
 
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