Upgrading Graphics on a G3 MiniTower

[LimeiBook86]

I have a G3 MIniTower 333mhz, I only have 1 PCI slot left ( I have a FireWire and UW SCSI card installed) I want to add a Graphics card so I can play games like Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast, I also get and error when trying to run the game, it give me some pixel error (I'll post ther image later) Well I want an ATI card, can you sugest a good one that I can use in my MiniTower, can I put any old Graphics card in? I want it to work in OS 9 and OS X (not jaguar) Please help, I'll look at this post when I get home (around 4:00pm in the eastcoast USA) PLease help!!!!

 

[mc68k]

I would go with an ATI card. There are three options that I would recommend for a PCI card:

Radeon Mac (original release) - 32MB DDR
Radeon Mac 7000 - 32MB DDR
Rage 128 - 16MB SDR

The order I listed is from best to worst. The top model has been discontinued (harder to find), but is better in the benchmarks than the newer 7000 model. The Rage 128 can be had for about half the price and is the next best thing to a Radeon.

Radeons usually run for about $100-130 new.
All these cards can be found on eBay for a cheaper price if you're into auctions.

 

[Bradcoe]

no less than 64mb

If you're talking about playing Jedi Knight II, don't get any video card with less than 64mb of memory on it. They simply won't work. GeForce 4 MX is a cheap card that will play ok if you don't care about being already out-dated. ATI Radeo 9000 is a decent card for low cost too. Anything before it (7500, 7000, even 8500) is too old.

 

[daveg5]

Re: Upgrading Graphics on a G3 MiniTower

Originally posted by LimeiBook86
I have a G3 MIniTower 333mhz, I only have 1 PCI slot left ( I have a FireWire and UW SCSI card installed) I want to add a Graphics card so I can play games like Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast, I also get and error when trying to run the game, it give me some pixel error (I'll post ther image later) Well I want an ATI card, can you sugest a good one that I can use in my MiniTower, can I put any old Graphics card in? I want it to work in OS 9 and OS X (not jaguar) Please help, I'll look at this post when I get home (around 4:00pm in the eastcoast USA) PLease help!!!!

you only have one choice if you want new Radeon 7000 but it is among the slowest but does have the most features and like all radeons has dvd playback and excellant support in 9 and OSX.

I have a Voodoo 5500 with 4saa full screen anti alias (no jaggies in all games whether they support it or not and 64MB memory and when used with griifins super res app gives me a ton of resolutions to choose from. however it has no acceleration in OSX the built in 6MB video is faster then and is incompatable with most games in 9.2 (there is a simple fix though) so I have my harddrive partition 9.1 mostly games, 9.2 reg and 10.2 JAG and that works out fine.
I too am very upset that there are no faster 64MBddr video cards for mac that are compatable with OSX and DVD and 9.2 we only have the slow but versatile Radeon 7000. oh well
www.barefeats.com recently reviewed it check it out

 

[mc68k]

Re: no less than 64mb

Originally posted by Bradcoe
If you're talking about playing Jedi Knight II, don't get any video card with less than 64mb of memory on it. They simply won't work. GeForce 4 MX is a cheap card that will play ok if you don't care about being already out-dated. ATI Radeo 9000 is a decent card for low cost too. Anything before it (7500, 7000, even 8500) is too old.

Unfortunately, the Beige G3 only has 3 PCI slots for expansion. The cards you mention are AGP. The cards I mention are the top-of-the-line PCI that are compatible w/X.

 

[gotohamish]

Re: Re: no less than 64mb

Originally posted by mc68k
Unfortunately, the Beige G3 only has 3 PCI slots for expansion. The cards you mention are AGP. The cards I mention are the top-of-the-line PCI that are compatible w/X.

You sound like a helpful guy who knows what he's talking about - I have a Beige G3 333 MT, and too want to get a Radeon PCI, not for games though. As this will encorporate Quartz Extreme it will lighten the load on the 333MHtz G3 and see a noticable improvement in speed - do you agree? It has the pool lowly 8MB VRAM at the moment!

Help people!

 

[mc68k]

Re: Re: Re: no less than 64mb

Originally posted by gotohamish
…I have a Beige G3 333 MT, and too want to get a Radeon PCI, not for games though. As this will encorporate Quartz Extreme it will lighten the load on the 333MHtz G3 and see a noticable improvement in speed - do you agree?

It depends on the task. If you have the majority of the system doing it's tasks through the PCI bus, then sending GL data to it will max it out or saturate the bus.

For everyday tasks, GL compositing will help to lighten the load of the CPU. That is a fact, I've tested it thoroughly. An upgrade from the onboard 8MB ATI to a Radeon will be a substantial increase by itself. Quartz GL will give the GUI and some other tasks a greater "snappiness" factor. Your box will probably run cooler since not everything is going straight through the CPU.

I have it activated on my 9600 w/Radeon at home, and haven't had any problems. I would recommend it if you're looking to get the most performance possible out of an old machine.

 

[gotohamish]

Thanks!

Well, the internal boot drive is a SCSI one which i believe is powered from the PCI which might affect throughput, but otherwise, I think I'll go with the Radeon 700 or Mac Edition -whichever's cheaper on eBay!

Cheers
Hamish

 

[mc68k]

Originally posted by gotohamish
Well, the internal boot drive is a SCSI one which i believe is powered from the PCI which might affect throughput

Only when you have hard drive access running alongside the graphics.

These machines AFAIK have internal SCSI and IDE, so it might be connected to the mainboard.

 

[pgwalsh]

Is it possible to use the PC version of the Radeon 7000. I've heard it is with a hack, but not worth it.

 

[job]

Originally posted by pgwalsh
Is it possible to use the PC version of the Radeon 7000. I've heard it is with a hack, but not worth it.

I'm just curious as to why you would want to.

The Mac Radeon 7000 is not that expensive anymore...

 

[pgwalsh]

Originally posted by hitman


I'm just curious as to why you would want to.

The Mac Radeon 7000 is not that expensive anymore...

Wasn't the Radeon 7000 129 or something. I think that's a lot for an old video card.

 

[daveg5]

Originally posted by pgwalsh
Wasn't the Radeon 7000 129 or something. I think that's a lot for an old video card.

the older but faster oringinal radeon is even more sometimes on ebay, shop around you should be able to find it cheaper then $129

 

[gotohamish]

Thanks - I'd really like a PCI Radeon 8500 ($100) to flash for the Beige 333 but it's proving pretty difficult to track down as I believe you need the ATI manufactured one (ie not third party) for it to work. I'm using a PC flashed ATI Radeon 8500 AGP in my PowerMac G4 that runs great - currently running a Sony DVI TFT 17" great - I want the same setup for my Beige.

Any ideas?

 

[pgwalsh]

Originally posted by daveg5

the older but faster oringinal radeon is even more sometimes on ebay, shop around you should be able to find it cheaper then $129

The old Radeon 7000 should be only $50 bucks if that. It's silly to pay 129 for a 32 mb video card pci and years old. That's why I thought maybe a pc converted one would be okay.

 

[daveg5]

i want one

where can you get the pci radeon 7000,8500 for $50 that works with the mac

 

[LimeiBook86]

Update...

Well yeah I need a PCI Graphics card, I have a 333mhz G3 Mini Tower but I have only 1 slot left, I also wanna upgrade some RAM and Video Memory, I'm gonna take a picture of inside my Mac so you can see what going on. Ok? be back soon! thanks...