9600 Graphics card

[Redjack]

Subject says it all. I have a 9600 with a stock card that seems to be going bad (the screen is displaying really odd ghosting pattern).

What PCI cards can I get that have drivers (somewhere on the internet) for MacOS 8-9? I've been out of the PCI graphics card world for so long I am really confused. Help!

 

[Rodus]

Radeon 7000 or Radeon Mac Edition (7500). Both work with System 7 (with these drivers, work fine under 8 and 9) through to OS X. I can't find ATI's official old drivers anywhere.

For older/cheaper cards the the Rage 128 is probably as low as you want to go.

Or, you could get one of the old Voodoo 3 cards, drivers here

I'd go with the Radeon 7000 FWIW.

 

[Redjack]

Is the Radeon 7000 series the last cards to work with the 9600 (OS8/9)? I'd like to take it to the limit! what about display cards? Stock it came with an ixMicro Twin Turbo type card, other cards out there that fit the 9600?

 

[Lateralus]

Radeon 7000 or Radeon Mac Edition (7500). Both work with System 7 (with these drivers, work fine under 8 and 9) through to OS X.

I believe you're thinking of the 'Radeon Mac Edition', or '7200'. Because AFAIK, the 7500 was never available in PCI flavor for the Mac.

Is the Radeon 7000 series the last cards to work with the 9600 (OS8/9)? I'd like to take it to the limit!

The final Radeon PCI offered for the Mac by ATi was the 9200. Aside from the 7000, there's also the original ' Radeon Mac Edition/7200'. It was the first Radeon PCI ATi offered for the Mac and is actually significantly faster than the far more common 7000.

 

[OtakuMegane]

Is the Radeon 7000 series the last cards to work with the 9600 (OS8/9)? I'd like to take it to the limit! what about display cards? Stock it came with an ixMicro Twin Turbo type card, other cards out there that fit the 9600?

Macintosh Radeon 9200 is the last and most powerful overall that can run in a 9600. Below that comes the Radeon Mac Edition (7200) or the Voodoo series. 7000 can be hacked to run in Mac but performance isn't even on par with the Mac Radeon. And if you need more VRAM, 9200 has double what 7000 has.

For 2D by itself, the Proformance 3 was an amazing beast. I have never seen things scroll around that fast anywhere else. But the 3D support was sadly almost nonexistent and you'd be lucky to ever track one down these days.

 

[Rodus]

^^There is a Mac compatible 7000, no hacking needed. It is less powerful then the Radeon Mac Edition (yes, I meant 7200, sorry( and lacks hardware T&L but it's much quicker then the 128 series.

The 9200 is the fastest PCI card available for your machine but it may be overkill in a Power Mac 9600 with its' slowish bus etc.

If you only need any old card and aren't concerned about high performance then a PCI Rage 128 will smoke the stock card, which I think was the ixMicro TwinTurbo.

 

[Redjack]

I was poking around eBay and noticed that there were some 8xxx series cards too, do those work? Is the 9200 too powerful? Also, what about Voodoo 5 cards? Can I flash those and have it work on my mac or is there simply no software that could flash it on such an old machine?

Thanks for the advice though guys, helps me focus my searches to those specific cards.

 

[Rodus]

There was a Mac edition voodoo 5500 PCI and you can get the drivers from the same link I posted to the voodoo 3 ones earlier.

I think there may also have been a Mac Radeon 8500 PCI but I wouldn't swear to it.

The 9200 may be too powerful if you are running a 604e cpu, even the lower end G3's won't use it to it's full potential and the slow 33 mhz pci bus in the 9600 isn't going to help either, it's really only worthwhile in the 66 mhz slot in the B&W G3.

Get a Radeon Mac edition (7200), probably the best for your setup.