ADC display for a Power Mac G3

[thinkdifferent]

Hello,

I am buying an old Power Mac G3 to use as a file server for my collection of vintage Macs. I would love to connect a 17 inch Apple Studio Display (Flat Panel), but the Power Mac was built before the ADC monitor connector. The first solution would be to buy a VGA to DVI adapter and then a DVI to ADC adapter for a total of about $130. The other option is to buy a graphics card from a G4 with the ADC connector and plug it into one of the G3's expansion slots. G4 graphics cards go for around $20 to $30 on ebay. My question is, will a G4 graphics card work in the G3?

 

[MacJunky]

No. The only G4s with ADC(GBE, Cube, DA, QS, MDD) used AGP. And yes, the Sawtooth had AGP but no ADC capability.

Your B&W as well as the G4 PCI graphics (original G4 based on the B&W mobo) have only PCI slots.

Really, you would be best off just getting a LCD monitor from a PC shop.

 

[waynestewart]

Buying an ADC to DVI or RGB adapter isn't the best way to go at this time. I too wanted a non-widescreen LCD to use with older Macs.I also had an Apple 17" LCD studio display but rather than buying the adapter, for $80 I picked up a used Dell 19" LCD. It has connectors for both DVI & VGA.

 

[thinkdifferent]

Oh, well this is rather unfortunate. ADC was the stupidest thing apple ever created. I do have a PC 15" monitor that I can use, but the quality on apple displays is far superior. The newer Cinema displays, which do have DVI, are much more expensive and I don't want to pay over $150 for a monitor. It looks like I'm stuck with PC quality for now, unless anyone has another suggestion.

 

[MacJunky]

*shrug* I payed $200 canadian for my display that has now dropped in price to around $17x and so long as you have a decently calibrated colour profile it looks really really nice. As far as 22inch LCDs go this was on the cheap end at the time but it still whomped every other display in the house, including Trinitrons. Apple's displays might have been good quality but at the time they were also not all that cheap as far as I recall. Not all displays made for PCs are crap.

 

[equill]

I am using a 17-in Apple Studio LCD with an Apple DVI to ADC adapter from an ATi Radeon PCI 7000/32MB (VGA, DVI-I, S-Video) card in a Beige G3 (Rev. C) MT with a Sonnet G4/800MHz/768MB upgrade and a 2-port (NEC chip) USB 1.1 card. Works well. The slowest redraw occurs as raster appears during booting, but is never thereafter a difficulty.

The System is OS 9.2.2 with Mac OS ROM v10.2.1, purloined from the MDD G4 installation CD, and with the mods to the ATi extensions mentioned at:

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[thinkdifferent]

I like the idea of having one of those adapters, but the G3 cost $50 and the display wouldn't be much more. It just doesn't seem right to pay more for an adapter than you do for the computer or display its self.

I noticed a 21" (I think) Apple Studio CRT display sitting outside someone's office. They don't need it, and are waiting for it to be recycled, so I might just take it. What do you think?

 

[Mars478]

I like the idea of having one of those adapters, but the G3 cost $50 and the display wouldn't be much more. It just doesn't seem right to pay more for an adapter than you do for the computer or display its self.
I noticed a 21" (I think) Apple Studio CRT display sitting outside someone's office. They don't need it, and are waiting for it to be recycled, so I might just take it. What do you think?

Take, Take, TAKE! Awesome Find, Make sure it works though.

 

[Hrududu]

Oh, well this is rather unfortunate. ADC was the stupidest thing apple ever created. I do have a PC 15" monitor that I can use, but the quality on apple displays is far superior. The newer Cinema displays, which do have DVI, are much more expensive and I don't want to pay over $150 for a monitor. It looks like I'm stuck with PC quality for now, unless anyone has another suggestion.

I don't think ADC was even close to the stupidest thing Apple ever created. I'd pick it over the current mini display port actually. The concept was great; run power, usb, and video all through ONE port onto ONE cable. What was stupid is no other companies taking advantage of such a genius concept.

 

[Mars478]

Oh, well this is rather unfortunate. ADC was the stupidest thing apple ever created. I do have a PC 15" monitor that I can use, but the quality on apple displays is far superior. The newer Cinema displays, which do have DVI, are much more expensive and I don't want to pay over $150 for a monitor. It looks like I'm stuck with PC quality for now, unless anyone has another suggestion.

I don't think ADC was even close to the stupidest thing Apple ever created. I'd pick it over the current mini display port actually. The concept was great; run power, usb, and video all through ONE port onto ONE cable. What was stupid is no other companies taking advantage of such a genius concept.

I think ADC Is a wonderful Idea! It eliminates cables and everything! If only Apple still used it today, and the adaptor wasn't so expensive. There is a REALLY nice ADC CRT in my schools storage room along with a Tray Loader iMac G3.

 

[thinkdifferent]

You're right, ADC wasn't the stupidest choice they ever made. Abandoning it was. If Apple had stayed with ADC and developed a more powerful connector to power their larger CRTs and Cinema displays, then it would've become a standard interface.

 

[MacJunky]

Not really, everybody else was content with VGA/DVI (infact Apple used VGA and DVI on the Sawtooth's cards)and Apple used then unassigned pins in the AGP slot. If Apple had pushed this to the people who were coming up with the DVI spec it still would not have happened because it would have required modification to the AGP spec as well. Then you run into cheap motherboards not providing enough power or new displays coming out that would draw more than could be supported, etc.

ADC might be neat if it was more common but it just does not work in the long run unless you have complete control over your hardware and force people to upgrade their whole machine.(or at least their mobo and GFX card at the same time

 

[thinkdifferent]

I don't mean standard in the PC industry, I mean standard on Macs. If Apple had stayed with it, they could have added ADC to all of their computers.

 

[porter]

I don't mean standard in the PC industry, I mean standard on Macs. If Apple had stayed with it, they could have added ADC to all of their computers.

Ah yes, lock-in through previous investment, followed by abandon because sick-of-it.

 

[thinkdifferent]

Well I am going to pick up this 22" CRT as soon as I find the time. It will be a perfect compliment to the Power Mac G3 :beige:

 

[zerotypeq]

It was a good idea, but it can't be in sizes larger than 22" iirc, but I absolutely love my 17" adc.

 

[~Coxy]

ADC was doomed from the start because it powered the monitor. That means laptop users have to buy bulky extrenally-powered converter boxes and it also means yet-more auxiliary power connectors and amperage flowing over the PCI bus for GPUs. LCDs became larger and larger quite quickly, which of course needs still more power.

It may have survived if it was a simpler sound/USB/video connection only. Personally I'm glad to see it gone; I'd rather have to plug 2/3 cables into a monitor than have an Apple-only standard.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

The limit of ADC is the single-link DVI resolution of 1920x1200.

Power isn't the limit, Apple had a 17" CRT that ran off ADC. (By the way, the power isn't being supplied over the PCI (or AGP) bus, it's by an extra set of power pins that ADC-compatible video cards have. These extra power pins are dedicated solely to powering the monitor. Why they didn't just adopt the already existing standard of "AGP Pro" is beyond me, though; since all AGP Pro over standard AGP added was extra power.) A 17" CRT uses a lot more power than even the 23" LCD does. (113W vs. 90W.) Although, oddly, Wikipedia claims that ADC tops out at 100W. Which would be an issue since the 17" ADC CRT draws 113W.

ADC also carried the analog pins of DVI-I, which is how the CRT Studio Displays ran. They were not digital (which is why some later ADC video cards can't run the CRTs; they don't pass through the analog signal,) but analog, basically VGA. In fact, the CRT studio displays can run at higher resolution than 1920x1200; but you have to force it; as it's not available by default.

 

[thinkdifferent]

ADC was doomed from the start because it powered the monitor. That means laptop users have to buy bulky extrenally-powered converter boxes and it also means yet-more auxiliary power connectors and amperage flowing over the PCI bus for GPUs. LCDs became larger and larger quite quickly, which of course needs still more power.
It may have survived if it was a simpler sound/USB/video connection only. Personally I'm glad to see it gone; I'd rather have to plug 2/3 cables into a monitor than have an Apple-only standard.

Me too. ADC was one of Apple's flawed ideas. It could have survived if ADC monitors had the option to be directly plugged into the wall, but no.