ADC video card that works for 6400 ?

[KnobsNSwitches]

I realized in I have a 15" ADC connector LCD just sitting around, not doing anything. Is there a thing as a PCI video card with an ADC connector that could work in a 6400 series? 

Or is the old external ADC adapter the only way to go? (well, or buying a g4 cube... ;-)

 

[KnobsNSwitches]

I think I mean 17”

 

[beachycove]

The external ADC converter takes a DVI connection, but also provides power and usb to the screen -- the special bits of the ADC technology.

The only DVI capable PCI card that I know of that would work in a 6400 is a Voodoo 5 5500. To buy one, you are talking real money. You'd be better to buy a Cube.

 

[corgski]

You can also put a PCI Radeon 7000/Radeon VE in a 6400, which gives you DVI, VGA, and S-Video. I have a 64MB VisionTek brand card flashed for mac in mine - the brand is important because most PC cards don't include enough flash for the full mac rom, afaik only the 64MB visiontek and some sapphire cards have the right flash chip.

 

[ArmorAlley]

The ADC-DVI converter is the way to go once you've found your graphics card. Other PCI Radeon cards should run as well but you may not get the full 3D capabilities unless you run Mac OS 9.2.2.

That being said, why bother with the ADC monitor? Just get yourself a 1600x1200 monitor and run it from a 32MB Radeon card on either VGA or DVI.

this card doesn't look too bad. It is in Hong Kong though: https://www.ebay.com/itm/ATi-Radeon-7000-64mb-PCI-Video-Card-For-Apple-G3-Beige-PowerMac-G3-G4-G5-OS-9/264509666295?hash=item3d960133f7:g:7aIAAOSwqQpdsatd

 

[beachycove]

PCI Radeon 7000/Radeon VE ... the right flash chip.

That I did not know. Thank you!

 

[corgski]

That I did not know. Thank you!

Someone with more experience than me wrote an entire article about it. http://www.synack.net/~bbraun/ati7k.html

 

[Cory5412]

From that page: I'm absolutely baffled that a 32-meg Radeon 7000 won't do 1920x1200 or 1600x1200? That feels like it can't possibly be an actual technical limitation of the hardware.

 

[corgski]

Considering the 16 MB Rage 128 in my 7300 can push 1920x1200 I’m sure it’s a firmware bug of some sort.

 

[Cory5412]

Yeah... probably. That or they pulled bakc on advertised resolutions because some of the RAM is expected to be used for textures, or to push sales of Radeon 8000/9000, still, jarring to see for exactly the reason you stated, cards with much less VRAM will happily do that res.

 

[Byrd]

Poorer quality RAMDACS used in generic VGA cards can often be the cause of not being able to reliably push higher resolutions.

Do some research on your card of choice - FWIW the later ATI Rage cards do not particularly like working in onboard video Macs such as the 5x00 and 6x00, and worse with G3 upgrades.  A Voodoo II on the other hand ... will give a massive boost in games that would normally not be playable in software 3D modes (but I appreciate you want to drive an ADC display so this wouldn't be a good choice).

 

[corgski]

RAMDACs shouldn’t affect DVI output tho, should they? 

 

[Unknown_K]

The DAC in RAMDAC is Digital to Analog Converter. If you look at the specs for cards with both VGA output and DVI output they tend to have different max resolutions for each port.

Even cards that keep everything digital using DVI have upper limits because they have to output their highest resolution at 60hz so there are some hardware limitations per the DVI standard they were built to,

(32bit /8)  x 1920 x 1200 = 9,216,000 bytes so a little over 9MB of VRAM is needed plus any textures and other stuff residing in memory.

 

[Cory5412]

FWIW the later ATI Rage cards do not particularly like working in onboard video Macs such as the 5x00 and 6x00, and worse with G3 upgrades.

It's my understanding that this is a 5500/6500/TAM problem, and not a 6400 problem, because the onboard video on the 5500/6500/TAM was, itself, an ATi Rage. (Or perhaps just because of weirdnesses with the platform, I've heard both explanations.)

Those cards all work fine in the 7000/8000 series Macs, and I believe also the 4400, which use the same graphics the 6360/6400/5400 do, so I have no real reason to believe it would be a problem in a 6400. "Stick a Rage in it" was pretty much MacAddict's recommendation for the 6400 when they were new, too.

Heck, I don't think this is a good idea, but as far as I know nothing is stopping a Mac PCI Radeon 9200 or 9250 from running in a 6400.

 

[EvilCapitalist]

Since I didn't see it mentioned yet (unless I missed it) you're not going to find a PCI card that supports ADC right out of the box, since that used a separate connector in front of the AGP connector to provide power, which you can see in red on the GeForce 2MX in the picture below.  Your only option would be using the ADC to DVI adapter and at that point, as others have mentioned, you've got a very slim list of PCI video cards that a Mac compatible and have DVI output that you don't have to flash.  Short of buying a Cube, which at this point you should do anyway if you want one as it's not like they're going to get any less expensive, I'd say the easiest option would be going all out on adapters...which in this case is the ADC to DVI converter, and then a DVI to VGA converter on top of that. 

 

[Cory5412]

Definitely a good note.

Does anyone have a line on what the DVI to ADC adapters even cost these days? I don't want to imply that a 6400 isn't worth it but I'll put bet you can probably get something like a dell ultrasharp 1908FP cheaper at a local thrift store.

When I last looked it Wasn't Cheap and they also don't support the 17-inch CRT Studio displays.

I second the general recommendation to get a Cube if you want one anyway and use your ADC monitor with that system (or any other relevant powermac G4 or G5) and pick something a little easier to connect for the 6400 -- whether that's a Multiple Scan 14 or 15, which would be beautiful with it, or a 2000s 4:3/5:4 business LCD.

 

[KnobsNSwitches]

This has been a great discussion....bascially, I need to get a cube.  I mean, I'd hate this monitor to go to waste. 
Fortunately, ScutBoy has already been in touch about a potential one.

 

[corgski]

The DAC in RAMDAC is Digital to Analog Converter. If you look at the specs for cards with both VGA output and DVI output they tend to have different max resolutions for each port.

Even cards that keep everything digital using DVI have upper limits because they have to output their highest resolution at 60hz so there are some hardware limitations per the DVI standard they were built to,

(32bit /8)  x 1920 x 1200 = 9,216,000 bytes so a little over 9MB of VRAM is needed plus any textures and other stuff residing in memory.

So yes, the 32MB Radeon 7000 issue has to be some sort of firmware bug or limitation as it fails to output 1920x1200 over its dvi port.

 

[Byrd]

Does anyone have a line on what the DVI to ADC adapters even cost these days?

Cheap - I've picked up two the past year for < $30 AUD