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PM 7600 video card...

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
Always check for driver availability. I've got at least one (dual head in my case) PCI VidCard for which the drivers are unobtanium. The manufacturer won't provide the because they're Mac specific and referred me to Apple, which of course, was a fruitless effort.

There's one evil mfr. out there who wants an absurd amount of money for the drivers for VidCards manufactured 20 years ago.
vent.gif


 

waynestewart

Well-known member
The Ati Rage 128 is the standard video card that was used in the B&W G3. I often use those in older PCI Macs as a cheap upgrade.

 

BGoins12

Well-known member
I think I'll go with the standard ATI then. I fear that the drivers for the other are in fact made of unobtanium.

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
The standard Rage Card in my DA, that everyone belittled as being MEH, runs both my 60Hz only, 22" HP 1080p LCD @ 24bit and my 20" MultiSync Dell 1600 x 1200 LCD @ 24bit just fine and dandy. Maybe you'll be as lucky with the PCI version as well.

I'll be expecting a full report after you snag that one . . . :b&w:

 

beachycove

Well-known member
Of the two, the ATI card is the newer and the more capable for most purposes, but both ixmicro and ATI drivers are readily available. They might well be in system software, in fact, as both lines were installed in Apple products from the factory.

ATI drivers will be easier to get, however, as ixmicro is defunct.

 

ClassicHasClass

Well-known member
I use the Rage Orion in my 7300, which is a Mac-specific Rage 128. Paired with a Sonnet 500MHz G3 (I have a 1GHz G3 ready to go), it is good enough to play Voyager Elite Force and Quake III Arena at reasonable resolutions. The only game it stutters with a bit is Unreal and Unreal Tournament, probably because of the reflections.

 

Unknown_K

Well-known member
Rage 128 PCI are probably the cheapest and easiet to find for PCI Powermacs. Built in video is ok for most things (max out VRAM for more color depth). If you just run OS 7 and want something out of the oridinary you can get a Radius ThunderPower 30/1920 PCI card or an IXMicro Ultimate Rez.

 

waynestewart

Well-known member
. . . unless, of course, you can confirm such performance now! IIRC, the AGP card in my comatose DA is also the Rage 128.
They made a PCI model as well as an AGP model. The PCI one worked better in the 66 mhz B&W video slot but also worked in a 33 mhz slot. There was a DVD decoder card that attached to the PCI version but it only seemed to work for me with the card in a 66mhz slot. The PCI Rage 128 came in two different speeds. The one with the heat sink being the faster.

I lucked into a couple dozen B&Ws with bad motherboards a few years ago. That let me upgrade the video in most of my PCI Macs. The processors went into beige G3s and a couple of ZIF carriers for the 76,86,9600s. Also scored a couple of the Rage 128 AV cards in the batch.

I've used the Rage 128 card in 7600,8600,9600, 6500, Beige G3s. I do use a couple of ATI Radion and a 9200 where I need a card with DVI output. Did have a Rage 128 in a 9600 driving a 27" HP monitor until I tried plugging My IIgs into it and blew the VGA circuit.

 

ClassicHasClass

Well-known member
The DVD decoder card won't work in anything lower than a G3 (trust me, I've tried).

I should parenthetically mention: some people love Radeon PCI cards in their system. These are decent cards and on paper will be faster than the Rage 128, but they have three issues: 1) Radeon gets starved for data over the PCI bus as opposed to AGP more than the earlier Rage chipsets did, negating a lot of their performance improvements 2) they can be quite a bit more expensive, since they are less common and 3) they have weird compatibility glitches with some games, such as bad polygon models in Shogo and Quake II, and not all of the affected titles have patches available. If you can get one cheap and know that your software will work, it's a good option, but the R128 cards are not that much slower in practice, more compatible and more easily available for less cash.

 

Unknown_K

Well-known member
I have a couple of Mac Radeon PCI models (original and 7000) in B&W G3's where they run at 66mhz (same speed as 2x AGP), they do ok. The Rage 128's that were in the B&W just got moved down to the PCI powermacs.

You do need to figure out if you will be gaming or just want snapier video, and what OS you will be using from 7.5.5 to 9.2 or OSX (not recomended).

 

BGoins12

Well-known member
I've decided to get a Radeon 7000 from a member on here. It's got a 300MHz G3 card installed, so it's gonna have 9.2 on it.

 
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