Rage II extensions

[Dan 7.1]

Hey all,  I've got a pm 6400/200 that I swapped the mobo from a 5500/225 into ages ago.  Things seem fine, but it refuses to work with RAVE-capable games, such as quake.  All i get is a black screen.

I've forgotten lots about which ext's I need for what chip, so any pointers would be appreciated.

 

[Byrd]

The onboard 2MB ATI Rage IIc is considered to be a 2D "accelerator" and doesn't cut the mustard running anything 3D accelerated, it simply doesn't have the texture memory to do anything.  I think there were versions of Descent and Mechwarrior II that shipped with the 6500 but but provided very basic acceleration not much better than software rendering - if you can find these, let me know!

So, for RAVE/OpenGL games you ideally need a PCI 3D accelerator you can plug an external display into.  My experience with such cards on a TAM (same ATI Rage IIc) is that ATI card drivers don't play nice with the older Apple IIC drivers, so you can have either one good card and poor performance on the other.  I'd look into a 3DFX Voodoo 1 or 2 in a 5500/6500 machine, as it doesn't conflict with any drivers and gives you that proper 3D accelerated game experience that early ATI Rage chipsets were terrible at doing.

 

[Dan 7.1]

Ahhh, good to know.  That makes sense.  I have a PCI Mach64 and Rage128 i'm not using, but I'm figuring it may be more worthwhile to utilize a different machine for classic gaming.

 

[Byrd]

I've never tried a Rage 128, that might be a good card to try using Apple's drivers (found in OS 8.6, 9.x not the later ATI extensions), with nil conflicts.  I've only trialled a Mac Edition Radeon 7000 in my TAM/6500 which didn't play nice and I'm not going to hobble the main display performance so it was pulled out.  You've got me thinking now to try out a Rage 128.  A 3DFX Voodoo 1 card was great and 3D games looked fantastic, however very hot running card and I'm imagine much the same in a 5500 case.  Took mine out after a while as it was absolutely roasting even with a fan shoved in close by.

 

[Dan 7.1]

yeah apple has always struggled with heat dissipation, haha...

 

[Byrd]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATI_Rage_series

... Apple really cheapened out choosing the 2MB ATI Rage IIc when slightly more memory would have made it a viable all around gaming chipset; they also did a Rage II with DVD acceleration but that wasn't chosen either.

I found an ATI Rage Pro Nexus GA in my box 'o random crap today.  Part number 109-42600-00 indicates is an 8MB card - again not stellar, but might give it a go one day in a 5500/TAM as I don't think it'll be a heat monster!