Where to buy a video card online?

PowermacG4_450

OS X Jaguar
Im looking to upgrade my video card to a ATI radeon 7500 (I beleive).

cant find it online.... I want to order today.

where can I buy a video card online for MAC? Been searching, no luck

thanks.
 
Im lost..... I have a AGP graphics mac, with 2 open pci slots... (3rd one has a usb card)

so, do I need a AGP card, or a PCI graphics card?

It appears to be using the AGP slot... but im lost.

Finding a AGP card is hard... would a PCI one work?
 
You could use either PCI or AGP.

AGP has some benefits for video cards, like being able to use the system memory for 3D textures. Most of the real world performance benefits are in 3D, like video games.

PCI is just fine though, the actual performance difference between PCI and AGP is usually pretty hard to measure unless you're in a 3D video game, and then it's not all that much, and it depends a lot on what you're doing.

You should search on the internet for G4 video card benchmarks, somebody probably has a chart somewhere.

If you get a PCI card, you can have both your existing card and the new PCI card running and have a dual monitor set up (if you've never done it before, dual monitors are *really* neat).

If you don't want or care about dual monitors, then keep it simple and replace your existing video card.

Either PCI or AGP is going to be a lot faster than the card you already have.

I might add that if you're looking at playing video games, you might look at the comparably priced NVidia GeForce model, as they have, in general, a performance edge over comparable Radeon cards. NVidia is usually pretty good with driver updates too.
 
i would recommend checking out the compatiblity on a case by case basis, what is the difference between a Radeon AGP fo Windows and one for Mac anyway?

Can't you donwload drivers online for a Mac so that you could just use the cheaper PC card?
 
No, you can't just plop a PC card in a Mac and download drivers and have it work. There's also something called a "ROM," which contains code for the specific platform its designed for. PC video cards don't have Mac ROMs on them, therefore, they don't work in a Mac straight out of the box, and no amount of driver downloading will make it work.

Check out some place like macmall.com or macconnection.com or maczone.com for Mac-specific video cards.

Be prepared to spend a few hundred bucks. I bought an ATi Radeon 7000 PCI card and have a dual-monitor setup now -- the card is a bargain at about $125, but it lacks really high-end hardware, so it won't keep up with the newer AGP ATi cards like the newer Radeons and what not. Still, it was a big step up from the stock Rage 128 card I had.
 
someone, I forget who, asked whats the difference between AGP for mac and windows?

Availability. PRICE. the cards for Pee cees are lower in cost, and easy to find.... figures.
 
Originally posted by ElDiabloConCaca
No, you can't just plop a PC card in a Mac and download drivers and have it work. There's also something called a "ROM," which contains code for the specific platform its designed for. PC video cards don't have Mac ROMs on them, therefore, they don't work in a Mac straight out of the box, and no amount of driver downloading will make it work.

Could you somehow flash this ROM and install the Mac ROM? I seem to remember some people on Hotline doing this years ago in the Beige Days.

That said, you should still be able to Pricwatch it and just search for Mac.
 
the ONLY reason im considering upgrading... ?

I have a rage 128, and just bought return to castle wolfenstein... and this game requires a radeon or better card.... :(

funny, the video plays fine with the 128, but I keep losing sound..... I'm "guessing" the video card could be the culprit? But im not sure. ???? I've allocated more RAM to the game using the console... didnt help.

Playing a game with no sound sucks, so... im willing to try anything to keep from losing the game's sound.

The other reason is that I beleive the rage 128 will NOT work on upcoming versions of osX... Like the upcoming Jaguar? I beleive these newer X versions will require a faster card anywho. ???

Thanks... i mean, Danke! ;)
 
Yes, you can theoretically flash a PC card's ROM to a Mac ROM, if you can get your hands on a Mac ROM! However, this is a risky procedure and can lead to complete video card failure... and it's NOT covered under any warranty.

Also, the new Jaguar version of OS X WILL BE COMPATIBLE WITH ALL THE MACHINES IT CAN RUN ON NOW, REGARDLESS OF VIDEO CARD! The only thing that will be different is for people with AGP-based NVidia or AGP-based ATi Radeon cards -- they will see increased speed overall with the Aqua graphics, because the new OS X will have the ability to do some of the Aqua rendering in the video card hardware, instead of being completely software-based like it is now.

If you're running OS X now, you can run the new OS X when it comes out. Whether you will see advanced Aqua rendering capabilities (Quartz Extreme) will depend on what kind of video card you have.

Rage 128s will most likely always be supported. They just won't take advantage of Quartz Extreme. Kinda like AltiVec except with video -- some computers can use it, others can't. Only difference is speed.
 
Originally posted by rinse


Could you somehow flash this ROM and install the Mac ROM? I seem to remember some people on Hotline doing this years ago in the Beige Days.

That said, you should still be able to Pricwatch it and just search for Mac.

Read this thread over at XLR8YourMac. Some people have been successful with the 64MB card but not the 128MB one...
 
Back
Top