Best graphics card for PowerMac G5 1.6 (No PCI-X), MorphOS 3
  • Jim
  • Yokemate of Keyboards
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    Jim
    Posts: 4977 from 2009/1/28
    From: Delaware, USA
    Well there is one other card that that ought to work that would be slightly faster.
    Apple quietly added an Apple version of the X850XT to their build options in later AGP G5s.
    Some PC X850XT cards ought to be able to be reflashed with the original Apple rom, but they would have to have a 128K ROM not a 64K ROM (which is more common with ATI cards).
    However, replacing the rom with a larger part ought to be possible.

    The X850XTs clocks at about5% faster than the X800XT and has memory that is 10% faster.

    [ Edited by Jim 30.11.2015 - 10:52 ]
    "Never attribute to malice what can more readily explained by incompetence"
  • »29.11.15 - 21:05
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  • Caterpillar
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    drphil
    Posts: 36 from 2015/11/28
    From: New Zealand
    Cool

    Thanks Jim. I'll see what I can dig up
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  • »29.11.15 - 22:52
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  • Caterpillar
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    drphil
    Posts: 36 from 2015/11/28
    From: New Zealand
    There's a few x800XTs on eBay, not sure if most of them are re-flashed PC cards.

    Re-flashed PC cards don't work in macs do they?

    Doc
    1.6Ghz PowerMac G5, 2GB RAM, 80GB HDD, MorphOS 3.9.

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  • »29.11.15 - 22:59
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
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    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12199 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > ATI Radeon X1950 XT. There should be MAC-bios flashed cards available.

    MorphOS can also use X1950 with x86 ROM. Besides, PPC ROM is only available for up to X1900.
  • »29.11.15 - 23:38
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
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    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12199 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > The X850Xtis clocks at about %% faster than the X600XT and has memory that is 10% faster.

    X800XT PE has 4% faster VRAM and 3% larger bandwidth than (non-PE) X850XT.
  • »30.11.15 - 00:01
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12199 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > Re-flashed PC cards don't work in macs do they?

    Then what would be the point in re-flashing them? :-)
  • »30.11.15 - 00:03
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  • Caterpillar
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    drphil
    Posts: 36 from 2015/11/28
    From: New Zealand
    :-)

    >MorphOS can also use X1950 with x86 ROM. Besides, PPC ROM is only available for up to X1900.

    So what you're saying is that I should be able to put an x1950 with x86 ROM straight into my G5 and it will work on MorphOS?!

    Phil.
    1.6Ghz PowerMac G5, 2GB RAM, 80GB HDD, MorphOS 3.9.

    Why make life difficult when with a bit of effort you can make it impossible
  • »30.11.15 - 02:01
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  • MorphOS Developer
    bigfoot
    Posts: 510 from 2003/4/11
    I can not recommand against using reflashed cards enough. Often you'll end up with a card that's either underclocked or overclocked, both of which are bad, and often you'll end up with a card that's not initialised properly because the firmware does not match the card.

    Reflashed cards are not supported by MorphOS. If they work, then good for you. If they don't, then tough luck.

    Quote:

    So what you're saying is that I should be able to put an x1950 with x86 ROM straight into my G5 and it will work on MorphOS?!

    Phil.


    You can, yes. But you will get no display in the firmware, so you won't be able to use the firmware boot selector to boot a different OS, for example. Also as I mentioned in an earlier post, an X1950 will be slower than an X800 at everything, including video playback.
    I rarely log in to MorphZone which means that I often miss private messages sent on here. If you wish to contact me, please email me at [username]@asgaard.morphos-team.net, where [username] is my username here on MorphZone.
  • »30.11.15 - 07:06
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    ernsteiswuerfel
    Posts: 558 from 2015/6/18
    From: Funeralopolis
    Quote:

    bigfoot schrieb:
    The correct answer is indeed the Radeon X800 XT. While an R500-based graphics card might have a faster GPU, R500-based AGP cards are actually PCI Express chips behind an AGP bridge, and AGP transfers do not work on such cards (neither in MorphOS nor in Linux) and thus bus transfers become a bottleneck for these cards long before the GPU itself does.


    Thanks for clarifying! Didn't know that.
    Talos II. [Gentoo Linux] | PMac G5 11,2. PMac G4 3,6. PBook G4 5,8. [MorphOS 3.18 / Gentoo Linux] | A600GS
  • »30.11.15 - 14:01
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  • Jim
  • Yokemate of Keyboards
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    Jim
    Posts: 4977 from 2009/1/28
    From: Delaware, USA
    Quote:

    Andreas_Wolf wrote:
    > The X850Xtis clocks at about %% faster than the X600XT and has memory that is 10% faster.

    X800XT PE has 4% faster VRAM and 3% larger bandwidth than (non-PE) X850XT.


    The Apple X800XT operates at 475/500, the X850 operates at 500/550.

    The only rom (a 64k reduced rom) available for PC X800XT cards also operates at 475/500.
    So any converted PC X800XT would still run slower than the Apple X850XT.

    You could try to altering the timing in the Apple rom for PE speeds, but frankly I don't recommend flashed cards anymore.
    "Never attribute to malice what can more readily explained by incompetence"
  • »30.11.15 - 16:37
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  • Caterpillar
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    drphil
    Posts: 36 from 2015/11/28
    From: New Zealand
    Ahh

    It's all makes sense!

    Thanks for clearing that up guys

    Cheers
    Phil
    1.6Ghz PowerMac G5, 2GB RAM, 80GB HDD, MorphOS 3.9.

    Why make life difficult when with a bit of effort you can make it impossible
  • »30.11.15 - 19:12
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    Yasu
    Posts: 1724 from 2012/3/22
    From: Stockholm, Sweden
    Yes, stay away from flashed cards. If they don't work you will not know why and no one can help you.

    Besides, I can't think of any game or program that use all the power of an X800. I had an 2.7 GHz G5 with that card, and games like Quake 3 worked fine with every setting on top. So getting anything faster is probably overkill.
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  • »30.11.15 - 20:23
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  • Caterpillar
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    drphil
    Posts: 36 from 2015/11/28
    From: New Zealand
    Thanks Yasu

    I found an original Mac version of the X800 on ebay, so i'll more than likely go for that
    1.6Ghz PowerMac G5, 2GB RAM, 80GB HDD, MorphOS 3.9.

    Why make life difficult when with a bit of effort you can make it impossible
  • »30.11.15 - 21:04
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  • Butterfly
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    Sergio
    Posts: 90 from 2005/2/16
    Hi there,

    I have an old PCI Radeon 9200 (Mac) lying around and a slightly newer AGP X1950GT (PC).
    Plus a cheap (€40!) PowerMac G6 1.6GHz.
    Could I get OF display on the 9200 and MorphOS display on the X1950GT?
    BTW, according to gpureview.com, the X1950GT seems to have similar performance as the X800XT. Is that due to the Windows drivers being more optimized than Linux or MorphOS versions?
  • »01.12.15 - 09:19
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    connor
    Posts: 578 from 2007/7/29
    Quote:

    Yasu wrote:
    Yes, stay away from flashed cards. If they don't work you will not know why and no one can help you.


    I think it is really not worth buying a card to flash just to save some pounds or dollars. cheaper is not always better and several people already wrote that in the end they had to buy a second card becausse the flashed one did not work. It is easier and safer to buy the Mac card in the beginning, I think.
    Quote:


    Besides, I can't think of any game or program that use all the power of an X800. I had an 2.7 GHz G5 with that card, and games like Quake 3 worked fine with every setting on top. So getting anything faster is probably overkill.


    But X800 only has DVI output, right? I did not find one with HDMI or Display Port. So no 4k displays in full resolution on this for us, I think.
  • »01.12.15 - 10:28
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  • Jim
  • Yokemate of Keyboards
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    Jim
    Posts: 4977 from 2009/1/28
    From: Delaware, USA
    Quote:

    Sergio wrote:
    Hi there,

    I have an old PCI Radeon 9200 (Mac) lying around and a slightly newer AGP X1950GT (PC).
    Plus a cheap (€40!) PowerMac G6 1.6GHz.
    Could I get OF display on the 9200 and MorphOS display on the X1950GT?
    BTW, according to gpureview.com, the X1950GT seems to have similar performance as the X800XT. Is that due to the Windows drivers being more optimized than Linux or MorphOS versions?



    As far as I know, its still only one Radeon card per system.
    "Never attribute to malice what can more readily explained by incompetence"
  • »01.12.15 - 12:02
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    Yasu
    Posts: 1724 from 2012/3/22
    From: Stockholm, Sweden
    Quote:

    But X800 only has DVI output, right? I did not find one with HDMI or Display Port. So no 4k displays in full resolution on this for us, I think.


    That is true. I think you need a RadeonHD card for that (which is not yet fully supported). I don't bother with those anyway. 1920x1200 is big enough for me.
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  • »01.12.15 - 12:14
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  • Butterfly
    Butterfly
    Sergio
    Posts: 90 from 2005/2/16
    Quote:

    Jim wrote:
    Quote:

    Sergio wrote:
    Hi there,

    Could I get OF display on the 9200 and MorphOS display on the X1950GT?



    As far as I know, its still only one Radeon card per system.


    Under MOS that is.
    Would MOS choose the AGP one and ignore the PCI one? Or just refuse to handle the situation?
    What would OF do?
  • »01.12.15 - 13:20
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
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    amigadave
    Posts: 2795 from 2006/3/21
    From: Northern Calif...
    Quote:

    Sergio wrote:
    Under MOS that is.
    Would MOS choose the AGP one and ignore the PCI one? Or just refuse to handle the situation?
    What would OF do?



    Good question.

    I would be surprised if the OF messages did NOT show up when your Mac system is installed with a supported Radeon video card in the AGP slot, no matter what is installed in the other PCI slots.

    Getting the PCI video card to display anything after the boot of MorphOS is another matter, but apparently, some MorphOS users have gotten 2 video cards to work in some MorphOS supported systems. Since I have not yet tried this, I can't advise you on how to make it work, but will be interested to read what you find out, and if you can get your system working the way you want.
    MorphOS - The best Next Gen Amiga choice.
  • »01.12.15 - 20:26
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  • Caterpillar
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    drphil
    Posts: 36 from 2015/11/28
    From: New Zealand
    Is 128MB VRAM enough for MorphOS? Or is it better to future proof and get a card with 256MB card instead?

    Phil

    Standdown on that

    Just saw this post

    > https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=7991&forum=38&start=2

    [ Edited by drphil 02.12.2015 - 13:57 ]
    1.6Ghz PowerMac G5, 2GB RAM, 80GB HDD, MorphOS 3.9.

    Why make life difficult when with a bit of effort you can make it impossible
  • »01.12.15 - 23:05
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    Yasu
    Posts: 1724 from 2012/3/22
    From: Stockholm, Sweden
    128 is enough :-)

    [edit] My card has 256 MB and it's all recognised (I think, I can't test it anymore).

    [ Edited by Yasu 02.12.2015 - 11:34 ]
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  • »02.12.15 - 09:33
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    connor
    Posts: 578 from 2007/7/29
    If 128MB is enough? It depends how many screens and windows you open in which resolution and bit depth.
  • »02.12.15 - 12:23
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    Yasu
    Posts: 1724 from 2012/3/22
    From: Stockholm, Sweden
    @connor

    True. I guess if you want to open 10 screens at the same time in high resolution and play Quake 3 at the same time it won't be enough. But for common use of MorphOS it's enough. I have 64 MB VRAM on my Mac Mini and by having Enhanced Display off it's enough, but it's best then not to open a lot of screens.

    256 MB _is_ better of course, but you won't feel that handicaped by 128 MB either.
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  • »02.12.15 - 13:07
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  • Caterpillar
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    drphil
    Posts: 36 from 2015/11/28
    From: New Zealand
    I usually run 1920x1080 on a single screen with just a few apps running at the moment

    The number of apps running in the background will increase as I load more stuff on my G5 :-)

    Thanks guys

    Phil
    1.6Ghz PowerMac G5, 2GB RAM, 80GB HDD, MorphOS 3.9.

    Why make life difficult when with a bit of effort you can make it impossible
  • »02.12.15 - 20:24
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  • jPV
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    jPV
    Posts: 2107 from 2003/2/24
    From: po-RNO
    I'm using 1920x1080x24bit with at least two screens all the time (enhanced Ambient and non-enhanced OWB), and then occasionally third screen for ShowGirls or other bigger apps (I keep them non-enhanced too), and 64MB on my Mac mini is just about enough. I get some slowdowns indicating that there isn't enough gfx memory sometimes, but just occasionally. So, I'd say 128MB would be quite nice for the most situations :)


    [ Edited by jPV 03.12.2015 - 15:19 ]
  • »03.12.15 - 12:18
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