Greetings!

I recently resurrected a Apple Power Macintosh G5 2.0 DP (PCI-X 2). I aim to create a MorphOS, OSX and Linux multi-boot system, and seek guidance on graphics cards that support all 3 OS'es, and meet the requirements below.

My Requirements:

* AGP card compatible with G5 PowerMac7,3 (A1047)
* Able to boot into OSX, MorphOS and Linux (3D acceleration not required in Linux)
* 2x DVI/ADC sockets (to support dual DVI/ADC monitors)

Questions:

1. What are the most and least powerful or cheapest AGP cards that meet the above requirements?

2. While it does not fill my requirements of 2x digital outputs, I already own a GIGABYTE GV-R955256D (from a PC) which I believe is based on the Radeon 9550. Can I use this card in my G5 temporarily with MorphOS until find a graphics card that supports all 3 OS'es? Will it work without modification with MorphOS and/or can it be flashed to work with OSX? Pic of card below.

I have looked through the forum thoroughly but not found anything conclusive for my situation. Please keep in mind that I'm relatively new to MorphOS and PPC hardware (at least, in this decade), but I can't wait to get the system up and running! By the way, The system came with the standard NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra (AGP 8X Pro) video card, which I quickly discovered is not supported by MorphOS.

Peace and mungbeans,
Eld

JxJsrwz.jpg

[ Edited by Eld 24.11.2020 - 11:54 ]

Hello,

After a quick search I have founded on ebay a graphic card ati radeon 9600 mac edition with 128 mb, https://www.ebay.fr/itm/ATI-Radeon-9600-128MB-Video-Graphics-Card-Apple-PowerMac-Mac-AGP-630-6991/224238261040?hash=item3435a45330:g:KdwAAOSww3BftAWy , its price is 69 £. Do you want to pay such a price to buy a graphic card fully compatible for your powermac g5 ?

Brumiga

[ Edité par Brumiga 24.11.2020 - 10:19 ]

Quote:

I very much doubt that card can be flashed to work with OSX (as standard PC 9600 are a bit of lottery anyway and considered not worth of the risk). And it surely won't work with MorphOS without flashing.

If I live long enough to see my X1950GT supported by MorphOS again (after something went wrong with 3.14 and I had to put it on a shelf since) then I may as well sell you my spare Apple Radeon 9600XT for 25 EUR I paid for it. But I don't know if it happens anytime soon.

> 2x DVI/AGP sockets (to support dual DVI/AGP monitors)

AGP or ADC?

> 1. What are the most and least powerful or cheapest
> AGP cards that meet the above requirements?

The most powerful card to meet your requirements is the Radeon X850 XT, followed by the X800 XT (Mac editions of both, of course)*.

> 2. I already own a GIGABYTE GV-R955256D (from a PC)
> which I believe is based on the Radeon 9550. Can I
> use this card in my G5 temporarily with MorphOS [...]?
> Will it work without modification with MorphOS and/or
> can it be flashed to work with OSX?

This R3xx-based card won't work as is, no matter the OS. For a non-Mac card to work with MorphOS and Linux it has to be R5xx-based (AtomBIOS) at least**. Flashing may be worth a try, but now and then 9600 cards have been reported to work badly after flashing.


Edit:
* see comment #10
** While early AtomBIOS versions came already somewhen during R400 series, the MorphOS AtomBIOS parser seems to require the newer AtomBIOS versions that started with the R500 series.

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf 19.01.2021 - 01:03 ]

Thank you for the informative & helpful replies! I feel much more confident about the graphics card question.

The mac edition ATI Radeon 9600 128MB seems to be the most common AGP G5 option available so I might wait for one in my price/postage range. The prices have become so high even for these cards, it's almost worth it to wait patiently and buy an unloved G5 that comes with one installed, as that is sometimes not much more costly!

Quote:
I'm sorry to hgear your X1950GT isn't working with MorphOS since 3.14. It's still listed on the MorphOS hardware compatibility page, but I assume you have tested thoroughly.

Quote:
I intended ADC there of course and I've edited my post to correct it. Thanks! :)

Quote:
That's great to get confirmation on that! I see now the mac versions of the X800 do have 2x DVI/ADC sockets.

I'd like to know what prevents the X1000 series (e.g. X1300) from being suitable?

Also, is there any practical difference for anything but the most demanding 3D gaming/apps when comparing the X800 to the 9600, or will the X800 perform noticeably better on the MorphOS or OSX desktop using normal (non-3D) apps?

Quote:

Ahh, that's awesome to understand that non-Mac cards can work with MorphOS/Linux but only if they are R5xx-based (AtomBIOS) at least. I might try flashing the Radeon 9550 but will start a separate thread if I get lost with that (actually, looks like my card is like these so flashing may not be possible).

In the meantime I have borrowed the ATI Rage128 Pro from a Powermac G4 and that allows me to boot the MorphOS CD, so I can continue with my install while I work out which card I should eventually get!

[ Edited by Eld 24.11.2020 - 14:01 ]

> what prevents the X1000 series (e.g. X1300) from being suitable?

There's simply been no such AGP card for PPC Macs (hence also no such PPC ROM to flash non-Mac cards with) to run OSX.

> is there any practical difference for anything but the most
> demanding 3D gaming/apps when comparing the X800 to
> the 9600, or will the X800 perform noticeably better on the
> MorphOS or OSX desktop using normal (non-3D) apps?

I'd think no, but I only ever had my 9600 in my G5, so didn't compare myself. I think there are MorphZone members who did and could tell (or maybe did so already in some thread).

If you want to go dual monitor with MorphOS only a select few genuine Mac cards will do the trick.

The 256MB 9650 found in the 2.7GHz would be the safest way.

128MB 9600 should also work.

Both lack ADC which AFAIK only came on the 64MB ones which might not be useable for dual monitor.

There are dual dvi Radeon 9800 cards, but I don't think they are dual link capable.

Don*t get confused::

Dual link is about supporting 1 monitor beyond 1920x1200@60 something that wasn‘t asked for.

Every card dating back to Rage has 2 outputs and can run 2 monitors indepentent, but only very few have that feature supported in MorphOS.

With the 256MB 96x0 you could indeed run 2560x1600 + 1920x1200, the 128MB 9600 will only d 2*1920x1200.

> Don*t get confused:: Dual link [...] wasn‘t asked for. Every card dating
> back to Rage has 2 outputs and can run 2 monitors indepentent, but
> only very few have that feature supported in MorphOS.

Seems I got confused as well. In that case the cards I mentioned (or rather their MorphOS driver) do not meet all stated requirements. The 3.12-introduced dual-head support indeed only works on PowerMac G5 with Radeon 96xx (and on PowerBook5,x via external DVI), as you said.