Hello, i have a power mac G5 that i acquired with the sole purpose of running Morphos - my first problem is it came with an nvidia graphics card :(

it is this G5:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/specs/powermac_g5_2.0_dp_pci.html

I have an ATI Radeon 9700 pro which i can flash now i have a pc with agp that can flash it (i don't seem to be able to flash under osx 10.5.8).


my question is what is the best ati card i can run in the G5 that morphos will profit from? sgould i persevere with the 9700 or splash out on a Radeon X1xxx pro/XT card?



[ Edited by ChrisMarsden 13.06.2016 - 11:41 ]

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The fastest AGP card woud be a Radeon X800XT. The flashing can be a bit tricky though (most PC cards have a 64kB ROM chip while Mac BIOS needs 128kB. So you should either pick up a rare 128k ROM card, use the "reduced" ROM - that will cripple the card a bit - or replace the onboard ROM chip with the one with greater capacity and use the full Mac ROM). Personally I am going the third way and I'm very curious what will come out of it.

...or you can get an Mac version X800XT off the eBay - only a couple hundreds of dollars. Grab them while they're hot! :)

I used to have an X800 in my G5. It's a little noisy but works like a charm. You can also find it for 100$ sometimes.

No installation needed. Just switch the cards for profit

Flashed ATI gfx cards are not recommended. Their performance will be greatly hindered. Mac Edition Radeon X800 XT is probably your best bet. They seem to run about $100.

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Currently they seem to run about $150-$200 which is insane. I think I'll take my risk for about $15 and then we'll do some benchmarking to compare with the "real stuff", OK?

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$150-$200 sucks, I'll give you that. A flashed card may be fine for Ambient use, but game benchmarks are horrendous. I've used tons of flashed cards over the years and they generally work, but bench terribly in 3D. Jim can confirm this.

The fact is the MorphOS team themselves do not recommend flashed cards. I got my X800 XT for free and have seen them under $100. If I were you, I'd watch eBay like a hawk and just wait for a better deal. But that's just me.

For any members here that want to get a Mac edition Radeon card from eBay in the USA, I could set up a list of who wants one, and which model(s) and manufacturer is acceptable to them, then bid on, or "Buy it Now" for them then ship it from my house to yours via your choice of shipping options. I would keep the list updated so hopefully we would not have other MorphOS users bidding against each other on the same card(s). I know that some eBay sellers will not ship to some or all countries of the EU, and some other sellers will only ship to a USA address.

If there is any interest in this idea, let me know and I will start a separate thread. Before bidding, or buying any card from eBay, I would request the money sent to my PayPal account, or if you don't have a PayPal account, you would need to figure out a different way to quickly send me the money for the bid/purchase. I don't want anything for my time to bid/buy, receive and re-ship the cards to the buyers in the EU, as I would only be doing it to help another MorphOS user out.

Yes, I definately recommend against flashing cards with reduced rom files.
They will boot, but frequently present unusual issues.

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And how about full ROM files? Anyway, I'll give it a shot. Soon it's benchmarks time!

@amigadave: That's very kind of you. Too bad I didn't know anyone willing to help when there was that X800XT from Canada that went for $26 (with another $25 to ship to USA, but that still was an in my acceptable price range). I simply cannot justify giving more money that I did for my whole computer for a mere gfx card though - even if it's so dramatically better than all the others.

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I haven't read about anyone successfully replacing ROM chips on their video card to install the full Mac ROM file, so if you are able to do this, I would like to hear the results.

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My confidence is based on this article from Obligement. I don't to the solder work by myself, luckily I've found a skilled man to do this for me. If there's a success I'll report back.

Good luck with the experiment I hope it works.

I know it's probably a bit late in the day but had anybody considered a Uboot for Mac PPC project or some way to get an x86 bios emulator in there, it would make choosing and finding a suitable card much simpler.

@amigadave. I'll sign up to your idea. Please look out for a x800 mac edition for me. I really don't want to spend more than the mac cost me: £36 ($50). If that mean a slightly less powerful card then fine.

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That price might actually be possible, I have seen them go for as little as that.

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The only AGP Mac edition X800XT I saw on eBay last night was (supposedly) brand new in original box item with a "Buy it Now" price of $169.00. I'll keep checking for these Mac video cards on eBay every few days, in case any new listings show up. If anyone else wants to be placed on my list of MorphOS users who want to buy a video card from eBay through me, let me know in the new thread I will be starting for that purpose.

@amigadave,

You think that this ati radeon mac edition x800xt at 169 $ is expensive, maybe are you true. But what would you think about this annonce, https://www.leboncoin.fr/informatique/966905676.htm?ca=12_s ? The guy, in Paris/France, wants 230 €, slightly negociable, + shipping, for his ati radeon 9800 mac edition 256 mo. His annonce is one month old and he does not seem to get someone interested. Certainly that he tries to sell it way too expensive.

Brumiga

[ Edité par Brumiga 15.06.2016 - 16:46 ]

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...while the other one (described as "Mac edition") and priced at $139.50 isn't "Mac edition" at all, just a (probably reflashed) ordinary PC card. If it needs a power splitter (and has a Molex socket onboard for that purpose) and has no ADC then it's not really a "Mac edition".

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Are you sure all "Mac Edition" Radeon X800 video cards do not need additional power connection via Molex adapter/splitter, and that they all have ADC port? I had never heard or read this before.

Yes, the X800XT does not need a secondary power connector.
And both the AGP X800XT and the PCIe X1900GT have one DVI port and one ADP port.

[ Edited by Jim 16.06.2016 - 00:47 ]

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Good to know, thanks.

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It doesn't need one, because there's a special slot on the mobo that supplies the card with power through this connector.

Hi all,

I just joined this site so I could ask exactly this question. Well, the X800XT is certainly out of my budget.

How well would I do with something like the 9600XT which goes for a lot less on eBay?

Thanks.

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I just won an auction on eBay USA for a Mac Edition Radeon X800XT, and it was only $50. It will cost a bit more for the shipping to Poland, where the member here who wanted it lives, but that price seems pretty low to me. I am also bidding on another for myself, and there is one other member here who wants the same card, or one very close to the same, so I will continue to look for one for him. If you want me to look for a video card for you on eBay USA, let me know. I don't charge anything for my time, only for the postage, or shipping costs to send it to you after I test it in my dual 2.7GHz G5 PowerMac, just in case there is any problem with the cards, and it needs to be returned to the seller for a refund.

If you don't get an X800XT, or X800Pro, I would suggest a 9800, instead of the 9600, but I am no expert about the differences between the 9600 and 9800 series Radeon cards. I doubt that the 9600 or 9800 cards will be much cheaper than U.S. $50, but maybe I'm wrong, and you can find one for $20 to $30, if you can't afford $50 plus shipping/postage.

If you want to try a re-flashed PC video card, I also have an X800XT that I bought by mistake, which I will give you for free, all you have to do is pay the shipping/postage, from Northern California, where I live, to your location. The PC card I received only a couple of weeks ago might even be New "Old Stock", but I can't verify that, so consider it used, but in very good condition. Getting it for free, just the price of postage, it comes with no guarantees from me.

[ Edited by amigadave 17.07.2016 - 23:53 ]

I am not sure why Dave mentioned the X800Pro, there is no Apple version of it and I have never seen one flashed for Mac use.
As to the 9600s, Apple variants are cheap!
Just don't try to flash a PC 9600 as the results are terrible.

[ Edited by Jim 18.07.2016 - 16:25 ]

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Dave mentioned it because he doesn't know better, and is usually too lazy to do better research.