Hi guys/gals, since my old Mac Mini died, I'm currently in the process of putting together a PowerMac G5 for MorphOS. Planned to put in a X800 XT from another Mac from eBay, but unfortunately somebody purchased it before me. I now purchased a flashed FireGL X3 (more expensive, but that's what happens). I read claims of it being faster than the X800. Can anybody confirm this? Are there any benchmarks comparing the X800 to the FireGL? I also read the FireGL causes artifacts in some applications? How bad is it?

I had no problems with it on MorphOS, on Linux it didn't work. Also it was a bit loud, so I replaced it with a fan-modified 9800. But apart from that a good card.

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I guess you could fire up (heh) some benchmarks and see for yourself. The flashed cards tend to have somewhat worse results comparing to non-flashed counterparts.

A "golden standard" for benchmarking is Quake III with timedemo four.

When running it with:
- TGLSYNC set to 0 (otherwise vertical sync restricts your FPS count)
- 1600x1200 resolution
- 32 bit
- all settings to max
- r_primitives set to 2

I got 105,5 FPS on Radeon X850XT Mac Edition and 153,2 FPS on Sapphire Radeon X1950GT AGP (of course the latter cannot be flashed with Apple ROM so it can only run on MorphOS here. Moreover, it's too wide to fit together with plastic deflector - anwyway, at least for now I went back to X850XT).

Wait, so I can use a standard X1950 AGP and it will work?

> so I can use a standard X1950 AGP and it will work?

Yes, this has been possible since MorphOS 3.8.

Yep. With all the known limitations (no OSX, no Open Firmware, no Apple boot menu).

OMG. If only I had known earlier. But if I understand koszer correctly, there could be issues fitting the whole card into a PowerMac? Does this apply to all cards of this type? And performance-wise, is this correct: ATI Radeon X1900 GT < ATI Radeon X1950 XT < ATI Radeon X1950 Pro
BTW, thanks so much for the helpful posts. I really appreciate it.

> performance-wise, is this correct:
> ATI Radeon X1900 GT < ATI Radeon X1950 XT < ATI Radeon X1950 Pro

In ATI/AMD lingo, XT is faster than Pro.

XT has got higher clock, faster memory and slightly newer GPU (R580 vs R570) than GT.

The Sapphire Radeon X1950GT that I've tried is about 121 mm wide (counting the AGP pins). That's apparently too much to fit it together with G5 plastic deflector. If you try and push it then you'd better be ready for some fireworks (I've burned a power cable this way - luckily only the cable). But don't you worry - there are smaller cards out there. Or you could run without the deflector (just make sure you fool the deflector sensor, otherwise it's going to be loud).

>> performance-wise, is this correct:
>> ATI Radeon X1900 GT < ATI Radeon X1950 XT < ATI Radeon X1950 Pro

> XT has got [...] slightly newer GPU (R580 vs R570) than GT.

I think it's like this:
RV570: X1950 GT/Pro
R580: X1900 GT/XT/XTX
R580+: X1950 XT/XTX

For XT and XTX, X1950 is faster than X1900. For GT, it's the other way round.

Alright, eBay transaction for the FireGL has been cancelled. Seller's claim of the FireGL being faster than the Mac X800 XT based on wrong comparisons (comparing X800 PC stock against FireGL). This is a reminder to always check the specs yourself, not just trusting flashy ads talk...
Since I don't really need the dual boot, I'll now use a Sapphire 1950 Pro with 512 MB VRAM.

[ Editiert durch Saizer 22.10.2019 - 17:39 ]

Most likely only part of this VRAM will be available to MorphOS (so don't be surprised).

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Thanks for the warning. What's the max VRAM MorphOS can use?

> What's the max VRAM MorphOS can use?

256 MiB.