Hi all

i'm new to MorphOS and i will try to give my old G5 Quad with Geforce 6600 PCIe gfx card som new life with MorphOS.

When i Boot from the MorphOS cd i got a white screen.
i assume it's because Geforce 6600 is not supported ?

which GFX can i use ?

and is the Quad G5 machine supported ?


regards

Luc_DK

Hi

- G5 Quad isn't officially supported... but working
- ATI RAdeon X1950 is the best solution currently (PC version), we are all eagerly awaiting support for new and more powerful graphics cards
- You need external PCI LAN card
- Put an SSD in it and you would have the most powerful MorphOS machine. (but also the noisiest and most electricity-consuming lol)

PS: search into this forum, you can find some more information about G5 Pcie



[ Edité par beworld 16.01.2025 - 15:36 ]

That is the go-to thread for MorphOS on PowerMac11,2:

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=12716&forum=11

Most things should still apply.

Quote:


Just a question as I understand this different :

We need the MAC version with the original MAC firmware of the Radeon X1950XT or X1950Pro card ?!

Or does the "PC version" (with unchanged FW) in a G5 PPC work too ??

In the readme file on MorphOS 3.18 you can read this :

Recommended:

- Radeon X1300/X1300Pro/X1550/X1600/X1600Pro/X1800/X1900GT/X1950XT/X1950Pro
- a card with at least 128MB RAM is recommended
- on Mac hardware, reflashed PC cards are not supported

PC version with unchanged FW working fine, just you dont have access to openfirmware.

@Trekman: For R500/R600 cards you don't need a Mac-version, you can use the standard PC ones. Only drawback is that at bootup you don't see the OpenFirmware and as such can't use the OpenFirmware boot menu (means you can use it, but have to do that 'blindly'.)

I had a flashed X1950 on my PCIe G5 which did work (also OpenFirmware!) without flaws, tough it is not officially supported. But I ditched the X1950 as I found it too loud.

You can have best of both worlds if you leave the Nvidia card in its' original slot (for OpenFirmware access if needed) and put a suitable single-slot Radeon in the other PCIe-slot.

> We need the MAC version with the original MAC firmware
> of the Radeon X1950XT or X1950Pro card ?!

The only R500-based Radeon with genuine PPC ROM is an X1900GT.

> Or does the "PC version" (with unchanged FW) in a G5 PPC work too ??

Yes, this capability was introduced with MorphOS 3.8. Search for the term 'AtomBIOS'.

btw.

i've added some cards to my list of supported cards https://photos.app.goo.gl/8Z31VYa72oX6ASsa6

but these cards aren't supported (yet) on G5 PCIe. Please do not buy them.

Only X19XX are sensible as they support:
- 2D
- overlay
- 3D

[ Edited by zukow 16.01.2025 - 21:07 ]

> For R500/R600 cards you don't need a Mac-version,
> you can use the standard PC ones.

Beside the fact that there's no PPC ROM for any R600 (or above) card anyway, your statement is true also for R700/R800/R900 (up to RV940) cards, or rather up to RV810 (HD5450) cards if we only count cards ever tested successfully with MorphOS on PowerMac11,2.

Thanks for the reply

i will look for a Radeon X1950Pro and a Lan card.

> i've added some cards to my list of supported cards
> https://photos.app.goo.gl/8Z31VYa72oX6ASsa6
> but these cards aren't supported (yet) on G5 PCIe.

What does that mean? Did your HD6870 work on your PCIe G5 with MorphOS?

Word "work" isn't the most correct one in this case :) (and i'm talking about 3.20 beta, 3.18 gives not initialized screen)

> Word "work" isn't the most correct one in this case :) (and i'm
> talking about 3.20 beta, 3.18 gives not initialized screen)

That's nice nonetheless :-) Seems there's been some progress compared to 3.18's mysterious hit-and-miss support for PCIe graphics cards on PCIe G5.

Quote:

The QUAD G5 is a real nice system to run MorphOS, the best for overall performance. So congrats!

If you want the least amount of headache. Purchase the X1900 Mac Edition and you will need to buy a realtec pcie NIC.

That is it.

It works very well and is easy to setup and get going. Providing you have a compatible card, CD to full install will be around 10 minutes.

Chris Edwards not to long ago took a PCIe PowerMac and got it going without any drama and showed multiple monitors as well.

Do yourself a favor and hook up another monitor as it works very well and makes the system much more useful if you want to do any work on it.

Even though it isn't official, it works better than any other system. The only caveat is:
1. The video card selection is much smaller than the PCIX systems.
2. The onboard NIC doesn't work, hence the PCIe NIC.

Again see Chris Edwards videos for the entire process.

@Luc_DK,

I have bought a graphic card ati x1900 mac edition. It should be used only with macpro intel computers. I expected it would work in my amigaone x5000 but no luck. I can sell it to you at a low price if you are in europe and if shiping is not to expensive. If you want it send me a private message.

Brumiga

> I have bought a graphic card ati x1900 mac edition. It should be
> used only with macpro intel computers. [...] I can sell it to you

This card won't work in a PPC Mac (at least unless reflashed), as you were told 4 years ago (#27 and #28).

I do have a PowerMac G5 7,3

It has only one AGPx8 Slot in which a Radeon 9600Pro currently works.

I do have a Radeon X800 GTO AGP (in an older PC)

Does it work with the G5 and MorphOS then ?

The readme states yes, but does it need MAC OS firmware ?

Or is it the same as with the PCIe cards, so that only OF does not work ?

Quote:


Try it... normaly yes working.
And no need MAC firmware (same as G5 PCIe)
On my old G5 AGP, i have X1950Pro AGP (PC Version inside)

@Trekman

1st question would be if this card has "AtomBIOS", if yes than it should work for MorphOS (no OSX, no OF).

But....

AtomBIOS seems to be hit and miss in AGP G5s.

I run a HD3450 without issue while analogkid had no such luck with an almost identical card.
Might be 3.19b vs 3.18, might be the difference in the card or even something random.

So, maybe wait till 3.19 change cards and see if you get a picture.

Is it somehow possible to see if it has "AtomBios" ?

> I do have a Radeon X800 GTO AGP (in an older PC)
> Does it work with the G5 and MorphOS then ?

No, while R400-based "PC" cards do have AtomBIOS (it started with them, actually), it's a too old version of that to be supported by MorphOS, which only supports the AtomBIOS versions starting at R500-based cards. This is what the MorphOS graphics driver developer told as of MorphOS 3.15 (#6), and I doubt it has changed since then.

> does it need MAC OS firmware ?

Yes, it does.

> Or is it the same as with the PCIe cards, so that only OF does not work ?

No, you'd need an R500-based (or newer) AGP card for it to work this way.

> Is it somehow possible to see if it has "AtomBios" ?

Yes, but it won't be of help (see above) :-)

One quick addendum to my prior post.

The X1900 cards I bought were branded G5 PCIe cards from a seller on ebay. They were brand new, but I suspect the seller may have flashed them.

Chris Edwards bought the exact card as seen on his YT.

It is truly plug and play for MorphOS.

The most important item is that you can get into early startup for the PowerMac, and you can't with a PC card...

[ Edited by matt3 17.01.2025 - 15:19 ]

> maybe wait till 3.19 change cards and see if you get a picture.

It's not impossible that support for old AtomBIOS of R400 generation has been added in 3.19, yes :-)

> The most important item is that you can get into early
> startup for the PowerMac, and you can't with a PC card...

You can get into OpenFirmware and the boot menu if you do as suggested in comment #6 and leave the original Nvidia card in place and add the card with AtomBIOS as secondary card for MorphOS :-)