Hello all,

I've had a play around with Morphos already with a MacMini (mostly for Quake that I used to play on my A1200), but I've just aquired a G5 from the in-laws so wanted to install on that too.

I know that it needs an ATI graphics card, which this doesn't have yet. But my question is does Morphos run on all the PowerPC G5s? Before I go off searching for upgrades I'd like to be sure!
It's the 1.8GHz DP, NVidia gfx at the mo. with a lowly 256MB of RAM.

Thanks for any help,

Brunty

> does Morphos run on all the PowerPC G5s?

"Only PowerMac 7,2 and PowerMac7,3 (A1047) are supported."
https://www.morphos-team.net/hardware

These are:
https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/?search_keywords=PowerMac7,2
https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/?search_keywords=PowerMac7,3

> It's the 1.8GHz DP

Yes, this one is supported by MorphOS.

Thankyou, so I just need an ATI AGP card that's listed on the compatibility page and I'm good to go :)

> so I just need an ATI AGP card that's listed on the compatibility page

Just make sure it's an Apple-specific card (i.e. with PPC ROM) in case you also want to run MacOSX or access the OpenFirmware or the graphical boot menu.

Yeah, I've just been reading this.

Is there a prefered card to go for?

Also, apart from installation is there much of a need to keep the functionality?

I've taken the Voodoo 3 card out of my A1200, but the Mac doesn't seem to recognise it - I was hoping to be able to boot from the Live CD to test things out.

> Is there a prefered card to go for?

You may want to have a read there:

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=12059&forum=11
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=12247&forum=38
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=12419&forum=11

> apart from installation is there much of a need to keep the functionality?

I'd say no.

> I've taken the Voodoo 3 card out of my A1200,
> but the Mac doesn't seem to recognise it

Is this with or without the Nvidia card still in place?

Quote:

He won't see anything at all (not only OSX and OF) using a generic PC card unless it's R520 or higher.

> He won't see anything at all [...] using a generic PC card unless it's R520 or higher.

Yes, the presence of AtomBIOS is a requirement for this. Thanks for the addition. In this regard, the MorphOS hardware page also lists Radeon X1300 (Pro) and Radeon X1550 as supported, which have RV515/RV516 GPUs.

Thanks for the help and links. Much appreciated.

Hi again.

I've had some progress. Over the week I got some extra RAM and an ATI Radeon X11950pro.

I also found that part of my problem was the original reason the computer had been turned into a coffee table (literally!). One of the CPUs was intermittently faulty. Removed and things got better. I read somewhere that MorphOs only uses one CPU anyway.

So, managed to install MorphOs keeping the NVidia card installed but connecting to the Voodoo 3 3000 pci. Removed the Nvidia and it now boots straight up and diplays nicely with the Voodoo.

Installed the X1950 and boot. The Voodoo is active and displays, but freezes on the "MorphOs 3.11 loading" splash screen.

I took the X1950 back out and it boots normally. But then I realised that the connector is different to the Nvidia's. The "hook" is further back on the Nvidia with an extra connector making the whole connector much longer.

I'm new to Apple hardware, so any tips?

Oh, and I have got the 2x molex going to the Radeon.

Cheers,

Brunty



**Update -
Well, turns out that it hadn't frozen on the splash screen. After a long time (maybe 15-20 mins) it displayed the grey Ambient screen. I went off to make coffee and when I came back the screen was still displayed, but the fans were on full.

**Update 2 -
I've done some reading up on AGP graphics card slots. I had no idea there were so many types. Clearly, I've bought the wrong card...

[ Edited by Brunty 18.08.2019 - 10:19 ]

Quote:

Why keep the Voodoo?

Quote:

The G5 has got an AGP Pro slot. The genuine Apple cards that have an ADC connector need additional 25V and USB signal from the mainboard to pass them to ADC monitor, hence the AGP is "upgraded". But standard AGP card should work too.

Are you sure your card is not faulty? Once I had an X1950 thad wouldn't work, but it did after some hot air rework. It stopped after a few weeks though (not that I didn't expect that).

Quote:

A Voodoo is the only way to get a dual monitor setup with MorphOS 3.11.

But AFAIK noone has ever succeeded in getting a Radeon+Voodoo working in a G5 (no probs on PMacG4) and the real news here is that the Voodoo will work if it's the only (supported) GFX card.

I still have a Radeon 9200 128MB (Mac) PCI GFX card that I used when I had only got a Nvidia AGP card in my PowerMac G5 and that worked OK in the PCI slot, now whether that will also work in combination with a Radeon 9600 AGP card that I've since acquired I don't know, but it might - one of these days I might try it, but I'm far too busy ATM to try that out, sadly.

> I still have a Radeon 9200 128MB (Mac) PCI GFX card that I used [...] in my PowerMac G5 [...] PCI slot,
> now whether that will also work in combination with a Radeon 9600 AGP card [...] I don't know, but it might

MorphOS cannot use more than one Radeon card at a time. That's a driver restriction.

Addendum:

>> I still have a Radeon 9200 128MB (Mac) PCI GFX card that I used [...] in my
>> PowerMac G5 [...] PCI slot, now whether that will also work in combination
>> with a Radeon 9600 AGP card [...] I don't know, but it might

> MorphOS cannot use more than one Radeon card at a time. That's a driver restriction.

...or can it?

"If legacy W3D support is important [...], you can also stick R9xxx card in G5 machines to have both raw speed and classic compatibility. One of my friends did this kind of solution."
https://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=43689&forum=45#832416


Edit: On the other hand, "raw speed" may very well not refer to a primary R300+ AGP graphics card but to the G5 CPU, which would mean the R200 graphics card is actually the only graphics card in the system.

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf 10.04.2020 - 20:33 ]

Quote:
Yes, this is what I meant. Having an older graphics card that supports W3D as the only card on a (powerful) G5 machine, even though they were sold with newer graphics cards. I was thinking Radeon 9000-9250 (R200) and wrote it a wrong there.