Radeon 9000 in Sawtooth?

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Level 2

342 points

Radeon 9000 in Sawtooth?

I'm about to purchase a new Mac Pro for my wife. This means that her desktop will become mine. She currently has a MDD G4 (dual 1.25) that houses a Radeon 9000. My desktop is a G4 Sawtooth that, over the years, have upgraded just about everything including the video card to a Radeon 9800. Since my card holds more memory and is all around a better choice I'd like to install that card into the MDD when it becomes mine. Then I'd like to put the 9000 in the Sawtooth; is there any reason that card would not work in that machine?

All in all I'd like to take all the Sawtooths upgrades and swap them with the MDD's if they are both compatible and worthwhile.

BTW, can memory be upgraded from 64 to 128 on the 9000 or is this a different card altogether?

Tony

17" MBP C2D, 20" iMac C2D, iPod 30gb 5th Gen, MDD 1.25,, Mac OS X (10.5.1), Sawtooth 1.4ghz (ATI 9800), Pismo 400, BeigeG3 400MT

Posted on Nov 28, 2007 7:53 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 28, 2007 9:47 AM in response to Tony Giordano

You should be able to swap the cards, as all they each require is a free AGP slot (according to ATI). Remember, the Sawtooth only has a 2x AGP slot and the MDD has a 4x AGP slot. I would think the 4x AGP card wouldn't be compatible, but ATI doesn't say that. All they specify on their website is that the Radeon 9000 requires any AGP Powermac G4. So they should both be compatible, but your Radeon 9000 will probably seem even slower in your Sawtooth (since it's now on a 2x AGP bus), while your 9800 will feel even faster in the MDD (4x AGP). As far as upgrading memory, the memory is onboard, which means it is not upgradable. If you wish to have more memory, you will need to purchase a new card. The Radeon 9800 PRO is the fastest card that the Sawtooth can hold, so if you were going to upgrade a card, I would suggest leaving the Radeon 9800 in the Sawtooth and getting a 4x AGP card with 256 MB of memory and putting it in the MDD. That would probably be the most cost effective, since a 4x AGP card will probably be similar in price to the 9800 pro.

As far as taking all of the upgrades out of the sawtooth-that should be fine but remember your MDD has a faster system bus than the 100 mhz Sawtooth bus. Depending on the MDD model, it could have a 133 mhz or 167 mhz bus speed, so taking PC100 RAM out of your Sawtooth won't work in the MDD and you will have to buy new RAM. Other than that, the PCI cards and hard drives/optical drive should all be transferrable.

Hope that helps!

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Answer 2

Tony Giordano Author

Level 2

342 points

Nov 28, 2007 10:22 AM in response to MyrkridianRhapsody

Thanks, yes that does help quite a bit. The bus speed on the MDD that I have is 166 btw.

Both machines are currently maxed out with memory, so I hadn't planned on swapping that. It was more the cards like USB2, HDD's and other.

I may considered another 9800 since I'll have this machine as a daily running desktop for some time to come and prices aren't that bad as I found looking around.

Tony

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Answer 3

Nov 28, 2007 2:35 PM in response to MyrkridianRhapsody

This reminds me: Now that I am using a Digital Audio G4 tower (with original ATI Rage 128 Pro still installed) I have to remember to rob the upgraded 64-meg nVidia AGP card out of my wife's Sawtooth and replace it with her original 16-meg Rage 128 Pro. She won't notice the difference. Its wasted on her computer and may be a big improvement in mine.

Speaking of which, was there any difference between the 16-meg ATI Rage 128 Pro that Apple shipped with the 2X AGP sawtooth and the 16-meg ATI Rage 128 Pro that Apple shipped with the 4X AGP DA towers ??? I know the AGP bus was improved but I wonder if the card remained the same...

M

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Answer 4

Nov 28, 2007 5:38 PM in response to Michael Shaw

Looks to me like it's the same card... the only thing that might be different is the outputs. The sawtooth has a VGA output and a DVI output, while the DA seems to have DVI and ADC outputs. I'm sure the card itself is the same but probably just a reissue of the first...

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