PCI card in PCI-X slot?

I can't seem to get a clear answer on if a PCI card can be used in the PCI-X slots in the early 2005 PowerMac G5s.

PCI-X and PCI-X 2.0 are supposed to be be backwards compatible with PCI. But then "supposed to be" is a wide open term.

It is looking like, as long as it is a 3.3V card and 33MHz it should work, but I'd like to hear from someone that knows a bit more than "supposed to be."

Thanks!

Various

Posted on Nov 12, 2008 10:40 PM

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8 replies

Nov 13, 2008 10:04 AM in response to The hatter

Problem is that all of Apple's language is vague. And the fact that there are PCI PMG5s and PCI-X PMG5s doesn't help make things clearer.

Apple will make statements like "Depending upon the model of your Power Mac G5, you can install either PCI or PCI-X cards" (does the "or" refer to each machine respectively? The PCI machine can't run PCI-X cards, so maybe so...) which isn't as clear as saying "either PCI or PCI and PCI-X cards."

THe first link is helpful, but they only mention PCI-X once (or is the term "PCI" used generically to refer to the larger set of both PCI and PCI-X?) so it still isn't expressly clear. (Although the statement about "Designed to the specification" might be meaningful if it weren't for the fact that specs aren't always followed and/or extended in novel ways.)

After some sifting the xlr8 indicates some PCI cards being used in PCI-X, so that was a bit more clear.

But in the mean time I found this:

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Hardware/DeveloperNotes/Macintosh_CPUs-G5/PowerMacG5/4Expansion/chapter_5_section3.html#

which should clearly spell out the requirements for the slots in a PCI-X machine.

Feb 4, 2009 9:40 AM in response to geoapple

I bought a PCI USB card for my PCI-X G5 dual 2.0 (early 2005), and when I install it, the machine won't start - pressing the power button causes an immediate "click" then off. Takes about a second for all this to happen, no status lights, no lights period. When I take the card out, everything works fine. Is the card DOA or is this a sign of the 3.3 vs 5 volt incompatability I've been reading about? The card is an Ultra USB 2.0 card, RCD-USPC01 which is PCI 2.2 compliant according to the very thin manual - no mention of voltage.

TIA

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PCI card in PCI-X slot?

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