Video Card upgrade for (PowerPC G3)

You could try to find a now-discontinued Radeon 9200 (128 MBs of DDR memory) PCI card for it. Otherwise, the original Radeon 7000 Mac Edition card is a big improvement over the stock ATI Rage 128 (16 MBs of SGRAM). Some years ago, I bought several ATI retail-boxed Radeon 7000 (64 MB DDR memory) PCI cards for PCs, and then flashed them for use in a Mac. For my B&W G3s running Panther, they're more than adequate. Check eBay for one of them. There are usually a number of listings for ROM-flashed, Mac-compatible cards.

The Radeon Mac Edition 9200 does not have very good OS9 support, and a PCI graphics card is not capable of driving Quartz Extreme technology in OSX without a hack that is a less-than-perfect solution. QE looks for an AGP slot card.

The original Radeon Mac Edition (came after teh rage 128 Orion and Nexus but before the RME 7000) was considered the "preemo" card 8-9 years ago. The RME 7000 was a less capable card and, when it replaced the original, prices for the original skyrocketed. Both ahd 32MB RAM. If the cards are not boxed, you can tell the difference because the original had a cooling fan built into the heat sink and the 7000 did not.

Your profile looks like it's saying you have OS 10.5 on the G3. That can't be. If a correction to that OS info is needed, please let us know.

Tiger = 10.4.x (10.4.11 max)

Leopard = 10.5.x (10.5.8 currently)

I should have announced that my G3's OS is Tiger 10.5.8

I'm still confused. 10.5 is "Leopard" and requires a G4 processor running at 867mHz. Has you processor already been upgraded?

I'm still confused. 10.5 is "Leopard" and requires a G4 processor running at 867mHz. Has you processor already been upgraded?

If that is what we are talking about (a Yosemite with a G4 CPU), then this might be an interesting option:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NVIDIA-GeForce-FX-5200-Mac-PCI-256MB-Xserve-video-card-/1504 75011556?pt=PCCVideo_TVCards&hash=item23090275e4

Well Allen, technically someone did crack it and manage to run Leopard on the Beige G3... albeit much slower than adequate and far slower than Tiger 😉

I always thought the best video card for the G3s was the nVidia GeForce3, of which I still have several examples lying around - ignored, unappreciated, unloved!

Actually, one is still doing creditable duty in a FastMac-improved Digital Audio, though it won't match the more modern critters from Japamac's list.

jws

You're right, the B&W G3 has a dedicated 66 MHz PCI slot for the graphics card, which rules out one of the nVidia GeForce AGP graphics cards that Jon mentioned. The AGP slot was implemented in the first generation of AGP graphics-based G4s. Whatever card that you select, it must have a Mac ROM. There are a number of PCI graphics cards marketed for PCs, that have been reprogrammed to work properly in a Mac. As I wrote earlier, I upgraded about (8) beige and B&W G3s with ATI Radeon 7000 cards (32 MB & 64 MB), that I flashed. Check eBay - there are a couple of sellers who have been selling flashed cards for some time, such as this one. This would undoubtedly be the best card for a B&W G3, but as the seller indicates - a G4 processor upgrade is needed.

Maybe it was the Radeon Mac (distinguished by the fan) that worked so well. The brain cells grow old and forgetful. I still have a few beige G3s, but I never cared enough for the B&W G3s to want to hang on to them, even though the Rev 2 worked pretty well. Maybe I need to get one for a doorstop, and to check video cards. Maybe not.

jws

Dan L wrote:

technically someone did crack it and manage to run Leopard on the Beige G3

You sound pretty positive. See the OP's response. That apparently didn't happen.

Sigh, not exactly the greeting I was hoping for after a few years... w/e though.

I realize he wasn't running Leopard.. and I wasn't suggesting he was. I was just pointing out that someone did crack it. I'm positive because it happened :/

Hey Dan,

Sorry--I was concerned your comment could have clouded the issue for the OP, and it sounded like you'd missed his post correcting the machine and OS type.

So how's it going? Indeed it has been a while. Are you in university or done with all that?

I retired in 2007 but have managed to keep more than busy. Had a fight with cancer in 2007 but I feel I whupped up on it, and all tests continue to be negative.

I ended up with a 1.25G G4 MDD, another Beige G3 MT with the 333 processor, and an old 7600/132 from work when I retired and the MDD has become my "go-to" computer. Holding four big hard drives is a plus after dealing with the ATA limitation of the Beige G3. We have one late 2007 MacBook Pro in the house for travel and the rest of the "working class" are G4s. They still do it for me.

The old upgraded Beige MT that brought me to these forums ten years ago is still working as a guest computer and a photo storage bucket. Man, those are fun old machines to work on!

My e-mail is still the same as before--send me a catch-up message on what's going on with you.

Heh, I actually knew you retired in 2007... hasn't been quite that long... glad to hear you beat the cancer, I had no idea.

Lol yeah, I personally never had to deal with the ATA/16 space/speed limitation... I bought an ATA/66 card when I bought my first upgrade HDD (there's now three in the beige). My main computer is my 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo Lenovo though.

As for college, I'm on my last semester... switched schools and switched majors else I'd ave been done in '09.

10 years ago? Wow. Can't really believe it's been that long.. I guess I came here 6 years ago... actually, 7 in a month.

And yeah, the Beiges are really fun... although they're just a bit sluggish in OS 10.4 (I actually blame the PCI connection for a lot of that), and I can't start up in OS 9 w/o disabling the ATI extension because of a conflict with any CPU upgrade and my Radeon.

Do you have Facebook? I actually have Deborah added on there. My email's the same too 🙂