Radeon 9200 Pro Mac Edition?

Hi-

Core Image support? No.

PCI cards do not support it without a hack...

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/8979/pci-extreme!

Just a lead, research it further. 🙂

Sorry, no it won't, & even with the hack, should it work, is really unsatisfactory for even Quartz. 😟

See japamacs page here on the best AGP cards for G4s & G5s...

http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Blog/4B4B7BA2-7ABB-47F1-87AC-B03D379 42BEE.html

Hi-

You can have Quartz Extreme support without Core Image support, but any card that supports Core Image also supports Quartz Extreme.

They are not the same thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuartzCompositor#QuartzExtreme
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_Image

Quartz Extreme is a basic necessity for any OS X prior to Tiger, and is still a necessity for GUI functions, as well as many softwares today.
Quartz Extreme leverages the GPU via OpenGL.

For better Quartz Extreme support, later version support for OpenGL is necessary.

Even without Core Image support, proper OpenGL support is necessary for proper application function.

Tiger needs support for OpenGL 1.5.
Leopard needs support for OpenGL 2.0.

Core Image is a more modern use of the GPU for offloading previously CPU intensive tasks.
Core Image support is recommended for Tiger, but should be thought of as required for Leopard.
No Radeon card lower than a 9600 series card supports Core Image, and no Geforce card lower than the 6200 series properly supports Core Image.

PCI graphics in an AGP machine +is not+ a performance option.

The only reason one would want a PCI graphics card in an AGP machine is to connect additional monitors, with the understanding that advanced feature support would be absent.

Even though the 9200 PCI can be hacked for Quartz Extreme support, it can be a highly problematic card, alone or otherwise.
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/macradeon_9200pcitests.html
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/osx/quartzextreme_pcimod.html

Even with a hack, many apps will not see the card as supporting Quartz Extreme.

Besides, the best OpenGL support a 9200 can do (PCI or AGP) is OpenGL 1.4.

It's probably worth trying to get the whole G4. The Sawtooth was a rather basic model.

I have the retail R9200 in a heavily-upgraded Beige G3 (PCI slots only). Although fine for 3D stuff like flight sims. It is very choppy for 2D things like routine scrolling and dragging. Why? As others have mentioned. no Quartz Extreme support.

In the Beige G3 days, it was common for people to use the mentioned hack to enable QE but it was not without problems. It was OK if the ONLY PCI card was the video card. As soon as you added something else like a USB card or drive controller, you had trouble. The conclusion was that the hack over-saturated the PCI bus and caused other cards to either act erratically or shut down.

The classic use for the R9200 would be to leave your current AGP card install and connected to the main monitor, and use the Radeon to drive another monitor that does not do a lot of work. Example: a second monitor that holds tool palettes or informational windows.

If the card comes with the other G4, I see a wealth of parts available. Don't say no if the deal is for the entire computer

Would this card provide improvement over the default OEM card?

As I explained, no.

Radeon 9200 Pro Mac edition

I just want to clarify, but the Radeon 9200 Mac Edition is NOT a Pro model.
It is a PCI model.
It is slower than AGP cards of the same era.

There are some flashed Radeon 9200 AGP models out there, but they don't use "Mac Edition", only unknowing individuals would use that term for it.

If this card is an AGP version, it would be better than the OEM Sawtooth options.

would giveme this card for free.

Take it and sell it on eBay for a few bucks.
Some people ask a lot of (too much) money for them.

I don't know that they get what they ask for, but........

Now, if it is a Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition, jump on it!

That fan is one of several different designs that ATI used over the years.
It is OEM.
There is more Al in that one, and it is considered to be better than some of the other fan heat sinks that ATI used.

what is Al?

Aluminum.

and as far as 128mb and 256 mb go is there not much of a difference?

Almost no difference. Certainly there is no difference that you would notice.
The 128 MB actually is a tad bit faster in some things. It is 0.1 fps faster in Doom 3:
http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Page%205%3A%20Gaming-%20Doom%203%20. html

i would be really amazed if it could handle that much of a demanding graphics game though...

Processor is the issue.
The 9800 Pro does well with CoD 2 in my 2 GHz machine.