Does a PowerMac G5 graphics card work in a G4?

Hi, depends which G4 & which G5, some do overlap, but not all. Which Grapic Card is it & which Macs exactly?

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

Some G5s use PCIe cards which will not work in a G4.

No OEM graphics cards from a G5 will work in a G4 without major modification.

There are many options as described in my web page, with many options available for less than $200 on eBay.

If you want personalized help with a card, you might email me via my website.

http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/All_Things_PPC.html

Depending on which G4 you have, a Radeon 9600 from a G5 might work if you tape the 3 and 11 pins.

AGP compatibility chart http://themacelite.wikidot.com/compatibility

How and why to tape the 3 and 11 pins http://themacelite.wikidot.com/pins-3-and-11

Here is a more complete assessment of the 9600:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2431727?start=0&tstart=9

Hey japamac, you can also add the GeForce 5500 to that list too..

Ive been running an EVGA FX5500 in my old Quicksilver 2002 G4 for the last few years now..

(Flashed PC card with a Mac ROM, taped pins 3 & 11, etc..)

Although like the 5200 listed on your page, even though it says Core Image supported, I didnt notice any sort of GUI performance increase over whatever ATI card came with it originally.. And because of something to do with a temp sensor the PC card doesnt have but the Mac looks for, your mac takes an extra few minutes to boot past the white apple screen unless you remove the extension HardwareSensor.kext..

Can somebody tell me how to delete that kext?

Remove AppleHWSensor.kext from /System/Library/Extensions.

Im working with movies on it now, so how many MB should I get for it?

How many MB of what?

Ive been running an EVGA FX5500

Like this?

http://www.evga.com/products/pdf/256-A8-N313.pdf

even though it says Core Image supported, I didnt notice any sort of GUI performance increase over whatever ATI card came with it originally.

With the 5200, Core Image support is "on paper". The card is barely able to cope with CI tasks, so OS X automatically switches to software CI for many tasks.

Apple recognized how weak the card is and automatically disabled it for use with Apple Pro applications....

Not very good for a Pro towers standard configuration.😮

It has been said here (and I continue to keep the saying alive) that

" A monkey with crayons is faster than a Geforce FX5200".

Yep thats the same model card I have. Although I do seem to remember mine was a specific revision that was particularly 'Mac friendly'.. I learned how and what cards were compatible from a site called The Mac Elite/StrangeDogs.. I just went through like 30 pages of the forum and did several searches but I cant find a reference to that specific card we all bought.. It was a special at the time on NewEgg and we all got them for like $40 or something ridiculously low. Not bad for a 256MB card (was only 128bit though).. Too bad the performance reflected in the price hahaha. Although I did finally get to play Doom 3 after flashing it.. I should go install that on my dual core G5 now and see how much better it is.. 🙂

Ill have to look up the particular revision number next time I open up my G4 case, its on a sticker on the pcb.

If youre willing to take a bit more of a risk, google StrangeDogs Mac.. Theres quite a few more higher end cards you could flash with a bit of work that will KILL the 5500..

If youre willing to take a bit more of a risk, google StrangeDogs Mac..

I know the site well.

Theres quite a few more higher end cards you could flash with a bit of work that will KILL the 5500.

Here are some of the cards that I have experience with, most of which I flashed and modified myself:

http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Graphics_Cards.html

Wow awesome list hehe.

The BFG 7800 was the big guy everyone was going after when us 'poor folk' bought up those 5500's.

I was ready to jump on one, but they reved that card too and changed something in the later ones that required some sort of hardware mod to the card.. I was never comfortable paying $200+ for a video card that I might screw up cutting traces or resoldering a bigger rom chip to it.. I think that was the case for ALOT of those PC cards ATI and Nvidia.. The PC versions only had a 128k ROM in it where most of the Mac roms required 256..

Did you run into this with any of the versions of cards you flashed??? I just noticed your list of cards for the PCIe G5's.. Maybe Ill find me a 'cheap' 7800 somewhere and give that a go! At my old job I had one of those Quadro's in my Dell.. Too bad Im not there anymore or Id have to do a little swap and flash that sucker for my G5 hah.

Err duuuuh.. Scratch those ROM sizes it wasnt 128k vs 256k it was 64k vs 128k hehe (Im sucked into all the info on your site at the moment).