ATI radeon 9800 256 Mb special edition

Hi Jeremy-

The ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Special Edition is for G5 models only.

Your MDD G4 would use an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Mac.

http://ati.amd.com/products/radeon9800/radeon9800prome/specs.html

G4 AGP(450)Sawtooth Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2ghzPPC,1.62gbSDRAM, ATI9800, DVR-109,(IntHD)120&160,LaCie160,23"Cinema Display

The MDD's have a 4X AGP slot, but it is not a standard AGP slot and thus you must use cards specifically tagged for use the MDD's. The difference in the slot is that Apple used a set of the pins in the slot for providing power to the ADC video port. If you use a card not designed around this difference, the card will not function and your Mac will not boot.

That said, the 9800 Pro SE card will work in your system. The difference between the Pro and the Pro SE is the amount of RAM. Both will work in a MDD.

-Douggo

The 256MB Radeon 9800 Mac cards are tagged with the "Special Edition" moniker. For a reference, look at this card and compare it to the SE card you're looking at. It should be identical.

-Douggo

Hi

Up until a year (or so) ago there were two different Radeon 9800 cards available retail for the Mac:

The first was the Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Special Edition. It had 256MB of VRAM and was 8X AGP, hence it only worked in the G5 Power Macs.

The second was the Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition. It had 128MB of VRAM and was 2X/4X AGP, hence it was aimed at the G4 Power Macs.

A year (or so) ago both cards were replaced with a newer Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition. It has 256MB of VRAM, is 2X/4X AGP and will work in the G4 and G5 Power Macs.

Your computer has a 4X AGP slot, hence you need one of the 2X/4X AGP versions, either the older 128MB VRAM version or the newer 256MB VRAM version. As far as I'm aware both of these cards are referred to as the Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition, with no mention of the word 'Special'. The important thing though is that the card you buy must support 4X AGP.

What's the easiest way to tell if you have a bad video card?

(I ask because I just purchased this very card, the 4x AGP g4/g5 version, from ebay, and it does not appear to be working, strange video corruption and bad overheating.)

Bad video cards will either display screen artifacting (banding, patterning, or distorted image) or just flat not work and your Mac won't boot. If the card is overheating now, it's likely that was the cause of the damage and the card is hosed. I got a Radeon 9800 off of eBay that did the same thing right off the bat and returned it to the seller as defective.

-Douggo

(I ask because I just purchased this very card, the
4x AGP g4/g5 version, from ebay, and it does not
appear to be working, strange video corruption and
bad overheating.)

If the card's fan spinning? ATI 9800 fans don't last long. A replacement cooling kit may fix the card. I use a Vantec Iceberq 6
<http://www.thecoolingshop.com/product info.php/productsid/2382>

If the card's fan spinning? ATI 9800 fans don't last
long.

I double checked and the fan is spinning, however the card still gets very hot. Also upon boot there was quite a lot of artifacting as you have mentioned. I have since returned the card as defective and am keeping my fingers crossed for either a replacement or refund. (I know, I know, never order from ebay tsk tsk, but it was a deal...)

Thank you for all the help so far guys, will let you know what the next one does.

If you bought the card used you may want to check whether it has been overclocked (this may explain the artifacts onscreen). Take a look at ATICCELERATOR - this allows you to overclock/underclock ATI cards. Underclocking may actually solve your problems.

Also, alot of the cards, like the 9800 are actually modded 9800XT cards (PC video card). Hence why it may be shot. Modding video cards are hit and a miss. Especially if you don't completely know what you are doing.

R9800pro are not disabled R9800XT they are different core models, r9800pro is R350/351 and 9800XT is R360. The R360 core clocks faster than R350/351.

The 9800pro 256MB special edition has issues preventing use in a G4...

1. The card is AGP pro rather than AGP

2. it is an 4/8X card can be limited to 4X by tapeing pins 3 & 11 on the AGP connector.

3. the stub for ADC is in a differant position and is used to provide the higher power requirements for the card.

Interesting. I contacted one of the sellers of these modded cards. And he told me that what he was selling was a modded 9800XT 256MB. But he guaranteed it works on the MDDs. But did suggest adding a PCI cooler fan, because the card tended to run pretty hot.

Hey guys, thanks for all the help, just to give an update:

I sent the card back to the seller (this was an ebay purchase) and he is sending me a new card. He did also tell me that these are in fact modded pc cards, but that he has tested it in a g4 mdd. We'll see about that.

I will post my new findings as soon as I receive the card as well as look into the information you all have been so kind to provide.

UPDATE:

Card works, but..

After 3-4 hours of running something intensive (such as a highly taxing video game) I get blue and red "errors" in the display, only in the display of the game, not in anything else.

I'm thinking perhaps the card is getting too hot? Would a previously suggested cooling unit solve this problem, or are such errors indicative of a more severe underlying problem?

Considering buying, just want to be sure it's not a heat issue.