ATI Radeon 9600 XT Mac G5 AGP 8X for Quicksliver?

Does your Mac look like this?
http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/gigag4.html

Or this?
http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/dualg4.html

If it is the first, it's a Quicksilver.
If it's the second, it's an MDD, which includes a Firewire 800 model.

The 9600 card is more likely to work in an MDD.
There is no way to be sure in advance whether or not it will work in a Quicksilver.
Some 9600s seem to work fine in G4s, and others don't.
Also, Some G4s don't seem to like 9600s.

Hi

Unfortunately I'm very doubtful it would work.

Some G5 8x AGP 9600s can be made to work in the 4x AGP Quicksilvers by taping over a couple of pins (3 and 11 on the back side) , but I wouldn't like to guarantee it. Even then I believe you'd lose the ADC port (assuming it's a G5 card that has one) as the extra pins on the card which provide the power to drive the display through the ADC port won't align with the corresponding slot on the Quicksilver's logic board (although it could be used as a DVI port with an ADC to DVI adapter cable). OWC used to sell 9600s pulled from G5s and modified in this way for use in the G4 Power Macs, although I'm not sure whether they still do.

Hey Folks -

I've been scanning these topics looking for some insight on a problem that's just cropped up on my G-4 MMD. Hopefully you can help direct/advise me on this....

A couple of days ago my displays started breaking up - verticle lines of digital noise that kept getting worse as I dragged folder icons or open items around on the desk top. Running TechTool Deluxe found that the VRAM failed. The Apple Hardware test listed an "error" with the same.

So I'm guessing my video board is dying - am I correct?
If "yes" then I need to replace it and want to know what replacement would be the best ?

The board that's in the computer is: ATI Radeon 9700 PRO - 128 MB 1280x1024.

Any help you can give would be most appreciated!

decasa,

Are you using an ADC monitor, or does your monitor have its own power cord to a wall outlet?

If you don't need ADC, you could get a Radeon 9800 Mac Edition.

If you need ADC, the 9700 ADC card is hard to find.
The best commonly available ADC card is a Radeon 9000, which is a long way down from a 9700.
Another option for running an ADC monitor is to use a DVI to ADC converter with a non-ADC card.
http://www.powermax.com/product/DVIator,DVI_to_ADCadapter/a-drb-0111-dvad.html

I have two Viewsonic VG191b monitors hooked up - both have their own power supplies.

I've just been out and checked BEST BUY and Circuit City and couldn't find the 9800 Mac edition board.

Now I'm looking on-line to see what I can find.

What I'm concerned about is this - a couple of months ago a second internal hard drive I added to my machine when I got it in 2003 craped out and died. Now the video board is on it's last legs...what's next? If I drop 250-bones for a new card and then something else craps out, I'll feel like I''m throwing good money after bad. So I'm caught between - buy a replacement board or buy a new and more modern MAC...

Any thoughts...? What would you do if you were in my shoes?

Thanks for your help and advice!

There is always the option of a "flashed" 9800 card (I'm using one right now).
These are PC versions that have been converted to Mac, and cost less. Some work better than others though.
For more information on this, a good place to check is http://strangedogs.proboards40.com/
They require you to register with them before you can get in, but the registration is free.

It's a difficult one. I personally wouldn't let one or two component failures determine when I buy a new computer. Unfortunately hard drives in particular can and do fail. They seem to either go early on, perhaps due to a manufacturing defect or damage during transit/installation, or late on due to their natural life span. They do have an average failure rate in terms of start/stop cycles etc. On the other hand, I'm not sure I'd sink a large sum of money into a relatively old computer. There was a time when you could buy a new graphics card and take it with you when you move to another computer, but unfortunately any card compatible with the G4s won't work in the new Intel/PCI Express based Macs.

If it were me I'd want to get the computer working again even if I was buying a new one, so I could either use it as a backup machine or a machine for running any legacy software, or a machine I could sell or hand to another family member. Perhaps a used Radeon 9000 would be one alternative. It's no where near as powerful as a 9700 or 9800 but was the stock card for the MDDs and may be sufficient assuming you don't need Core Image support etc.