Radeon 7000 (Voodoo 3?) non-mac?

vic20owner

Registered
Will this card (Radeon 7000, non mac version) work with my G4 sawtooth? I'm running OSX 10.3.9 (panther). I installed this card and the machine booted but the screen was black... reinstalled the orginal ATI card and the machine worked fine. It's the non-mac version so I'm not sure if it'll actually work or not?

thanks
-tom
 
If you were to use an original 3dfx Voodoo3 2000 card (or I believe any of the Voodoo series of cards), you can flash the PC version for use on the Mac. I've done it and it works perfectly. Apparently, 3dfx didn't think that people would realize that they were actually selling the same card flashed for the Mac to Mac users at a higher price than the PC version. So then Mac users started buying the PC version and flashing it for the Mac. Of course, this card had the same firmware space on both cards so there was enough space for the Mac firmware to be installed to it.

Because of this, vidcard manufacturers got smart and started only including the amount of ROM size enough for a specific platform. So the Mac versions actually had more ROM space than the PC version, which helped prevent this practice. Of course, this hasn't stopped people from doing this, but the results aren't the same anymore (instability at best, instant-doorstop at worst).

ATI now is selling a card that comes with PC and Mac support right out of the box, so you don't even need to worry about whether it works in a specific platform. YEs, it's a little more than jsut the PC version, but you assured that it works on both platforms. I'm hoping that more video card manufacturers take on this practice, especially with Apple becoming more mainstream than it has ever been, IMO.
 
Short answer: make sure any video card you intend to put in your Macintosh advertises specific Macintosh compatibility.

Using a PC card in a Macintosh is possible, but you'll need 1) a Macintosh, 2) A Windows PC to "flash" the firmware of the card, 3) The Mac ROM firmware for the card, and 4) the understanding that "flashing" the card may work perfectly, may work halfway, or may not work at all, and may even leave the video card damaged and unusable in either a Mac or a PC.
 
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