Will OS X 1.2 work properly on this machine?

K

konan

Registered
I am about to get system below. I have one question.... Will there be any compatibility issues with OS X 1.2?

In particular, does OS X 1.2 support the Voodoo 3 16mb video card for OpenGL acceleration. It is extremely important that it does.

Konan

Apple macintosh G3 processor 450mhz with 1mb L2 cache
512mb ram (4x128mb) expandable to 1.5gig
2 x 9gig scsi drives (internal)
LaCie cd-r (on dedicated scsi channel)
Nec 24x scsi cd-rom
1.44 mb floppy
Voodoo 3 16mb video card (running openGL)
Asante 10/100 ethernet card
Adaptec 2930 scsi controller (20mb/sec)
Motherboard has 6 pci slots and 12 dimm slots in a tower case
Apple extended keyboard and desktop II mouse
Apple color stylewriter pro printer with black and 3 color cartridges
Office 2001, eXodus 7, maclinkplus 13, adobe acrobat 5, toast titanium etc
Comes with cd-rom's, manuals, books, magazines, service manuals
 
From what I understand there is no support at all for the Voodoo3 in OS X in any mode. So, if you only want to run OS 9.x and below, the Voodoo3 has some drivers out, for OS X, most likely it won't even boot. You can find more info at http://www.mac3dfx.com

Brian
 
10.2 will also not support your stylewriter or your floppy drive (although I think someone came up with a fix for this). Also, it seems like you are looking to run 10.2 on an upgraded 9600. I would spend my money on a newer G3 if I were you. They are better supported by OS X (any non-G3 is not, if course) and it won't have the sleep issues that cause data corruption on some older unsupported systems.
 
It's going to be a swap for my iMac (Purple). The ONLY reason to make the trade is so I can put a video card that supports OpenGL aceleration in it (don't care about the quartz stuff too much).

I may buy a GeForce2 MX card for it, as that is what I have in my PC and have no complints (good bang for the buck).

Can anybody CONFIRM that OS X 10.2 supports accelerated OpenGL for the GeForce2 card?

Konan
 
Quote

"Quartz Extreme
Jaguar dramatically improves the performance of Mac OS X with Quartz Extreme hardware-based graphics acceleration. Quartz Extreme takes advantage of the OpenGL 3D graphics engine to make the entire desktop a fully accelerated OpenGL scene. A supported* video card can then render the drawing of the desktop, just like it would a 3D game. The main CPU chip(s) can then focus on application-specific needs, making the whole system faster and more responsive.

That means your shadows will drop quickly, your genies will appear slicker and your transparencies will layer faster — and Mac OS X can do more processing in the background while you move the foreground."

End Quote.

Konan...

I guess that this means that Quartz Extreme == OpenGL acceleration. This answers my question.

Konan
 
Does anybody know if the supported video cards (e.g. GeForce 2) come in PCI. It seems that this system does not have an AGP slot.

Konan
 
Hey ByerlyRips,


I am new to the Mac world. What exactly is a 9600? What would the newer G3's be as opposed to 9600.

Konan
 
None of the quartz extreme features of 10.2 will work with PCI, it requires AGP. This is due to the nature of how AGP is designed (direct access to memory and other fun things).

Basically the box you're looking at is old and outdated, and if you're looking to run the latest technology on it you're looking at the wrong hardware. The box will sqeak by running OS X, but won't be very fast, and won't support many of the cool features that makes the OS so advanced.

You're better off saving your pennies and getting something with a G4, AGP slot, and a radeon/geforce card.

Brian
 
The deal is that I may be swapping my iMac (purple) for this machine, so I am not actually spending any cash (except for a new video card).

Since the Quartz extreme features will not run on a PCI card, will generic OpenGL acceleration? This is my only reason for making the swap.

Konan
 
It turns ou that system is a 9500 tower with the 603e cpu replaced by a G3 from sonnet.

Question.. Does anyone out there have a PCI video card (perhaps a Raedon?) and also has OpenGL acceleration in OS X? I am not concerned with the Quartz features, as long as I can have generic OpenGL acceleration.

Anyone?
Konan
 
Originally posted by konan
Question.. Does anyone out there have a PCI video card (perhaps a Raedon?) and also has OpenGL acceleration in OS X? I am not concerned with the Quartz features, as long as I can have generic OpenGL acceleration.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I'm running a Umax S-900 with a Radeon 7000 Dual Head PCI card. The S-900 is architecturally similar (but not identical) to a 9500. I do have OpenGL acceleration in apps that support it, such as Quake3.

I recommend having a card lying around that OS X supports natively. You can end up in a bootstrap situation if your only video card is something that can't display video until drivers have been loaded for it. I've got an ixMicro TwinTurbo that I have to use to install the OS from scratch. Once OS X is running, I can install the Radeon drivers and use that card.

Be warned however, that, at least in my case, Quake3 performance under OS X exhibits negative air pressure. Quite playable on this machine at 1024x768 32 bit under 9.1, but barely playable at 600x800 16 bit under 10.1.5. (YMMV, don't try this in my home.)
 
Thanks for the info,

800x600 16 bit you say, That kinda sucks. Are you sure that it is really being accelerated an this is not just in software mode? If that is the kind of performance i could expect, then I would rather stick with my iMac.


Konan
 
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