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indigoimac · Feb 22, 2003, 06:04 PM

I can't seem to find the answer to this. If anyone knows please post. Thanks in advance!

bradoesch · Feb 22, 2003, 06:36 PM

98.12% sure it's PCI. I'm pretty sure that it was a G4 model that first got AGP graphics (called the AGP I think.)
I just checked the specs at Apple's site and it says there are 4 PCI slots with 1 dedicated to video.

Brad

G4ME · Feb 22, 2003, 06:54 PM

100% its PCI

even the first G4 didn't have AGP

D'Espice · Feb 23, 2003, 04:02 AM

101% sure it's PCI, the first AGP PowerMac is the PowerMac G4 Sawtooth.

angelmb · Feb 23, 2003, 08:15 AM

102% PCI card, next please !

And you can not replace it by an AGP card, all you can do is get a fastest PCI card, but my B&W G3 350 Mhz runs pretty well with the original Ati Rage 128 PCI card (both Mac OS 9 & Mac OS X), and as bradoesch says, four PCI slots, but only one to video, the video slot runs at 66Mhz, the others three at 33 Mhz.

cocamix · Feb 23, 2003, 01:31 PM

The B&W has PCI graphics, but it's in a faster 66MHz slot instead of the standard 33Mhz PCI slot.

goldplata · Feb 23, 2003, 03:24 PM

The best graphic card is a Radeon PCI Mac edition!

macvillage.net · Feb 23, 2003, 05:05 PM

Originally posted by goldplata:
The best graphic card is a Radeon PCI Mac edition!

Second that.

But seriously, you would get more bang for your buck if you got a G3/800 processor upgrade, and some RAM, rather than the graphics card upgrade.

jwblase · Feb 25, 2003, 03:14 PM

This begs the question: Which is the best upgrade for the B/W?

Cadaver · Mar 1, 2003, 07:27 AM

Originally posted by jwblase:
This begs the question: Which is the best upgrade for the B/W?

My opinion:

1) RAM (especially if you're running MacOS X)
2) Fast hard drive
3) Processor upgrade - depending on the software you run, a 550MHz G4 (which many can be overclocked to 600MHz) or one of the soon-to-be-released 800MHz G3s.
4) If you run games, then consider looking on eBay for a PCI Radeon 32MB Mac Edition video card. They are noticeably faster than the currently-available Radeon 7000 PCI cards.

Before I sold my blue & white G3/450, I was happily running MacOS X with 832MB RAM (512+128+128+64) and a 7200RPM 60Gig HD (stock Rage 128 PCI).

rambo47 · Mar 1, 2003, 01:00 PM

I had (have) a B&W that I upgraded with three WD 40GB 7200 RPM hard drives (using Sonnet's Tempo ATA controller card), max RAM (1 GB), the PCI Radeon graphics card, and a Sonnet Encore/ZIF G4 500 MHz processor. While a great machine, I had spent almost enough on upgrades to buy a new PowerMac, and no matter what you won't get the full effect of Quartz Extreme.

My recommendation would be to get the max RAM and Radeon card. Then wait for the IBM 970 chips in 9 months or so (my estimate, nothing official). The hard drive upgrade and processor upgrade will both make a difference but also cost the most. If you are going to run OS 9 and not OS X you might consider a graphics card like the 3DFX Voodoo 5500. I have one of these as well and for OS 9 use it was better than the Radeon, although by a small margin. Unfortunately, your machine will not even boot into OS X with this card installed, and since 3DFX was bough by nVidia and promptly abandoned you can forget about ever seeing OS X drivers for the Voodoo cards. But if your machine is to be OS 9 only, the Voodoo cards are around for almost nothing. They sell on eBay and various message boards for $30 or so. Pretty sweet price for a 64 MB graphics card!