[aribilow]

Greetings,

My friend is getting a dual 2 gig g5 and wants to upgrade the video card to the 9800 and I was wondering if I would be able to use the 9600 from his machine in my dual 867 mdd. I understand that they are of different speed AGP, but perhaps it would be backwards compatible. Any insights would be appreciated. If in fact it would not work could someone recommend a card. I have heard a little about using PC cards in a mac and flashing the firmware. So basically I want to get the fastest video card possible for as little dough as possible. Thanks in advance

- Ari

[RVW]

Quote from macintouch.com:

"David Sallak notes the limitations of the Power Mac G5's AGP video slot:

The AGP slot in the G5 will not accept any previous-generation AGP video card designed to support the Apple-proprietary ADC video/USB/power interface.
This means any AGP video card with an ADC video port, such as the nVidia GeForce4 Titanium and Radeon 9000 (and all previous cards of this design) will not physically fit in the G5 AGP slot.
Apple has moved the separate 1/4" fin for drawing USB/power on the ADC-equipped AGP video card found in the G5. It is now 1/2" closer to the backplane of the card itself. Looks like engineers had to, in order to accommodate the Intel "Universal AGP3.0 Card" specification onto the motherboard of the G5. The AGP 3.0 slot is nearly double the length of AGP slots found on all G4 Macs that used AGP for video.
So, while Apple advertises compatibility with 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x AGP, it will only function for older-gen AGP cards if those older cards are Windows-compatible (in other words, no Apple USB/power fin), and the manufacturer designs drivers to make the card function on a G5. Not likely. Or you use the original ATI Rage 128 16-meg card found in the first G4 systems, since it also has no Apple USB/power fin."

I think this also means that you cant use the videocard from a G5 in an older G4.

[a2daj]

The 9600 might physically be able to fit in an AGP G4 system if the ADC power plug isn't physically blocked by something but of course that means no ADC power.

According to an ATI employee the Apple Radeon 9600s are setup to only run at 8xAGP. So with the physical differences noted above, and supposed technical limitations of the card, changes are slim for the 9600 working in a G4.