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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Desktops > Will a PC GeForce 2 work in my Mac?

Will a PC GeForce 2 work in my Mac?
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Matthew Attoe
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Oct 8, 2001, 03:02 PM
 
Hi guys,


A friend of mine is getting rid of his GeForce 2 Annihalator Pro (32mb) video card.

I have a G4/350 AGP with an ATI Rage 128 Pro (16mb).

1) Will this card work in my mac and will I need to find some mac drivers?

2) Is it worth swapping to this card? Will I notice much of a performance boost? I play a few games (normally Quake 3 and X-Plane) but also do a lot of 2D graphics work (photoshop, quark etc)

Hope someone can answer these questions for me.

Thanks in advance.


Matthew
Early 2008 Mac Pro (8 x 2.8), original Core Duo 2.0GHz MacBook Pro
     
macvillage.net
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Oct 8, 2001, 04:58 PM
 
My guess would be that the card won't work. Normally there are a few differences with the Mac edition of the card (firmware mostly). But it is possible it works. I really don't know for sure.

I am assuming you would need a driver.

Most likely a speed increase, though I wouldn't expect anything amazing in increase.
     
stepson
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Oct 8, 2001, 05:33 PM
 
My PC GeForce 2 MX 400 (was never offered for the mac) works fine in my cube. I just plugged it in and it works (make sure you are running firmware 4.1.8). That firmware supposedly has the rom for the mac geforce 2 cards... and there are drivers on apples site. I'm running OSX, and it "just works"
     
Spectre666
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Oct 8, 2001, 11:35 PM
 
Originally posted by stepson:
<STRONG>My PC GeForce 2 MX 400 (was never offered for the mac) works fine in my cube. I just plugged it in and it works (make sure you are running firmware 4.1.8). That firmware supposedly has the rom for the mac geforce 2 cards... and there are drivers on apples site. I'm running OSX, and it "just works" </STRONG>
Now that is interesting.

Hehe, do you think the same would work with a pc ATI Radeon 32 mb DDR in my dual 533 G4? I doubt it....

I hate everyone equally.
     
stepson
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Oct 9, 2001, 02:34 PM
 
Spectre666,
If you've got a friend who has one in his pc, maybe you could borrow it and try it. If it doesn't work, no harm done. Or buy from some place that will let you return it if it doesn't work, and the box is open. After all, if it doesn't work, why would you want to keep it?

It might work, might be worth the upgrade if you only have an ati 128 or something now ... Plus, the radeon (although maybe not that specific one) was offered in some powermacs, so it could work.
     
dfbennett
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Oct 9, 2001, 04:57 PM
 
It may work but you may need a PC to flash it. Go over to the Forums at www.xlr8yourmac.com and go into the Non Voodoo Based Video Cards Forum. There's a 5 page thread about doing this.
Regards,
Dave
     
Spectre666
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Oct 12, 2001, 02:31 AM
 
Originally posted by stepson:
<STRONG>Spectre666,
If you've got a friend who has one in his pc, maybe you could borrow it and try it. If it doesn't work, no harm done. Or buy from some place that will let you return it if it doesn't work, and the box is open. After all, if it doesn't work, why would you want to keep it?

It might work, might be worth the upgrade if you only have an ati 128 or something now ... Plus, the radeon (although maybe not that specific one) was offered in some powermacs, so it could work.</STRONG>
Hehe, I think I just might try it. My brother's computer is equipped with the Radeon, but he's going to be getting a new computer soon, so I might have to take it.

I have a geforce 2 right now, but if I could have the extra video card I would love to get a dual monitor setup going.

edit #1: typo

edit #2: Well, I found out at www.xlr8yourmac.com that you can't flash any PC ATI cards to make them work with a Mac. Oh well.

[ 10-12-2001: Message edited by: Spectre666 ]

[ 10-12-2001: Message edited by: Spectre666 ]

I hate everyone equally.
     
naprestsleep
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Oct 12, 2001, 11:27 PM
 
stepson,

Is your pC GeForce 2 MX 400 a pci or agp?
Will one or the other make any difference in compatibiltiy
     
conundrum
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Oct 13, 2001, 12:05 AM
 
Originally posted by naprestsleep:
<STRONG>stepson,

Is your pC GeForce 2 MX 400 a pci or agp?
Will one or the other make any difference in compatibiltiy</STRONG>
Must have been a shorter length AGP, because of the Cube.
What was the brand of the card?
     
iBookUser
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Oct 13, 2001, 01:22 AM
 
Stepson, what was the manufacturer of the card and what was the model #? I've been thinking about buying a card and flashing it, but if I can avoid that step, all the better.

Thanks,
Matt
     
<Hornet>
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Oct 14, 2001, 01:11 AM
 
No it wont work.

Amazed no one else has said this yet, but o well

The only nvidia cards that are supported on the mac are the Geforce 2 MX line (lowest end nvidia) and the geforce 3 line (highest end).

Geforce 2 GTS (aka Pro) and geforce 2 Ultra, will ****NOT**** work. Your friends one sounds like a GTS or Pro model.

Why? It goes beyond the firmware. The cards had to have mac biendian support, which was first implemented in the GF2MX (a partial redesign of the geforce2 line, much slower but dirt cheap), and later the Geforce 3.

So no it wont work..... unless you can verify it definatly is an MX card. He should know obviously
     
stepson
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Oct 15, 2001, 01:10 PM
 
naprestsleep- Its an AGP card. I have a cube, so only one slot, and its AGP . I have no idea if a pci card would work in a tower (it definatly won't work in a cube!), but if you have access to one, I guess it can't hurt to try. I have a feeling it would not work though, since I don't think apple ever offered a geforce2 in pci configuration.

conundrum and iBookUser- Its a visiontek geforce2. I got it here: http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/compu...ing/37ca.shtml
(that picture they have is accurate, by the way). You could probably get it cheaper elsewhere, but I was already ordering something from thinkgeek, so i figured i'd save on shipping.

Hornet- But since its his "friend's" card, its still worth a shot right? After all, i'd let someone test the card if they were my friend and going to buy it from me. No sense selling someone something if it doesn't work, only to hear about it for the next few months if it doesn't.
P.S. did you mean 'big endian'?
     
   
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