Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

turk.o · Oct 20, 2005, 02:27 AM

hey y'all, I don't know much about the PCI-e standard, except that everyone agrees is a great improvement, so i can go along with that. my question is, would a radeon 7000 pci card that i use to power my third monitor (palettes and itunes mostly) in my current PM dual 2.0 work in a PCI_e slot in my new PM Quad? I hope so, cause it doesn't seem like there are any mac compatible PCI-e cards available from anyone besides OEM from apple. anyone know about thi sstuff? and suggestions?

Lateralus · Oct 20, 2005, 02:35 AM

Nope, PCIe is not backwards compatible with PCI or PCI-X.

We're gonna have to wait for ATI to release PCIe cards to the retail market, so it's gonna be a while.

turk.o · Oct 20, 2005, 02:43 AM

Originally Posted by Lateralus

Nope, PCIe is not backwards compatible with PCI or PCI-X.

We're gonna have to wait for ATI to release PCIe cards to the retail market, so it's gonna be a while.

brutal! its gonna kill me going back to just two monitors.thanks for the quick reply!

t.o

hmurchison2001 · Oct 20, 2005, 02:44 AM

3 monitors...you lucky bastich

turk.o · Oct 20, 2005, 03:02 AM

Originally Posted by Lateralus

Nope, PCIe is not backwards compatible with PCI or PCI-X.

We're gonna have to wait for ATI to release PCIe cards to the retail market, so it's gonna be a while.

dang, i just realized that since they'll be new cards they will probably be high-end and expensive too, total overkill for a monitor with no need for performance. what a bummer. but then, maybe when they come out with a top notch ATI retail PCI-e card, all the suckers who bough the standard nvidia 6600 LE with a new powermac will be unloading those to be replaced by new ATI goodness. bah, but it seems like a while before that happens.

sigh.

(as far as being a lucky bastich, yes indeed, although until two days ago i was just a mildly lucky bastich with two 19" trinitron crts and a total crap sony 15" flatscreen, but now i am indeed lucky: 2 x dell 2005fpw 20" widescreen lcd (and still that crap sony). once you go dual monitors, you can't go back, i'm about to find out if its possible to go back from 3 to 2, i'll let you know.

turk.o · Oct 21, 2005, 12:18 AM

an update for anyone following this thread. it turns out the apple already has listed a PCIe nvidia 6600 256mb video card available separately for $200 with an availability of 2-3 weeks. (go to apple store and search for 6600).

so, my new question is: if i buy a new PM with the stock 6600 card will i able be able to put that card in another PCIe slot and replace it with an as-of-yet-unnanounced new video card (7800 gt, for example)? will the 6600 oem card run in the second slot, with fewer lanes? since apple is not letting me order the 7800 as a bto option now, i am tempted to order with the 6600 and then replace it when a better option is actually available. and get my two video cards for three monitors that way. thoughts?

Bwa · Oct 21, 2005, 01:51 AM

Does anyone know if the 6600 will work in all 4 slots? I have 8 monitors on my G4 (yes 8) and need to continue having 8.

Current thought is to buy the Quad G5 and three additional 6600 video cards.

mduell · Oct 21, 2005, 02:36 AM

Originally Posted by Bwa

Does anyone know if the 6600 will work in all 4 slots? I have 8 monitors on my G4 (yes 8) and need to continue having 8.

Current thought is to buy the Quad G5 and three additional 6600 video cards.

SJobs made a point of saying you could throw 4 video cards in, and the 6600 is the slowest video card available, so I'd say yes 4 6600s will be fine.
The performance in the 4x PCIe slots may be slightly degraded, but I doubt you'll notice unless you play games.