[waffffffle]

I have a 6400 (200Mhz/80MB/20GB) that I've been trying to revive. It's very slow at drawing windows on the screen when switching between applications. I assume this is because the computer has no video acceleration. I have been looking around for a video card for the thing, but I really don't know what to look for. I don't play games on the thing, I just want it to be responsive and "snappy." So I guess I only need a 2D card

Anyway, I know absolutely nothing about video cards, but I want to speed this baby up. How cheap can I get one? I've read that ATI has good 2D acceleration, so can I pick up an ATI PCI card off some of those "unsupported" machines and pop it into my Performa? Will it work? Are there other cheap cards out there? Is there a way that I can speed up screen redrawing via software? The VRAM is really low on this thing. I can only do 256 colors in 800x600 and up, but are there extensions that I can load or unload to speed things up?

Also, can my performa use a video card that's meant for a PC? Can I get drivers for the card? I see plenty on ebay real cheap.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[ 12-26-2001: Message edited by: waffffffle ]

[TackDriver]

Waffffle,

Try Other World Computing

They have $40 XMicro ix3D UltimateRez 8MB PCI for Macs. They are bulk, without a box. but come with the extensions on a floppy. It will give your 6400 plenty of snappiness, and will do it for cheap. I have an older 4MB ATI PCI card in my 6400, and it is 300% better than the on-board 1MB video memory. My old 1998 ATI PCI card does millions of colors at up to 1024x768, so an 8MB ix3D should be even better.

See link: XMicro ix3D UltimateRez 8MB PCI http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Pa...ards&Template=

Brian

[SmileyDude]

You tease -- from the link you posted:

Note: Full size PCI card(12"). Will NOT fit in the Performa 54/6400, the Power Macintosh 55/6500, or the 20th Anniversary Mac. Please use the MyOWC guide to make certain that your machine supports 12" PCI cards

And I was hoping to have a nice little Linux X-Windows box to kick around...

[Big Mac]

I was in a very similar dilemma. My 8600 is pretty snappy at most things, but it really falls down playing QT 5 encoded movies - I get, at the most, 7FPS. So I went the route the previous poster suggested, purchasing the IX Micro card. I haven't gotten the chance to install it yet, but the card itself got a great rating back in '98 from Mac Addict; it offered better 2D performance than the 16 MB Rage Orion. I was going to suggest that card to the original poster, but then I saw the reply that the card won't fit into the smaller PCI slot.

It's really unfortunate that the Mac graphics card market has really taken a down turn. We only have ATi and Nivida in the picture, while we previously had several companies to choose from. And between Ati and Nvidia, the companies offer more or less three cards, all at high end prices. There's nothing for the low end right now, and many would argue that even our high end options are low end compared to PC choices. So, at the low end, we have to look toward defunct solutions. And it's even worse when you have non standard PCI slots. I don't know of any accelerator solutions for the 6500. That's too bad, since it's one of the nicest Performas. I'll post here again if I can find anything compatible.

[waffffffle]

Thanks. Can anyone list me the names of some cards that would work in my performa? That way I can go on ebay and look for some cards.

Also, I just looked on apple's spec page for my machine and they claim that I can do 16-bit color in 800x600. That's a lie! I can only do 8-bit. It also says that the latest system software that's supported on teh machine is 8.0, which is kind of funny since I've had 9 on the thing for years.

Also, if anyone knows where I can get a 6500/300 logic board cheap I'll take one. The 40Mhz bus is killing me!

[firefly]

What about something like a 3dfx Voodoo 3? They can be found pretty cheap on eBay I'm sure.