Looking at the current list of supported hardware on the Official MorphOS website, I see that the Radeon 9600 XT and 9600 Pro are both supported with 2D drivers, but no 3D support yet. I am wondering if the support for those two 96xx cards would also allow my 256mb VRAM Radeon 9650 video card to work with MorphOS in 2D mode? It is currently installed in my dual 2.7GHz G5, but if I cover the appropriate pins, I can make it work in my G4 PowerMac MDD.

I am working on getting a converted FireGL X3 to replace this 9650 card in my dual 2.7GHz G5 PowerMac. Once I have the FireGL X3 converted & returned to me, it will run MacOSX faster so I can modify the 9650 pins and use it in my G4 PowerMac MDD running MorphOS2.7.

For now those 256Mb will ( or will not ) be supported for the same reasons as with the Radeon 9xxx . The more technical explanation is here in the forum somewhere ... but I leave the linking to Andreas, he much better in that.

> I am wondering if the support for those two 96xx cards would also
> allow my 256mb VRAM Radeon 9650 video card to work with MorphOS
> in 2D mode?

Most likely. The Radeon 9650 has the RV351 GPU, which is the same as the Radeon 9600 Pro's RV350 GPU, just built on a smaller process node. So from a driver's perspective it shouldn't make a difference, unless the driver contains a GPU whitelist that doesn't include the RV351.

> For now those 256Mb will ( or will not ) be supported for the same
> reasons as with the Radeon 9xxx .

From what I have understood so far, the technical reasons for current MorphOS version supporting only half the VRAM of a 256 MiB card are completely different between the 92x0 cards and the 9600/9800 cards. And as it appears to me at least, the chances for the next MorphOS release to support the full 256 MiB VRAM are much better for the 9600/9800 cards than for the 92x0 cards.

Thanks for those thoughts Andreas_Wolf.

As someone who owns one or more G4/G5 Mac computers and runs MacOSX, you might be interested in obtaining the faster FireGL X3 video card that Jim and I are working on getting converted for use in Mac computers.

I bought mine for only $29.95 on eBay and was lucky to get what appears to be a re-badged original ATI Radeon FireGL X3 card, instead of the cheaper HP OEM cards that usually won't convert for use in the Mac with all 16 pipelines working, and sometimes meltdown to junk after conversion, during "Burn-In" testing.

If you want a fast video card for any of your own G4, or G5 PowerMac's running MacOSX, I would suggest you contact Jim.

Or maybe you only own a G4 MacMini that you run MorphOS on and your other Mac running MacOSX is only a G3? I doubt that the FireGLX3 will work in a G3 PowerMac.

> As someone who owns one or more G4/G5 Mac computers and runs MacOSX,
> you might be interested in obtaining the faster FireGL X3 video card [...].
> If you want a fast video card for any of your own G4, or G5 PowerMac's running
> MacOSX, I would suggest you contact Jim.

Only Mac mini here, so GPU not upgradable unfortunately.

> Or maybe you only own a G4 MacMini that you run MorphOS on and your other
> Mac running MacOSX is only a G3?

I run both MorphOS and MacOSX on the Mac mini.

> If you want a fast video card for any of your own G4, or G5 PowerMac's running
> MacOSX, I would suggest you contact Jim.

Actually, I'd be wiling to point you to one or help you convert one.
I don't want to get in the video card vending trade.

Just a tought, could be possible to get support on the magma chassis that allow a mac via firewire to use a pci/pciex card?. Unfortunately these chassis aren't cheap, but could be interesting.

[ Edited by _ThEcRoW 08.03.2012 - 21:59 ]

At that point, why not just use a PCIe G5 Mac?

> At that point, why not just use a PCIe G5 Mac?

I guess because, at that point, it can't run MorphOS ;-)

>I guess because, at that point, it can't run MorphOS

It could if they wanted it to.
But my guess is that the first move would be AGP G5s.

>> I guess because, at that point, it can't run MorphOS ;-)

> It could if they wanted it to.

True, but I'm afraid that doesn't help _ThEcRoW with his wish to use PCIe cards with currently supported Macs :-)

Jim,
Quote:

Actually, I meant to contact you for advice and suggestions on which card and where they might find them. Not that they should try to buy them from you. I guess I could have clarified that better.

8-) . Really, the magma chassis could be interesting, but they are too way pricey. Maybe finding a bargain on ebay...

From what I've seen on their website, these chassis' require either an ExpressCard/34 or a PCIe host card (sitting in a PCIe slot to drive the system).
So, since we don't have these interfaces, I don't see how this would work.

Also, we currently have no drivers for PCIe video cards.
If an R400 driver existed, those could potentially be used. But there is no Mac compatible bios for R400 PCIe cards (R400s built for Apple use were only made in AGP variants).
And, since R400s will run in a G4, this would be the next development on my wishlist.
Then G5 AGP support (as we could move many of our video cards directly to that system).
And after that, maybe G5 PCIe support.

There are chassis that use firewire connections, it's only the new ones that are ditching that connector in favor of expresscard. But if i'm not mistaken, an expresscard to firewire adapter could be used in machines without expresscard. I found a store that happens to have those type of adapters. I know it's unlikely to get it working in the future, but it's interesting nonetheless.

@§ _ThEcRoW

Yep, its an interesting idea, since it could be done.

But we still don't have drivers for PCIe video cards and I wonder how much bandwidth you'd have with a PCIe slot run by a firewire connection.

Considering the cost and these limitations, its not that practical.
But its interesting speculation.

> I wonder how much bandwidth you'd have with a PCIe slot run by a
> firewire connection.

Even with FW800, it wouldn't reach half of PCIe 1.x x1 speed, that's for sure.

Andreas_Wolf,
Quote:


Ouch! That make retaining AGP the sensible choice.