Video Card For Mac G3

Jan 10, 2007 - I am looking to get a PCI Graphics card for the Powermac G3 Blue, I need it to. Some stuff, mostly Front Row because I get the video tearing.

What graphics capabilities are provided by the Power Mac G3? Which have DB-15 and which have VGA ports? What is the maximum supported resolution on a primary and secondary display? As shipped, all Platinum/Beige models are equipped with ATI 3D Rage II+, Rage Pro, or Rage Pro Tubo onboard video and a DB-15 video port and all 'Blue & White' Power Mac G3 models are equipped with an ATI Rage 128 GL video card with 16 MB of VRAM and a VGA video port. However, as all Power Mac G3 models have PCI slots, it is possible to support a secondary display by adding a second video card and some Platinum/Beige Power Mac G3 models shipped with a second video card by default.

Additionally, the Platinum/Beige models have a single expansion slot that supports an additional 4 MB of VRAM (3.3V 83 MHz 144-pin SO-DIMM).

When we last evaluated G3 upgrade cards (see 'Born-Again Macs,' February 1999), 400MHz G3 accelerators for pre-G3 Power Macs were just coming to market and were so prohibitively expensive that we could not recommend one. Prices have since come down, and with a couple of new manufacturers joining such familiar faces as Newer Technology and Sonnet Technologies, time was ripe for a second look.

We tested seven 400MHz G3 accelerators that plug into the processor slot of the Power Mac 7500, 9500, and 9600: Mactell's PowerJolt 400/200, met@box's JoeCard 400/200, Newer Technology's Maxpowr G3 400/200, Phase 5's Maccelerate 750, PowerLogix's PowerForce G3 400/200, Sonnet Technologies' Crescendo G3 400/200, and the XLR8 Mach G3 400/200. Most of the cards also work with some Macintosh clones from Power Computing and Umax Technologies. All of the cards boosted the performance of our test platform, a Power Mac 9500, approaching the speed of our 400MHz reference system. However, although prices have fallen dramatically, these cards still aren't inexpensive, and you may find that it's best to save your money for a true G3 Power Mac. Most of the cards installed easily, although you may have trouble if you want to accelerate a Mac clone housed in a low-profile box.

The Newer Technology and XLR8 cards have removable brackets so they can fit in the smaller enclosures, but the other cards are too large. Mactell's PowerJolt was a tight fit in our test system, and it requires a separate power connector for a cooling fan that's mounted to its heat sink. Most of the cards feature switches to change the CPU speed or other settings. The PowerForce G3, PowerJolt, Maccelerate 750, and JoeCard all feature rotary switches, but in the latter two, the controls are inaccessible when the cards are installed. Excel qm for mac free download.

Visit the forums at:,,. Ask for help in the Exchange forums. How to use cac certificates in outlook for mac.

The Mach G3 has 12 DIP switches that you can set from the top. The Maxpowr G3 has four DIP switches to set which Mac model you're using. The Crescendo G3 was the only card that dispenses with switches altogether, largely because it doesn't let you change CPU or cache settings. To gauge performance, we ran CPU benchmark tests using the MacBench 5.0 Processor test (see 'Speed, but at a Price') and also timed typical operations in Adobe Photoshop 5.02.