Old Radeon 32mb graphics card from G4 --> New G5. PCI issues?

April 16, 2006 9:58 AM

Old Radeon 32mb graphics card from G4 --> New G5. PCI issues?

I'd love to get S-Video out of my G5, and have this old Radeon card sitting in my unused G4. Is it safe/advisable/possible to put her in the G5? Apple told me the PCI architecture is incompatible with older PCI cards, but I'm seeing "backwards-compatible" online. What gives, I say?

(I'm already using two monitors all the time, so Apple's DVI-S-Video adaptor would be a pain. I'm looking for more than two video outputs.)

Thank you wonderful mefites.

posted by icetaco to computers & internet (6 comments total)

some G5s only have PCI-X slots, which are definitely not compatible. older G5s have regular PCI slots. they might be 64-bit slots but i think these are compatible with 32-bit cards.
posted by joeblough at 10:03 AM on April 16, 2006

It depends on how new your G5 is. If it's one of the newer Dual-core G5s made from 2005 on with PCI Express, your old card will not even fit. If it is an older G5 with PCI or PCI-X, it may work.
posted by zsazsa at 10:03 AM on April 16, 2006

joeblough, the high speed PCI-X slots will slow down if a 33MHz PCI card is put into them.

PCI-X, which is a faster/wider backwards-compatible version of PCI, is not to be confused with PCI Express, which is a completely new serial based standard.
posted by zsazsa at 10:07 AM on April 16, 2006

Wow. I have a dual 2.7 from last year, so I won't even bother with the old Radeon then. Has anyone got a recommendation for a new PCI card for a third monitor/S-vid out on a G5?
posted by icetaco at 10:35 AM on April 16, 2006

zsazsa... okay, i believe it. except that i remember people complaining that there were no SCSI cards for PCI-X and for whatever reasons the PCI SCSI cards would not work. i assumed this meant that there must be a physical reason, like the connector being different, that PCI cards couldnt be plugged into PCI-X slots.

I dont know what genius decided that PCI express should be called that, since it does breed confusion with PCI-X.
posted by joeblough at 3:03 PM on April 16, 2006

Really, You'd think they'd have calles it Serial Express, you know SEX, Oh never mind...
posted by Gungho at 4:06 PM on April 16, 2006