Graphics transplant for grey-haired Powermac?

February 14, 2006 3:13 PM

I need a cheap graphics card for my old Powermac G4 that will drive a high-res LCD.

What is the cheapest older AGP graphics card I can use that will pump out a DVI signal at 1920x1200 (widescreen), millions of colors? The circa-2000 ATI Rage Pro that's installed won't come close (it only supports up to 1280 pixels, which looks unbearably bad since it's not a native res on my new screen).

I'm looking for an older card I can pick up on eBay or similar.

One final note: I THINK my G4 has AGP graphics, but I'm aware that Apple swapped PCI for AGP at some point during the G4 tower production run. What identifying physical characteristic on the card or slot will allow me to be certain that mine is AGP?

posted by killdevil to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

I've got at least one AGP Mac Radeon (maybe an 8500, maybe a 9600, maybe one of each); I believe both of those cards will work at the required resolution. Drop me an e-mail to remind me (it's in the profile) and I'll dig through my drawer to see what's in there. I could be convinced to part with one cheaply, I'm pretty sure.
posted by kindall at 3:41 PM on February 14, 2006

Oh, and to make sure it's AGP, launch Apple System Profiler and see what it says.
posted by kindall at 3:42 PM on February 14, 2006

See here.
If you're using the Samsung 240T. You could be using Apple's Cinema Display, I suppose, but most of the advice seems to carry over.
posted by disillusioned at 5:02 PM on February 14, 2006

Or, if you have the box open, a AGP slot looks like the one at the top in this picture. The others in the picture are PCI slots.
posted by musicinmybrain at 7:51 PM on February 14, 2006

Looks like the one I have won't work, sadly. :(
posted by kindall at 1:36 PM on February 15, 2006