Power Mac G4 - Upgrading the Video Card

Рет қаралды 3,817

Күн бұрын

The G4 line of Macintosh computers are surprisingly capable gaming machines. There is always room for improvement however so let's take a look at a substantial boost to this G4 AGP's gaming creds. A simple slot in Radeon 9000 Pro gives us a jump in performance but just how much? Let's break out some benchmarks!
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#macg4 #powermac #powerpc
0:00 Intro
0:59 The Power Mac G4
2:22 The Rage 128 Pro
3:10 The Radeon 9000 Pro
3:48 Installation
4:40 Benchmark 1 - Unreal Tournament
5:53 Benchmark 2 - Quake 2
6:45 Benchmark 3 - Quake 3
7:42 Benchmark 4 - Heretic 2
8:40 Summary
9:32 Outro

Пікірлер: 42

@SUCRA 2 жыл бұрын

This video was professionaly put together, loved every take and every bit of information in there. Also it was a great upgrade, maxed out the CPU and opened up more options for further upgrades if you decide to do so. Nevertheless, it's nice to max out your parts and it's dificult to find the perfect pair at the end since it becomes a cat and mouse race. Thanks for another great video, my friend.

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks much Sucra! Always enjoy your input and appreciate the kind words!

@GameTechRefuge 2 жыл бұрын

Very cool Rik. A very interesting platform. Looking forward to seeing more of it and its cousin the mirror door model in the future.

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching Dermot! It's a neat system and I'm having more fun with it than my pc roots care to admit...

@ted-b 2 жыл бұрын

Nice one Rik, nice machine with a worthwhile upgrade.

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Ted! I think it's a good upgrade without going overboard or overkill of this machine. Clearly already capped out!

@xBruceLee88x 2 жыл бұрын

Well done Rik. See you Thursday

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! May see an appearance of this very machine... who knows?

@Revenant_Knight 2 жыл бұрын

Good stuff Rik. I have one of these on my shelf, and need to do something with it.

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching! And yes it's a fun system to tinker with, lots of potential for some pc-ish gaming of the era haha.

@SolarstrikeVG 2 жыл бұрын

Hey, my own Power Mac G4 has a Radeon 9000 Pro in it too! I can't wait to show it off in my stuff!

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

Oh awesome! Seems like a common enough upgrade then glad I went that route hah.

@user-ir2sy9ut1e 2 жыл бұрын

Congratulations on upgrading

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Turned out quite well!

@PixelPipes 2 жыл бұрын

Benchmarks! Graphs! _like_

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

Haha was hoping I'd gain the approval of the benchmarking master. I learned it from watching you ok!

@drzeissler 2 жыл бұрын

I like it silent so I went for a g4-cube and I love the builtin Rage128pro. Some Software directly supports Rage128pro.

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

It certainly feels like the 128 is a very solid solution for the age, and honestly a fine card for those systems.

@mjmonjure Жыл бұрын

So is the single processor G5 the only computer that supported the ADC connection for power, video and usb on the old studio display (the acrylic one)?

@TylerJaneBronson 2 жыл бұрын

Love the microsoft works graphs lol

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

Haha thanks was wondering how long it'd take before anyone noticed. Made on the P166 Win 95 machine with proper MS Works! Took me longer than I care to admit...

@NoneroneousX5 2 ай бұрын

I have a g4 just like the one shown with the 128 card it's loaded with 9.2 and 10 tiger 10.4.1 and I believe the os needs a complete refresh tbh. I just don't know what to do with it anymore. 😔😔😪 Nice Job with that one though!👍

@AndrercRocha 6 күн бұрын

wasn't the last version of ms-dos 6.22?!

@marshmower 2 жыл бұрын

The only reason to buy Mac back then was music production or video editing software. Our trade schools music education department used fairly exclusively the Mac towers. Again this was for the best selection of software. I remember how janky the user interface was and was reassuring since I sunk $2000 in a Vaio. Always sexy artsy designs for the Macs from maybe 98-2004. It shall be a clear ball because the future is transparent!!! They must have thought that

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

That's the way I recall it as well. They were used by media centric users, at least around where I was, back then. I was all PC at the time so it's a fascinating window into "the other" side for this era since they were actually capable gaming machines. A fun time period to explore!

@piecaruso97 2 жыл бұрын

on my 2001 quick silver g4 i am using a flashed geforce fx 5500 with tiger and i must say the difference in 3D applications is night and day compared to the geforce 2mx that shipped with my mac.

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

Oh awesome! It seems so far at least in my limited tinkering just a small upgrade to the shipped with cards in these things provide quite the boost.

@lifesman1234 10 ай бұрын

the geforce4 mx is fully supported under OS9, not sure what you mean by "it can't accelerate 3D graphics"

@parth338 2 жыл бұрын

Will this work with 733 mhz quicksilver 2001 model? And it’s ATI Radeon 9000 PRO (100713500) 64 MB DDR SDRAM AGP 4x/8x.? I want not a few so it would help if you can help me confirm. I’m refurbishing some old Mac G4 I have. One is 400mhz, one is 733mhz Quicksilver and Two MDD. All will run 9.2 OS. Is there a common video card I can order which will work with all of them?

@bhadraw 2 жыл бұрын

Interesting video. How did you get the driver? I have a PowerMac G4 with the ATI Rage 128 Pro and want to do the same upgrade. I think I can find the ATI Radeon 9000 Pro Mac Edition card from a Hong Kong supplier but cannot find the driver anywhere. Thanks.

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

So I found this site that had a collection of drivers for various cards for Macs. gona.mactar.hu/ATI_Mac/ Hate to say I don't recall which specific one I got for this upgrade but fairly certain it was from that site!

@helldog3105 2 жыл бұрын

Is that the Sawtooth 450? I'm curious. I think that's the machine I have. I originally got it with a Rage 128 Pro, but the card died. I ended up with a GeForce3 or 4 card of some sort in mine which I guess was originally for a PC that someone flashed the Bios. It took quite a bit of work to get it fully functioning in OS 9 and 10. Once it was set up though, it works pretty good I think. Not as fast as that 9000 though.

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

This is actually a sawtooth 400 AGP model. As I understand it this was sort of a cost cut measure of the 450 due to a chip shortage at the time so they shipped the same model with slower clocks and some other changes to meet market demands. It's a fascinating thing with so many cards being flashed over I'm sure spurred but the limited Mac speficic selection but at least it's an option! The benefit snagging a pack in card from a more powerful machine is that it basically was a drop in and done. That said I'd love to tinker with my mirror door model with a card that definitely wasn't made for it...

@FOIL_FRESH 2 жыл бұрын

shoutout to Microsoft Works for being an all round great dude. i forgot that it was an all-in-one word processor! those graphs remind me of my grade 7 school projects haha

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

Yes I sort of realized I wanted to use it for graphs for this benchmark and it was such a blast of nostalgia! It came loaded on my computer around that same age and I spent so much time trying to figure out pointless ways to incorporate graphs in my projects haha!

@RICOSDANGEROUSSTUNTS 2 жыл бұрын

What was the 3rd game you played called? Heredik 2 or something??? Looks fun I’d love to try that on my MDD.

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

Heretic 2! It's a fun 3d action game based on the Quake II engine. A bit of a departure from the typical FPS but it's a fun game to play!

@KamiKitsuneVA 2 жыл бұрын

Some PC graphics cards from the early and mid 2000s can actually be flashed to work with the Powermacs

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

Yes that's right! I found some guides and articles going through some of those steps. Often it's a much better option than buying, the more limited, MAC cards. Speaking from supply and demand... and retro tax!

@drzeissler 2 жыл бұрын

Beside GeoMame (direct support for Rage) and Snesx (Support via RAVE) and VGS (direct support for Rage) should be checked!

@HamishPaulWilson 2 жыл бұрын

So this is pretty much exactly what would happen if I put my DiabloTek Radeon 9200 card into my own retro PC currently using a Gigabyte Rage 128 Pro Ultra. Only real difference is the Mac G4 here has a 400 MHz PowerPC rather than my 500 MHz Pentium III. Good to know!

@RiksRandomRetro 2 жыл бұрын

Yep I think that would be about the same as far as the boost you'd get. The Rage 128 pro is a fine card for the time but is outclassed pretty quickly once you go to something newer!