Older G4 powermacs and PCI/AGP

[Arleban]

Is there a way to determine whether or not a G4 is PCI or AGP graphics based on processor speed or anything? I checked memory upgrades on OWC and a 450mhz G4 was only listed for AGP/Sawtooth models, but I guess I wanted to be sure.

I am looking a two different macs and one is a 450mhz, but the card with it says it is a Xclaim VR Rage 128 Pro PCI DVI MAC... The other is a 466mhz Gigabit Ethernet Mac, and I'm pretty sure those are AGP.

EDIT: Let me know your opinion on which one to get. G4 450mhz, 256MB Ram, 20 GB HD, DVD-Rom, Zip-100, Xclaim card, 10/100 ethernet. the other is a G4/466mhz, 384 MB Ram, 30GB HD, CD-RW, Zip-100, Standard 16MB vid card, gigabit ethernet.

The first is $300 and the second is $350. I already have an external firewire CD-RW and Gigabit or not, my home network is 10/100, so those don't matter. Is the extra Ram, HD space and 16mhz processor speed worth the $50? Also, if one is PCI and the other AGP, I figure the AGP one. I'm buying low now, so I can get upgrade later. No $$$ for a huge one now.

[Avalon]

The G4 PCI (Yikes!) was only available with 350-400MHz, so both models are definitely AGP models.
The 450MHz seems to be a Sawtooth, while the 466MHz is a Digital Audio, it was the only one ever having a 466MHz G4.

I would suggest the 466MHz G4 for following reasons:
- With Mac OS X, more memory also means more speed.
- The 466MHz has not only a 16MHz faster CPU, but also a 33MHz faster system bus (133MHz opposed to 100MHz) which makes overall system performance faster than the 450MHz.

It's worth the 50,-$ difference... :headphone

[Arleban]

Thank you for the reply. I eventually got off my duff (figuratively, I mean. I still sat there and surfed the web ) and found apple-history.com. Once there I saw what was listed for each of the G4 models and found out what you said. I figure it was worth it as well. Now if I can just get it soon!

I sold my G3 to a friend who was dying to work with a Mac and even though I've barely used it, I'm jonesing for my Mac fix. :doctor: Are there still decent AGP cards being sold that will run on the AGP slot of this PC? It is the Digital Audio and apple-history says it is a 4x AGP. Will PC 4x AGP cards work as long as there are Mac drivers? Or does Mac even use drivers?

[Avalon]

Another good source for information about Macs is www.lowendmac.com Forgot to mention that in my last post :closed:

Unfortunately, it is not possible to simply take a PC AGP card and put it in your Mac. The card has to be a Mac version, which unfortunately is often a lot more expensive...
It's not only the drivers, but also the BIOS of the Video card is different. It is possible though to flash a PC Video card with a Mac BIOS, but that only works for a few cards, isn't too easy to do and voids the warranty of your card. Google around a bit about flashing PC cards to Mac, and you'll find answers.

Or you could try to find a Mac card on eBay. Every AGP 4x card for Mac should work, except those of the G5, as it has AGP 8x, which uses a lower voltage.