Older G4 powermacs and PCI/AGP

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.

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

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?

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.