Upgrading a PowerMac G3

So I got a B&W G3 from my friend's workplace. It has an aftermarket G4 in it and a gb of ram. It's also running OSX on it. It seems to run pretty fast but certain things are slow. Particularly, internet browsing is slow (feels like bad drivers but the dock is smooth and everything else is smooth) and also flash videos and videos off youtube. Regular .mpg files off the hard drive is fine.

My question now... it has the stock ATI Rage 128 16mb video card. If I upgrade the video card to the ATI Radeon 7000 32mb Mac Edition PCI card, will it have a significant boost on performance? Or is something else bottlenecking it? I'll check it later tonight to see what program I'm using that is optimizing it. (Still getting use to the interface cause it's my first Mac!)

What if I put in the 9200 128MB Mac PCI card in there? Is it worth ditching out the extra $20+?

Thanks guys!

Going with the 128mb card, you'll definitely see a huge jump in browsing speed.

The graphics card is taxed when you scroll down on a page, because it's having to draw images as they load. I'd shell out the extra $20 and get the 128.

Thanks for the quick reply!

Well looks like I got my prices mixed up...

The ATI Radeon 7000 32mb is roughly $30

ATI Radeon 7000 64mb is roughly around $50

ATI Radeon 9200 128MB is roughly around $100

I'm just looking for enough increase in performance to smooth things out. Since the 9200 is a bit out of my price range, would the 64mb be a good choice?

Thanks!

I would say go with what you can afford. The Radeon 7000 with 64Meg VRam will be a lot better than what is in your B&W right now. It should help scrolling web pages and a bit with the videos.

The Radeon 9200 should support Core Video. AFAIK the Radeon 7000 will not. That said the PCI Radeon 9200 is probably your best bet. Also make sure to get Mac versions; if you get a PC video card and put it in a Mac it simply won't work.

The reason I went along with the Radeon 7000 is he said he could Not afford the 9200.

If you're too strapped on money I would certainly recommend purchasing a PC Radeon 9200 PCI and flashing it into Mac with a modded BIOS. More details can be found at http://strangedogs.proboards40.com/index.cgi?board=experiments&action=display&thread=1111556315

Also, check eBay, here's a Mac Edition Radeon 9200 PCI selling for cheap http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-ATI-RADEON-...ryZ25449QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks for the replies guys!

I thought about modding the firmware on PC radeon cards but with some things I like to know that it will work OTB. Makes troubleshooting alot easier.

I've been keeping an eye on eBay and every time that card has like 30ms to go, it skyrockets in price. After S&H is added on, its usually out of the question. I'm crossing my fingers though!

Have you guys had any experience flashing a video card BIOS? I've flashed the BIOS on my PC motherboard before... (btw, I'm not a member of that site so I can't view it. I'm sure if I can find a process if I Google it though).

Thanks for the knowledge guys!

Well, I've had bad experience personally but it was because the people on eBay sent me sorry excuses for Radeon 9800s. Both times the fan on the cooler didn't work and the first one I received actually had the heatsink broken off along with a few capacitors and other miscellaneous parts. And to think FedEx refused my claim!?!

Anyways, it's pretty easy if you just follow the directions. Make sure you get the correct modded firmware for your card. Also, some of the flashing software they reference has been replaced by newer versions, but it's all pretty similar. I don't believe you have to tape the pins on PCI cards; taping pins 3 and 11 is required for AGP towers. As with all BIOS flashes, when it works, it's easy but when it doesn't work, it's not.