[G4] Will a newer graphics card work in an old G4?

[Phil A. Lefebvre]

On 01/21/03 at 6:05 AM -0800, martin wrote:
>hmm. I bought my G4-400 in Sep 2000 ( I still think of it as 
>"new"!), with the first Radeon cards (which turned out to be a 
>"brown bag" Radeon card that I could get NO information on from 
>either Apple or ATI despite repeated emails and calls).
>
>This card is 32MB with an ADC and VGA port on the panel, and 
>occupies my single AGP slot (the other 3 slots are PCI). I have 2 
>questions: is the ADC port functional or merely decorative?

Are you sure it is ADC? DVI-I and ADC look a lot alike.

>And, could I use any old video card (even one from the Other Side) 
>in a PCI slot to drive my old 14-inch monitor for menus? If it's one 
>of those deals where it comes down to finding a brand that happens 
>to provide Apple drivers for DL etc,

In that regard no, you can't buy any "PC-only" PCI graphics card and 
plug it in. There are several cards that can be flashed, or drivers 
that can be hacked to work, but nothing off the shelf.

>Anyone else with this ancient model who could give me the Bottom Line? TX

There are tons of PCI graphics cards available for Macs that will 
work, either cheap used ones from eBay, or various new ones at 
various prices. The best deal is the Radeon 7000, which can be found 
for around $100-$120.
-- 
__________________________
Phil Lefebvre
Chicago, IL