OS X PCI Graphics cards

actually... a hardware converter will work just as well, from a cards VGA out to composite video... I know the Apple mini-vga to composite video converters go for peanuts; I could use the same thing but with the normal sized vga connector ... thanks

try a radeon 7000!

There was a pci card that came with some B&W G3 towers built for education settings that came with a video card that had composite out, tv in (like S video but different connector, never figured that one out) and an apple display connector (the old one with 2 rows of pins) I have one as a second card in one of my machines as I believe it only has about 1-2 megs of video memory. Could probably find one pretty cheap now. I believe it was ATI branded.

You're talking about the ATI Xclaim VR with the Rage Pro chip. Don't know why they used that one in the B&W since the 16mb Vram version with the Rage 128 chip--a much better card--was already on the market, I believe. Probably ATI sold the Rage Pros to Apple for really cheap as a way to dump their stock. But the AV capabilities of both cards are limited to OS 9 and I've never heard of anyone doing a hack for X.

Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 PC card flashed wih Mac firmware would do it for you.... I've got one running in my Sawtooth.

Or a mac version... but, I dont think I should have to pay like $150.00 for a $45.00 graphics card.

I think the original PCI Radeon Mac Edition (IIRC R7500-based, 32MB) is about the cheapest way to get vid-out from a PCI adapter under OS X. I haven't checked lately, but I expect you could pick one up for $25 or less nowadays.

*edit
handy eBay search
*/edit

As for flashed PC cards, very few (if any) have usable vid-out ports.

dan k

They also made a 16MB version of the ATI Xclaim card. I had one in a B&W a couple years ago. It did not have the add-on RAM slot like the cheapo 4MB version but had the all the same ports. It was as good if not a little better than the common OEM B&W ATI card.

well, the best one I know of, that was recently discontinued, was the ATI Radeon 9200. very nice. 128mb VRAM, very speedy, and it works under OS 9!! If you can find one for cheap, get it. Otherwise, the 7000 is a very nice card. Personally, I use the stock Rage 128 in my B&W under tiger. works fine, sans core image and quartz extreme support. *sigh*

-digital

If you were close enough to me so I could actually honor this statement, and were able to provide me one of a handful of NVidia PC cards - I would be more than willing to flash one for you and fully guarantee the video out to work.

That being said, if the PC card option is a road you'd like to choose, google "Strange Dog" the strange dog forums have TONS of info on this. (id post links, but i feel exceptionally lazy tonight, and I need to go to bed.)

I think we have a winner.
Now... this, a B&W with OS X & a few HDs, a universal iPod dock, an apple remote... maybe EyeTV software or the PPC FrontRow hack along with the FrontRow->AppleTV icons hack (uh... and an airport)
and I've got a SD AppleTV (all video DV quality or less)
Probably no sense starting from scratch to build... but if you've got most of the stuff already.... alls I needs is the iPod dock (tired of using my laptop as a remote) and that Radeon Mac card and I think I'm good to go. dankephoto, you reign supreme.

I think the AV out was actually working in os X but I'm not sure. I have a box of about 10 of them so I'll check it out in a few days. ( was using the AV out to a tv for a while, but maybe I was still on os 9 then?)

Ahh, well I haven't been over to the strangedogs forums in awhile so I don't know the current dealio. We are talking here about PCI cards though, so I'd be quite interested to know if there are PCI NVidia PC models that can be flashed to Mac and are able to use all ports properly. Eh?

Heh, looking up the strangedogs forums, I see they abandoned their strangedogs.com domain . . .

dan k