First my thoughts. I have a 333MHz iMac running 10.2. Some time after I upgraded from OS 9 I tried to run Star Trek Voyager: Elite Forces. It used to run s little slow in OS 9 but atleast it would run. Now it won't run at all. Evidently OS X requires a minimum of 8Mb SGRAM (video memory) for Open GL and I only have 6Mb (2 on the motherboard and 4 in the expansion slot). I thought I would get creative and I found a 8Mb SGRAM chip of the same speed on ebay. I put it in and it works...sort of. It still only reads 6Mb of video memory.
I know I need a new computer, I just want to stretch this one out a little further. I know Quartz Extreme needs 16Mb video memory. I am not trying to run Unreal Tournament, but when my mac can't even run a "Dora the Explorer" game for my daughter I am in trouble.
Now my question. Is the restriction of the readable amount of video ram a software or hardware issue? If that can be answered does anyone have any suggestions on a resolution? A patch or rearranging some resistors perhaps? As most of the problems I am unable to solve do not easily fit into one category I am posting the same in both the Hardware Hacks and in Software Hacks. Sorry for the inconvenience/breach in protocol. :?
Any thoughts and/or suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
The maximum VRAM the iMac will accept is 6MB. I believe it to be the particular version of the Rage Pro Turbo that it uses. But I have no way to verify that.
You cannot have more than 6mb of ram.
The only way to upgrade the video, is to get an earlier iMac with the slot, (I can't spell mezeewhatever) and get the voodoo card.
Rev/A-B have the mezzanine slot. I have a 8MB V2 in my old iMac. Leaps and bounds faster then the original onboard video. But it is OS9 only, wont work in OSX. But it let me play quake3 at 35fps or so instead of playing at 5-15.
There is a Japanese guy which soldered 2 extra MB to the motherboard. Not for the faint of heart and why potentially ruin a good computer.
Note: "8 MB SGRAM for OpenGL" is oversimplified "AppleSpeak" for "ATI Rage 128-based or better video card". (Always check the fine print, as when it comes to Apple there's always an exception to the rule.)
Apple sold *one* Mach64-based system with 8MB of video RAM, the Lombard Powerbook. And it does *not* support 3D acceleration. The obvious conclusion is that the limitation is a lack of drivers for that chipset, not the sheer quantity of VRAM. So... evidence would suggest that upping your VRAM to 8MB, even if you could get the chipset to recognize it, isn't going to do you any good.
--Peace
I appreciate everyones thoughts and insight. I guess I'll just have to deal with a mostly obsolete iMac.
Do not lose your hope. I got the same iMac and I am working on it. Course Mac OS X was not designed to work whit so old Mac, but you can have OS 9 too and boot by it to have fan - and still works good with "medium" games, opengl adapted games and much more.
BUT, maybe there is more: there is video memory SGRAM SO DIMM like the 4 little megas that came whit iMac. I found 8Mb of compaq and HP. Maybe the videocard recognized it and probably Panther will use it. There is no reason to beleave Panther takes no advantage of acceleration - and with much more memory I hope will be really different, instead put 2 little megas somehow...