Radeon 7500 Retail Card and ATi Mac drivers

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I am thinking about upgrading to the Radeon 7500 card in order to take advantage of QE when 10.2 is released - and I have a bunch of games I want to get in the meantime.



I can get the "PC" version of the 7500 for under $130, but I don't want to buy it unless the drivers I can download from ATi will work with it (or unless I can get them from Apple's web site somehow.



I figure it makes no sense to get the older Radeon Mac Edition for MORE money, but I'm hoping someone can comment as to whether they've seen this done with any success / whether it can be done in general. Meantime I'll check out XLR8 for similar stories (non-OEM stories I mean)....

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    tigerwoods99tigerwoods99 Posts: 2,633member
    You can get the Radeon 8500 (64 MB) for $112 shipping included.
  • Reply 2 of 15
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    You kiddin me?? Where from - Ebay? I assume you're talking about the Mac version? I haven't seen it anywhere for under $260. Thanks in advance for letting me know...that's a big deal to say the least!



    [sidenote] according XLR8, you cannot buy a retail Radeon card (of any type) for PC and use it on your Mac because there is no way to flash the ROM....



    [ 05-13-2002: Message edited by: Moogs ]</p>
  • Reply 3 of 15
    bungholebunghole Posts: 47member
    Yeah, how about posting the site to get it at Tiger, jeez.
  • Reply 4 of 15
    noahjnoahj Posts: 4,503member
    [quote]Originally posted by TigerWoods99:

    <strong>You can get the Radeon 8500 (64 MB) for $112 shipping included.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Where where where where WHERRRRREEEEEE!!!!!
  • Reply 5 of 15
    leonisleonis Posts: 3,427member
    He means to get the PC version of the original Radeon 8500 and apply the Mac ROM 1.36 onto it



    If you have the 2002 Slow Silver (tm) tower you may consider taking advantage of the trade up program offered by ATI. Return the card to ATI and you will get $150 US credit back. But this offer expires the end of this month



    [ 05-14-2002: Message edited by: Leonis ]</p>
  • Reply 6 of 15
    nebagakidnebagakid Posts: 2,692member
    I plan on getting a new Card for my 2X AGP slot, with VGA and DVI, and connect an ADC to it, as well as my current VGA

    paradise almose
  • Reply 8 of 15
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    [quote]Originally posted by Moogs:

    <strong>I figure it makes no sense to get the older Radeon Mac Edition for MORE money, but I'm hoping someone can comment as to whether they've seen this done with any success / whether it can be done in general.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    actually teh dual head 7500 is less powerfull than the original Radeon.
  • Reply 9 of 15
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    That seems to be a link to an OEM Radeon 8500LE. Considering the trouble users have had flashing any of the 8500 cards other than the standard one, I would steer clear of this.
  • Reply 10 of 15
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    Is Janitor correct in his assertion that the Radeon 7500 AGP is a *less* capable card than the Radeon Mac Edition? This seems totally counter-intuitive given how long the latter has been around / is now going out of stock everywhere.



    What's the verdict guys? Should I just play it safe, spend my $150 on the Radeon Mac Edition AGP card and go from there? It is a two year old machine I'll be putting it into, so I'm thinking doesn't make sense to buy an 8500 Mac Edition....



    [ 05-15-2002: Message edited by: Moogs ]</p>
  • Reply 11 of 15
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    No, the Radeon 7500 is definitely a better card than the original Radeon. The 7000 is the one he is thinking of.



    [ 05-15-2002: Message edited by: Eugene ]</p>
  • Reply 12 of 15
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    That's what I suspected, but not being a major video card geek I wasn't sure / didn't want to call him on it.



    Anyway, It seems all the retailers are offering three solutions:



    Radeon Mac Edition AGP

    Radeon 7000 PCI

    Radeon 8500 AGP



    The latter is about $100 more expensive than the original Radeon everywhere I look but it's an AGP 4x card - I'm wondering if it will be choked down on my 2x Mac. THinking the performance won't be hugely different than the original Radeon for gaming at resolutions below 1280x1024, and not different at all for things like Quartz Extreme (although it does have more VRAM). Hmmm.



    So are we all agreed then that XLR8 is essentially correct in that there is no way to flash a PC Radeon card so that it will work on a Mac?
  • Reply 13 of 15
    x704x704 Posts: 276member
    [quote]Originally posted by Moogs:

    <strong>So are we all agreed then that XLR8 is essentially correct in that there is no way to flash a PC Radeon card so that it will work on a Mac?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    1. the 7500 is significatnly faster then the Origonal Radeon AGP



    2. XLR8yourmac does not say you cannot flash a PC R 8500. A few of the forum members have tried & had varying levels of success. Some have gotten it to work perfectly, some have gotten it to work relatively well (with only some colour problems) & others have run into major problems.



    If you plan on trying to flash a PC R 8500 then you should try to find one that matches the Mac R 8500 as closely as possible.



    1.250/275 Mhz

    2. Ram = 3.6ns

    3. Not an LE version (preferably not OEM)

    4. It needs to have the larger 128k rom size. Some newer ones apparently have a 64k rom size. This is bad becuase the mac rom is around 73k.

    5. Preferably manufactured by ATI. Other manufactures at times stray from ATI's design (cut corners). This could cause problems with mac drivers.



    Really the bottom line is that Retail ATI manufactured cards are the best way to go (not OEM or LE since they usually use slower clock speeds or ram). In reality this relates into small savings since these cards are in the 200+ area. After considering that you could toast the card & your totally unsupported (it may work now but will it have problems in the future? Some have had difficulties with updating the flashed Nvida 2mx cards) it really diminishes the value of trying (but for some it may be worth it). Hopes this helps to clarify things.



    [ 05-16-2002: Message edited by: X704 ]</p>
  • Reply 14 of 15
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    [quote]Originally posted by Eugene:

    <strong>No, the Radeon 7500 is definitely a better card than the original Radeon. The 7000 is the one he is thinking of.



    [ 05-15-2002: Message edited by: Eugene ]</strong><hr></blockquote>



    thanks for the fix.
  • Reply 15 of 15
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    X704: I pulled the XLR8 comment directly from their FAQ where someone asked Mike if you can use PC Radeon cards on your Mac. His answer was no, that there was no way to flash them properly.



    I guess since the FAQ was answered some folks have had better luck. Anyway, your point about warranty support is well taken. That alone will steer me away from the PC cards (hadn't thought about that till now).



    [Edit]

    Decided on the Radeon Mac Edition - $145. Not a bad price all in all. Hopefully it will extend my Mac's useful life for another year once QE hits the scenes.



    [ 05-16-2002: Message edited by: Moogs ]</p>
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