Dual 533 G4 and nVidia 6600gt

[justin holt]

Hi all,

One of my teachers from high school just gave me a dual 533 G4 PowerMac. He was just going to throw it out so I figured it was my civic duty to salvage it. I know you can run Leopard on older macs by either hacking the installer for leopard or toying with open firmware (already done it with my 800mhz emac in front of me). The one thing people report is slowing it down is poor graphics. I have an nVidia 6600gt (made by PNY for Windows machines), is there anyway to swap with whatever AGP card is already installed? This 6600 is AGP so I'm just wondering if it would.

 

Thanks a lot you guys,

Justin Holt

[Common Sense]

Hi all,

One of my teachers from high school just gave me a dual 533 G4 PowerMac. He was just going to throw it out so I figured it was my civic duty to salvage it. I know you can run Leopard on older macs by either hacking the installer for leopard or toying with open firmware (already done it with my 800mhz emac in front of me). The one thing people report is slowing it down is poor graphics. I have an nVidia 6600gt (made by PNY for Windows machines), is there anyway to swap with whatever AGP card is already installed? This 6600 is AGP so I'm just wondering if it would.

 

Thanks a lot you guys,

Justin Holt

 

Hi,

 

If the rom size is big enough maybe you can flash it with the mac firmware? Maybe someone on the forum can provide you with a firmware dump and then you can flash it with nvflash

[justin holt]

Is there anyone out there that has a dump of this cards firmware. My card is a PNY 6600gt AGP version with 256mb of ram.

 

Does anyone know where I can find the dump if they don't have it? And I'm assuming when you say firmware you mean the card's BIOS correct?

 

Justin

[justin holt]

Managed to find a great site: http://themacelite.wikidot.com/start, I'm sure I've come across it before but this actually has a BIOS specifically for my PNY Verto 6600gt. With any luck when I get out of work tonight I'll have a little project.

 

Justin

[justin holt]

From this link: http://themacelite.wikidot.com/6600agp

These PC GeForce 6600 AGP 256MB 128bit DDR cards can be flashed to Mac version using the suitable ROM available in the WikiDownloads. However, these cards require soldering a 128KB ROM chip and flashing in a PC using the method described in the GeForce 5/6/7 How-To.

 

If you have a 6600 card that does not match any of these, and none of the existing 6600 ROMs work for you, you can build your own Mac ROM using information from your card's PC ROM. Information for doing this is available here: NV Fcode ROM Editing Preliminaries.

 

Here are pictures and short descriptions of the cards known to work with these ROMs (these ROMs have been especially deisgned for these cards):

 

I can't tell if I need to buy an additional ROM chip and solder it on.

 

Any advice?

 

Thanks

[n1cky]

From this link: http://themacelite.wikidot.com/6600agp

QUOTE

These PC GeForce 6600 AGP 256MB 128bit DDR cards can be flashed to Mac version using the suitable ROM available in the WikiDownloads. However, these cards require soldering a 128KB ROM chip and flashing in a PC using the method described in the GeForce 5/6/7 How-To.

 

If you have a 6600 card that does not match any of these, and none of the existing 6600 ROMs work for you, you can build your own Mac ROM using information from your card's PC ROM. Information for doing this is available here: NV Fcode ROM Editing Preliminaries.

 

Here are pictures and short descriptions of the cards known to work with these ROMs (these ROMs have been especially deisgned for these cards):

 

 

I can't tell if I need to buy an additional ROM chip and solder it on.

 

Any advice?

 

Thanks

 

I would really like to know this too, since I'm in just about the same situation, only difference is that I have G5, but as I understand it from this part http://themacelite.wikidot.com/6600agp it shouldn't make an difference on the software part.

I also saw that they mention something about an extra rom chip, but I can't find any actual info about this proces.

is there anybode who can explain it or at least give a hint ?

[flakmonkey]

There is no add-on ROM chip so you can put your soldering irons away. ROM refers to the card's firmware. To boot a Mac with a PC card you need to re-flash the firmware much as you would flash a PC BIOS to update it. The Mac Elite have a selection of Mac compatible ROMs and the flashing software. Basically, you install your card in a PC and boot from a floppy or USB stick that contains the Mac ROM and the flashing app. Then it's a case of following the instructions and crossing your fingers. Always make a backup of the original ROM before flashing so that you can get back to square 1 if the flash is bad or you flashed with the wrong ROM. On earlier G4s, you only have AGP 4x and so to run an AGP 8x card in there you need to either tape off or physically cut the pins on the card's edge connector. The Mac Elite has information on this. All AGP G5s are AGP 8x so you can miss that step out. Do your research thoroughly before buying a card for flashing, some will never work in a Mac with any amount of flashing.

[n1cky]

I do understrand the steps for flashing and the purpose of it, but there is one sentence that keeps bugging, most of all because it isn't explained in detail, it is this one:

 

NVIDIA GeForce 6600 256MB AGP Buying Guide

These PC GeForce 6600 AGP 256MB 128bit DDR cards can be flashed to Mac version using the suitable ROM available in the WikiDownloads. However, these cards require soldering a 128KB ROM chip and flashing in a PC using the method described in the GeForce 5/6/7 How-To.

from here -> http://themacelite.wikidot.com/6600agp

 

but from what you tell I guess that shouldn't think more about it, and just try with te old card I have, and see if it works

[flakmonkey]

Unless I had surface mount soldering equipment I wouldn't even think of attempting that. You can buy a brand new ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 256MB cheaply which should work in your G5 after flashing.