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Mac Daniel'sAdvice
Korin Hasegawa-John - 2001.08.20
A graphics (or video) card is a very important part of your Mac.It controls the screen, updating and changing the informationconstantly. If you have a lousy graphics card, images will loadslowly, and scrolling documents or viewing multimedia won't be aspleasant. All of these cards are PCI, allowing them to be used inanything from a Power Mac 7200 to thenewest Quicksilver G4s. None ofthese cards are new, with the exception of the ATI Radeon and theProFormance3 (both of which you can get used). I would checkeBay and local university surplus auctions.
Ratings go from • to •••••, withone being worst and five being best.
Gaming Cards
These cards are for gamers. They support GLIDE or OpenGL, two 3Dstandards, or both. Generally, they have 16 MB to 32 MB of VRAM(Except the Voodoo5 5000, 64 MB).
Cards with GLIDE support
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Glide is a graphics protocol used to display 3D images,developed by 3dfx Interactive. It's mostly used in games. No longersupported by new cards, since 3dfx got bought out. Basically, anycard in the Voodoo series supports Glide. These cards are prettycheap, ranging from the under-$50 Voodoo3 3000 to the $100-150Voodoo5 5500. They run games such as Unreal, Quake III et al prettywell.
Pros
3dfx cards support OpenGL as well, a newer 3D standard.
They're really good for games.
They're also pretty inexpensive.
Cons
No RAVE support. RAVE is QuickDraw3D's graphics protocol. Thesecards won't accelerate your QuickDraw3D based games or 3Dscenes.
No Mac OS X support. Possibly, 3rd party drivers will come out,but to the best of my knowledge there's no planned OS Xsupport.
Voodoo5 5500 (12' PCI) won't work with Performas.
Voodoo3 has to be Mac-Rom flashed. (a pain)
Ratings
Voodoo3 3000: •••• - It's an OK card at agreat price, but ROM is a pain.
Voodoo5 4500: •••• - A good card, and adecent price. Hard to find.
Voodoo5 5500: ••••• - Very good, andloads of VRAM.
Cards with OpenGL
Any ATI 128 card supports OpenGL. Rules! (itch) mac os. These cards range from the$100 Rage 128 Orion (16 MB) to the Radeon Mac PCI ($160). They havesupport from Apple and ATI, and are good for OpenGL games and RAVEacceleration.
Pros
OS X support.
RAVE support, so will accelerate QuickDraw3D.
Good OpenGL support
Cons
Radeon 2D acceleration sub-par
No GLIDE support.
ATI's Mac support is lousy.
Ratings
Rage 128 Orion: ••• - It works, but performanceisn't great for the money.
Radeon PCI: ••••• - Can't be beat forOpenGL or RAVE, but pricey.
Formac ProFormance3
I've never actually used this card, but have heard good thingsabout it. It costs $100 and up on the used market, but can be hardto find. I am unsure about OS X support.
Pros
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OpenGL support
3D glasses, supposedly work very well
RAVE support
Good 2D acceleration for when you aren't playing games.
Cons
No GLIDE support
Relatively hard to find
Somewhat pricey for what the card is.
Rating
Never used it, but from what I've heard:•••• - 3D glasses nice touch, decentperformance.
Non-Gaming Cards
If you don't use 3D intensive games, or use non-RAVE 3D, thefollowing cards might be for you. They are much cheaper.
ATI XClaim 3D PLUS
This card is based on the Rage Pro chip from ATI. It has8 MB VRAM and supports RAVE. That's it. No OpenGL or Glide.However, it's good for scrolling those Excel spreadsheets or thatWord doc. Has OS X support. $50 or thereabouts.
Pros
Supports RAVE
OS X support
Cheap
Cons
Lousy 3D performance, but will accelerate RAVE games.
No GLIDE support
No OpenGL support
Rating: •••• - It supports some games, andit's cheap.
ixMicro Pro Rez 3D
This card was made by ixMicro, based on their TwinTurbo 128chip. It has 8 MB of VRAM, and accelerates RAVE very well. Itdoesn't support GLIDE or OpenGL, but does have good 2D performance.OS X support. $40.
Pros
Supports RAVE, good performance
OS X support
Cheap
Good 2D performance
Cons
No RAVE gaming support
No GLIDE support
No OpenGL support
12' PCI, won't work with Performas
Rating: ••• - Hey, it's cheap, but no gamessupport.
There are many other cheap older graphics cards which I won'tget into now, like the Radius Thunder series. However, this is aguide to some of the better cards that are currently available forPCI Macs. If you are considering a second video card or areplacement, this is a helpful starter's guide.
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