VOGONS


First post, by vlask

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Got last week 2 macs, one with Macos 9.1 (or 9.3) cant remember now. Its powerpc 8100/80 (G3 266Mhz, 80MB ram), other one is PowerPC 7100/80, but its without HDD, so no OS there. 8100/80 have nice dual slot graphic card on NuBus. 7100/80 have another card think for PDS. Because i collecting graphic cards, i want to keep both cards and sell/trade/send to garbage macs. So i have one working mac, on which i can test also some other cards i got before, but no software to show installed memory size (both new cards have some additional simm memory modules) or graphic card info. I read that also that old macs have no bios, so i cant check cards in bios. Anyone know any diagnostic software for MacOS, or anything else to show basic graphic cards info?
(will have some more macs soon maybe).

Not only mine graphics cards collection at http://www.vgamuseum.info

Reply 1 of 9, by Old Thrashbarg

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Mac OS9 (and I think 8.6, perhaps earlier versions as well) has a built-in System Profiler under the Apple menu, it should tell you pretty much everything about what's installed in the system. Though the info it gives about the graphics card can be a bit cryptic, especially if the proper graphics driver isn't installed... it's probably easier to pull the card and look for a manufacturer name and/or model number.

And even if there's no OS installed, you can boot from a Mac OS CD to check.

Reply 2 of 9, by vlask

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Old Thrashbarg wrote:

Mac OS9 (and I think 8.6, perhaps earlier versions as well) has a built-in System Profiler under the Apple menu, it should tell you pretty much everything about what's installed in the system. Though the info it gives about the graphics card can be a bit cryptic, especially if the proper graphics driver isn't installed... it's probably easier to pull the card and look for a manufacturer name and/or model number.

And even if there's no OS installed, you can boot from a Mac OS CD to check.

Dunno if we talking about the same, but when i run system info (or something like that), it shows me cpu type, speed, memory size, hdd size and usage but no info about graphic cards. Will do some photos later, but mine version is translated into czech language.....

Not only mine graphics cards collection at http://www.vgamuseum.info

Reply 3 of 9, by Old Thrashbarg

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The graphics card should show up under the second tab, it's called 'Devices and Volumes' in the English version, dunno what it is in Czech. I don't know how Nubus and PDS cards show up, but they should be there somewhere. On the Mac I have handy the onboard Rage II graphics show up under the PCI heading, giving the card name as "ATY,mach64_3D.pcc". Like I said, it can be a bit cryptic, but it should give you something to go on.

Reply 4 of 9, by vlask

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Found it - but no usefull info. there is only
ID card : 96
Name of card: .Built-In VRAM Video
Version of card: none
Manufacturer: Apple Computer , Inc

Nothing more. OS is 9.1.

Not only mine graphics cards collection at http://www.vgamuseum.info

Reply 5 of 9, by Anonymous Freak

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Those are the first generation of Power Mac. They are the only Power Macs with NuBus slots. The graphics cards are *REALLY* basic on those series. The video will be either not much more than a framebuffer, or a very lightly 2D accelerated card. The fact that it says "Built-In VRAM Video" means it's the former. (I'm assuming this is the PDS card.)

The NuBus card may be interesting, you'd have to profile it to be sure. Some NuBus cards were quite heavily accelerated; although still 2D only. NuBus was long obsolete by the time 3D acceleration came around.

The 8100, with a G3 upgrade, is still a quite usable machine. Should be able to play almost any non-3D classic Macintosh game very well, and many early 3D games fairly well, too. (Like Marathon, a landmark 3D shooter made by the team that went on to create Halo, and which is now open-source and freely available.)

Reply 6 of 9, by Old Thrashbarg

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Name of card: .Built-In VRAM Video

That would indicate that it's probably the stock VRAM card... does it look something like this one?

But as I said earlier, the best approach is to just pull the cards out and look at 'em. They're sure to have some sort of identifying markings on 'em, which you can plug into Google.

Reply 7 of 9, by vlask

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Old Thrashbarg wrote:

Name of card: .Built-In VRAM Video

That would indicate that it's probably the stock VRAM card... does it look something like this one?

But as I said earlier, the best approach is to just pull the cards out and look at 'em. They're sure to have some sort of identifying markings on 'em, which you can plug into Google.

Ofc i can pull out cards and check google, but it wont tell me memory size... Found software that maybe can help - TattleTech. I downloaded 2 versions on pc, but cannot install it on mac. Tried to copy it through floppy (formated in pc), but it always tells me data transfer error. So i burned it on CD-ROM as iso9660 level2, now i can copy files onto desktop, but cannot run them. its TattleTech_2.84_classic.sea.hqx - i found that hqx is compressed, so i uncompresed it to TattleTech 2.84.sea by ALzip, but sea files cannot be run too. Found also older version named tattletech.sit, but it wont open sit files too. When i double click it, it shows stop windows with something like this (mine translation from czech language) - Now cannot open "tattletech_2_84.sea" (document), because cannot find application software, that created it.
Icons are all blank. Tried to download it directly, but found only netscape on hdd, which cannot be started because of damaged or broken (dunno) quicktime.
And i cannot reinstall whole OS, because i dont have it - got only computer with keyboard/mouse/lan adapter, thats all.

Not only mine graphics cards collection at http://www.vgamuseum.info

Reply 8 of 9, by Old Thrashbarg

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Found software that maybe can help - TattleTech.

Tattletech will give you more details on some things, but it'll be just as cryptic as System Profiler when it comes to video cards.

The files you're having trouble with, drag and drop 'em onto Stuffit Expander on the Mac, there should be some sort of version included with OS9... you might have trouble with any other program, and don't even bother trying to extract any files on a PC.

And looking up the cards will most likely tell you memory size, since those cards generally only came in one or two different configurations. You may have to apply a little common sense, like if there were 1MB and 2MB versions of a card, and yours has empty memory sockets, then you can pretty well guess which one you have. Plus, you can always read the numbers on the memory chips, as those will also (usually) tell you the memory size.

Reply 9 of 9, by sliderider

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It's very hard to get a good video card in Nubus these days. Most of the ones you find are the unaccelerated Apple ones or a third party equivalent. Anything accelerated and with extremely high resolutions and color depths is going to cost a lot. and by accelerated they mean accelerated for Photoshop, not accelerated for gaming, so an accelerated Nubus card won't really help gaming performance though you might be able to get higher resolutions with more colors. People who have them treasure them. I have a Radius Thunder IV with a daughterboard loaded up with DSP's for Photoshop acceleration that I wouldn't part with for love or money.