Dec 8, 2004: Extensive notes and instructions for flashing in a variety of situations can be found here, courtesy of sprinter:
Instructions For Flashing Pc Video Cards, Series 1 (Eg. Radeon 7000 - 9100 AGP)
Instructions For Flashing Pc Video Cards, Series 2 (Eg. Radeon 9200)
Instructions For Flashing Pc Video Cards, Series 3 (Eg. Radeon 9800 Pro)
Instructions For Flash Pc Video Cards, Series 4 (Geforce 2, 3 and FX)
On Apr 18, 2002, Riba writes:
"I just talked to a friend of mine. Last weekend he got all the 2MX
cards he could find on a local market, and tried every
one of them in his Mac to see which ones work. I think this
will be useful
information
for all of us, so here it goes...these do work:
Hercules Prophet MX 32
Asus V7100
The rest did not. What he found out is the fact that if you
want it to work, it _must_ have 32mb and not 64, and must comply
to
MX400 specs.
The two above do. You must also have the latest firmware installed
on
your Cube to use these cards"
Oct 11 2002: Underclocking a PC GeForce 2MX Graphics Card For use in a G4 Cube without a Fan. From Xlr8yourmac.com
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/PC_geforce2MX_in_Cube.html
TJM shares this in the forums:
"There are a few
sellers(eBay) passing off flashed PC cards as Mac parts. While the
sellers might not be outright lying it's definitely dishonest,
IMOHO. Your question caught my eye since many of the PC GeForce
2MX cards that can be flashed have 64MB of RAM. In fact some of them
don't even have to be flashed to work."
Some eBay
examples:
GeForce 2MX
Flashed PC GeForce 2MX
| (screenshot here in
| case ebay listing has
expired - sold for $109)
He/she has sold a lot of them and
people do seem to be happy. What you don't know...
Same card being sold on eBay as the
PC part it is. Look closely at the picture.
| (screenshot here in
| case ebay listing has
expired - sold for $26)
Same card
(Chaintech A-MX40) retails for $37.
GeForce3
Flashed GeForce 3 for $220(ouch!)
| (screenshot here in
| case ebay listing has
expired - sold for $220)
What the flasher paid for it($55). |
(screenshot here in case
ebay listing has expired) That's kind of funny since I was going to buy
one and try to flash it for my Cube. One hell of a profit margin eh?
The buyers do seem happy with
them. Course I'd give great customer service too if I was quadrupling
my money.
RedEclipseTurbo, the eBay seller being
referenced here, selling the flashed GF3 cards, has submitted a reply
to the above:
Laurie, I just wanted to point
out that the above example of my supposed profit margin is just not
true! I do indeed sell flashed PC GF3 cards because the Apple GF3 cards
are selling for $350-$400 lately because they are no longer produced
and are impossible to find. The $220 is a bargain for a tested and
working solution as that model has both VGA and DVI ports which allows
you to hook up a less expensive 17" LCD display for around $650
total versus an Apple GF3 card with Apple 17" display for
$1050-$1100! Even if you want to use an ADC display the total of the
card and adapter is still around $300-$320 which beats out the going
rate of the Apple GF3 cards.
The card you are indicating that
I bought for $55 turned out to be a GF3 Ti200 and it certainly doesn't
work in a mac. I was going to try to find some other brands that would
be short enough to fit inside the cube as the retail sources are all
but gone these days. All of the cards that work in the cube were bought
in the $100-$150 range brand new in a retail box. The brand is a 180mm
long PNY technologies with a black PCB board, not the green PCB you
have pictured. In the future please consider sending me a quick note
before posting something like this as it doesn't make sense to post
inaccurate information without a simple verification.
Some
people have brought it to my attention that by driving an Apple display
using a DVI to ADC adapter you are easing the stress placed on the
cube's 205w power supply which is especially important when considering
Powerlogix 1.2Ghz processors and the like down the road.
I've
sold over 20 of these to various Cube and Tower owners and every single
person has been very satisfied as can be seen by my excellent ebay
feedback rating. I will take back any card that doesn't work out for my
customers and every card is brand new and tested for G4 compatibility.
While the free advertisement is nothing I should complain about, I
would imagine that everyone reading your excellent FAQ would appreciate
accurate information.
Chris Wirth
RedEclipseTurbo on ebay
GeForce3@rochetser.rr.com
Detailed
discussion of flashing GeForce 3 cards for use in Cubes, in the
Forums:
here
and here
So
there you have it - both sides of the story. Please use this
information to make an informed purchase :)
Low-cost
PC GeForce 2 MX success... flash, add heatsink, mod faceplate, plug and
play. From c0nsumer (aka Steve), in the Forums:
Within the last couple of weeks, I've modified a couple of GeForce
2 MX video cards for use in two different cubes. One was a Dell
OEM card I obtained used from eBay for $18 that originally utilized
no heatsinks. The other is a Gainward retail card, also obtained
used from eBay, this one for ~$20. For the Dell card I made some
heatsinks and applied them with Arctic Silver Thermal Adheasive. Both cards had
their backplanes modified to fit in the cube, additional threaded
connectors (read: filed and epoxied nuts) added to secure the card to
the back of the cube.
Pictures of the GeForce 2 MX modifications are
available here
Let me know if you have any questions about
these mods. Oh, and of course, it was requred that the cards be flashed
with a Mac BIOS in order for them to function, but once flashed, they
work great under OS X 10.1.x and 10.2.x. -Steve
Here are some links with good info about flashing, if you want to
try it yourself:
Flashing a Radeon 8500
http://www.coffeehaus.com/radeon8500.html
http://atimacunderground.freeservers.com/instructions.
html
http://www.cybercoment.com/macgeforce.htm
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?threadid=52779
http://bbs.xlr8yourmac.com/ubb/Forum24/HTML/000100.html
Flashing a GF2MX
http://xlr8yourmac.com/graphics/flash_PC_geforce2mx.
html
http://www.cybercoment.com/macgeforce.htm
http://bbs.xlr8yourmac.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/001037.html
Flashing a PC Radeon 7000 AGP
McCoy conjured this
up:
"Why would someone like to have the Radeon 7000 in a
cube, you might ask. well, it is the only card that runs *COOL* AND
supports QuartzExtreme. plus it has S-Video out. i took the rom from
the radeom 7000 PCI and flashed it to a PC Radeon 7000 AGP (Radeon 7000
was never available for AGP-slots in macintoshes). i'm not finished
testing it, but it looks promising at the moment, no problems in OS9 so
far. oh, and it is necessary to move the DC-DC in order to install the
Radeon 7000 AGP. Update: it seems to run fine in OSX as well. huge list
of possible resolutions. the modifications needed are the same as for
the Radeon 8500. and did i mention that this card runs COOOL?
"
This mod covered extensively in this Forum Thread - with
step-by-step instructions here: http://www.cubeowner.com/forums//index.php?s=...
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