Ingredients:
1 Powermac 7600 1 Sonnet G3/400/1M [1] 512 M EDO 4 M VRAM 1 21143-based PCI 10/100 1 5-port USB2 card 2 9G quantum SCSI 1 Empty PCI slot burning a hole in my pocket
Optional:
1 17" CRT Studio Display (ADC) [sexxy deth monitor] 1 Adaptec 2940UW [Powerdomain (?)]
Now, as I understand it the VRAM is on a 50 MHz bus, and Quartz-not-extreme doesn't make much use of acceleration. I don't want to stick an ATI card in there and find I'm now bottlenecked by the 33 MHz PCI bus. Is my intuition good, or would WeLoveMacs' 16M Rage VR get me more than an extra 300k pixels around the edge of my screen (monitor does 1280x1024, Mac does 1152x870)?
Also, is there any hope of getting any use out of the sexxy deth monitor?
Never mind the "bus speeds" of the VRAM or the PCI card. The speed of the video chip serving the video out is the *only* thing that's important on older Macs. The onboard video of the 73-9600 Macs is very slow for OS X. Even a Beige G3 rev.B (Rage Pro) is noticeably faster with a same G3 chip/RAM config in it.
A Rage128 PCI card is *much* faster than the onboard video for OS X (and OS 9, too). In fact, I find that to be a requirement for a useable OS X experience on any Mac. A PCI Rage 128, Radeon Mac Ed. or Radeon 7000 Mac. Ed. will make OS X fun to use even with only a 300 MHz G3 and 256 MB RAM. Just remember to use OS 10.2.x and set the video to Thousands of colors for best speed.
WeLoveMacs' 16M Rage VR is a Rage128 based card, then you're set. Don't mess with the 17" CRT ASD without a supported video card in an appropriate G4. Get a 17" CRT to replace it for $100 or less.
- Tom
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