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eMac Video Upgrade

Posted by pudge on from the solitaire-works-fine-for-me-on-that-thing dept.

Bri3D writes "I've got an eMac G4/700, with a GeForce2 220 32MB video card. The video card is great for everyday use, but woefully slow for gaming. I looked for a method to replace the video card, and found these pages about eMac disassembly, but no information on if the video is upgradeable or even seperate from the motherboard. Does anyone have information on replacing the video card on an eMac?"

11 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Nope... by PrimeWaveZ · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm looking right now, and short of a soldering iron and God's good graces, it is definitely a no go.

  2. you're stuck by Bizzarobot · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apple Discussion Board says the only mac you can replace the video card on is a tower.

  3. Specs by pagercam2 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Spec's don't list PCI or AGP slot so doesn't look like upgrading is an option. Have you tried changing settings??? Often there are some compatability controls that can make things better. The graphics processor is realatively recent so it should be decent but not great at games, often more memory is more of a issue try increasing ram, it makes everything faster and so even if it doesn't improve game play the machine will be more fun to use.

  4. Re:obvious answer by astrodawg · · Score: 5, Informative
    While Windows undeniably has more games, contrary to what many will try to tell you, the Mac has more than a few as well.

    http://www.apple.com/games/

  5. Re:Woefully slow? by Bri3D · · Score: 2, Informative

    I play Warcraft III at 640x480x16 with all Video settings at low on my eMac, and it gets about 6fps while battling small Creeps with about 5 units without using spells. The eMac has 640MB of RAM. This speed is totally unaccetable to me(maybe you are fine with it). Maybe there is a compatability problem between WcIII and the GeForce 2 220?

  6. Replacement Impossible by JM+Apocalypse · · Score: 5, Informative

    You may be able to replace the video card, depending on which eMac generation you have. The eMac LAN that I manage is what I would call first-generation, because when Apple released the eMac, they first fulfilled all the orders to educational institutions. Not until this was complete did they start shipping to the public. There is only one problem with this: The first-generation eMacs actually had on-board video acceleration, which made it impossible to replace. This was something that was on the original iMac, until Apple realized that it caused display problems and such, and moved this off-board. Of course, they brought this back on the first-generation eMacs, (arg!). You may not have the option. The only way to find out is to actually open up the eMac and look.

    --

    - - - - - - -
    Orppf urp mf y.ppcxn. yflcbi otcnnov C am yflcbi yr n.apb Ekrpatv (Dvorak -> Qwerty)
    1. Re:Replacement Impossible by Anonymous+Freak · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, even the iMacs don't have replaceable video. The very first generation (233MHz) had an undocumented/unsupported 'mezzanine' slot that an enterprising company managed to use as an interface for a VooDoo card, but that was really a video add-on, not an upgrade. (Only an external monitor was accelerated, and only accelerated video appeared on the external monitor; so the OS was internal, games were external.)

      --
      Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
      The purpose of that site was not known.
  7. Re:MOD PARENT DOWN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I own an eMac with GeForce gfx, and I get excellent performance with Warcraft III - did you actually add more System ram to your computer - most consumer macs come terribly under endowed with system ram

  8. Re:Pudge - Pull this? by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 2, Informative

    The first iMac could have a Voodoo 2 card put in the seriously unsupported expansion slot.

    The G3 All-In-One box (education and government only) which I have has 3 PCI slots and works great with a Radeon card for a second display.

  9. Well, it can be done, sorta by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The original eMac has an nVidia NV11 soldered on the motherboard. This is pin compatible with the nVidia NV17b. If you can get one of these chips and don't mind working with surface mount components you should be OK as far the hardware is concerned.

    One problem, the Apple ROM on the eMac contains the Open Firmware driver for the NV11 which definitely will not work with an NV17 - it wasn't in production when the eMac ROMs were first released. However, current Apple motherboard ROMs still support the eMac and also have support for the NV17.

  10. Re:Here it is by martingunnarsson · · Score: 2, Informative

    FX!=graphics GFX==graphics

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    Martin