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eMac Video Upgrade
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?"
I'm looking right now, and short of a soldering iron and God's good graces, it is definitely a no go.
Upgrade
Unfortunately this is the easiest path. BTW What games? I play NWN on my iBook 900 w/32MB FX card and it runs great, not to mention Quake III.
Apple Discussion Board says the only mac you can replace the video card on is a tower.
Short answer: No
Long answer: No
In summary: No
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
I think the article was a PC troll trying to point out that all-in-one Macs of the past 5 years are not video-upgradable.
And he was consipiring with other trolls, setting them up to use the "There are no games for the Mac!" line.
It's only software!
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.
What games are you playing where your computer is "woefully slow"? I game regularly on my Cube (450 MHz G4 with a stock Rage 128 and 1 GB RAM), and I'm still able to play everything, save UT2k3 which is just a little too slow. Ghost Recon, Jedi Knight II, and Warcraft 3 run just fine on it. Admittedly, it is not a speed demon, but it gets the job done with low settings.
If you bought an eMac you shouldn't have expected that it would be awesome for gaming or upgradeable. Try upping your RAM, as I noticed a nice speed burst when I brought my Cube up to 1 GB. Other than that, you are more likely to harm your eMac by opening it then you are likely to help it by soldering on a new video card (if that is even possible).
http://www.apple.com/games/
The writer of this comment was not informed, as Slashdot does not pull stories. Additionaly, I do own an eMac G4 and am very happy with it besides its unacceptable Warcraft III performance. There are games for the mac(LOTS!). As a note, newer eMacs have a better graphics card (ATI Radeon 7500) anyway.
Just get an Xbox
You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one
Step 1) Unplug all peripherals
Step 2) Replace eMac
I have done this before, and it is a proven and time-tested method that works.
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.
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If you didn't spend so much of time your time playing video games, you'd have an entire life.
I am a believer of momentum and curves.
OK, I get that the "can I upgrade video" question is dead, but I thought I'd ask another somewhat related question.
Just what is gaming like on either eMac (the GeForce 2 and Radeon versions) ? I have a CRT iMac (600 Mhz G3 with the ATI Rage Pro) and I wonder if the upgrade would be worthwhile.. On the iMac, you can play Ghost Recon, Quake 3, Myth 2, with reasonable frame rates but UT (the original) is brutal and UT2K3 is a slide show.
Anybody want to share their eMac gaming experiences?
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.
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.