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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!
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/
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?