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Note: This page was created to cover the original Rage128 cards shipped with the B&W G3 machines. After the release of the cards at retail, check the reviews at the video cards page, main front page news, game news, my forums (covers 3dfx and other game cards) and also the searchable Mac Game/Video card performance database for more up-to-date news on Rage128 video cards, drivers and issues. For a summary of the card compared to other Mac 3D video cards, see my Mac 3D card Roundup which includes tests with OpenGL 1.1.2.
This page lists reader comments on the Rage128 Card and Drivers.
-
ATI Universal Installer v4.2: As of Jan, 2000, the latest version of ATI's drivers. See their Mac Drivers page for more info.
-
OpenGL 1.1.2: Adds support for Altivec (G4) and fixes some bugs. However 16bit color mode quality with Rage128 cards really takes a hit. (See my Mac 3D Card Roundup and iMac DV SE review's game performance page for performance tests. )
-
ATI Video Update 1.0 Drivers: Apple released
TIL 11475 on new ATI Video drivers. These drivers fix bugs and freezes according to the readme. Note this update also restores DVD playback for B&W G3 owners with that option.
- Rage128 1.0 Update: MacBinary 485K or Binhex 660K).
Please send me any comments, tips or workarounds you have to report on the Rage128.
Latest Feedback:
New B&W G3 Revision Features: see my New Features page for photos
and details on the new dual drive bracket/cable, improved IDE controller chip,
faster Rage128 card (with heatsink) and taller CPU heatsink. See my B&W G3 Game Performance page for
framerate tests in Quake and Unreal showing the gain from the new faster card.
For B&W G3 owners that have had problems with VirtualPC here's a tip from the mailbag that will help with drag and drop:
"
Mike,
...I'm wondering if you've seen any reports about problems with
Virtual PC and the G3. Specifically, I'm trying to increase the size of
the standard 260MB image disk to 2Gig, and when I move the img file
over the PC desktop's Eject Floppy button (as per the instructions) my
G3 freezes every time. Is the G3 supposed to come with a version of Disk
Copy, or is there a replacement app that I haven't figured out yet? I
ask this since my machine also balks when I try to initiate a version of
Virex that I've received in the img format.
--MRC
[Answer:]
The problem is being caused by a bug in one of the ATI drivers actually. As a workaround for VPC we recommend that the user temporarily disable the ATI resource manager. With the ATI Resource manager disabled, you will be able to drag and drop the disk images normally. [He later wrote this solved the problem]
"
ATI OpenGL Drivers Feedback: More reader reports from using the OpenGL beta drivers. I'm posting RageII/RagePro comments to
just to cover all supported cards. Keep sending in those OpenGL driver reports!:
Here's a list of the ATI (RageII/RagePro) driver revs vs the first OpenGL beta extensions (Thanks to Nick Klingaman!)
- SCSI CDR Burning Affected? A reader reported (in a mail sent to this site and many others) the new OpenGL drivers negatively affected his ability to burn CDRs:
"
Even though the Open GL driver brought some great improvements, I have
also experienced a terrible negative....
After installing the Open GL driver, I've been constantly producing
'coasters' on my CD-R drive.
I've tried to produce several different CDs (audio, data, CD from img,
etc), but have failed each and every time. The CD-R just halts about
half way into the process.
Uninstalling the Open GL driver instantly solved the problem.
FYI, I am using Toast 3.5.6 with Plextor 2/4 CD-R (ext.).
Aro
"
MoluCad OpenGl demo: Speaking of OpenGL, Daniel sent a note that MoluCad (demo download avail.) supported OpenGL but only in software mode (he could not get it to work with the beta drivers or even the previous ATI drivers and the conix libraries, except in software opengl mode. Get it at http:// www.kinematics.com.
- Canvas Problems Fixed:
"
Hi Mike!
Berkley A. Lynch
"
- Photoshop 5.02 Problems Noted:
"FYI. I, and others, have noticed that PhotoShop 5.0.2 on a B&W Mac using
either the original Apple ATI drivers or the updated drivers will
freeze, or restart the Mac when you zoom all the way in on an image,
(this problem disappears when the drivers are disabled.) Yesterday I
downloaded an installed the New OpenGL/ATI Beta drivers. Unfortunately
the new drivers still appear to cause this problem. However, I was
thrilled to see that Macromedia FLASH 3 now works again.
Peter"
- Solves Corel Photopaint 8 Issue:
"Hi Mike,
Just wanted to drop you a line that my problems with Corel Photopaint
8.0.1 on a new B&W G3 were fixed by intsalling the beta ATI OpenGL
drivers. My problem was with graphic artifacts when moving any
paintbrush tool over the canvas.
Bart"
- Lightwave 3D Problems?
"There was someone who posted at the Macintosh Lightwave
forum (http://www.postforum.com/Lightwave/) about the new OGL drivers. They where not compatable with Lightwave and disabled OGL acceleration
for Lightwave. The URL is below:
http://www.postforum.com/Lightwave/index.cgi?read=103621
John
"
ATI's Ray Swartz replied to the above:
"Thanks. I responded to the forum. I haven't tested Lightwave yet, but it
might be hard-wired to use the old Conix libraries, which need to be removed
when installing the new stuff."
- X-Plane (Opengl) Comments from RagePro owner:
"
I have a PowerCenter Pro G3 300/300/43 (Overclocked RailGun 250/250/43/1MB) with 8MB Rage Pro VR, 256MB RAM, no VM, OS 8.5.1.
I figured the best way to test OpenGL performance with these drivers
would be with X-Plane which I played on a B&W G3 at Macworld. I
followed the readme instructions and removed my existing ATI 3.3 drivers as well as the Conix OpenGL folder installed by Studio Pro 2.5 in the extensions folder. It worked but the rendering was extremely slow, unplayable basically. Even when I reduced the sim's rendering options to their minimums rendering remained extremely slow.
Since I had removed my ATI drivers the ATI displays control panel no
longer worked [note - the ATI PCI card control panel does not work with any onboard ATI chips -Mike] so I could not see what was actually happening in the
card. I did not try any rave games since I was specifically interested in OpenGL. I will try Myth tonight to see what it does. I will also bring back all of my original ATI drivers and install the OpenGL drivers over them to see what happens also since some other respondents report no problems. I will also try using just the ATI drivers and Conix OpenGL for another comparison and report back. So far I'm dissapointed but glad that Apple is moving to OpenGL. Hopefully the new Rage 128's will be out soon.
Marcus H. Hall III
LAN Administrator II
"
- Virtual Game Station and OpenGL Performance:
"Mike-
Here's the system. B&W 350 DVD 64mgs ram 6Gb HD ,
etc. Downloaded the OpenGL drviers and SDK found the following issues.
1) Virtual games station no longer does the Rave Rendering it used to.
It used to swich to RAVE rendering if you brought up the Prefereces
dialog after loading a game. Now it won't do that any more. Also it
looks like it's trying to draw the apple menu at the top. It never used
to do that before either. Most possibly the new ATI exentions.
2) Running the GL samples that come with the sdk is about twice as fast
as with MESA and compareable to Conix GL. I recompiled the GLUT_Mech
useing both the apple libs and the MESA libs and it ran faster.
More info later.
Luke"
- More on the DVD Playback Issue:
"Mike,
I have been looking at the OpenGL Drivers on my G3 400 B & W. I noticed
the post on the DVD and it's inablility to play after the OpenGL drivers
were installed. I traced this to a problem with the ATI Resource Manager
being installed. You need to use the older (v1.1) extension for the DVD
to work. By extension you must also use the older version of the ATI
Graphics Acclerator (v3.8) because it the newer version will not load
w/out the OpenGL version ATI Resource Manager.
[He later wrote]
Had a chance to work with it a little more. Although the DVD will work
with only the older Resouce Manager and Video Acclerator unfortunately
nothing else will. The Rage 128 card is not detected with this setup. So
either you have DVD or you play games. I say go for games!
With all RAVE options enabled on Quake RAVE I was able to get 31.2 fps
in Demo3 at 832 by 624 (millions of colors) with the OpenGL Drivers.
With the old set of drivers I get 32.8 fps so I am actually seeing a
slowdown [very small however-Mike]. I'll try and switch out other extensions between the old and new and get some idea if there is any improvement.
I also have a question. The OpenGL beta installer places the ATI Rage
128 3D Accelerator and the ATI 3D Accelerator in the extension folder.
Are they both needed or is the ATI 3D Acclerator for older Rage and IIc
cards?
Thanks a lot!
Ted Santiesteban"
I think the 3D accelerator is just there for backward compatibility for the Rage II/RagePro cards. The OpenGL drivers are listed to support RageII/RagePro and Rage128.
-
"Mike,
Just wanted to let you know that both the ATI drivers help out my RagePro in my Desktop G3 233 quite nicely! I have 192 MB RAM, with 6MB of VRAM for the RagePro. Unreal increased about 4 fps from 8 to 12 on the timedemo at 640x480 (so I'm not giving up my Voodoo2 anytime soon), but MythII also performs better in 1024x768!
Thanks!
Andy Largent
"
4fps originally? That sounds like a RageII instead of a RagePro.
- RagePro/RaveBench Results with old/new driver 'mix':
"Mike,
I'm experiencing some incredible if unbelievable test results that I have reproduced twice now using RAVE Bench to try out the new open GL drivers.
I have combined all the new open GL extensions including quickdraw with the "older" ATI 3.3:
Extension v.2.5.1
Graphic Driver v.1.0
Offscreen Memory Manager v.1.7
Video Memory Manager v.7.8
Test Results 640x480 in a window (percent faster than base open GL install):
(note: the base open GL install was similar in performance to the ATI 3.3 drivers)
Triangles: 79%
Mesh: 76%
Environment Mapping: 100% (not supported on base install)
Movement: 78%
Transparency: 100% (not supported on base open GL install )
Intersections: 73%
The System Info from Norton Utilities showed no appreciable increase in performance scores (2D). I honestly don't know why I'm getting such a performance increase. I don't have the CD for Macbench 5.0, so I cannot provide any test results. Is there a better utility for testing RAVE? It's rather astounding to see results like these and I do wonder how they will bear out when I test them with Myth, Unreal and Future Cop. Any comments are welcome. Thanks!
Best Regards,
C. Wilson
System: PowerCenter Pro G3 (Interex) at 360 MHz w/ 1mb backside cache@2:1
160 mb ram, no virtual memory. Mac Os 8.1 with minimal extensions for testing.
ATI Rage Pro 8 mb, Hitachi Superscan 21" at thosands colors [16-bit] (for test)
"
Myth, Unreal, Future Cop use Rave only, not OpenGL but it will be interesting to see if performance is affected. Did VillageTronic ever publicly release RaveBench?
- DVD Playback Affected: (possibly an extension for this is not enabled/included) [more on this in a post above]
"I tried the OpenGL drivers and it fixed the artifact problem I was having with Logic Audio Gold 3.7.2. It also created a new problem, it knocked out my ability to play DVD movies. When I started the DVD player, I would
receive a message that the DVD hardware could not be found. As soon as I
reverted to the extensions in the ATI 1.0 update, my DVD drive would play
movies again.
David"
Rage128/Unreal Performance Loss?
"Hey Mike, awesome site. I downloaded and installed the new openGL drivers with the newer ATI drivers on my B&W G3 350. Ive only run one test so far and
Ive noticed Unreal (220b3) performance has dropped. With the previous set of
drivers I was getting 32fps at 640x480 using the new Unreal FPS toolkit.
After updating I get 26fps. That kind of surprised me, I was expecting a
small leap in performance. Oh well, guess I cant expect too much since their
just beta drivers.
-Zack West
"
Loss of RAVE 3D Support: (several comments on this so far)
"
Installing the package on a Yosemite 350 recently out of the box didn't do
anything to 2D that I notice (although it probably did fix some bugs I
never noticed) but 3D games (namely Quake RAVE and Unreal) no longer
recognize the card as a valid RAVE card. odd. Guess I'll have to wait for
b3, since the version numbers are so much higher on the 3d extensions, they
will probably boost frame rates somewhat.
Cheers,
Nate Begeman
"
Quake slower: (assuming he ran RAVE version - possibly if RAVE
hardware support is disabled (as noted above) this could be the reason for lower framerates)
"
Hello...I just wanted to report to your guys that I downloaded the OpenGL
drivers from apple, and in fact things seem to be running...SLOWER!!!
Yes, in fact, slower! Before in Quake I got 84.9 frames a sec (with Flames
and Shadows off), and now I get 74.5 frames a sec with the same settings!
Ack...What's going on? I thought OpenGL was supposed to make things faster!
[Quake does not use OpenGL-Mike]
This is a big disappointment for me.
(My computer is a 400mhz Yosemite, with 128 megs of ram, and the ATI Rage 128
(of course)"
Strata Studio:
"Hey Mike!
Just dowloaded and installed the new drivers on my B/W 350/zip ...
It appears that Strata Studio Pro v.1.5.3 will not recognize the new
OpenGL files: Although you can select OpenGL as an interactive render
option in the Prefs, SSP refuses to actually enable it after restarting
the program - you only get to use QuickDraw 3D.
I guess it prefers the Conix flavor of OpenGL that shipped with Studio
Pro - although it could just be a naming proplem - the new libraries,
etc. are all called "OpenGL ..." (as opposed to the old "aglShdLib" or
"glMemory", for example)
[he later wrote]
As a follow-up to Studio Pro not working with the new drivers, I tried
renaming some of the new libraries, etc, to the names of the older Conix
versions ... still didn't work (I didn't really think it would, but I
had to give it a try =)
Matt Dwyer
"
A RagePro VR owner reports he had *improved* RAVE support:
"I tried these out briefly on a 8500 with RagePro card and OS 8.5.1. The readme asks you to remove all ATI extensions. This may not actually be
necessary but in any case, doing so disables the ATI video capture
features and the ATI control panel.
Once installed (the package includes new QD3D, OpenGL Libs and several ATI
extensions) I saw no problem with the few different mainstream apps that I
tested. One immediate benefit was that RAVE HW acceleration worked with
the MYTH 1.1 demo. I had not been able to get this working with my v1.5.4
based QD3D drivers.
Arno B.
Univ. of Chicago
"
RageII Owner Notes Improved Performance:
"Mike,
I have a PM 5500/225 and the ATI Rage II chip set. I loaded the Open GL
drivers and contrary to your statements am very pleased with them. I tried
their programs without and with the drivers and there is a noticeable
difference using them. While I'm sure there's no contest between the Rage
II and the newer chips users of the 6500/5500/TAM should definitely load and
use the drivers. Take care.
Hal
"
Glad to hear it Hal. My comment was based on
poor 3D performance of the RageII (I owned 3 of them)
and lots of tests/reader feedback in 3D games.
The RageII's fill rate and 3D hardware speed
is understandably far slower than later versions
of the device.Primarily I did not want RageII owners
expecting these drivers to perform miracles.
"
RagePro Owner Comments:
"Mike,
I downloaded the new Apple drivers this afternoon and installed them
this evening on my G3/233 desktop with 96MB of RAM and an ATI Rage PRO card
with 6MB of video memory. I tested the only two RAVE games that I own: Myth
II and Quake 1.09, and they both work flawlessly. There's not too much of a
speed increase, I'd say about an fps or two in each application. The
drivers did install new versions over the ATI extensions I had installed
(see chart below and attached as ClarisWorks document). Window redraws seem
a bit snappier, but that could be mind over matter. All in all, not a huge
increase in speed, but an increase nonetheless. As always, thanks for the wonderful site!
Nick Klingaman"
- Flash 3 Bug Fixed!
"
This OpenGL installer also fixes a well known Macromedia Flash 3/ATI
Rage128 screen redraw problem on B&W G3's. This is great news for web
developers who had to disable the ATI Graphics Accelerator extension as
a workaround. Fast redraws again, hooray!!!
Parker Beeson
"
- An Ultimate Rez owner wrote:
"Well I have tried out the new drivers and I may be wrong here, I'm going to test it again with them uninstalled, but I noticed a real improvement in
open Gl previews for lightwave, and I only have a rage II running on a 300
G3 overclocked to 333. It seemed like about a 20-30 increase in speed.
Also, before when I would escape outof a open gl preview before it finished
it wouldn't playback, now it does. Going to do further testing today. Can't
wait untill I get the new Rage fury.
[He later wrote:]
Well, after more testing I would say that the improvements weren't quite as
great as I thought, but there is an improvement, more like 10-15%. The
problem with the previews not playing when I canceled them halfway through
was another problem I had. Also the previews in lightwave seem a little
smoother, not much, but a little. I'm running Quicktime b15 on Mac OS8.6b4.
I'm also installing and uninstalling my Ult rez card and plug-ins right now
to see if there is any other changes
Scott."
The IX3D chip based cards are very poor in 3D in my opinion (and others). This was
noted on my reviews linked on the Graphics Cards page.
Speed Doubler/Rage128 Extension Loading: A reader reports you need to add a space to the beginning of the 'ATI Graphics Accelerator' extension so that it's not disabled by Speed Doubler at
initial load. Other tips that have solved ATI extensions loading issues have been enabling Virtual Memory. [From B&W G3 Compatibility page]
Canvas 6 Issues:
"The new (& old) ATI drivers are not compatible with Canvas 6.
I have updated to the latest version of Canvas (I think it is 6.0.2, but
my G3 is at home & I have a windows box at work).
Essentially if I select any object and drag it, it leaves "clones" of
itselt all over the path I drag it along. I called Deneba and they said
this is a known issue with the ATI drivers and needs an update from
Apple. It makes it almost impossible to work with.
Curiously, if I move the object with the arrow keys, it behaves
properly...
Deneba claims that if I turn off the acceleration by removing extensions
and restarting this will go away, but that is too much of a pain to try
Dave
"
Rage128/Quark Issues (again): I thought this was to be fixed in the Rage128 1.0 update:
"
Hi Mike, i'm writing from Argentina.
If the Graphics Accelerator (new and old) is active the Document Layout
Palette and any other floating palette in QX (3.32 and 4.0x [including the
new 4.04]) goes grey and it can't display the contents correctly.
Ruben Heredia"
Compatibility Issues: A reader reports on problems he's seen (using 1.0 update, VM on):
"
Hi Mike,
I just wanted to provide some feedback on the lousy video drivers
that ATI/Apple shipped for the Rage128 cards in the new B/W G3's.
I've had my new system now for 2 weeks. While I've overclocked my
system (stock 350Mhz) to 450Mhz, I have ruled this out as being the
cause.
I have two totally reproducible problems with my system that I have
identified that are a little more than annoying:
1. Corel Photopaint 8.0.2 leaves black square artifacts over the
canvas when using any of the paintbrush tools. Artifacts go away
after using the window shade, but this condition pretty much renders
Photopaint useless for anything. The artifacts appear on the canvas
relative to the mouse pointer.
2. dragging an ICON from a mounted Mac OS 8.5.1 CD causes the screen
to go nuts, and the system to lock up. This happens as soon as the
icon clears the folder I'm pulling it out of and moves over the
desktop. I am truly baffled why this only occurs with the OS CD, but
I have tried it several times after fresh reboots and can reproduce
it at will.
These problems disappear when disabling the ATI Graphics Accelerator
extension. I'm using the latest ATI drivers and have a minimal
extension set.
I've had some random problems as well, including:
- System freezing while it was in sleep mode (Only once so far)
- Icons disappearing in the desktop when using other applications.
They come back with a click on the desktop. (Frequent)
- Monitor loosing its video signal and going blank, but not locking
up the system, only requiring a shutdown/restart to fix (Twice so
far).
All said though, this is a very nice system. Other than these few,
but very critical issues that I firmly belive are directly related to
the ATI Graphics Accelerator extension, this is a very reliable box,
and wickedly fast. My old system was a 9600 with 308/308 G3 and
Nexus 128 video, and this system leaves it in the dust. Even the IDE
hard disk subsystem is noticeably faster than the 2 drive Raid 0
system I had set up using the 9600's on board scsi and two 4.2gb
Segate Barracudas. Most likely due to the higher CPU speed.
I really hope Apple/ATI can resolve these issues soon.
Thanks,
Bart
"
cubaseVST 24 problems:
"
Dear Mike,
If I enable ATI extensions (old and new), my audio sequencing program
(cubaseVST 24), works fine only for some seconds and then only a
looping-like noise comes frome the output. It's enough to quit the
program and relaunch it to get again the right audio (and, again, only for some seconds.
Everything seems to be right if I disable the ATI extensions.
Ciao
Gigi Marras
"
CVGS/B&W G3 Tip:
"
I figured out an answer to a problem that I've not yet heard any other reports
of. Thought I'd pass along my knowledge; I'm sure others could benefit...
I have:
B&W G3
RAGE 128 and Apple's updated drivers
CVGS 1.1
I'd stick in a Playstation CD and play it. Everything works just fine. If I quit VGS and try to run it again, it tells me I need newer drivers to run VGS. I realized I got this error whenever running VGS after an app has used the 3D card. Restarting fixed the problem. So every time I wanted to use VGS a second
time, I'd have to restart.
I checked my extensions folder and saw I had both an 'ATI 3D Accelerator' file and an 'ATI Rage 128 3D Accelerator' file. Removing of the 'ATI 3D Accelerator'
extension fixed the problem. I wonder if that caused any other glitches.
JBR
"
Virtual Memory Tip: Several readers reported that enabling Virtual Memory does help with problems of an ATI extension not loading at boot. Internal modem owners reported that this was the only way to fix the problem at the current time.
Check QD 3D Extensions: Andrew found the cause of his lost ability to run RAVE games:
"
Mike,
2 things:
As per your incredible directions, I installed a Maxtor DiamondPlus 10GB drive in my Yosemite 400mhz. Works like a charm.
And I have found a fix (at least for me) for restoring RAVE capability to Quake (my example) after upgrading the ATI drivers.
I was almost ready to give up when I took one last look at my extensions. It turns out that somewhere along the line my QuickDraw3D extensions had been replaced with older versions. While my QuickDraw3D extension was at 1.5.4, my QuickDraw3D RAVE extension had fallen to something like 1.3. I don't remember exactly, but the discrepancy was obvious.
Solution? Pop in the MacOS system CD, reinstall only the QuickDraw3D
extensions. This restores the latest QuickDraw3D RAVE extension (1.5.4). And, of course, it allows me to run the RAVE versions of games like Quake. My machine no longer complains that the monitor is not connected to a RAVE device. :-)
Now, if Apple and ATI could just get those drivers tested, fixed, and
updated quickly...
Andrew
"
No solutions to Rage128 Pauses/Stuttering it seems:
"
My observations only concern Unreal and problem with stuttering video...the scene occasionally jerks to a later frame instead of smoothly moving to that
frame.
- Diabled Firebird Joystick. Rebooted. No help.
- Enabled Virtual Memory. Rebooted. No help.
- Disabled Speed Doubler. Rebooted. No help.
- Renamed ATI extensions to make them load sooner. Rebooted. No help.
Sigh... Nothing seems to work so far. But, you know, I just think about Mac Starcraft and all other Mac problems seem so small.
Lance Moody
"
I've reported this to ATI awhile back. If anyone has a workaround please contact me.
ATI Rage cards Pausing in 3D Games: A reader says this solved his pausing problem (but no other reports of it helping)
"
Just a quick note to Jeremy Bascom-
Even with an old RagePro, I had experienced intermittent pauses every
couple of seconds when doing anything 3D. The cure, I found is to
disable the Launcher (from the extensions manager... even if you don't
use the Launcher, if it loads, you get pauses) and any background apps
(such as the Gravis Firebird BA) (to find out what background apps you
might be running, you can search your hard drive(s) for File Type
'appe')
Now my 3d graphics run smoothly. Hope this works for you.
-Matthew Hall
"
Adatpec 2940UW (Beta 4 Firmware)/ATI Extension Issues: The follow must be related to the Adapec Card, as
I do not see the issue here with a Jackhammer PCI SCSI card (v1.4 firmware) and it's not a
general complaint:
"
Mike,
My experience with the ATI drivers is not very good. Before downloading the
recent update, I was having trouble getting the ATI Graphics Acceleration
extension to load without a big red X across it at startup. I played with
its order in the loading, and seemed to have success by moving it (and only
it, not the other ATI extensions) to the top of the list by placing a space
at the front of its name. After downloading the update, I had problems
getting it to install again. I tried eliminating the 4 extensions that come
ahead of it in the load order, namely Apple CD/DVD, Apple Guide,
AppleScript, and Appleshare. By disbling all 4, the ATI extension loaded
fine. Then I added back the Appleshare extension and it loaded fine again.
Then I readded the Apple CD/DVD extension to the list, and that made ATI
fail to install. Then I disabled the CD/DVD extension and reenabled the
Apple Guide and AppleScript extensions, but that made ATI fail to load
again! I'm at a loss to explain this, as these 4 extensions come with the
distribution for my BW G3/350 (although I do not have a DVD, only the CD
option).
There is one additional factor involved here perhaps, and that is I have an
internal 9GB UW Barracuda attached to an Adaptec 2940UW card, and I recently
flashed it to the new 4.0 driver downloaded from the Adaptec web site.
There seems to be some interreaction there, and today I tried reflashing the
SCSI card back to 3.0 with the old flasher, and it first reallowed ATI to
install properly at startup, when it was still first in the load list. So
then I removed the leading space from its name and rebooted, hoping those
problems had been fixed, but ATI came up with THE BIG RED X again. Right
now, the only sure way to load ATI (which, after all, I must absolutely
have) is to leave a space in front of its name, and leave the SCSI card at
flash level 3.0. Go figure... These are all normal extensions - there is
nothing here unusual or archaic, I believe. And I am surprised not more
people are reporting these kinds of problems loading the ATI Graphics
Acceleration extension. Come to think of it, I've been having trouble
getting ATI acceleration to load properly ever since I first flashed my
2940UW to level 4.0... so what is the connection???
Keep up the good work keeping us all informed!
-Yvon Perreault"
More on Flash Conflicts: This reader comments disabling the ATI Graphics Accelerator
solves the problem:
"
Hi,
I have one of those new B&W 400 G3.
I noticed the ATI Rage 128 driver had a bug in it right away. It do not
work with Macromedia Flash 2 and 3. (I use Flash 3 about 8-14 hours a
day 5-6 days a week).
Well the new driver that was posted yesterday, still doesn't work. If
you disable the ATI Graphics Accelerator extension it will the work,
this is true for both the original driver and the new so called updated
one..
- Elvis Sahakian
"
[2/11/99 postings below]
Kaleidoscope 2.1 Conflict:
"
The new Rage 128 drivers seem to cause serious problems with Kaleidoscope 2.1 on my system... All
applications (with the exception of control panels) crash with a Type 2
when launched, double-clicking a K2 scheme no longer works, and
attempting to select another scheme with the Kaleidoscope control panel
causes the Finder to quit continuously, leaving a strange gray bar just
underneath the menu bar at the top of the screen when the finder
re-launches. Boo Hiss!
Disabling Kaleidoscope (and only Kaleidoscope) immediately resolved the
problem.
Michael Eilers"
Quark/Illustrator Issues Resolved:
"
I loaded the new drivers last night, and everything seems to be back in
order. More specifically, Quark 3.32 no longer has problems with rendering
the color palette and Illustrator 6 (and 8) are back to normal. Plus, I
received my Adaptec 2906 SCSI card on Wednesday and I understand the
internal modems have shipped to resellers... could the Yosemite Blues
finally be coming to an end? :)
Pat Holcombe"
It's getting a lot better!
More Unreal/Myth II Comments: (from our 3D Game News page)
"
Here are my Unreal fps scores (with the new ATI drivers) . . . .
System:B&W G3 350 DVD - standard configuration ,128 megs
of RAM,90 Megs allocated to Unreal, Unreal 1.0.2b4
Pre-update: HQ - 23.75 fps
Post-update: HQ - 28.14 fps
[HQ = our High Quality Unreal.ini file-Mike]
...Also, the Myth II problems have been sorted out . . . Soulless
no longer have an ugly black box around them No black boxes around
the 'move to' circles Arrows and explosions look an awful lot prettier Fog no longer
can be qualified as 'pea-soup' (i.e. can't see a darned thing
- screen was just white before) However, I have to say that I
played Myth II on a PowerMac 6500 with the Macmagic Voodoo I,
and while the frame rate was incomparable, the Voodoo I looked way better.
Mark Hyett"
"
Myth II Issues (updated): I don't own Myth II so I can't verify the available
resolutions but here are two conflicting reports (most recent first)
"
Hi Mike,
I'm confirming that all the Myth II RAVE display glitches have been
worked out with the new ATI Rage128 update. No more floating units black
backgrounds and no more annoying black outlines for certain sprites. And
3d fog works!
However, one of your reader's comment [below] (Dave) puzzles me : how on earth
was he able to get 1024x768 resolution in RAVE mode with the Rage128 ? I
thought one of the Rage128 issues with Myth II was indeed a lack of
resolutions above 800x600 (confirmed this with Ray Swartz of ATI in
another forum). This is supposedely not an ATI driver issue but a Bungie
mishap that is supposed to be corrected in the Myth II v1.2 update.
Another tidbit that Ray Swartz told me too is that in the next driver
update, they plan to address the sprites ragged edges issue, and
anti-alias them kind "a la 3dfx". A welcome addition because the Myth II
units look indeed very ugly at high zooms ;)
Patrick Debaumarche,
"
"
Mike,
Downloaded and installed the new drivers. I'm quite displeased when it
comes to Myth II (haven't tried Unreal, yet).
- The ugly black boxes around units are gone, replaced by thin outlines
of ugly black boxes.
- The unit trading bar is still invisible, making it impossible to swap
units around.
- Sometimes the info bar at the top of the screen will be streaks of
rainbow colors and unreadable.
- Lastly, I'm seeing this odd behavior when trying to load the
Multiplayer map "Proving Grounds".. just after the map loads, my display
changes resolutions and I'm sitting in the finder. No crash (didn't drop
into Macsbug)... the application just stops running. I didn't think this
would be an ATI issue, but it doesn't happen in software rendering mode.
I haven't tried loading all the different maps, but it _always_ happens
on this map when in RAVE mode.
The last 3 problems only
show up when in 1024x768. I downsized to 800x600 and didn't see any of
the reported behavior except the outlined boxes around some troops.
-Dave
"
Flash3 still a problem: Two readers comments.
"
Just thought i'd chime in with other readers who've had problems with the
new Updater from Apple...
This updater actually made Macromedia Flash 3 run WORSE. Instead of Black
and White artifacts across the screen, we now get a black screen after
moving objects around...its okay after windowshading tho.
i really wanna know whose testing this stuff, it shouldn't have happened
first time round, let alone after the supposed update.
jake
"
"
I am sure you will be hearing this from many people shortly, but the
recently posted and anxiously awaited ATI driver update for the B/W G3 has virtually
the same problem as the previous extension set. The cosmetics of the
redraw problem are slightly different on my machine than before but the
same app (Flash3) has basically the same problem. (which we have all
repeatedly heard described). I am truly astonished...
David Rosenfeld
"
Unreal Comments:
"
Although I can't speak for Macromedia Flash, I find it interesting that
Unreal (1.02b4) has changed. The frame-rates are better (10fps average),
but when moving at all, there is a slight random(maybe) pause. [See possible
fix posted above-Mike] The pauses
are every other second, they appear at any resolutions(albeit less the lower
you go), and are just annoying. This didn't occur prior to the update. I
have tried it with VM on and off with 96megs allocated to Unreal on a BWG3
350/128.
Jeremy Bascom
"
I also reported pauses with the beta drivers in Unreal in outdoor areas
but it seemed to only happen at 800x600 resolution. See the Yosemite Game Performance page for performance tests with the beta version and comparisons to a Voodoo2 card.
If you have comments, tips or workarounds on the new drivers, please contact me.
Related Links (these are updated often):
- Searchable Mac Game/Video card performance database for more up-to-date news on Rage128 video cards, drivers and issues.
You can compare how the Rage128 fares to other cards in games like Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Quake1, Quake2, Quake3 and more. You can even limit searches by mac model, cpu type/speed, etc. To see what's the fastest card by game title - select only the game title and resolution.
- Mac 3D card Roundup Compare the Rage128 to 3Dfx's Voodoo3, Voodoo2, Formac Proformance III and more.
- iMac DV SE Review: The iMac finally gets a Rage128 chip (albeit a limited one with only 8MB of VRAM). Full 7 page review includes apps performance, game performance, compatibility and much more.
- Firmware Update Feedback Page
- Rage128 (retail) FAQ (Shipping Dates/FAQ from ATI)
- ATI's Mac Products FAQ (Includes Rage128 and RagePro/RageII cards)
- Yosemite Tips, Specs, Info
- Yosemite Compatibility Reports
- Yosemite Performance (Benchmarks and Apps testing)
- Yosemite Gaming Performance
- Yosemite Speed Settings [Ref. Only - Voids Warranty!]
- IDE Slave Drive Upgrade
[Ref. Only - may void warranty]
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