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Top stories of Dec. 22nd, 2000: |
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| $179.95 (after rebate) Retail Box Radeon AGP Graphics Cards: |
William FitzGibbon sent word that Outpost.com has the Mac Radeon Edition AGP graphics card for $209.95 (w/free overnight delivery in the USA), with the $30 ATI rebate valid until 1/15/2001. Just enter 69751 in the search box at Outpost to find their Radeon page.
(The page shows it in stock when I checked, but a browser window pops up that says the item is backordered and can't be delivered in time for Xmas.) For more info and performance comparisons on the Radeon Mac Edition, see my previous review. For those that are wondering, last I heard the PCI Radeon was to be available at the end of the month, or by MacWorld SF at least.
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| Proformance 3 Owner Reports Problems Running Oni Demo: |
| A reader reported problems running the Oni Demo on a Proformance III graphics card.
"
Can't get Oni Demo v.1.1 (the one everyone's saturating the
Internet to d/l) to run on a B&W G3/450 with 512MB RAM and Formac
Proformance III card. It plays the Bink movies but when it
tries to initialize the startup screen it displays an error
message that says 'failed to initialize accelerated OpenGL
hardware..' Other OpenGL programs like CineBench still run
just fine however.. gut feeling tells me it's searching for
ATI specific drivers. Tried OpenGL v.1.1.5 and 1.2.1, still
no effect.
ProGraphics Control Panel 5.9.3, ROM 2.5.1.
BTW, runs just fine on a Dual Processor G4 w/512MB
RAM and OEM Rage128 Pro card with OpenGL 1.1.5 drivers
-- Peter Chin
Macintosh / UNIX Systems Administrator
(he later wrote)
Just got off the line with Formac.. they said I
was the first to mention it to them.. also they
said they would download the demo and tinker with
either their driver or the software to get it to work.
"
Update - see the 12/23/2000 news page for another Proformance 3 owner report saying that installing OpenGL 1.2.1 allowed him to play the game.
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| Virtual PC 4.0 and Close Combat (Works for Me) |
Yesterday I saw that Microsoft's "Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far" was in the under $10 bin at Staples for a hybrid PC/Mac CD, so I bought it as a test of 2D (no 3D accelerator required) Gaming under Virtual PC 4. There had been some reader reports that even non-3D games wouldn't install or run under VPC 4, but this one did. Installing Microsoft's DirectShow API took a long time, but otherwise the game seems to run fine. This game only requires directX v5 (or later) and I selected the full install option to reduce CD access.
For previous VPC 4 vs VPC 3 performance tests (on G3 and G4 Macs), see the Software section of the Misc. Articles page.
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| Apple AGP Update (Extension) Available |
A reader post in the forums early this morning noted that running Software Update on his G4/AGP (Radeon) system showed an Apple "AGP Update" extension. I ran software update on both my rev 1 G4/AGP (non-Gigabit) system and a dual processor systems and the update only showed up on the Gigabit Ethernet G4. (It took two tries with Software Update to have the AGP Update appear.)
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| (Ex-)3dfx Employee's Site: |
An article at the register yesterday noted a link to a 3dfx employee (or ex-employee) web site at www.x3dfx.com. They seem to have shut it down now, at least temporarily, but there were comments on starting a new company perhaps (unless I misunderstood something). I hope all the Mac programmers at 3dfx are hired by either Nvidia or ATI. I hear many will be.
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| Drive Compatibility Database Updates: |
| The Drive Compatibility searchable database had 12 new entries posted this morning (current total 2,259). Entries from after midnight are added the following day. Note: I've added "Firewire to SCSI Adapter" as an interface type. I welcome reports on drives used with adapters. (Please note the adapter brand/model and if the drive was bootable in your comments.)
Tape Drives:
- SCSI Seagate DDS 4GB in B&W G3
Removable Media Drives:
- SCSI Fujitsu MCE3130SS 1.3GB Magneto Optical w/DayStar Genesis
- SCSI ZIP 100 OEM drive in Umax S900
Combo DVD/CDRW Drives:
- IDE Toshiba SD-R1002 in Beige G3
CD ROM Drives:
- SCSI CyberDrive 24X in Umax S900
(filed under "other brands")
CDRW Drives:
- SCSI Sony 920S 2x CDR in Umax S900
Hard Drives:
- IDE IBM 75GXP 30GB in B&W G3 rev 1 (using PCI IDE card)
(noted Virtual Memory caused dramatic slowdowns with the VST IDE card)
- SCSI IBM 4.5GB in Umax S900
- IDE Maxtor 30GB in PowerCenter Pro (w/PCI IDE card)
(notes CDrom drive issues when booting from IDE drive)
- SCSI Quantum Atlas V 18GB in 9x00
- SCSI Seagate 2GB in 7x00
- SCSI Seagate 4.5GB in Umax S900
You can find these full reports by searching the database with the drive/brand/mac models listed above selected (the latest reports are shown first in searches).
If you've added a IDE, SCSI, Firewire or USB hard drive, CDRW, tape drive, etc. make sure you add a report to the database.
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| Rate Your CPU Upgrade Database Updates: |
| The Rate Your CPU Upgrade database has been updated with 5 new reports (total to date: 4,969). [Entries from after midnight will be added the following day.]
- Powerlogix Zforce w/G3 233 in 7500/100 (rated 9)
- Newer Tech G4/400 in Beige G3/233 (rated 9)
- Newer Tech G3/240 in PowerBook 2400c/180 (rated 9)
- Newer Tech G3/366 in Beige G3 (rated 10)
- B&W G3/350 OC report
You can find these full reports by searching the database selecting the indicated Mac model and upgrade card brand/type. If you've upgraded the CPU on your Mac, please post an entry in the database. Search the database for entries from most every upgradable Mac model *before* you buy. (Searchable by mac model/upgrade brand)
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