[uunix]

Hey, so my 285 is back to life and I have just purchased 32GB Ram for it at a rather nice price, and I hope it jolly well works.

So next looking at the Graphics cards available and it's somewhat confusing.

Existing one is described as a High Performance PCi Graphics adaptor and contains 32MB Memory.. GXT135P

Yet

The GXT6500P (more numbers) is classed as a midrange with more RAM..

Also, I wonder, if the word POWER is put before, this seems to make them top of the line?

[epitaxial]

Wasn't someone on nekochan selling re-flashed Nvidia cards so they would work in PowerPC based Macs? Wonder if that would work for IBM stuff?

[johnnym]

So next looking at the Graphics cards available and it's somewhat confusing.

Existing one is described as a High Performance PCi Graphics adaptor and contains 32MB Memory.. GXT135P

Yet

The GXT6500P (more numbers) is classed as a midrange with more RAM..

Some time ago micrex22 made some information available about those IBM (GXT4500P, GXT6500P) and Matrox (GXT135P) graphics cards in this thread, where the latter one is touted "anemic". So maybe although they're older, the GXT4500P and GXT6500P may perform better in some cases or have better support for specific rendering APIs.

[uunix]

That's an interesting read.

I found one (GXT6500P) on eBay for £12 (+ a criminal £12 P&P) which I have bought.

Will see how things pan out.

Still no idea what I want to run on the machine I have to say, but swaying towards a PostgreSQL server of some type.

[micrex22]

The GXT135P is just a Matrox G450 or equivalent with the chip flashed for Open Firmware (so of course it won't work in an x86 system unless it was flashed). It does not have proper 3D acceleration under AIX, only the GXT4500/6500 do.

It is possible to use PowerPC mac video cards on the AIX systems because they're just all Open Firmware capable. But be advised these will not run under AIX the operating system itself, but only Linux. Now Installing Linux on an IntelliStation POWER is a whole other ordeal.

[uunix]

It is possible to use PowerPC mac video cards on the AIX systems because they're just all Open Firmware capable. But be advised these will not run under AIX the operating system itself, but only Linux. Now Installing Linux on an IntelliStation POWER is a whole other ordeal.

In my loft.. somewhere, I do have a 1600sw mac pci video card. Wouldn't it be funny if that worked. Alas it will have to wait till I empty the loft.

[uunix]

Update time.. the 285 now has 32GB Ram.. nice.

Also I fitted in a GXT6500P and even though it appears in SMIT I can't get a display out of it.. BUT... and here's the thing, I left the GXT135P in. Do we think that would cause a problem?

[Edit] The card appears to be faulty. I removed the GXT135P and it still fails to display anything.. ah well £12 + £12 postage.. untested.. it was a gamble.


[Edit Edit] I changed the slot it was inserted into to the very bottom one (the previous one was a full length PCi, I presumed 64bit?) and now I get display. BUT.. now X won't start but I do get a console login.


I will have to either do a re-install (don't like that idea) or configure X, actually I can reset the default display back to the GXT135P via smit.

Thanks.

[micrex22]

[Edit Edit]  I changed the slot it was inserted into to the very bottom one (the previous one was a full length PCi, I presumed 64bit?) and now I get display. BUT.. now X won't start but I do get a console login.


I will have to either do a re-install (don't like that idea) or configure X, actually I can reset the default display back to the GXT135P via smit.

Thanks.

Depending on the slots used it can change the behaviour of what's happening. Extracted from the 285 redbook:

Six PCI-X slots (three long and three short slots):

– Three hot-swap 133 MHz 64-bit PCI-X slots
– Two hot-swap 66 MHz 32-bit PCI-X slots
– One hot-swap DDR 266 MHz 64-bit PCI-X slot

Looking at the photos, the fastest 'long' PCI-X slot is C4 (closest to the middle) which operates at 266 Mhz versus the other two which operate at 133 Mhz. It also goes directly to the Enhanced I/O Controller, whereas the other two first go through a PCI-X to PCI-X bridge. I'm not entirely certain if this would change anything.

Fortunately installing AIX is the easiest installation process in the history of OS installations

[uunix]

Thought I'd update this..
I ended up doing a re-install as you may know.. not through choice, but actually, it seems like it was a fair solution, both cards work, have a correct keyboard layout etc.

I had originally tried the GXT6500P in the 266 slot and never got any output, moving it down to the bottom 133 has worked OK. Both cards work although I am unable at the moment to set the 6500 as default regardless of what I do or smit tells me I have done.

The more I dig into this system, the more impressive it becomes.. hot swapping PCi cards is pretty awesome, but I haven't had the nerve yet.

I am though getting an error regarding the hypervisor, I'll have to look into. I could do with ensuring its the latest firmware, I'll have to read up on that.

I have 1GB (2x512MB) of RAM for anyone owning a similar machine if they want it. FOC, just pay the postage.