WTB: AmigaOne XE-compatible Radeon 9xxx

[Matt_H]

Greetings all,

I'm trying to upgrade from a 64MB Radeon 7000 to something slightly newer. I've now tried 4 different Radeon 9xxx graphics cards in my AmigaOne XE, all of which *should* have worked, but none of which actually do. 3 were AGP, 1 was PCI, all of the cards themselves are fine. It's just the stupid XE that doesn't want to play nice (hangs before UBoot comes up).

So I'm hoping someone might have a spare that they have actually used successfully in their XE in the past. Please, no links to more cards that "should" work (I've wasted enough money on those) unless you bought one yourself and can confirm that it works.

AGP and 256MB preferred, but PCI 66MHz (the slot immediately adjacent to the AGP slot) and/or 128MB also considered.

Would like to do a US transaction, if possible, via Paypal. I also have several Radeons available to trade (9250, 9200) if for some reason you want a different one

[AmiBoy]

I might be willing to ship an AGP Radeon 9100SE 128MB card to you without any payment for the card until you have tested and verified that it works.

If it works then we could negotiate a price.

If it doesn't work I'll pay to have it shipped back or you are free to find a seller your end then maybe split the money??

How does this sound?

regards

[Iggy]

I don't think there is a driver for the 8500 or 9100.
Only the 9000, 9200, and 9250.

[RobertB]

I've now tried 4 different Radeon 9xxx graphics cards in my AmigaOne XE, all of which *should* have worked, but none of which actually do. 3 were AGP...

I spoke to the TOGA tech today, telling him about your problem.  He advises that you reflash the BIOS of the Radeon cards.  They are probably set for PC, and you should reflash them to Mac (which is the BIOS for any non-PC computer like the A1).  Then the cards should work.

That's what he has discovered in his experience,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

[Matt_H]

@ AmiBoy

I appreciate the offer, but I'd like to try to find a working card directly. Iggy's note about the 9100 has me a little worried, too. Maybe if things don't work out with the direct approach I'll get back to you

@ RobertB

The A1 is supposed to be compatible with PC graphics cards - there's a firmware-level x86 emulator for just that purpose - so I don't think re-flashing is the answer.

[Iggy]

@ AmiBoy

I appreciate the offer, but I'd like to try to find a working card directly. Iggy's note about the 9100 has me a little worried, too. Maybe if things don't work out with the direct approach I'll get back to you

@ RobertB

The A1 is supposed to be compatible with PC graphics cards - there's a firmware-level x86 emulator for just that purpose - so I don't think re-flashing is the answer.

We are talking about OS4, right?
No Radeon 8500 driver.
And the original name of the 9100 was the 8500LE.

[Matt_H]

Thread necromancy!

Finally solved this problem - turns out the damn SCSI card (!) I had in the machine was causing some sort of conflict. I could swear that I had removed all cards when I was testing previously, but apparently not. Popped in a different SCSI card and all is well! (Mostly - UBoot can't detect the new SCSI card because it has a different PCI product ID, but there's an override env variable so the card works fine once OS4 is booted.)

For the record, troublesome SCSI card had an LS53C875J chip, the new one has an LS53C810. Not sure if that was the cause or if it was some other nuance in the card design, but maybe this info will be helpful for someone else.

Anyway, now I've got a whole array of  graphics cards to choose from! What's best? 128mb AGP Radeon 9000, 128mb AGP Radeon 9200SE, or 256mb PCI Radeon 9250 (OS4 seems to only detect 128mb)?

[Acill]

Any of the AGP if they are full speed on the bus are about the same performance.

[Matt_H]

@ Acill

Thanks. And since the SE boards seem to have only a 64-bit bus, it looks like the 9000 is the winner!