ATI Irks Me Yet Again

    Taking advantage of my upcoming IRS refund and preparing for the arrival of OS X 10.4 (“Tiger”), I bought the new ATI X800 XT video card. When I originally bought my G5 PowerMac I went for the cheapest card (the ATI 9600), in hopes my order would arrive sooner; and since then I’ve been wanting to upgrade. From what I’ve read the nVidia 6800 Ultra is supposed to be the best video card for Mac, but the new ATI X800 XT not only rivals it but is smaller, does not take up two slots, and is a hundred dollars cheaper.
    The card is also very hard to come by. New Egg.com reportedly had some in stock, until I tried to order one. I was able to get one from Mac Mall.com however (although seventeen bucks more). It arrived today, much sooner than expected.
    I read and reread the instructions and then opened up the PowerMac’s case with trepidation. For one thing the instruction book was for installing the Radeon 9800, not the X800 XT. And while I had installed a PCI card before, it looked like swapping AGP cards required some surgery.
1. Do not follow these instructions.Page 11, “Installing the RADEON 9800 Pro in a Power Mac G5”, clearly stated “The RADEON 9800 Pro requires a connection to your computer's power supply. The G5 only had one available connector which is built-in to the optical drive (DVD/Superdrive).” I would therefore have to “release the locking levers”, disconnect the DVD drive, and “slide the drive forward out of the case”. Then I would have to:

1. Route the power connector through the hole in the drive shelf.
2. Connect the male white connector to the black female connector that used to ne connected to the optical drive.
3. Connect the optical drive to the remaining female connect of the ‘Y’ cable.
4. Reinstall the optical drive.
5. Connet the optical drive data cable.
6. Secure the optical drive by closing the locking levers.
7. Close the G5 case.

    There were a couple problems with this. No Y-connector had come with the video card; I couldn’t even see where a power cord could connect onto the card; and although I could undo the locking levers underneath my DVD drive, that drive was not going anywhere. There was no way to ‘slide it forward‘, no matter which way forward they meant.
    Luckily I still had my laptop handy so I could go online and search for better instructions. I didn’t find any, but I did find some reviews (like this one) which featured photos of the X800 XT card already installed. Turns out these cards get all the power they need right from the AGP slot, so there was no need for an extra power cord and no reason for me to manhandle my DVD drive out of my case.
    My ATI card had already been successfully installed for several minutes and I hadn’t even known it. ATI’s useless instructions only made things worse: I’d removed the card to be on the safe side, and when I tried to reseat it I dropped the damned screw which was now loose inside the case. I’m embarrassed to admit the same dumbass thing had happened the last time I’d tried to install a new card; and I was once again forced to disconnect everything and spend several minutes turning the case upside down and backwards, trying to spot the loose screw as it rattled around inside.
    At long last, I got the card reseated and turned the computer back on. I’d been warned the X800 XT’s was a little louder than the PowerMac’s system fans. I wasn’t prepared for such a noticeable whirring. It wasn’t exactly loud — certainly quieter than the supercomputer I’d built last year — but it was definitely there. It took a couple minutes before I realized I’d forgotten to put back to the dual processor fans, which I’d removed while trying to hunt down the loose screw. I shut down the computer again, slipped the fans in place, restarted, and finally neared the completion of the install when I loaded in the new ATI software. Inevitably I bungled that up too, by accidentally hitting Continue instead of Quit and installing the software again.
    Long story less long, my video is finally upgraded. The card is in place (and much quieter now), the software is loaded (and, of interest to this switcher, did not even require a reboot), and I can finally get the most of this little freeware application which turns my screensavers into wallpapers.
    But you’d think for the money I spent, ATI could at least provide some instructions that actually apply.