* TinkerDifferent *
Retro Computing Community
Home | Forums | What's New | Search | Settings
Mac Quadra 950 PowerPC upgrade query

Forums > Vintage Apple > Macintosh > Macintosh Quadra & Centris

Destroyer1976
New Tinkerer
Queensland, Australia
--------
Joined: Sep 8, 2025
Posts: 16
Likes: 1
Sep 14, 2025 - #1
I have a Mac Quadra 950, and I was looking at PowerPC upgrade options. What card is compatible with it?

V.Yakob
Tinkerer
Syktyvkar
--------
Joined: Sep 6, 2023
Posts: 129
Likes: 46
Sep 15, 2025 - #2
There is some information about it here.

For example, I have an Apple PPC Upgrade card 66 Mhz, and it works great. This allows you to run Mac OS 8.5 - Mac OS 8.6 on Quadra 950, but I didn't like how it works, too slow memory for these systems. But as an experiment - why not? :)
Attachments:
IMG_2134.jpeg (1.4 MB)
IMG_2133.jpeg (1.7 MB)

Destroyer1976
New Tinkerer
Queensland, Australia
--------
Joined: Sep 8, 2025
Posts: 16
Likes: 1
Sep 18, 2025 - #3
That's great for letting me know. Is that the only speed (66MHz) that works on a quadra 950, or can I use others?

V.Yakob
Tinkerer
Syktyvkar
--------
Joined: Sep 6, 2023
Posts: 129
Likes: 46
Sep 18, 2025 - #4
If you manage to find DayStar at 100 Mhz, it will be 100 Mhz.
Recently at an auction in Japan, I saw an 80 Mhz with memory banks, I also participated in it, but the final price was higher than I could have paid that day.

Scorpio_ny
New Tinkerer
--------
Joined: Aug 8, 2024
Posts: 30
Likes: 22
Sep 21, 2025 - #5
Back in the day, I was the owner of a Quadra 950. I wanted to upgrade to PPC so I swapped the motherboard to the WGS 9150. I am not sure in this day and age if that would available and if it is, how expensive it would be

Destroyer1976
New Tinkerer
Queensland, Australia
--------
Joined: Sep 8, 2025
Posts: 16
Likes: 1
Sep 23, 2025 - #6
Thank you everyone for your input. I think I'll stay with the CPU I'm using, they're too expensive.

ClassicHasClass
Tinkerer
--------
Joined: Aug 30, 2022
Posts: 386
Likes: 215
Sep 24, 2025 - #7
Realistically, it makes a decent 68K Mac into a poor Power Mac. I didn't find the value proposition for them all that compelling even when they were cheaper. I have one for my Q800 which I almost never use because it won't work with A/UX, which is what that machine usually runs - and I have plenty of Power Macs here.

Page 1 of 1

Home | Forums | What's New | Search | Bookmarks | RSS | Original | Settings
XenForo Retro Proxy by TinkerDifferent.com