Power Macintosh: VRAM Expansion Options

There is no VRAM or VRAM slots on the logic board of the Power Macintosh 6100, 7100, or 8100. To provide different levels of VRAM based video, one of three video cards is used:

AV Video Card	2MB of VRAM	no expansion
2 MB Video Card	1MB of VRAM	with 4 slots for 1MB additional VRAM
4 MB Video Card	2MB of VRAM	with 4 slots for 2MBs of additional VRAM

Below is the standard color depth supported based on available VRAM:

Monitor	Resolution	1 MB VRAM	2 MB VRAM
12-inch Color	512 by 384	millions	millions
12-inch Monochrome	640 by 480	256	256
13-inch or 14-inch Color or VGA	640 by 480	thousands	millions
15-inch Portrait Monochrome	640 by 870	256	256
16-inch Color	832 by 624	thousands	millions
19-inch Color	1024 by 768	256	thousands
21-inch Color	1152 by 870	256	thousands
SuperVGA	800 by 600	thousands	millions
NTSC	640 by 480	thousands	millions
NTSC flicker-free	640 by 480	256	256
NTSC	512 by 384	thousands	millions
NTSC flicker-free	512 by 384	256	256
PAL	768 by 576	thousands	millions
PAL flicker-free	768 by 576	256	256
PAL	640 by 480	thousands	millions
PAL flicker-free	640 by 480	256	256

NOTE: NTSC and PAL display modes supported only on AV configurations.

The VRAM expansion card does NOT support resolutions below 8-bit (256 colors). In order to get 2, 4, or 16 colors, you must use the HDI-45 connector.

Currently all Power Macintosh AV configuration include the AV card. The 8100 (non-AV) uses the 4MB VRAM card and the 7100 (non-AV) uses the 2MB card. Only the 2MB VRAM or 4MB VRAM cards provide VRAM expansion slots.

Note: These configurations are subject to change in the future.

No VRAM card is provided with the 6100 (non-AV) system. Using on-board video via the built in HDI-45 video connector on each machine shares the DRAM with the system. The built-in video port requires 640K of DRAM if connected to a monitor, otherwise it does not use any DRAM.