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Upgrading PowerMac G4

R

raeble

Guest
Original poster
Hi,

My sister has got a powermac g4 867, and she's looking at upgrading the video card. It's an Nvida 32mb card. She's using final cut express and it's running a bit slowDoes she need to get a specific type of video card? Would she be able to use a sapphire radeon 9550 256mb? It's about £50 which is about £70 cheaper than a slower card the guy in the mac shop showed her.

Also does anyone have any recommendations on external dvd writers?

Thanks.
 
yippy

yippy

macrumors 68020
Mar 14, 2004
2,087
3
Chicago, IL
Short answer, the Saphire will not work, needs to be a specific card.

Mac need Mac specific graphics cards. However, an upgrade does not have to be that expensive. As seen here you can pick up a good upgrade from what you have for about $120 US. The link I gave you might not ship to the UK, so maybe some one over there can help you find a good place to buy them. eBay is not a bad bet either.
 
cluthz

cluthz

macrumors 68040
Jun 15, 2004
3,118
4
Norway
A videocard update won't make Final Cut run faster at all!
Get more RAM, be sure you have one HD for apps/system and one for video.
Be sure you have atleast 20% free space on you HDs.

Your system probably have a 32MB GeForce 4mx, which is good enought for all kinds of 2D, if you are into 3D apps and gaming, then upgrade the videocard.

With FinalCut 512MB RAM is the bare minimum, get 1GB (1024MB) or more.

IF you are planning to upgrade the videocard, get a Radeon 9600 or faster, the Radeon 9000 is only a bit faster than the GeForce4mx
 
R

raeble

Guest
Original poster
Thanks, I'll pass the information onto her.
 
Nermal

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,640
4,039
New Zealand
yippy said:
The link I gave you might not ship to the UK, so maybe some one over there can help you find a good place to buy them.
Click to expand...

I'm in NZ and I just bought a video card from OWC, so there should be no trouble for UK users either.
 
solvs

solvs

macrumors 603
Jun 25, 2002
5,684
1
LaLaLand, CA
jadam said:
hrmmm get her a mac mini :-D
Click to expand...
Considering it has only a Radeon 9200 with 32MB, I don't think that would help. Plus the slower drive. And less RAM. But I'm sure you were kidding. Right?

Yes, get more RAM. And a nice, big, fast, scratch drive if possible. If you're going to be updating the video card, it has to be a Mac specific one. I second OWC. They'll ship internationally. It might speed things up a bit in Tiger with a nice Radeon 9000 or 9600, but not as much as RAM will. The more, the better.
 
jadam

jadam

macrumors 6502a
Jan 23, 2002
699
2
solvs said:
Considering it has only a Radeon 9200 with 32MB, I don't think that would help. Plus the slower drive. And less RAM. But I'm sure you were kidding. Right?
Click to expand...

Yeah I was kidding, mostly because of the slow hard drive, it would probablly be a pain in the ars to use with the 4200rpm hard drive it has. Im no expert on this stuff, but I really doubt changing the video card is going to increase performance of FCP.
 
R

raeble

Guest
Original poster
Well apparently according to her it needs 40mb of graphics to run, but considering she's not the most technically minded person when it comes to her mac. I don't know. I live in another city so I can't go and see what she's doing and I really know nothing about g4's. I told her to do it at college and I got shouted at so I'm just going to find out what she needs. She's planning on selling it in june when uni finishes, so there's no point spending a fortune and either buying a g5 or a powerbook depending on what apple does with it.

On the ram point she had to by another 512mb to get the program to open, I've told her to get some more from crucial this time which is a lot cheaper than that stuff she bought in the mac shop.

Thanks for all the advice.
 
solvs

solvs

macrumors 603
Jun 25, 2002
5,684
1
LaLaLand, CA
raeble said:
Well apparently according to her it needs 40mb of graphics to run, but considering she's not the most technically minded person when it comes to her mac. I don't know.
Click to expand...
According to this it just needs an AGP card, which she has. I'd tell her to upgrade the RAM if she has less than 1GB and maybe the hard drive. If she's just getting a G5, it probably won't matter, but the extra RAM will increase the resale value anyway.

A Radeon 9600 from OWC is only about $120 if she can afford it, though.
 
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