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the best vid card for a d800 g4?
- Thread starter jkaz
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I think you may be able o use an Nvidia 5200, but I think the most recent ATI cards need to work in a G5, if you get a Nvidia 5200, I think your computer will limit performance severely.
jkaz said:
Well you could try a GeForce4 MX with 64 vram. It's not a big step from GeForce2 but it's something, and the extra memory will help. Pretty cheap too.
dferrara said:
i think my card is referred to as being the twin view model, it has already 64 vram
any other ideas?
thanks!!
Dont Hurt Me
macrumors 603
Your gpu bites it doesnt matter how much ram you tack on. A good upgrade is a Geforce3, Geforce4 Titanium,both can run a ADC monitor from apple. Ati's 9800 is the fastest for your machine but it doesnt have adc built on it as do the Geforce cards. You have ADC better look for a Geforce3 or real 4. 4mx isnt a real 4 and has subpar performance to a 3. I may be selling my Geforce 3 soon as iam going to bump up the quicksilver I have if i can make a deal with the wife.
bousozoku
Moderator emeritus
jkaz said:
Amazingly, there is more to graphics speed than the video RAM. I switched my dual 800 to a GeForce 4MX and it was much better. Recently, I switched to a modified ATI Radeon 9600 that came from the PowerMac G5s and it's quite a lot better than that. OtherWorld Computing (http://eshop.macsales.com/) is selling them. You can also buy a Radeon 9800 but it's a lot more expensive.
Dont Hurt Me
macrumors 603
Im not sure what eshop means by modified but that isnt a standard G4 card from ati as far as i can tell. I would stick to a card made for the Quicksilver. 9800 prices will be dropping even more soon. I havent seen any 4 Titaniums for sale anywhere.
Lord Blackadder
macrumors P6
I bought the modded 9600 Pro card from OWC for my Dual 533. The modifications involve removing the conducting material from 2 leads on the card edge connector to reduce the speed of the bus from AGP 8x to 4x, since G4 towers can't use an 8x card. The ADC connector is non-funtional because the physical location of the ADC power connector for AGP cards is in a different location on G5 motherboards, so the connectors don't line up. You can make it work with a little elbow grease. There is a website that describes the modification in detail with pictures right here.
The GeforceFX5200 is currently not usable in a G4 (and there's no point really, since the Radeon 9600 is a better all around performer).
Don't bother with the Geforce4Ti, they are way overpriced due to their rarity, and their performance is not good enough to justify that price - they often go for as much as a 9800. Other than the 9600/9800, your other options are the Radeon 7000, 7500, 8500, 9000, 9700 or Geforce3 or 4MX.
I did a little research when I bought my card, and found that the Geforce4MX was actually slower than the Geforce3 in most benchmarks, so I'd avoid the Geforce4MX. The Geforce3 is the oldest card I'd be willing to use - you can get them pretty cheap off ebay, though many of them are flashed PC cards (not that that is a bad thing necessarily).
The Radeon 9000 is a decent performer, but it costs slightly more than the modded 9600, which kicks the 9000's butt in gaming performance. Only buy it if you need to use two displays and can't afford the 9800. Avoid the 7000. Ditto the 7500. The 8500 is close in performance to the 9000, but somewhat rare. The 9700 is pretty much as rare as the Geforce4ti and will command a similar price so again give it a pass unless a deal shows up.
EDIT: There is also the Radeon 9200; it is a PCI card, not AGP and is generally slower than the 9000. Avoid.
Finally, the 9600, 9700 and 9800 fully support Core Image, the upcoming feature of OS 10.4 which offloads a lot of OS graphics processing to the video card. This should speed up everyday tasks like opening windows and menus and whatnot. Other cards are not fully supported and won't benefit as much or at all.
Sorry for the long-windedness of the post, but I did a lot of looking before I upgraded my video card and I came to the conclusion that the 9600, 9700 and 9800 are the only cards that one should be looking at to buy. Of these, the (OWC-modded) 9600 Pro is BY FAR the cheapest and is pretty close in performance to the more expensive cards for most tasks on a G4. The modding should not affect the card's performance or reliability and for ~$120 it's a steal.
The GeforceFX5200 is currently not usable in a G4 (and there's no point really, since the Radeon 9600 is a better all around performer).
Don't bother with the Geforce4Ti, they are way overpriced due to their rarity, and their performance is not good enough to justify that price - they often go for as much as a 9800. Other than the 9600/9800, your other options are the Radeon 7000, 7500, 8500, 9000, 9700 or Geforce3 or 4MX.
I did a little research when I bought my card, and found that the Geforce4MX was actually slower than the Geforce3 in most benchmarks, so I'd avoid the Geforce4MX. The Geforce3 is the oldest card I'd be willing to use - you can get them pretty cheap off ebay, though many of them are flashed PC cards (not that that is a bad thing necessarily).
The Radeon 9000 is a decent performer, but it costs slightly more than the modded 9600, which kicks the 9000's butt in gaming performance. Only buy it if you need to use two displays and can't afford the 9800. Avoid the 7000. Ditto the 7500. The 8500 is close in performance to the 9000, but somewhat rare. The 9700 is pretty much as rare as the Geforce4ti and will command a similar price so again give it a pass unless a deal shows up.
EDIT: There is also the Radeon 9200; it is a PCI card, not AGP and is generally slower than the 9000. Avoid.
Finally, the 9600, 9700 and 9800 fully support Core Image, the upcoming feature of OS 10.4 which offloads a lot of OS graphics processing to the video card. This should speed up everyday tasks like opening windows and menus and whatnot. Other cards are not fully supported and won't benefit as much or at all.
Sorry for the long-windedness of the post, but I did a lot of looking before I upgraded my video card and I came to the conclusion that the 9600, 9700 and 9800 are the only cards that one should be looking at to buy. Of these, the (OWC-modded) 9600 Pro is BY FAR the cheapest and is pretty close in performance to the more expensive cards for most tasks on a G4. The modding should not affect the card's performance or reliability and for ~$120 it's a steal.
Passante
macrumors 6502a
jkaz said:
Take a look at this barefeats evaluation
http://www.barefeats.com/rad9800.html
the 9800 is only about $275 now
Mord
macrumors G4
dont hurt me if your selling that geforce 3 sell it to a cube owner, you'll get a hell of allot for it
as for gpu options you can buy a flashed 9800 on ebay for like $150 or you can flash your own, go to http://strangedogs.proboards40.com/index.cgi to find out how to flash.
if you do have an adc moniter get a 9600 and do the mod to make adc power work or get a radeon 9000, you could get a 9700 or a geforce 4 ti but they are way overpriced
as for gpu options you can buy a flashed 9800 on ebay for like $150 or you can flash your own, go to http://strangedogs.proboards40.com/index.cgi to find out how to flash.
if you do have an adc moniter get a 9600 and do the mod to make adc power work or get a radeon 9000, you could get a 9700 or a geforce 4 ti but they are way overpriced