Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Best video card upgrade for PCI-E G5?

O

ozziesironman

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 12, 2010
11
0
So I got a G5 a couple months ago, and am VERY happy with it, as all my apps are PowerPC, and the few Intel only apps I have, I use my sisters MacBook, which handles them perfectly. BUT, I am looking to upgrade the video card.

I have the 2GHz Dual-Core model with PCI-Express, and currently have the stock 6600LE 128MB, which is a joke. I just bought Doom 3 because it was on clearance at Wal-Mart for like 6 bucks. (i obviously jumped on it cuz amazon still has it for like 25 bucks). Game plays alright, but a bit laggier than I'm used to. It's playable, but if I could squeeze even a few more fps out of it, I'd be a happy camper.

The decision is between 2 video cards: the ATI Radeon x1900xt Mac G5 edition, and the flashed Geforce 7800GTX. for some strange reason, I cannot find ANY benchmarks between the two. Maybe I need more coffee, but I am not finding any benchmarks. Being a nVidia fan from when I was into hardcore PC gaming, first thought is the Geforce, but if the x1900xt will wipe the floor with the GTX, then I'll give the radeon a shot.

any advice would be appreciated!

specs:
Powermac G5 2GHz Dual-Core (not dual-processor)
4GB DDR2
500GB WD SATA black
750GB WD SATA green
Geforce 6600LE 128MB
OSX 10.5.8
OSX 10.4.11 (dual booting because a lot of audio plugins I have don't play nice with Leopard)
 
G

GyroFX

macrumors 6502
Jan 14, 2002
425
11
Los Angeles and NorCal
i've had x1900 G5 edition, nvidia 7800GT, and a a flashed version of a PC 7800gtx w/ 256mb ram so it was actually only flashed to a standard 7800 GT.

From experience, my OEM x1900GT was perfectly fine for everything i needed to do on my Quad G5 but some games like COD2, Doom3, Quake 4 were lacking in fps (as expected).

The best option you can hope for in terms of a GPU is either the Quadro FX4500 or a flashed 7800GTX with 512mb ram. (most likely the 7800gtx is flashed to a FX4500)

I still have my x1900 GT back home, i should really sell it cuz it's just sitting there.

*note a flashed 7800gtx with 256mb ram will not work with OS 10.5. It will only work with 10.4. A flashed 7800GTX with 512mb ram, if flashed properly should work with 10.5 under the FX4500 firmware.
 
O

ozziesironman

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 12, 2010
11
0
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Thanks for the link.. I knew I was missing something! I sure appreciate it, superman... Oh wait, no powers? You sure? ;)

From the link, looks like the gtx is faster than the radeon. Gyrofx, I took what you said to mean both cards perform equally? So it sounds like it doesn't matter which I get... So whichever one is cheaper... What about driver support? I know for a time, ati drivers were better in OSX than nvidia.. Has that gap been closed? And if you do sell your card, how much would you be looking to get for it? I'd be interested.

Thanks!
 
VanneDC

VanneDC

macrumors 6502a
Jun 5, 2010
860
92
Dubai, UAE
mate, the 7800GTX rom/card isnt available for the Mac.

it was tested/hacked by Strangedogs, but its gone pretty much walkabout. I searched for that particular ROM for for over a year and no one has it.

Also the 7800GTX is the same card as the Quadro FX 4500...

blablabla...

so that leaves the 2 fastest cards as the X1900gt and the fx4500...

cheers
 
C

Cox Orange

macrumors 68000
Jan 1, 2010
1,814
241
good news for you, all r...o...m...s can be found here http://themacelite.wikidot.com/wikidownloads2

If the link does not work go to themacelite.com -> flashing guides -> nvidia -> here you have to agree to the terms of use twice, then you will be forwarded.

Though I have never flashed a card until now, because I still have no PC after all these years to use it for, I have downloaded all , in case they might have gone or will go away some time.
 
C

Cox Orange

macrumors 68000
Jan 1, 2010
1,814
241
oh, you are right. I got it wrong, I thought you were looking for the 7800GTX or fx 4500.

I looked at it again, it seems they have only the 7800GT, but they have the quadro FX 4500. Does the latter not work in a 7800GTX? I thought they were pretty similar. Well, ok, it would make no sense if they were similar, since the quadro is said to be optimized for CAD and such, which I guess was done in the ROM...(?)
 
Last edited:
Nameci

Nameci

macrumors 68000
Oct 29, 2010
1,944
12
The Philippines...
afaik, as it is a gf, it is made and designed for consumer, ie; gaming whereas the qfx is a work station class designed and intended for CAD work or professional.
 
666sheep

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
Cox Orange said:
I thought they were pretty similar. Well, ok, it would make no sense if they were similar, since the quadro is said to be optimized for CAD and such, which I guess was done in the ROM...(?)
Click to expand...

Similar, but not identical... 7800 GTX had different memory chips (faster than FX 4500). You'll never get 7800 clocks with Quadro. BTW, GTX benches are here: http://www.barefeats.com/mutant4.html Earlier links were for GT, not GTX.
 
G

GyroFX

macrumors 6502
Jan 14, 2002
425
11
Los Angeles and NorCal
@ozzies, home is actually a bit away and I dont know when i'll be back there any time soon. I'm sure if you really wanted an x1900 gt, it can be had for a decent price on ebay. I'm not sure what country you're from but if you're in the US, they should be easy to find i believe.

most of the flashed gtxs (512) are all flashed to FX4500 rom for compatibility issues. I've heard of people tweaking the rom so they can activate more of the real gtx power but not many have done it.
 
666sheep

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
Cox Orange said:
Now, are the ROMs of 7800GTX and Quadro FX 4500 interchangable? I guess not...?
Click to expand...

In some way, yes. You can flash 7800GTX with Quadro ROM (with some editing OFC), but it makes no sense to flash Quadro with 7800GTX ROM.
Quadro has slower memory and GPU clocks and less pipelines than GTX (16 vs. 24).
 
MacSince1990

MacSince1990

macrumors 65816
Oct 6, 2009
1,347
0
zen.state said:
Found this in about 7-10 seconds in google: http://barefeats.com/quad15.html

I can assure you I don't have super powers.
Click to expand...

Obviously, since if you did you probably would have found something closer to the question he was asking, which was how a 1900XT stacks up against a 7800GTX, not a 7800GT. The two aren't synonymous; a GTX, in addition to having double the VRAM, has a significantly higher core and memory clock; it's a much higher performance part.

What you undoubtedly would have shown him, had you superpowers, was this link.

http://www.barefeats.com/mutant4.html

Try not to get too annoyed with people who have difficulty using Google if you yourself have similar trouble.
 
C

Cox Orange

macrumors 68000
Jan 1, 2010
1,814
241
Thanks GyroFX and 666Sheep
666sheep said:
In some way, yes. You can flash 7800GTX with Quadro ROM (with some editing OFC), but it makes no sense to flash Quadro with 7800GTX ROM.
Quadro has slower memory and GPU clocks and less pipelines than GTX (16 vs. 24).
Click to expand...

Well did know about the pipelines, but I do not have any understanding how ROM works and so I did not know, that it has to fit to the number of pipelines, too.
So, actually the 7800GT (without X) and the Quadro's ROM is interchangeable?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom