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Quicksilver Upgrade?

MrCommunistGen

MrCommunistGen

macrumors regular
Original poster
A Friend of mine has a 1st Gen Quicksilver G4 733Mhz, with a GeForce 2MX, and 384 MB Ram and a combo drive (already a cr@p load better than my iMac DV). He's getting into gaming and is planning on getting Halo but he's not quite happy with his current gaming performance. He's already planning to get another 512 MB Ram (does he really need it?) and is planning on getting either a 1.2Ghz G4 upgrade or a new Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB depending on which will give him more of performance boost.

Personally, I was advising him to wait until RevB G5's come out and to get a good deal on an old G5 or on new a low-end. That way he'd have a brand new computer with a MUCH faster processor. Plus, its a good deal for me if he does it this way because if he buys the G5 I could probably get his old Quicksilver off of him for CHEAP! 😀
Just want some honest ubiased opinions for my friend (since I obviously AM biased)

-MCG
 
I am not a gamer, so I cannot comment definitively...but I think the new video card is the way to go...I am sure it affects game performance more than the processor and ram...more importantly, if/when he gets a new machine, he can pop out the video card and transfer it. take from this what you will...
 
In order of importance: Video card, CPU, RAM. You do have a good idea with the G5 though. Theres a good chance that he could get a Dual 1.8ghz after a while for around $1999, depending on the specs of the new models.
 
Definitely agree with the others -- vid card is by far the most important thing for a FPS, assuming that the rest of the computer more than meets minimum requirements. Proc. upgrade would probably not be worthwhile for gaming -- a new G5 (soon to come out?) would certainly be a tremendous boost, though, what with the much higher bus speeds, faster RAM (as well as more of it), etc., and even the base models will surely have pretty decent vid. cards.
 
Actually in his case a cpu upgrade is of the most importance, a G4 at 733 isnt going to be able to feed the video card. a 9800 can do a lot more then what a 733 or can give it. also the 384 ram isnt enough. he has to make a decision and that is keep it and upgrade or get new machine. Putting in a 9800 in a 733 is a waste of time. his machine needs more ram,more cpu and better card then geforce2mx. His choices therefore are a 1.25 or better g4 about 500 usd,another 512 ram about 100usd and better video card perhaps geforce 4 tit 200 usd. so now he is at about half the cost of a new machine. if he did put in a 9800 it wouldnt increase his frames it would allow his machine to run at higher resolutions with more stuff turned on with no frame loss. I have the same machine as he but with 1 gig of ram,1.47 G4 and geforce3. Its time for him to decide does he want to stick with Mac and its great OS or go to the PC world and get a Game machine. Alienware has some great stuff but if Apple shakes up the G5s in the next update it may be enough for him and me. The PC side blows away the Mac side when it comes to gaming. Tell him to read up or get a hold of Macworlds Dec issue of G5 vs Alienware for some data. Apples Hardware just doesnt match up to the otherside (yet)
 
Dont Hurt Me said:
Actually in his case a cpu upgrade is of the most importance, a G4 at 733 isnt going to be able to feed the video card.
Click to expand...

I can confirm that this is absolutely correct. I also had a stock 733MHz QuickSilver. Its first upgrade was to a GeForce 4 Titanium, which had essentially no effect; framerates on most 3D games hovered around the 15fps mark.

Swapped my processor for a 1.467GHz from OWC, and it's like a new machine as far as games go. Now I'm glad I do have the GeForce 4 Ti instead of the stock 2MX, since I can run at much higher resolutions with no framerate hit -- but until I got the processor upgrade, the high-end video card was useless.

As for the RAM, with 512MB DIMMs at about $100, it's a good idea to add more when you buy the processor upgrade.
 
RAM is by far the cheapest option, and will give a performance boost, however I have a GeForce2 MX, and it was good card in it's day (3 years ago.) I recomend flogging the G5 horse till the cows come home. Because the G4's were crappy for gaming, are still crappy for gaming, and no matter how many $$$$$ you poor into it, it will always be crappy for gaming.

Asside from that tell him to by a $700PC, that will out perform the G5 in gaming.
 
733 won't cut it....

Halo requires at least 800MHz to install.
btw - I run it on my 867 PowerBook with very little problem.
 
i am in a similar situation, and your friend has really no good options.

more ram won't increase the game's speed.

a faster graphics card will be moot since the processor cannot feed it.

a cpu upgrade is a waste of money due to the 133 mhz FSB.

his best option for a gaming capable mac is obviously a G5. The improved RAM type, increased AGP (i know nothing saturates 4x currently, but it leaves room for improvement, and a system capable of keeping up with the ATI 9800 (see FSB and G5 chips 😀 ) will do far more than all the investment in the g4 will get you. By the time all is said and done, your half way to a g5 ($400 ATI 9800, $600 CPU Upgrade, $100 512 MB Ram Chip).

one decent option would be to purchase a ati 9000 and either a 256 or 512 chip to tide him over until a Rev B or C G5.

i'll sell you my G4 if your interested (933 mhz, G4MX, 512, 80 GB + 120 GB)

go G5.
 
Opteron said:
Aside from that tell him to by a $700PC, that will out perform the G5 in gaming.
Click to expand...

i highly doubt it as the 9800 even on the PC side is quite expensive.

that being said, the PC has a far larger gaming library.
 
Actually A Good Gaming PC is dirt cheap...

briankonar said:
i highly doubt it as the 9800 even on the PC side is quite expensive.

that being said, the PC has a far larger gaming library.
Click to expand...

if you build it yourself... And do a whole lot of shopping! Another friend of mine wants me to build him a gaming PC, and honestly, I'm very tempted to build one for myself 😡

Athlon 2500+ (Barton)- $75.00 OEM
Asus A7N8X-X Mobo - $69.00
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB- $208.00 OEM
512 MB PC3200- $76.53
120GB Western Digital 7200RPM 8MB - $66.89
Sony 52x32x52x16x Combo Drive- $76.51
Total Price including all applicable tax, shipping, and rebates: $571.93
All prices are current prices as of yesterday off of tomshardware.com's low price finder and off of ads in my local Fry's store.

This just makes me mad 😡GRRRR!😡 Apple needs to step it up several notches it they even plan on competing in the gaming market.

-MCG
 
MrCommunistGen said:
if you build it yourself... And do a whole lot of shopping! Another friend of mine wants me to build him a gaming PC, and honestly, I'm very tempted to build one for myself 😡
Click to expand...

that is quite sad that you can build a PC rig for so cheap that will shame a dual G5.

i was going to upgrade to a G5, but the limited Mac library and extreme expense of parts has made me reconsider a custom built PC game box.

i could sell my G4 and make 2 high quality gaming rigs 😱 .
 
I wish people would stop blaming the 133mhz FSB/RAM. It is not and never has been what stands in the way of games. The main problem with G4-based gaming machines is definately the G4 itself... it's just not a very good chip for anything that can't be coded in AltiVec.

Even Athlons, which are undeniably better at the type of code that shows up in games, ran fine on PC133 till maybe the 1.5ghz range. I know, because that's the kind of system I had for a year or so, along with my Quicksilver. DDR RAM might have added 10% to my Athlon's performance, not a real big deal.

I would definately upgrade that Quicksilver with a 1.2ghz or so G4 (with L3), should make that PC133 and GF2MX push frames faster than you'd thought possible. 🙂 Sure, it won't equal a G5, but we're not talking about that kind of cash either.
 
If your friend wants to upgrade now. I would recommend the PowerLogix PowerForce7457 G4/1.4GHz Processor Upgrade with 512K L2 and 2MB L3 Cache. Your friend would just about double the speed of his processor, and double the level 2 cache. This is the only model of G4 processor upgrades that I have seen that offers a 512K level 2 cache. That should also help with performance. I would agree that I think the processor will be able to push more through his existing graphics card. He could run tests using Xbench before and after the processor upgrade. His could processor is already outmatched by several games, so it is definitly limits his game selection. This is not a good thing for a gamer. The graphics should run better with the new processor and extra RAM.

If he has to have all the graphics bells and whistles set to the MAX for every game, then he will probably still want to get a graphics card upgrade too. I would want the ATI 9800 with 128MB of RAM with that new processor. However I would also wait for the price to go down on the ATI card.
 
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