graphic card Power Mac G5 Dual 2GHz

Dual 2.o could be either AGP or PCIE.

You need to be sure of which you have before you look at cards.

i have the Quad G5, last generation of the G5. I'm using the Ati X1900 GT (G5 version of the card). It's getting old and slowing a bit. I believe you can also get a Nvidia 7800 GT for that year as well, which was only available via BTO option. Others have hacked 7800 PC versions to work on the PCIe versions of the G5 as well

The 7800GT should work well with a 6600 to do 3 monitors.

There is a rather rare upgrade option in the form of a 7800GTX512, which got tested on Barefeats. Fastest PPC card ever. Occasionally they pop up on Ebay from a few different vendors. Search for "mac 7800gtx 512"

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

Runs circles around the other cards, even the Quadro 4500.

greedyhands said:

Sweet! I found one up on eBay. Thanks for the heads up my friend. It's cheaper than the 4500 too.

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Sorry to inform you, but the ATI X1900 is much faster than the 7800GTX512 and for 1/2 the cost.

300D said:

Sorry to inform you, but the ATI X1900 is much faster than the 7800GTX512 and for 1/2 the cost.

Click to expand...

Not correct.

You may be thinking of the X1900XT which came for Mac Pros. The X1900GT for G5s was much less powerful, with reduced cores, RAM, etc.

Look here for comparison with X1900GT and 7800.

http://www.barefeats.com/quad15.html

You will see that they are pretty evenly matched.

And from the first link, you can see that the 7800GTX MOPS THE FLOOR with a 7800GT.

Or, if you wish to see the results directly between 7800GTX512 and X1900GT in WIndows, look here:

http://ixbtlabs.com/articles2/video/r580-5.html

(warning...kinda bloody, the 7800GTX512 wins by as much as 50% at high res and AA)

The image here is pretty self explanatory, from the linked article.

With far greater bandwidth and RAM, the 7800GTX512 leaves an X1900GT for dead.

You can get the fastest video card on the planet, but i'm not really sure its going to help your video's skipping frames. Video decoding is done mostly by the CPU, so when those HD video's are skipping, its most likely because your G5 can't keep up, not because the video card can't. Some newer video cards do have hardware decoding features, but your current 6600 might already do that, and OS X doesn't take advantage of the feature half as well as windows does, so you might not even end up seeing a difference.

The Rominator said:

Not correct.

Click to expand...

Very much correct. I have used both cards and the X1900 (GTO, the only one that works in the G5) is faster in everything except a few photoshop tests.

With far greater bandwidth and RAM, the 7800GTX512 leaves an X1900GT for dead.

Click to expand...

Thats not even remotely true. My $100 X1900 is much faster than my $250 7800GTX512.

300D said:

Very much correct. I have used both cards and the X1900 (GTO, the only one that works in the G5) is faster in everything except a few photoshop tests.


Thats not even remotely true. My $100 X1900 is much faster than my $250 7800GTX512.

Click to expand...

Perhaps you forgot to connect the power cable on the 7800GTX?

Seeing as how what you are saying contradicts every single benchmark I linked too, I'd be curious to see some evidence.

I will have one of each card in my hands next week. By all means, please tell me what apps to test so I can recreate your results.

Did you look at any of the links I provided? Basically you are claiming things which go against typical computer experience. (More and faster RAM and cores typically means faster card)

graphics card in g5 power mac dual 2ghz

i have the same model machine (i think) and want to replace my AGP card with a new one - my previous card was 64mb only GeForce FX 5200 - i have had heaps of trouble finding one in australia and finally bought one from usa. a nvidia geforce 6800 gt. 256mb. but now i cant seem to make it work as it requires power from somewhere? apparently you can re-route power from optical drive? i have no idea..
there is heaps of stuff about flashing pc cards to make them work in macs - if you read rest of forum posts.
hopefully we can both get some answers here!

greedyhands said:

Color me skeptical, but given your history of always touting whatever hardware you currently have, or have had, as the only item worth having

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So wanting to have the best for the computers I have (and had), is a bad thing?

and given the fact that there is such a difference in the amount of RAM on the cards

Click to expand...

Ram is merely a frame buffer and storage. Unless you're working with material large and complex enough to actually use it all, having 256 or 512mb makes no difference.

What you are saying, and what the specs say, don't really match up.

Click to expand...

And a 1.8ghz Core2Duo is faster than a 3.8GHz Pentium4. Specs don't translate directly to real world performance.

There is also the fact ATI's Mac drivers are much better than Nvidia's.

7800GTX 512

Results 122.70
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.4 (9E17)
Physical RAM 3584 MB
Model PowerMac11,2
Processor PowerPC G5x2 @ 2.30 GHz
L1 Cache 64K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 1024K @ 2.30 GHz
Bus Frequency 1 GHz
Drive Type WDC WD5000KS-00MNB0 WDC WD5000KS-00MNB0
Quartz Graphics Test 165.55
Line 132.24 8.80 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 155.06 46.29 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 144.67 11.79 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 146.57 3.70 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 407.15 25.47 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 94.66
Spinning Squares 94.66 120.08 frames/sec
User Interface Test 150.93
Elements 150.93 692.70 refresh/sec

Click to expand...

X1900

Results 124.53
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.4 (9E17)
Physical RAM 3584 MB
Model PowerMac11,2
Processor PowerPC G5x2 @ 2.30 GHz
L1 Cache 64K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 1024K @ 2.30 GHz
Bus Frequency 1 GHz
Drive Type WDC WD5000KS-00MNB0 WDC WD5000KS-00MNB0
Quartz Graphics Test 163.04
Line 129.70 8.64 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 158.03 47.18 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 142.52 11.62 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 142.56 3.60 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 384.75 24.07 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 126.47
Spinning Squares 126.47 160.43 frames/sec
User Interface Test 142.96
Elements 142.96 656.13 refresh/sec

Click to expand...

The Rominator said:

Perhaps you forgot to connect the power cable on the 7800GTX?

Click to expand...

Not possible. The card will not work without it.

Even young schoolchildren know that Xbench is worthless for GPU benchmarking.

I'll be back to my Mac on Tuesday, will run some actual benchmarks then.

But I don't understand how you can claim that all of the published ones are wrong.

The Rominator said:

Even young schoolchildren know that Xbench is worthless for GPU benchmarking.

Click to expand...

Even elementary school children know using ad hominem arguments in a debate only demonstrates your lack of pertinent data.

But I don't understand how you can claim that all of the published ones are wrong.

Click to expand...

Its easy. I've tried it, the $250 7800GTX is a terrible deal compared to the $100 X1900.

300D said:

Even elementary school children know using ad hominem arguments in a debate only demonstrates your lack of pertinent data.

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Ask one of those children about "ad hominem".

1. appealing to one's prejudices, emotions, or special interests rather than to one's intellect or reason.
2. attacking an opponent's character rather than answering his argument.

It applies when someone lacks actual facts and uses a basic emotional argument to push their side of a debate. I have provided several links to independent tests, all of which showed the GTX to win by substantial margins. You have provided ZERO (0) links to any support for your side, just a couple old, potentially photoshopped tests you claim to have run personally. (10.5.4? really?) You are the one who appears to lack actual facts, so perhaps you have used the phrase incorrectly? Just a thought.

I will be happy to run any sort of currently accepted benchmark on Tuesday 8/25/09 to compare these cards. Until then I would be surprised if you could wrangle up even a single link to another person or site who shares your strong allegiance to the X1900GT. Tests will be run in a Dual 2.0 G5, I believe it has 6 Gigs RAM, not sure right now. Monitor to be used is an Apple Cinema Display and I will run tests at 2560x1600 and 1920x1200. Photos will be taken of cards and machine and I will be happy to host any witnesses who are bored enough to attend and live in Hollywood, CA. (BYO Beer)

XBench has NOT BEEN UPDATED for more than three (3) years. If you can find a single reputable or respected Mac site or reviewer using it currently to compare GPUs....well.....you won't. It is generally regarded to be pointless and inaccurate for this purpose and has fallen out of use for this very reason.

300D said:

I have used both cards and the X1900 (GTO, the only one that works in the G5) is faster in everything except a few photoshop tests.

Click to expand...

"Everything" is a mighty big word. Hope you're hungry.

Mac G5 Video Card Showdown

Here they are, the contenders. I decided to include the "other" G5 upgrade, the 7800GT.

The X1900GT and the 7800GT are the official "OEM" versions, not flashed ones.

The 7800GTX512 is a flashed one, since there was no other way to have one.

I got these cards late today so actual testing will begin tomorrow.

Plan on running:

1. OpenGl Extension Viewer Benchmark
2. Cinebench
3. Doom 3
4. Halo

Anyone else got something to suggest? Needs to be easily downloadable.

Specs:

GeForce 7800 GT

Slot Compatibility: PCIe (PCI Express, NOT PCI-X)
ROM (Firmware) Revision: v2152.2 (Newest)
VRAM: 256MB 256-bit GDDR3
Memory Clock: 500MHz (1,000MHz GDDR3)
Memory Bandwidth 32 Gb/S
GPU Clock: 400MHz
OS Compatibility: OS X Tiger 10.4.6 - 10.5.1 Leopard
Connectors: Dual DVI-I (One dual-link and one single-link)
Display Modes: Single or Dual DVI , Extended Desktop, Mirrored Display
Core Image Support: Yes
Quartz Extreme Support: Yes
Maximum Analog (CRT) Resolution: 2048 x 1536 @ 85hz
Maximum DVI (LCD) Resolution: 2560 x 1600 @ 60hz (up to 30" Apple Cinema HD Display) on dual-link DVI-I port; 1920 x 1200 @ 60hz (up to 23" Apple Cinema HD Display) on single-link DVI-I port

GeForce 7800 GTX

VRAM : 512MB 256-bit GDDR3
Pixel pipeline 16-pixel pipeline
Slot Compatibility : PCI-E (PCI Express)
ROM (Firmware) vevision： v2149 (Latest)
Memory Clock ： 850MHz (1700MHz GDDR3)
Memory Bandwidth : 54.4 Gb/S
GPU Clock： 550Mhz
Hardware Compatibility ： PCI-E Dual Core / Quad-Core G5
OS Compatibility ： OS X Tiger 10.4.6 - 10.5.8 Leopard
Connectors ： 2 x Dual Link DVI-I
Display Modes ： 2 x Dual Link DVI-I , Extended Desktop, Mirrored Display
Maximum Analog Resolution ： 2048 x 1536 @ 85hz (with DVI>VGA adapter)
Maximum DVI Resolution ： 2 @ 2560 x 1600 @ 60hz


X1900GT

ROM (Firmware) Revision: v109 (Latest)
VRAM: 256MB 256-bit GDDR3
Memory Clock : 600MHz (1200MHz GDDR3)
Memory Bandwidth: 38.4Gb/S
GPU Clock : 500Mhz
OS Compatibility: OS X 10.4.6 - 10.5.6 Leopard
Connectors: 2 x Dual Link DVI-I
Core Image Support : Yes
Quartz Extreme Support: Yes
Maximum available analog (VGA CRT or LCD) resolution is 2048 x 1536 @ 85hz
Maximum DVI (LCD) Resolution 2560 x 1600 @ 60hz (up to 2 30" Apple Cinema HD Displays) on dual-link DVI-I ports

The stock cooler of the X1900XT was useless. Everybody I know replaced it with a proper one ASAP.

Dear Rominator, you are my kind of guy.

Are you married? (Just kidding.)

Let us know how the testing works and what are you going to do with three cards afterwards? I would have let you borrow my Quadro card but i just sold the Quad.

gugucom said:

The stock cooler of the X1900XT was useless.

Click to expand...

I agree. I replaced mine with this: