Advice on new Graphics Card for G5 Quad

[DrewX]

Hi Guys,

I need a new/best card for a G5 quad 2.5. I know it's old (4 years) but it's still used quite a bit - mainly for Photoshop work. The card needs to run 2 x 23" Cinema Displays. I'm not sure if it makes any difference but it has 16GB memory (twice as much as our new 2.93 Quad can take - there's something not quite right there...)

I have no idea what card to get - any help would be really appreciated.

All the best!

 

[Umbongo]

Hi Guys,

I need a new/best card for a G5 quad 2.5. I know it's old (4 years) but it's still used quite a bit - mainly for Photoshop work. The card needs to run 2 x 23" Cinema Displays. I'm not sure if it makes any difference but it has 16GB memory (twice as much as our new 2.93 Quad can take - there's something not quite right there...)

I have no idea what card to get - any help would be really appreciated.

All the best!

You can get 7800GTs and 1900XTs for G5s. Check eBay. Sites that sell mac parts are likely to charge a lot more. The 2.93 quads support 16GB by the way.

 

[MacVidCards]

You can get 7800GTs and 1900XTs for G5s. Check eBay. Sites that sell mac parts are likely to charge a lot more. The 2.93 quads support 16GB by the way.

The X1900 for a G5 is actually the GT model.

There is also a 7800GTX512 for G5 which has 512 Megs of RAM, versus the 256 in 7800GT and X1900GT.

And there never was a 2.93 Quad PPC, perhaps you mean Mac Pro?

 

[Umbongo]

And there never was a 2.93 Quad PPC, perhaps you mean Mac Pro?

Think you misread that bit, I was replying to him saying their new quads only support 8GB.

 

[Dr.Pants]

Think you misread that bit, I was replying to him saying their new quads only support 8GB.

Ah! I had to do a double-take there myself. But, as everybody here is bound to say, the limit of the RAM is the memory controller

@OP: If you can find a 7800GTX to flash or a flashed version, I'm sure that it would be win - I have a 7800GT and it works dandy.

 

[DrewX]

Thanks for the replies.

I've had a look on ebay and was wondering if this card would be any good?

If not, here are the cards available on ebay at the moment:

X1900

7800GTX

7800GT

If you could point me in the right direction that would be great.

 

[davidlv]

Thanks for the replies.

I've had a look on ebay and was wondering if this card would be any good?

If you could point me in the right direction that would be great.

If you are not careful you will buy a video card for a Windows machine! The cards for the Mac are different, and many of the Windows cards are difficult to flash. Suggest you do a search like this:
ebay Mac PCIe video cards G5 (if your machine has PCIe slots or AGP if it not the late 2005 model, the only one that uses PCIe)
The results are quite different from those in your post

 

[DrewX]

Hi,

Thanks for that. I tried your search and a few variants and only get a couple of results from Hong Kong. I did find this new one though:

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/91818...O-TV-Out-Dual-DVI-Graphics-Card/Product.html#

I can't tell if it's Mac or PC though. Do you know if there's any way to tell?

Thanks for you help.

 

[DrewX]

It is PCI-e by the way...

 

[gugucom]

If its not explicitly saying so no card will run in a Power Mac. PM G5 uses open firmware where Windows computers use BIOS. Both systems are incompatible. You either need to flash a card that perfectly matches the criteria or buy one that says its for Power Mac G5 PCIe.

 

[MacVidCards]

Try searching on Ebay in the US. Most folks will ship to UK...not sure why they aren't showing up there.

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m38.l1313&_nkw=mac+7800&_sacat=See-All-Categories

The ones that are called "7800 GS" are AGP cards and won't work in a PCIE machine. (You have a 6600 now, yes?)

Also, there is a falsely labeled one that says "7800 GT" but it is really a 7800 GS, don't buy it. (Applemecanix and "wishful" advertising)

We Love Macs is in love with your money...$459 for same card the other guys want around $200 for.

 

[MacsRgr8]

TBO, having a "true" Mac version of a grfx card is worth the extra $$$.

I also have a Quad G5, and I have the Apple-supplied nVidia 7800 GT (256 MB VRAM) installed.

Works perfectly, and is fully supported.

There must be some cheap find on the web.

 

[300D]

The X1900 is the fastest card your G5 can use. The flashed 7800GTX 512 is actually slower, it only has more buffer memory.