2600 XT Crossfire and Overclocked

[ungraphic]

So because apple has done almost nothing about the 8800 GT being available for 'older' mac pro owners and almost nothing to live up to its claims that mac pros would be easily expandable, ive been thinking about alternatives a graphic card upgrade.

Currently I have 2 Geforce 7300 GTs, bridged with an ASUS Flex bridge, and overclocked. I get about 50-100 fps constantly in Counter Strike Source, and about 120-170 fps in UT 2004, both at resolutions of 1280x1024, 4X FSAA and maximum detail. I'm becoming very tired of my small 19" LCD as im a graphic designer and am in the process of buying a 24" LCD which woud give me 19200x1200 resolution. This of course, would kill my geforce setup and drop my frame rates significantly.

Now, I've been thinking of upgrading but am not sure which video cards I should get.......1900 XT or 2 X 2600 XT and overclocking them. Is the dual 2600 XT even an option? Can they be crossfired? Overclocked?

I've been playing half life 2 and am ready to move to half life 2 episode 2, but im fairly certain my video cards wont handle the game at the same settings i currently have. Of course, there are other games i would want to play but my limitations dont allow it, more importantly, at 1920x1200 resolutions after the monitor upgrade.

Thanks!

 

[ungraphic]

Ok.....well, anyone got any links at least?

 

[Sun Baked]

They are still easily expandable, but Apple hasn't made a habit of offering upgrades for older machines in a long time -- leaving that to 3rd parties.

And the 3rd parties haven't really come out with their Mac Edition cards lately.

--

Did you look at xlr8 to see if they had updated their video card db.

 

[Fingermouse]

Short answer (which is all I seem to be writing about at the moment) - two 2600XTs can be crossfired (with the right interconnect) and yes, they can be overclocked. 1920x1200 at fairly decent detail levels is definitely possible with this setup, although it's still not quite as good as a single 8800GT...

 

[Tracer]

Go for the X1900XT, it'll drive 1920 x 1200 Fine (Well, not with all the Candy)

You can pick them up for less than $100 if you know where to look and if you know how to flash it.

Tenthousandpercent, has a good guide on how to do so.

Tracer

 

[ungraphic]

Go for the X1900XT, it'll drive 1920 x 1200 Fine (Well, not with all the Candy)

You can pick them up for less than $100 if you know where to look and if you know how to flash it.

Tenthousandpercent, has a good guide on how to do so.

Tracer

Thanks man! Awesome link!

Do you know by any chance any PC cards that do work in windows but dont affect OS X at all and allows booting into OS X? I wouldnt mind so much simply switching the VGA/DVI cable to another card between boots, so as long as i dont have to physically take out the card each time.