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9600pro 64mb VS. 9000pro 128mb

S

shake

macrumors regular
Original poster
hello all,

i'm trying to decide which card will be better. I have a Digital Audio G4 that has been upgraded with a Gigadesigns dual 1.33ghz G4.
 
sorry didnt finish my post!!!

i use an Apple Cinema display as well at 1680x1050 resolution

anyways, i want either of these two cards because they are fanless and use a passive heatsink. the noise from my 9800pro is really starting to annoy me. has anyone tried the modified 9600pro's from OtherWorldComputing?

will the 9600pro be that much better than the 9000 even if the 9600 has 64mb of VRAM? I've seen the gaming benchmarks from O.W.C.'s site, but they dont really matter to me. I want to know how these cards "feel" when you are in the finder. is Expose smooth? even if you have 40 windows open?

any advice or experience with these 2 cards is greatly appreciated!

thanks,
shake
 
Thats a no-brainer. The 9600 absolutely destroys the 9000. They are not even in the same league. The amount of memory a video card has means practically nothing.
 
Oh, I posted my message before your second post was up.

So you already have a 9800pro? If you are simply sick of the fan noise, you should look into something like this.
 
T.Rex,

thanks for your reply.

i've come across that Thermaltake cooler the other day...
do u thnk that Thermaltake cooler will fit inside a Digital Audio tower?
i know i will lose a precious PCI slot, but will it clear the RAM on the other side? it also raises the overall height of the card potentially making it tough to close the case... the size of that heatsink is pretty intimidating!

so, the amount of memory in the card doesnt matter as much? even at 1680x1050 resolution?

thanks,
shake
 
There are a number of different "quiet" cooling solutions for the 9800; I would look into those first.

I've got a G4-modded 9600 from OWC and it runs great. I did things backwards from what you did though; I bought the video card before the CPU upgrade, so I'm not seeing a big performance jump over my Radeon 7500. However, I wanted a Core Image compatible card and the OWC-modded 9600s are currently the cheapest card I could get that will do core image. Still, the 9800 beats the 9600 hands down (of course, the 9600 is a far, far better card than the 9000 as well.)

I'd stick with the 9800, although I've never heard bad things about a 9600 in a G4 either.
 
http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product/view.asp?idx=149&code=013

that should not be audible over the rest of the system, you could get a passive heatsink but i would only use it if you underclock your card with atiaccelerator.


or you could pick up a vantec iceberq 4 for about $10 down at frys hardware i have one and it's pretty quiet, not silent but pretty quiet, definatly better than the stock cooler.
 
I've only used a cooler similar to that in a PC case, so I couldn't say how it would fit in other circumstances, unfortunately. The one I actually used was this one. Its essentially the same except it has a small, near silent fan on it. That Zalman fan looks good too, they make good stuff.

As for memory, 64MB is more than enough. Both the 12" PowerBook and the mini have 32MB cards and can run a 20" cinema display just fine.
 
i have a radeon 9600 pro with 64MB that i modded myself in 933Mhz Quicksilver G4.
i runs like a dream. in terms of exposé, with about six apps running, it only gets noticeably choppy when try 40 windows or more.

unlike the ones OWC are selling, mine has the mod to also power the ADC port, and my 15" studio display works beautifully.

here is a link for the mod in case anyone is interested:
http://www.techseekers.net/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=71

i'd highly recommend the 9600, and the $119 price from OWC is a great price. (i bought mine unmodded on ebay a matter of months before for ~$160)

oh and i've had it running stable for over three months with a %30 core overclock and %19 memory overclock with no extra cooling.
go here for the great ATIcellerator utility for overclocking: http://thomas.perrier.name/software/ATIcceleratorII.html
 
ok! great to hear someone is using the 9600pro sucessfully in a G4 !!!

what the 9600xt for the G5? is it possible to mod that to work in a G4 ?
 
I've got a 9800 pro in my 867 quicksilver.

There is no chance the thermalake cooler can fit between the card and the power supply. In mine there is under and inch of space there, and that cooling system is for both sides of the card.

Just my two cents, haven't peaked inside a digital audio, but I'm fairly sure they have a very similar if not identical board layout.

Hope that's kinda helpful.
 
just got home and had a peek inside my Digital Audio tower.
there is no way the Thermaltake cooler will clear the power supply as the door is being closed.
oh well. i might bite the bullet and try a Verax G03 fan.
 
Being a G5 owner, I feel your pain on that dang 9800 fan--that whiny little thing is louder than all the rest of the fans in my G5 put together.

I would definitely recommend looking into aftermarket cooling modifications for the 9800, though, as that'll both be way faster and way cheaper than a new card. Besides, you get some bragging rights out of installing them.

Interestingly, the G5s also have the same issue with these heatsink/fan combos as your G4 tower--no space underneath the card (in your case due to clearance on the power supply). Have a look over at XLR8YourMac; they go into detail in how to mod both the Verax G03 and the much cheaper (~$15) Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer (their illustrated page) to fit in the tight clearance underneath the G5's graphics card, and I expect these will fit in your G4 as well (I used to have a DA G4, and I'm pretty sure there's a bit of room anyway).

Take a look at the Arctic Cooling model--it might be just what you're looking for. Be aware that they have several models, so you want to buy the right one for your particular 9800.
 
The 8x AGP OEM Radeon 9800 found in BTO G5s is a very loud beast, however, the 2x/4x Radeon Retail, which I believe is the subject here, is much quieter.

I can't recall where I read it, but it was something about ATI making modifications to the retail card's cooling system due to the many complaints of BTO G4 and G5 owners.

Granted, my machine is definitely louder since the Radeon install, but the noise is honestly negligable. Nothing compared to my buddies dual 2.5 G5.
 
Alternative to replacement of anything...

Does the fan turn on based on temperature, or constantly? I am assuming temp. You could try simply installing another, quiter fan on top of the current cooling system. If (as I am assuming), the card is kept cool by the second fan, the loud fan would run less often, and for a shorter period (unless you're gaming, or something else that puts constant demand on the card...). I believe that you could simply draw power from another slot, be it PCI, or what have you. I am not firmilliar with the number of vent holes or position in the back of your model, but you could even install two, one above, and one below / a ~3" one that creates a general cross wind, or diverts hot air from prosc, drives, etc, AND one directly on the sink for the card. If custom cred is what you're after, this is definately custom. Also, it would be about a $20 investment–max–which would not be a big deal if it insufficiently cooled, or did not produce the reduced noise level you're looking for. Depending on what you concoct, you could even disconnect the card's noisy fan in favor of the new one(s). I would leave the built in one connected as a safety net if you didn't have it controlled by the card's temperature. One app I STRONGLY reccomend for this sort of thing is
Temperature monitor which lets you know how your set up is doing temp wise, and can give you an auditory and/or bublled warning if any sensor exceeds the temp you specify. Seems like you have plenty of options for acomplishing your goal w/o shelling much out.

best luck with your endeavors,
b
 
HeWhoSpitsFire said:
The 8x AGP OEM Radeon 9800 found in BTO G5s is a very loud beast, however, the 2x/4x Radeon Retail, which I believe is the subject here, is much quieter.

I can't recall where I read it, but it was something about ATI making modifications to the retail card's cooling system due to the many complaints of BTO G4 and G5 owners.
Click to expand...
Is there a huge difference between the 8x Radeon 9800 Pro Special Edition and the 4x 9800 Pro in terms of performance?
 
tubedogg,

I personally haven't seen much. Although the Special Edition sports 256M as opposed to 128M of VRAM. Although I have heard from a few local techs that the two share the same pipelines and chip, and the SE is actually slightly slower (and I mean by a micron).

The only real advantage I can think of is for people (like myself) who work with video and photoshop docs ranging into gigs in size, not so much the photoshop that doesn't usually get much larger than maybe 320M at the most, although there have been larger.

Other than that, you need a G5 to run the 8X card.
 
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