Absolute best AGP card for G5?

[iamMacPerson]

Currently, I have an ATI Radeon 9650 in my dual 2GHz G5 from Early 2005. With it, I have my 24" Dell 1080p monitor hooked up with an HDMI to DVI adapter from Apple (the DVI plug is in use by my Mac Pro) and a 15" ADC Apple Studio Display hooked up with an ADC to DVI adapter to the G5. Basically, I'm using both DVI ports with the Dell as the primary monitor. I was wondering though, will I have any problems with the video card? It seems to be the best one Apple shipped with the AGP G5s, but I just don't want to burn it out by driving 2 displays.

So I was wondering, is there a better AGP card? It has to be ROMed as I don't want to deal with flashed cards.

Thanks!

 

[Intell]

PowerPC Macs use OpenFirmware based video cards. Only Intell Macs use EFI based one. Your current card is a mid-range card for G5s. The most powerful native Mac one for your use would be the rather uncommon ATI X850. After that, it would be the ATI X800. Those are the two most powerful ADC cards. In some tests they outperform comparable Nvida cards like the GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL or GeForce 6800 GT DDL that do not have ADC ports. Your current card will not burn out or be a problem with your current setup. All four of the mentioned cards are expensive to get in a native Mac edition and all of them are some of the most powerful cards for a AGP Mac.

 

[gavinstubbs09]

You won't kill a 9650! I run the 23" ACD (1920x1200) and a second 20" Acer (1600x900) on my 9650.

There is the Radeon X800 XT Mac Edition which is 256MB just like the 9650, so I don't think you would see much of an increase in anything unless you were playing games.

 

[jrsx]

One thing I don't like about PPC Laptops (did I just say that? ) is the fact that the video cards are generally pretty small and slow compared to desktop PPC Macs. My iBook has a pitiful little 32 MB graphics card, and Leopard's eyecandy really likes at least 64 MB or 128 MB graphics to be decent. I noticed a huge difference on my PowerBook with a 64 MB GeForce FX Go5200. Things like spaces and expose run much smoother in Leopard with this card. But being a laptop, there really isn't any upgrade or anything so I'm sort of stuck with it.

 

[iamMacPerson]

PowerPC Macs use OpenFirmware based video cards. Only Intell Macs use EFI based one. Your current card is a mid-range card for G5s. The most powerful native Mac one for your use would be the rather uncommon ATI X850. After that, it would be the ATI X800. Those are the two most powerful ADC cards. In some tests they outperform comparable Nvida cards like the GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL or GeForce 6800 GT DDL that do not have ADC ports. Your current card will not burn out or be a problem with your current setup. All four of the mentioned cards are expensive to get in a native Mac edition and all of them are some of the most powerful cards for a AGP Mac.

Whoops! I still had Intel on my brain from buying my 5770.

I'll have to look around for those cards at a good price. I might just stick to my current one. Thank you!

You won't kill a 9650! I run the 23" ACD (1920x1200) and a second 20" Acer (1600x900) on my 9650.

There is the Radeon X800 XT Mac Edition which is 256MB just like the 9650, so I don't think you would see much of an increase in anything unless you were playing games.

Nope. no games. Just a backup machine, but now that it is using my Dell monitor, it is much better!