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Best Graphics Card For the Cheapest Amount
- Thread starter EvanH123
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IMO, the 9600 in various trims is something of a "sweet spot" between price in performance. The XT is a bit faster on paper, but in practice I don't find it to be the case.
BTW, unless you drop all the way down to an FX5200 I don't think you''ll find 64mb of RAM.
If you want to move up the ladder, I'd suggest keeping your eyes open for a 9800. The 6800 Ultra is one of my personal favorites, but they are often pricey.
A flashed ATI FireGL X3 is a good alternative and is a good performer.
BTW, unless you drop all the way down to an FX5200 I don't think you''ll find 64mb of RAM.
If you want to move up the ladder, I'd suggest keeping your eyes open for a 9800. The 6800 Ultra is one of my personal favorites, but they are often pricey.
A flashed ATI FireGL X3 is a good alternative and is a good performer.
I am looking at several graphics cards right now on ebay, i have come up with these.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATI-RADEON-9800XT-256MB-DVI-ADC-AGP-8X-PowerMac-G5/232060572657?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=38846&meid=29b7424190a942568a5404238c3540c9&pid=100011&rk=1&rkt=8&sd=261106449493
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-PowerMac-G5-ATI-Radeon-9600-XT-ADC-DVI-128MB-AGP-Video-Card-630-6630/381745270493?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=38846&meid=ce1be5ec191e43658856220093cee81b&pid=100005&rk=2&rkt=6&sd=232060572657
And this one, which im pretty sure wont work, buts labeled as Powermac G5
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-7800gt-Mac-Pro-G5-256-MB-Works/322250413460?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=38846&meid=ce1be5ec191e43658856220093cee81b&pid=100005&rk=4&rkt=6&sd=232060572657
EDIT: I realized that the last link i posted is a PCIe card, while my G5 has AGP
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATI-RADEON-9800XT-256MB-DVI-ADC-AGP-8X-PowerMac-G5/232060572657?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=38846&meid=29b7424190a942568a5404238c3540c9&pid=100011&rk=1&rkt=8&sd=261106449493
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-PowerMac-G5-ATI-Radeon-9600-XT-ADC-DVI-128MB-AGP-Video-Card-630-6630/381745270493?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=38846&meid=ce1be5ec191e43658856220093cee81b&pid=100005&rk=2&rkt=6&sd=232060572657
And this one, which im pretty sure wont work, buts labeled as Powermac G5
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-7800gt-Mac-Pro-G5-256-MB-Works/322250413460?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=38846&meid=ce1be5ec191e43658856220093cee81b&pid=100005&rk=4&rkt=6&sd=232060572657
EDIT: I realized that the last link i posted is a PCIe card, while my G5 has AGP
GPU benchmarks on higher specified cards don't translate into any performance increase unless you're modeling or gaming (in my experience) - maybe they help running dual monitors.
I would use the cash in your case to double the RAM or get a SSD.
Last year I tested a Quadro FX 4500 (one of the best cards for the G5) against my stock card - not an ounce of difference, plus I had it's cooling fan whirring away too which was louder than the Quad's fans.
Of the cards listed, the 9800 would be the better bet. As I said, the 9600XT is really a lateral move although it is better on paper.
To a point, I'd have to agree with Dronecatcher, but at the same time improving the GPU takes more load off the CPU for basic tasks like the desktop rendering. A 9600-class card is a definite step up from an FX5200, but you will likely only seem improvements beyond it in specific situations.
BTW, not to nit-pick, but the FX4500 is a bit of a pig compared to a handful of other G5 cards. It's a good bit slower than the X800XT and X850XT for AGP Macs, and is also beat by the X1900XT for PCIe G5s. The FX4500 is a workstation GPU, which generally means that it trades all out speed for accuracy in rendering(consumer GPUs tend to do the opposite).
To a point, I'd have to agree with Dronecatcher, but at the same time improving the GPU takes more load off the CPU for basic tasks like the desktop rendering. A 9600-class card is a definite step up from an FX5200, but you will likely only seem improvements beyond it in specific situations.
BTW, not to nit-pick, but the FX4500 is a bit of a pig compared to a handful of other G5 cards. It's a good bit slower than the X800XT and X850XT for AGP Macs, and is also beat by the X1900XT for PCIe G5s. The FX4500 is a workstation GPU, which generally means that it trades all out speed for accuracy in rendering(consumer GPUs tend to do the opposite).
Totally agree - it was the only high end card available to me at the time that didn't have an outrageous price attached to it. But I expected some improvement given it's huge benchmark but non materialised.
So you are saying that upgrading from the 9600pro to 9600xt would not show any difference in performance?
In my experience, no.
I've used both cards, and see no difference in their performance.
There's a big thread on here which I can't locate at the moment with a bunch of PPC video card benchmarks using Openmark, and both the Pro and XT get exactly the same score.
The primarily compelling reason I would have to choose one over the other is if I desired support for an ADC display, or if I wanted dual DVI.
The Openmark results are here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/some-ppc-openmark-benchmarks.1848060/
The tests I did are here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/do-i-need-a-better-graphics-card.1953247/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/some-ppc-openmark-benchmarks.1848060/
The tests I did are here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/do-i-need-a-better-graphics-card.1953247/
Would upgrading the video card improve performance in any way? Right now my G5 struggles to run 360p youtube video but the CPU isn't maxed out (about 50-60%) and editing in FCP can be very choppy with 720p video files.
No graphics card available for PPC will make a difference to video playback - trust me, I've been down this road
Your G5 should do Youtube effortlessly - look up my guides for this.
I have posted about this in the past, and people said to replace the hard drive, since it still has the original one. (The grinding noise is real) Would this improve performance in anything?No graphics card available for PPC will make a difference to video playback - trust me, I've been down this road
Your G5 should do Youtube effortlessly - look up my guides for this.
If the current hard drive is marginal then yes, you could see a noticeable increase in performance. A marginal drive could be developing bad sectors and the hard disk may have to retry an operation as a result (while at the same time marking the sector as bad and remapping it...if there are enough spare sectors to do so).
In the past, I've seen vast increases in performance just by wiping the drive and reinstalling again - I don't know how but sometimes the OS doesn't sit right and it's better on a second attempt. Plus, with time the drive gets junk files and software spread all over the place anyhow - a clean install now and again is a good idea.
It's not a guarantee though but it won't hurt to try it.
I have wanted to do that for some time, but I don't have the Leopard Install disk
Okay, I will do that and let you know if there is a performance difference