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Better graphics card for PM G5 PCI-X

Moo-Boo

Moo-Boo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 24, 2004
109
0
Beerburrum, Queensland, Australia
Greetings my enlightened friends,

I had recently purchased a 2nd hand G5 PowerMac with dual 1.8GHz processors and PCI-X slots. I think it was released in November 2003. It's a great machine, but suffers from its lacklustre 64MB graphics card. My Mac man told me not to bother, but I would like to investigate the option further. What do you think is available and where would I obtain one of these things? Oh, I should also ask the most important question...is it worth it?

Thanks for talking with me and have an excellent Windows' free day!

Matt and his smelly cat (needs a bath)
 
Well, you'll need to buy an AGP card for your Mac, not a PCI-X card. I guess I could recommend flashing an nVidia GeForce 7800 to Mac; it'll be cheaper than buying an x1900xt and a lot faster.
 
Thank you very much for your wonderful advice...I was rather confused between the PCI-X and AGP options. Now I must go hunting and hopefully not damage my wallet too much!

Thanks once again and look after yourself,

Matt and the smelly cat
 
Thought I should point out.

PCI-X is often confused with PCI-Express, commonly abbreviated as PCI-E or PCIe. While they are both high-speed computer buses for internal peripherals, they differ in many ways.
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI-X

pcixmv1.jpg


PCI Express, officially abbreviated as PCI-E or PCIe
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI-Express

475px-PCI-Express-Bus.jpg
 
Firefly2002 said:
Right, but the Dual 1.8 GHz machines didn't have PCI-E.

He wants an AGP card, because he has an AGP 8x PRO slot, not a PCI-Express slot.
Click to expand...

Who said anything about that... I'm well aware it's an AGP system. All G5's are AGP except the Quad G5, that became PCI-E.

It would be 10 times worse if somebody bought a PCI-E graphics card thinking a PCI-X slot is PCI-E, to find they wasted their money on a card that the slot wont fit.

I was simply pointing out the confusion between PCI-X and PCI-E that so many have encountered over the years. Savvy?
 
vohdoun said:
Who said anything about that... I'm well aware it's an AGP system. All G5's are AGP except the Quad G5, that became PCI-E.

It would be 10 times worse if somebody bought a PCI-E graphics card thinking a PCI-X slot is PCI-E, to find they wasted their money on a card that the slot wont fit.

I was simply pointing out the confusion between PCI-X and PCI-E that so many have encountered over the years. Savvy?
Click to expand...

Right.. but he knew it was an AGP slot now, so he was going to look for an AGP card. Your post might be confusing to him.... it was to me. I thought you were pointing out that he may have meant it's a "PCI-E" model instead of "PCI-X," which would mean he wanted E instead of AGP.

And you wouldn't waste your money, as you can always return it.
 
pci-x graphics card - worth the trouble?

Hi,

I'm about to buy a 2nd hand G5 dual proc 2.7Ghz but before I do so I'd like to pick the collective brain here about PCI-X garphics cards.

I will definitely need to put a 2nd graphics card into it because the custom written software I want to use drives a second monitor (a crt) and can only do its job fast enough on a dedicated card.

I have found out that the machine only has PCI-X extension slots for which graphics cards seem to be very tricky to get.

Does anybody know of *any* PCI-X graphics card for the G5 that works reliably? Or better give up and look for a machine with PCI or PCI-Express?

Many thanks!
 
buzas said:
Hi,

I'm about to buy a 2nd hand G5 dual proc 2.7Ghz but before I do so I'd like to pick the collective brain here about PCI-X garphics cards.

I will definitely need to put a 2nd graphics card into it because the custom written software I want to use drives a second monitor (a crt) and can only do its job fast enough on a dedicated card.

I have found out that the machine only has PCI-X extension slots for which graphics cards seem to be very tricky to get.

Does anybody know of *any* PCI-X graphics card for the G5 that works reliably? Or better give up and look for a machine with PCI or PCI-Express?
Click to expand...

The Radeon 9200 Mac Edition is a PCI/PCI-X video card. It's supposed to be a pretty good performer even if it's not an AGP card. Should go for a little over $100 most places (OWC sells it for $110: in their normally staid product description field their entry for this card reads, "This PCI Video Card is SCREAMING Fast!").

As to the OP's specific question: I don't think it's worth it to blow a lot of money on a $200-300 AGP video card like a Radeon X800/X850 or a GeForce 6800 Ultra or whatever. However, something like a Radeon 9800 would be a dramatic improvement over the stock GeForce 5200 for $100-150 or so.
 
Thanks for the reply. I think I got unnecessarily confused by the dealer who is telling me that the PCI-X slot does not take ordinary PCI cards. But I read the contrary at various places (eg another thread orhere).
I guess I could just put in any PCI card to drive the monitor and use the original agp card for my more demanding application. Will try this before buying.
Have a nice day!
 
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