G3 Upgrade, Part Deux

I posted a month or so ago here about upgrading from my 1999 G3 B & W desktop running OS 9.2.2. I've finally decided on buying an iMac and am eyeing the 24" model. I'm wondering if it's advisable to upgrade to the 7600 video card rather than the 7300 it comes with, as I do not buy new machines regularly and will try to use it as long as possible. Will it make that much of a difference as to browser page loading speed? As I don't game but use graphic programs will it be affected by the video card?

I was going to get a 20" iMac but the better video card plus the huge screen with the 24" model - well, it's just too tempting. Anything I should know before committing?

I think that at this point, a tricycle would run faster than my G3, which has frozen seven times on the web so far this evening - three times at the Apple store alone!

I am in film & TV so I do need to access heavy-graphic-loading web sites, which even with high-speed connection, won't load now, but that's a browser problem also as I don't have Flash 8 with IE5. Hello, Firefox and Safari!!!

I still would like a laptop but will buy it next year, probably refurbished. I really need the desktop now; impossible to wait until spring 2007. At this rate I won't make it to Christmas with the old Yosemite.

Many thanks to those who helped me earlier. There really are too many choices out there.

 

I have an external drive already so for the moment I'm all set there. It's unlikely that I'll ever be doing animation or anything in 3D though at some point I'd like to get into heavier graphic apps like Painter and Illustrator.

I hope that I'm not keeping another computer for seven years. I think this one lasted so long because I didn't start using Photoshop seriously until a year ago. It's been stretched to its maximum in that time. I wore out one scanner - the old one couldn't handle it.

Any value to getting a used G5 in order to use Photoshop w/out the slowdown of Rosetta? Or is that just silly?

Thanks...