I am looking to purchase a G5 Power Mac, either between one with an nvidia 6600 256mb card or a Radeon 9600xt/9650 with 256MB. Which performs better in mac world, nvidia or ati? The 6600 I am leaning towards.. not only because I think it might perform better but those G5's are also the newer ones with pci-e slots and so on.
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G5 - Nvidia or ATI
- Thread starter doox00
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Just curious. Why are you purchasing a computer that can be no younger than three years old and cannot run Snow Leopard when you can get a Mac Mini with faster hardware for about the same price?
Mac mini's onboard video card will be slower than a 6600 I am guessing, the onboard video cards are pretty bad overal, even the nvidia one in the new mac mini. A G5 will run 10.5.7 won't it? You can get a power mac G5 dual core 2.3ghz with 2gb ram with 6600 for roughly 350-500 range
You sure about that? The 6600 was made in 2004.
It's your choice, but you're wasting money on a machine that has two years of life at best left.
I have a 8400m in my dell laptop, its not that good, I have a 6600 in one of my older pcs and it runs games much smoother and higher resolutions then the 8400 does.. maybe its different in mac world though.
The 6600GT is an ancient midrange card from 5 year ago. I'm going to side with the 9400M G even if it is an IGP.
I still think the 6600 outperforms it, you cant even get 25 fps at 800x600 in low quality settings with a 9400m in cod4. Not sure what a 6600 can do though in cod4.. but I used one for awhile on the pc side and it performed decently overal.
A 6600 non GT will run doom 3, UT 2004, Halo at 35ish fps at 1280x1024, farcry at 40+ at 1280x1024.
Yes, but you'll be able to change some of the settings from "sucktacular" on the 9400M.
well I am not getting a mac mini, the 9400m is not good and the 6600 out performs it. For my purposes the G5 is a better option. so back to my original question.. does nvidia or ati generally perform better in mac world. Both are fine but it comes down to driver support.
I would go with an intel powermac (don't need/want screen of an imac) but apple so is grossly overpriced its not an option for me.
I would go with an intel powermac (don't need/want screen of an imac) but apple so is grossly overpriced its not an option for me.
Everyone is just going to keep saying to get a Mac Mini because it is new hardware and it will last much longer than a G5. But anyways, ATI is sometimes better than Nvidia graphics cards.
In the Mac world, you're wrong, but I don't think we can ever convince you that a five year old card is worthless.
Get an ATI. They make their own drivers.
Trust me, if it were faster I would be all over it getting a mac mini..I have been reading reviews and the 9400m performs awfully in games. I am a big gamer on the pc side, have a water cooled gtx 260 sli system and 3 other pc's all with 9600gt's or better in them and my one old pc with the 6600 in it. The 6600 whether you want to believe it or not runs faster than a 9400m.
All I can find out searching for 9400m reviews shows it to be an overal bad performer.. if someone has a good review of it showing otherwise I would be interested in reading it.
I started this thread asking a specific question and get nothing but flames for considering a G5 Power Mac. I am open to other options but the mac mini I don't think is it.. at least from what have found out.. I could be wrong though.. its known to happen from time to time.
I could get an 8800gt for instance and flash it and it will work just fine in the G5? or a 4850/70?
All I can say is I just sold my PPC PowerMac because I see the PPC death coming. Your better off with and intel iMac vs a G5 PowerMac. Unless you need expandability. I have a dual 2.5 G5 PPC (6gb RAM 128mb Video card)and My newer 2.4 Intel Core 2 Duo MB Pro (4gb RAM 256mb Video Card) is faster all the way around. Not to mention trying to sell a PPC in 2 years will be harder then selling a house is now. Don't throw your money away.
I understand what you are saying... right now I have a core 2 duo hackintosh with 4gb ram and 9600gt video card.. but its my htpc and want to return it as that.. so was going to get a genuine mac to replace it. I would prefer an intel mac but the cost is to much. Right now my main reason for having a mac is to run everquest as the eq mac server is the best one to play on.. eq was ruined years ago on the pc side. A number of people have a mac mini who play eq and from what I can find out is its runs it okay.. but does get laggy for them during raids and certain areas.. this is not good for me as I 2 box (run two instances of eq on one machine) and will be raiding (50+ people all at once) which causes alot of lag. From what I have found out a G5 mac pro runs all that pretty much lag free for them.
Hi, this is TSE from the EQMac forums. The one that made the thread concerning what Mac to buy for EQMac specifically.
If your heart is really set on the PowerMac G5, go for the nVidia 6600. You seem like you have your heart set out on that card.
The Mac Mini, in my opinion, would be a much better choice, as they cost the same, but you get a much faster processor, a better graphics card (the 9400M > nVidia 6600), a smaller case, and the fact that it will run the latest OS for years to come.
If your heart is really set out on the PowerMac, get it and be done with it.
If your heart is really set on the PowerMac G5, go for the nVidia 6600. You seem like you have your heart set out on that card.
The Mac Mini, in my opinion, would be a much better choice, as they cost the same, but you get a much faster processor, a better graphics card (the 9400M > nVidia 6600), a smaller case, and the fact that it will run the latest OS for years to come.
If your heart is really set out on the PowerMac, get it and be done with it.
Rancor said in that thread:
Got the Powermac today and I have to say it runs EQ like a dream. PC3200 RAM is dirt cheap so I pumped it up to 5.5GB. It runs EQ silky smooth, much better than my Unibody MBP.
He got the older G5 as well, with AGP ATI graphics card and 2ghz cpu.. I was looking at the dual core 2.3ghz with pci-e systems.
powerpc g5s are still very power ful and even handsdown booted faster than the early intel macsto my knowleadge a quad ppc g5 mac beats an intel dual core any day maybe even the intel quads still 16gb of ram is alot and yes the 1.0 version is out of date by far but the 2,0 is still viable today as a computer with ddr2 ram and pci e theoreticly you could put an nvidia 285 gtx in it... if apple let you that is(plus its 64 bit wihich older intel macs (pre2008)dont run fully loaded with 16gb , two 2,7 ghz dualcore g5 's ,and the maxvideo card you can do....it would beat any intel mac any day excluding the new core i7-i5mac pro models and 8 core models they are too far in the future now and pricey sill a fully loaded g5 mac would beat any imac or mac book/pro and mini for only about 800 good deal i say
(plus its 64 bit wihich older intel macs (pre2008)dont run fully loaded with 16gb , two 2,7 ghz dualcore g5 's ,and the maxvideo card you can do....it would beat any intel mac any day excluding the new core i7-i5mac pro models and 8 core models they are too far in the future now and pricey sill a fully loaded g5 mac would beat any imac or mac book/pro and mini for only about 800 good deal i say
I think you're a little lost on the capabilities of the 9400m. I would take a used MB aluminum with 9400m with a C2D Intel CPU over a five year old PowerBook any day. I think you need to rethink your whole thought process on what a current Mac is capable of and how much you're willing to compromise just to run a five year old powerbook - or nearly four years old as they stopped selling about four years ago.