Is a Radeon X800XT good?

[iModFrenzy]

I was looking around and saw a card called a Radeon X800XT Mac Edition, it is the only card that actually uses GDDR3 ram(or at least the only card I have seen). My question is, is it a good card? It seems like these cards are a bit expensive.

 

[Intell]

The ATI X800 is one of the best cards for AGP PowerMacs.

 

[bunnspecial]

As Intell says, they are one of the best.

In the benchmark thread we've had going on here, these actually bench higher than the high-end FX4500 option for PCIe G5s.

 

[Altemose]

It is a fantastic card! I personally prefer ATI cards due to their generally stellar support in OS X.

 

[desantii]

Is that the equivalent of a FireGl3 card?

It is a fantastic card! I personally prefer ATI cards due to their generally stellar support in OS X.

 

[Altemose]

@desantii According to the previous threads regarding that card here, it will report as a 256 MB Radeon X800 XT.

 

[ziggy29]

They are outstanding for pretty much any PPC Mac. Two concerns are power and heat. These cards require an additional connection to the power supply so a marginal power supply may struggle to provide power. Also, these suckers put out a lot of heat, so you may need to take special measures to dissipate the heat so you can avoid crashes and freezes.

 

[bunnspecial]

They are outstanding for pretty much any PPC Mac. Two concerns are power and heat. These cards require an additional connection to the power supply so a marginal power supply may struggle to provide power. Also, these suckers put out a lot of heat, so you may need to take special measures to dissipate the heat so you can avoid crashes and freezes.

Just as a note, they are the best cards in any PPC Mac where they will work, but there are a lot of what-ifs and caveats to that statement

1. Of course, nothing before the Sawtooth G4 even has AGP, so they're off limits for that.

2. The X800 won't work in a 2x AGP slot, so the Sawtooth, Gigabit Ethernet, and Cube(assuming you could shoehorn one in) are off limits

3. They are iffy in a lot of 4x G4s-Erik and I both have had serious issues getting these cards(or at least the flashed versions) to work in Quicksilvers. I've never been successful in getting one to work in a Digital Audio either.

4. They are generally reliable in MDDs, although they do need to be taped

5. They are great and plug-and-play in G5s up through the late '05s

6. They are off limits in the late '05 G5, since those use PCIe. It's a shame, too, as this card benches better than high end FX4500 that was BTO in the '05 G5s.