Plans for buying PowerMac G5

[MacSoftware3]

Hello there everybody,

I am considering to buy a PowerMac G5 DP 2.0GHz + 4GB RAM. The only thing which keeps me away from it is the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro, which isn't a very capable card as far as I know. I am from the Netherlands, and on Dutch eBay like websites, no special Mac graphics cards are available, so I am only able to use the 9600 Pro.

Do you guys think this Mac will be able to browse the web smoothly, or will this card bottleneck the experience?

 

[Dronecatcher]

That card is fine - unless you're a hardcore gamer, the difference between it and the best card available is negligible.
The bottleneck to browsing isn't the card but the CPU, however, with the right software/tweaking a Dual G5 does fine.

 

[swamprock]

I have this very machine; a mid-2004 with 8gb of RAM and the 9600. It's quite capable, but there are obvious browsing limitations to work within that @Dronecatcher outlined. Checking the forum for workarounds for video playing and tweaking TenFourFox/Leopard Webkit will get you on your way.

I can tell you that games and emulators do work well on the machine (Doom 3 and Halo being good examples) and there is a lot of great software of the era to take advantage of (Logic Pro is a beast on the DP 2.0, if music is your thing).

 

[MagicBoy]

The Radeon 9600 is fine. It's supports Core Image and it's got enough VRAM for a high res monitor. The 9600 is preferable to the GeForce FX5200 though.

The graphics card will have no effect on web browsing performance as said above. You'll peg the CPUs first. There's no G5 compatible cards that support H.264 decode or other modern niceties that help out on the modern web. That said there's no OS X support for them either.

 

[Jordy-G5]

Gotta agree with the other guys here, that card isn't going to hold you back while you dive into using the machine. Unless you want to play Quake 4 at high resolutions I can't see a reason that card won't work great. And yes it is a much better card than the Geforce 5200.