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PowerMac G5 Quad Geforce 9800 GX2 BFG

hftvhftv

hftvhftv

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 18, 2014
102
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I just bought a BFG Nvidia Geforce GX2 graphics card simply because it was so cheap. I am thinking of flashing it with the EFI but I heard it can be more complicated to flash and set up this kind of card. In order to run it I need to externally plug it in for my older Dell E520 ( power supply is only 305W :( ) to flash it and I need to mod the case a little for it to even fit. And how would I power the card once it's in my Mac or should I just keep it for a future PC build? And where could I get an external power source for this card? :apple:
 
harrymatic said:
The only video cards which can be flashed to work in a Mac were those which had a Mac version available.
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Oh god so I need a Quadro FX 4500 at best? Would the GX2 version of it work?

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OK so overall this thing is useless to me?
 
hftvhftv said:
Oh god so I need a Quadro FX 4500 at best? Would the GX2 version of it work?
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I'm afraid I couldn't tell you as I only have experience with flashing AGP boards, but my hunch would be probably not. It's best to just try and find the original card (unless you know for sure that somebody else has gotten the specific variant to work).
 
harrymatic said:
I'm afraid I couldn't tell you as I only have experience with flashing AGP boards, but my hunch would be probably not. It's best to just try and find the original card (unless you know for sure that somebody else has gotten the specific variant to work).
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Uhh well now I've got this crazy GPU laying around with nothing to do. Too bad it doesn't fit in the Dell because then I could join the OP Pentinum 4 club :p.
 
The Quadro FX 4500 is one of the two best cards for the late-2005 PowerMac G5, but it's more for graphical work than gaming.
 
Intell said:
The Quadro FX 4500 is one of the two best cards for the late-2005 PowerMac G5, but it's more for graphical work than gaming.
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Exactly, I want a gaming card, not a workstation class card. My 6600 is better for that stuff but I want the thing to have a little more balls.
 
Intell said:
I think the best cards for gaming would be the Nvidia 7800 GT or the ATI X1900.
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Thanks. I'm just gonna keep the 6600 and build maybe a gaming PC with this. I'd say the Mac's worth more with the original parts.

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OH! Idea! Could I get another 6600 and pop it into the 8x slot? Since it does not require external power?
 
unlike classic cars, (which are worth more stock), a general run of the mill G5 PM can be had extremely cheaply. (some of them nasty too ;-) the G5 PM is far from collectable but are sure as heck a great computer still. Just have fun with it :) Drive it like you stole it! :)
 
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Intell said:
The Quadro FX 4500 is one of the two best cards for the late-2005 PowerMac G5, but it's more for graphical work than gaming.
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Even so, it's faster at gaming than everything except a flashed 7800GTX. Which unfortunately is a damn sight more unstable and buggy just to buy you a few more frames. I had a 7800GTX in service until a failed power supply killed it in 2010. It was marginally faster than the Quadro, but jeez, the bugs. The Quadro is rock solid stable comparatively.

hftvhftv said:
Thanks. I'm just gonna keep the 6600 and build maybe a gaming PC with this. I'd say the Mac's worth more with the original parts.

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OH! Idea! Could I get another 6600 and pop it into the 8x slot? Since it does not require external power?
Click to expand...

If you'd like to run classic PPC games with the G5, anything would be better than the stock 6600. That card is like molasses. Flowing uphill. In January.

And yes, you could use another 6600. You could fill all the slots with 6600s if you wanted, although I can't imagine a good reason for doing so unless you're a serious multimonitor nut. :)
 
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Frost7 said:
Even so, it's faster at gaming than everything except a flashed 7800GTX. Which unfortunately is a damn sight more unstable and buggy just to buy you a few more frames. I had a 7800GTX in service until a failed power supply killed it in 2010. It was marginally faster than the Quadro, but jeez, the bugs. The Quadro is rock solid
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I've have had a 7800GTX in my G5 for a long time and a fairly heavy gamer on it too but never had one single problem or bug. I imagine it depends on cooling, how it's flashed etc.
 
Frost7 said:
Even so, it's faster at gaming than everything except a flashed 7800GTX. Which unfortunately is a damn sight more unstable and buggy just to buy you a few more frames. I had a 7800GTX in service until a failed power supply killed it in 2010. It was marginally faster than the Quadro, but jeez, the bugs. The Quadro is rock solid stable comparatively.



If you'd like to run classic PPC games with the G5, anything would be better than the stock 6600. That card is like molasses. Flowing uphill. In January.

And yes, you could use another 6600. You could fill all the slots with 6600s if you wanted, although I can't imagine a good reason for doing so unless you're a serious multimonitor nut. :)
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Hmmm, I almost want to assemble an 8 monitor G5 set up now for my G5 DC 2.0...

I wasn't aware they could be simply stacked like that?
 
Frost7 said:
Even so, it's faster at gaming than everything except a flashed 7800GTX. Which unfortunately is a damn sight more unstable and buggy just to buy you a few more frames. I had a 7800GTX in service until a failed power supply killed it in 2010. It was marginally faster than the Quadro, but jeez, the bugs. The Quadro is rock solid stable comparatively.



If you'd like to run classic PPC games with the G5, anything would be better than the stock 6600. That card is like molasses. Flowing uphill. In January.

And yes, you could use another 6600. You could fill all the slots with 6600s if you wanted, although I can't imagine a good reason for doing so unless you're a serious multimonitor nut. :)
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I have used 3 flashed 7800 GTX cards in three different Quads and they are all still running. I have not had any problems with them at all over the years. I would tend to think that yours may have had some other issue causing these bugs. That's too bad as the card is great when it works.

As far as putting more than one card in, The Quad I use over at my shop has the 7800 GTX and a 6600 for multi-monitor support and it works great. Though I have not tried to fill it with 6600's ;) Now that you said this, I am going to do it just for kicks.
 
Full disclosure: I have never actually tried that. But the technician literature says you can, so... it's probably right.

As far as the 7800GTX, perhaps I just had a buggy one, or my G5 didn't like it. I had issues with some games turning a purplish hue (C&C Generals), and the screen being stuck black until I did a hard restart after quitting 3D games sometimes.
 
alienkidmj12 said:
im looking for a 780gtx in uk, can someone give me advice on flashing to mac ? im new to the mac scene, just bought an a1117, quad 2.5ghz ppc.
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Do you mean GTX 7800? Not only would a GTX 780 never work, it would be so heavily bottlenecked by every other parts of the system that to do so should be considered a criminal offence. Congratulations on the Quad though! I just got 2 GT 7800's working in mine there the other day. It's a lovely machine.
 
yes, the 7800, can you give advice, ive seen some from hongkong on ebay for 100ukp, but im not 100% sure coming all that way. i love the build quality, i already tried running debian 8 linux on it :) it pretty much runs anything i throw at it :) i have founds mac roms, but not sure which 7800 to pickup if i were to do it myself.
 
alienkidmj12 said:
yes, the 7800, can you give advice, ive seen some from hongkong on ebay for 100ukp, but im not 100% sure coming all that way. i love the build quality, i already tried running debian 8 linux on it :) it pretty much runs anything i throw at it :) i have founds mac roms, but not sure which 7800 to pickup if i were to do it myself.
Click to expand...

I believe you want to use an FX4500 Rom for the GTX 7800, but I could be wrong. In any case, the ultimate resource for flashing any card for a Mac can be found on this website here: http://themacelite.wikidot.com/wikidownloads2

You can find guides and Rom's for almost any card for any mac there.

Note:
Also, you should know the GTX 7800 and GT 7800 are different cards. The GT 7800 is available as a stock card for the Late 2005 G5's, while the GTX 7800 is strictly an after market card that requires an FX4500 to get it working. Also the GT 7800 has 256MB of Ram and is easily found as a stock card, while a little pricey. Flashing it is not too hard. The GTX 7800 had 512MB of Ram, but must be flashed, and not all models are possible to flash.
 
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alienkidmj12 said:
thats cool, maybe ill get 7800gt or 4500 :) do i just use the standard nvidea flasher on the pc ?
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Yes, I would recommend doing so, as the GTX 7800 is not worth the extra effort for the very minor increase in frames IMO. Yes, the standard NVFlash should work fine on any PCI-E PC. I have two stock GT 7800's in my Quad and I can run virtually any 3D game released for PPC on nearly maximum settings. Battlefield 1942, Quake 3 & 4, Sid Meier's Pirates!, and Age of Empires 3 all work perfectly. :)
 
alienkidmj12 said:
another question, the 4500 is quite wide, looks double height, will it fit in okay do you think.
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It will fit, but it will indeed take up two full PCI-E slots. The slot it blocks is only an x4 slot anyway, so you'll still have another x4 slot and an x8 slot to spare. The x8 is good for a second video card or a fibre channel card, but most other PCI-E cards for the G5 are really niche items, especially at this point.
 
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