Upping FW800 Graphics

[maelstromr]

Hi everyone,

I've read a lot of banter about graphics cards back and forth and wanted to pose the very simple question in the hopes of gettign a relatively concise and clear answer...what is a good step up for my 1.25 Dual G4 FW800 from it's current 9000pro, stock model. I have 768mb ram, plan on adding some more, and everything else is basic. It's running the 20" Apple Cinema.

My basic understanding is that the 9800 pro is too much and will not be utilized appropriately by my G4, and that the nvidia geforce 4 titanium (4400?) is the best bet for my machine with it's 128mb ram.

Is this correct? What are my options, keep in mind I'm looking for the best availible for the machine and willing to shell out decent money? Where can I acquire these cards? Otherworldcomputing provides the ATI 9800, but not nvidia. Ebay the only option? I would rather get a mac model and not worry about tricking or risky hacks. What prices should I be paying?

Thanks in advance.

 

[MacsRgr8]

For gaming?

I suggest the Radeon 9800.

It is simply the best card for your Mac.

BUT, BUT..... you need an ADC connector as you have the 20" Apple monior.... that will bring up extra costs, unluckily.
So a DVI to ADC adapter is required, that is the problem as these are not cheap.

Second choice would be the nVidia GeForce 4 Ti (I thought 4600) WITH ADC.

I had the pleasure of playing around with 4 grfx cards in my Dual 1.25 GHz FW 800 (1.5 GB RAM):
Radeon 9000 (OEM, built in)
Radeon 8500
nVidia GeForce 4 Ti
Radeon 9800

In short:
Radeon 8500 and 9000 are practically the same when playing the most popular games.
GeForce 4 was better, depending on the game! UT 2003 was much faster, MOHAA did NOT have a significant FPS increase (compared to the Radeon 9000 or 8500)...
Radeon 9800: gr8. Especially tnx to the ATi FSAA and AF override options (in software), capable of making all games look alot better! Not only more FPS. We have to face it: a Dual G4 does not feed the Radeon 9800 Pro with enough data to let the card be the performance bottleneck, so these "look better" extras come at hardly a performance cost, but definitely help increase gaming pleasure!
But I have to mention it again: The ATi Radeon 9800 Pro Retail (not the G5 OEM one) does not have an ADC port! Only VGA, TV-out and DVI. So you'll have to spend xtra $$$ on the DVI-ADC adapter....

BTW, if you don't play games:

Forget my post