Which Mac Video Card?

[MacAztec]

I would like to buy the Radeon 7500 Mac edition but I'm starting to think that this is only available if you buy a new G4 from apple. Is this true? If so, does anyone have any experience with the Radeon Mac Edition card in a G4-400, the Sawtooth model? I am deperate as these kids are killing me on Red Faction cause I get too much lag from my Rage 128pro that came installed in the box. Help, I need to kick some ass!

 

[Wildcat]

Yeah I think it is only avalable on new powermac G4's. I think I am in a similar situation to yours. The only new ATI card I can find are Radeon 7000 PCI, Radeon 8500 AGP, and The discontinued Radeon Mac edition.

 

[MacAztec]

What? The Radeon Mac Edition is not discontinued. It is still on ATI's website, and it is still for sale. Am I wrong?

 

[Wildcat]

well you can still buy it. but they aren't producing it anymore

 

[Choppaface]

on a similar note, I have a dual 500 G4 with gigabit ethernet. can I stick a better card in it (like a GeForce4 TI)?

 

[Hemingray]

All this talk of better graphics cards made me get my butt in gear and order myself an upgrade. I've got a G4 400 PCI graphics with a Rage 128 graphics card (YUCK!).

The Rage 128 has 16MB of SDRAM, so I ordered a Radeon 7000 (PCI), which has 32MB of DDR-SDRAM, effectively quadrupling my current RAM config. I realize my G4 is an old POS now, but if all I have to do is pay $120 to make my computer bearable in Q3A, it will be well worth it.

 

[Wildcat]

is that a sawtooth? and is the agp 2X or 4X? Im pretty sure you need a 4X agp slot to use a GeForce4 TI. But I think the ATI Radeon 8500 is compatable with 2X and 4X. Although that is not the card that the GeForce4 TI is

 

[Catfish_Man]

The problem with the Rage128...

Originally posted by Hemingray
All this talk of better graphics cards made me get my butt in gear and order myself an upgrade. I've got a G4 400 PCI graphics with a Rage 128 graphics card (YUCK!). The Rage 128 has 16MB of SDRAM, so I ordered a Radeon 7000 (PCI), which has 32MB of DDR-SDRAM, effectively quadrupling my current RAM config. I realize my G4 is an old POS now, but if all I have to do is pay $120 to make my computer bearable in Q3A, it will be well worth it.

..is not the 16MB SDR-SDRAM, it's that it doesn't have hardware transform and lighting. What this means is that it dumps half the work of every frame on your processor, instead of doing it itself. The Radeon 7000 has a faster processor with hardware T&L and twice as much ram that runs at least twice as fast. However, it doesn't have pixel shaders or vertex shaders, so it won't do the really fancy effects that an 8500, or a GeForce3/4 will do. btw, the GF4 may be a really really fast card, but the 8500 is definitely still a contender. TruForm rocks.

 

[Hemingray]

Thanks Catfish_Man, it's good to hear from someone who actually knows what's up with these graphics cards. I had one heck of a time just finding info on the 'net to justify me plunking down $120, but I think it'll be worth it.

I'm not too concerned about all the "fancy" stuff. This is just to keep me going that extra mile until I upgrade my computer. Since my old G4 doesn't have AGP graphics, it's kind of a moot point anyway.