Vid Cards: Which One Do YOU Want?

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Are you guys ordering the stock ATI 9000, or upgrading to the Ti4?



Which card is better? I would think the Ti is better, having 128 MB DDR as oppsoed to 64 on the 9000.



When does the 9700 ship? Will there be a Mac version?



Which card will run Doom3 best?



When does Doom3 ship?!?



(Its sad when I buy a whole new home Mac rig just to play a video game! But come on, it's DOOM! )

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    Doom 3 might be lucky to ship next year. It does look stunning though.



    If we're lucky, the 9700 will arrive early next year...hey...the G5 might be pending by then...and the Geforce 5!



    Cool. G5 and G5. G10 set up!



    Either way. If you're buying a next gen' video card...you can't lose.



    In the meantime...you could get the Geforce 4 tit' from Apple. Only cost you 3 times the PC version which is now in budget territory. Which makes the 9000 from Ati seem expensive!



    The 9000 is just a repacked 8500. Does better on some specs and worse on others.



    If you're buying a 'power'Mac now. Keep the card that's in it which will run most Mac games fine as Apple's own website benches show.



    Save the money you'd have spent on the Apple Geforce 4 Ti' and wait until Doom 3 does come out and buy the 'next gen' graphics card then. You'll be glad you did.



    Except apple's current cpus aren't going to get the most out of the next gen graphics cards.



    Even the current top x86 processors are struggling to keep the 9700 busy.



    Lemon Bon Bon
  • Reply 2 of 14
    badtzbadtz Posts: 949member
    the 9700 is going to arrive in a month! [i'm not sure for the mac]



    the 9000 = not as good as the 8500......



    i would get the gf4ti instead of the 9000.
  • Reply 3 of 14
    xaqtlyxaqtly Posts: 450member
    I'm getting the GF4Ti in mine, because it's the best card available right now. I can always upgrade in 6 months or something if there's something REALLY worth upgrading to from the Ti.
  • Reply 4 of 14
    i'd have to agree with Lemon Bon Bon about waiting til Doom III comes out to get the next-gen vid card... i would, however, get the GF4Ti tho, since running dual monitors splits up your vidram in half.



    another thing: i've got myself a dual 1Ghz G4 with GF4MX... is this GF4MX card i have now different from the one in the new PM's???



    i.e. i believe my GF4MX has 64MB ram while the new PM GF4MX's only have 32MB??? <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
  • Reply 5 of 14
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    keep the gf4mx, sell it on ebay, buy a pc 8500 for $110 and flash the rom. You might actually make some money...
  • Reply 6 of 14
    [quote] keep the gf4mx, sell it on ebay, buy a pc 8500 for $110 and flash the rom. You might actually make some money... <hr></blockquote>



    Hmmm. Would you have a link to the flash utility for the PC Radeon 8500?



    Thanks.
  • Reply 7 of 14
    yeah, this is what i wanted to do because the geforce 4mx's blow, i want dual monitors, and 32mb vram won't cut it, plus, i need to be able to mirror to a tv, and the 8500 has that built in....



    i can get a mac edition 8500 for $180, but as someone said the pc edition is $110-120... anyone know if there are any physical differences between a mac and pc 8500? or is it just firmware and upgradable, modifiable?



    any help on this would be great as i want to order my new system today, and would love to avoid paying for the poor excuse that the radeon 9000 is....
  • Reply 8 of 14
    macaddictmacaddict Posts: 1,055member
    [quote]but as someone said the pc edition is $110-120<hr></blockquote>



    You could also get a Radeon 8500 LE (slightly lower clocked than the retail), flash it with the retail firmware, and then flash it with the Mac firmware.



    LE's are like $90 shipped now. Check out Pricewatch/resellerratings.
  • Reply 9 of 14
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    [quote]Originally posted by DVD_Junkie:

    <strong>



    Hmmm. Would you have a link to the flash utility for the PC Radeon 8500?



    Thanks.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    This is how I did it... all on a Mac.



    Download the Mac firmware update and drivers from ATI.

    ROM update: <a href="http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/mac/ati-radeon8500-mac-rom-126.html"; target="_blank">http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/mac/ati-radeon8500-mac-rom-126.html</a>;

    Drivers: <a href="http://spinbox.versiontracker.com/?RC=5002170&AI=3867&RANDOM=1982306625"; target="_blank">http://spinbox.versiontracker.com/?RC=5002170&AI=3867&RANDOM=1982306625</a>;



    Get a PCI video card. Any cheap Mac compatible one will do. Install it in a PCI slot and put the 8500 in the AGP slot. Attach the monitor to the PCI card.



    Start up your Mac in OS 9. Run the ROM flasher app. It will find the card and install a Mac ROM (note you must have the 64MB non-All-in-Wonder version. Just the regular 64MB card with DVI/VGA/S-VHS). It will want to restart after.



    Switch the monitor cable to the 8500 and take out the PCI card. Boot into OS X and install the drivers. Restart.



    Should be as easy as that.
  • Reply 10 of 14
    WHat I wanna knkow is if I can flash a Radeon 7000. I mean they still cost like $120 or something, and I've seen PC version of the PCI 7000 for dirt cheap. Shouldn't it be the same concept as the Radeon 8500 flashing? I am curious cause I wanna put one in my G3.
  • Reply 11 of 14
    xaqtlyxaqtly Posts: 450member
    TigerWoods - <a href="http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/detail.asp?dpno=369724"; target="_blank">Click Here Now.</a>
  • Reply 12 of 14
    leonisleonis Posts: 3,427member
    I want 3D Lab's WildCat
  • Reply 13 of 14
    Yeah, except the Mac version is still $114.99. I can buy a PC version 8500 card for that. I've seen the PC version of the Radeon 700 for like $50(or less) and I would figure that since ATI has Mac drivers for the card, you could just flash it the same way you do the 8500s.





    As far as video card I want, the ATI Fire GL X1.



    <a href="http://mirror.ati.com/products/workstation/fireglx1/index.html"; target="_blank">http://mirror.ati.com/products/workstation/fireglx1/index.html</a>;



    Of course I'll settle for getting a Radeon 9700 for my G4 when they become available.



    Leonis-What about the P10?
  • Reply 14 of 14
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    9700. ATI has been good to me driver/card wise.
Sign In or Register to comment.