I want to upgrade the graphic card in my dual 2.0GHz G5

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I ordered a dual 2.0GHz G5 the day they came out (about 1 year ago), and at the time Apple included a pretty "poor" card, with only 64 MB of video memory.



I am finding that with the kind of work I do, it might be useful to have a more power card.



What cards are available to me, how much do they cost/where can I buy them?



Thank you all in advance!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    Somebody, anybody?
  • Reply 2 of 10
    Your choices are the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition (128MB 4X AGP), the Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Special Edition (256MB 8X AGP) or the nVidia 6800 Ultra from Apple (256MB 8X AGP).



    The 9800 Pro Mac Edition runs around $340

    The 9800 Pro SE is around $370

    The nVidia 6800 Ultra is $599



    The 6800 is spectacularly fast and spectacularly expensive...



    The two ATI cards are about the same except for the amount of VRAM. If you plan to run Motion, get a 256MB card, otherwise the 128MB will probably do.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    Why do I have to buy a special Mac edition? Sorry if that is a stupid question.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Robin Hood

    Why do I have to buy a special Mac edition? Sorry if that is a stupid question.



    because it has an ADC display conenctor on it.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ipodandimac

    because it has an ADC display conenctor on it.



    Is that the only reason? Since the new Apple displays no longer have ADC, just DVI, can I get the normal edition?
  • Reply 6 of 10
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Robin Hood

    Is that the only reason? Since the new Apple displays no longer have ADC, just DVI, can I get the normal edition?



    well the non-special edition is only 128MB ram. you have to remember all the people that want the 256MB card but have an "old" apple display. i think from here on out it'll be all dvi on mac cards, but for now, its still a transitional period.
  • Reply 7 of 10
    I see. So if I do buy a PC version of the card, it will work just fine, but obviously will only have DVI? I want to be absolutely sure before splashing out $3-400 in a high end special edition card with 256 MB video memory.
  • Reply 8 of 10
    If you buy a pc version of the card, it will not work in your mac. I"d recommend getting the 256MB card, just for future purposes, you'll have greater flexiblility for future applications, instead of down the road 2 years having to spend another 300 to get a 256MB card.
  • Reply 9 of 10
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Altivec_2.0

    If you buy a pc version of the card, it will not work in your mac. I"d recommend getting the 256MB card, just for future purposes, you'll have greater flexiblility for future applications, instead of down the road 2 years having to spend another 300 to get a 256MB card.



    i should hope 300 bucks will get more than 256MB twi years from now...
  • Reply 10 of 10
    Any card you buy will have to have Mac firmware on it to work, and the card vendors only put those out for the cards that they choose. There is a difference in how the color space is apportioned, and a few requirements on the PCI buss (mainly that it has to use some of the options features... mostly this is a simplification of what is required to work in the legacy-ridden PC side).



    There are occasionally ways of buying individual PC cards and using a PC to flash the Mac firmware onto them... but I am not aware of any new cards that fall into this category.



    PS... with exceptions of a very few high-end work situations (where price is not an object), there are very few non-game-related cases where you will actually get any benefit. Apple puts in decent cards to begin with for 2D work. And in most cases the AGP/PCI busses on older motherboards limit them anyways (also true on PC... but people don't pay attention to that).
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