What to get: Radeon PCI or Radeon 7000 ?

tigerwoods99tigerwoods99
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I was thinking about popping one of these cards into my beige G3 tower, however am unsure as to which one offers the better deal. The price on the original Radeon has come down to about $130, however the new Radeon 7000 is around $100 and seems to be like the original but with dual display support. Are there any features that the Radeon 7000 has over the original that may offer better performance? I'm interested in which one has more raw power and features. Too bad nobody has gotten a GeForce 2 MX to work in the beige G3s, otherwise I'd like to pick one of those up for cheap.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    bogiebogie Posts: 407member
    Actually, you are not really much better off with a Radeon than with a Rage128 in a PCI slot.



    For some performance reviews check out <a href="http://www.barefeats.com"; target="_blank">http://www.barefeats.com</a>; where they have shown that PCI vs. AGP is too limiting, which kinda sucks.
  • Reply 2 of 11
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    Won't you be upgrading at least sometime in the near future? I know you want a newer Mac and can't get one, but it's really about time. Is it worth the money upgrading the graphics card in your G3?



    [ 01-20-2002: Message edited by: EmAn ]</p>
  • Reply 3 of 11
    tigerwoods99tigerwoods99 Posts: 2,633member
    Yeah I want to get a new machine badly, but if Apple is gonna pull some bullshit on me then I don't want to waste my money on an overpriced underpowered machine. This machine has to justify it's purchase. Who knows new towers might not be coming for a couple more months so I figure I might as well upgrade this beast while I'm waiting (I use beast very sarcastically). This machine would still be used by others even if a brand new G5 was sittin in it's spot in a few weeks time. One of the reasons I haven't upgraded yet is because I keep thinking Apple is gonna actually give me a compeling reason to want to ask for a new machine. They still haven't. I'm getting very impatient.
  • Reply 4 of 11
    tigerwoods99tigerwoods99 Posts: 2,633member
    Yeah, I've been telling them it's about time for quite some time now.
  • Reply 5 of 11
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    in my g3 b&w it made a tremendous difference- I bought the original pci radeon as soon as it came out- however, the b&w g3 has an enhanced 66mhz pci slot specifically for a graphics card, it's not agp, but its better than a standard pci slot ... if the beige g3 has a 66mhz pci slot then you will see a tremendous boost for your buck



    the 7000 and mac edition are the same, except the 7000 has dual display support in addition to all the outputs present in the original mac edition (flat panel display, svideo tvout)

    retail the 7000 is $50 more- both are compatible with either 66 or 33mhz pci slots, but like i said before, if you dont have a 66mhz pci slot the performance boost you see may be disapointing



    [ 01-20-2002: Message edited by: janitor ]</p>
  • Reply 6 of 11
    bernardbernard Posts: 59member
    [quote]Originally posted by janitor:

    <strong>



    the 7000 and mac edition are the same, except the 7000 has dual display support in addition to all the outputs present in the original mac edition (flat panel display, svideo tvout)

    retail the 7000 is $50 more- both are compatible with either 66 or 33mhz pci slots, but like i said before, if you dont have a 66mhz pci slot the performance boost you see may be disapointing



    [ 01-20-2002: Message edited by: janitor ]</strong><hr></blockquote>

    they dont publish the core speed of a 7000 and it has one redering pipeline while the original radeon PCI has 3. If you not a gamer the then the 7000 should be great but I suspect the original will be faster in games. IMHO if you dont need dual monitor support then get the original for an extra $30.
  • Reply 7 of 11
    bernardbernard Posts: 59member
    [quote]Originally posted by Bogie:

    [QB]Actually, you are not really much better off with a Radeon than with a Rage128 in a PCI slot.

    <hr></blockquote>



    I looked at the bearfeats site an it showed the PCI radeon 31% faster on Quake and 25% faster at UT compared to an AGP rage 128 pro wich is faster than pci version. I think there are 2 clock speeds for PCI rage 128 but no Pro's dif. being heatsink/ no heatsink. and i belive that there were rage 128 AGP's and rage 128 pro AGP's and surely the test was done on a 500Mhz g4 had a AGP rage 128 pro. I guess it depends on how you define "better off" <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
  • Reply 8 of 11
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    if you own a beige g3 i would recommend not buying the 7000- stick with the original; beige g3 owners are reporting problems with the 7000 that are unexperienced on other g3's (ie. b&w's)



    <a href="http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/radeon_7000_feedback.html#storytop"; target="_blank">7000 and beige g3 reader reports</a>
  • Reply 9 of 11
    kidredkidred Posts: 2,402member
    I got a question for you guys.



    I have a G4 450 with RagePro 128. If the G5's don't come out (and I don't get an iMac to tide me over) would getting the 8500 or GeForce 3-4 make a difference for me? Would there be a big improvement over the RagePro I have now photoshop/OS X wise?
  • Reply 10 of 11
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    [quote]Originally posted by KidRed:

    <strong>I got a question for you guys.



    I have a G4 450 with RagePro 128. If the G5's don't come out (and I don't get an iMac to tide me over) would getting the 8500 or GeForce 3-4 make a difference for me? Would there be a big improvement over the RagePro I have now photoshop/OS X wise?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    yes the Geforce 3 will be a very big improvement but they are too much expansive In France 30 % more expansive than a geforce 3 TI 500. I don't know if you can put a radeon 8500 in a powermac G4 (is there is a mac driver for this beast ?)

    I have a G4 533 with a geforce 2 mx card, i wish in the future to improve the video card but not for 500$.
  • Reply 11 of 11
    razzfazzrazzfazz Posts: 728member
    [quote]Originally posted by bernard:

    <strong>

    they dont publish the core speed of a 7000 and it has one redering pipeline while the original radeon PCI has 3. If you not a gamer the then the 7000 should be great but I suspect the original will be faster in games. IMHO if you dont need dual monitor support then get the original for an extra $30.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Isn't "Radeon 7000" ATi's new name for the card formerly known as "Radeon VE"? If that's the case, then it is not only limited to one rendering pipeline, but also lacks the original Radeon's hardware T&L unit, making it even less powerful.



    Bye,

    RazzFazz
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