Which new video card for MDD 867 MHz ?

kali

I have a dual 867 MHz (MDD) with the NVidia GeForce 4 MX video card, 32 MB of vram. I'm beginning about getting a new video card, because too much often, I'm bringing the Mac on its knees with some games (mostly GLQuake 1 and Quake 3) and some 3D software (Celestia, and some others).



What video card do you suggest, for a dual 867 MHz machine ? Should I stick with NVidia, or should I go to ATI ? What prices can I excpect and what kind of troubles on the machine after I upgrade (I'm using OS X Panther) ?



Ideally, I want top quality graphics and a very good framerate, no lagging or jerkiness.

luca

You could upgrade to a Radeon 8500, but it's not enough of an improvement over the GeForce 4MX to justify the cost. You'll probably have to end up spending quite a bit of money. Basically, if you want a significant improvement, you have four options:



1) GeForce 4 Titanium: Not common at all, but usually around $200. It has 128 MB of VRAM and it's also friggin' huge (my brother got one last week and it extends all the way to the front of the case). Not sure of actual performance but I expect it's between the Radeon 8500 and the Radeon 9800.



2) Radeon 9700: Very rare, probably not worth looking for it. It was only briefly available for the dual 1.25/1.42 GHz line. May as well go with the 9800.



3) Radeon 9800: You can go to ATI's website and buy it now, if you want. It's expensive but really powerful.



4) Radeon 9600: Far less powerful, probably a bit above the 8500, but not by much. It requires a modification to work in your machine, because right now it's sold only with the G5s.

zapchud

I'd say the ideal card for that machine is a 9600 from ATI. If you're lucky enough to find one for it :-) The GeForce 4Ti would be a good match too, it's a bit faster than the 8500, while having a slightly inferior set of architectural features.



I'd say the 9800/9700 is a bit overpowered for a machine like that. It'd give you the opportunity to increase the resolution of many already well-running games to the max, and possible enhance the framerate to some extent, depending on the game, but for tougher games, you'll in many cases be CPU-limited. So the problem is finding a decent match for the CPUs.

kali

I forgot to mention that my Dual 867 MHz is running an Apple 17" LCD with the power and video signal unified in a single cable. So I need a card with the right plug (I don't remember the name of this).



Should I stick with NVidia or should I go to ATI ?



What NVidia card do you suggest as the best match, something which will give the best frame rate with all the special effects turned On (antialiasing, textures mapping with bump maps, shadows, etc) ?



Please, I need an exact name and model number so I can ask for it to my reseller.

zapchud

If you want antialiasing, you should go ATI. All modern ATI cards supports it, nVidia cards do too, but I'm not sure if it's implemented in software yet.



If getting nVidia, get the GF4 Ti. Not the FX 5200, it is a slow card with just a ton of unused features. You'd probably want a Radeon 9600/800 for your task.



Applestore sells DVI -> ADC converters for $99, if you can't find anything with ADC.