Go with ATI Radeon 9000 on G4 now or wait for 9700/9800
I'm finally ready to buy a new 1.42GHz G4. With all the good reports on the ATI Radeon versus the InVidia, I'd like to get it with the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro but it's still not available. The website says Coming Soon and won't let me complete my order. I'd like to order the G4 within the next week.
So my dilemma is, should I go with the ATI 9000 now or delay making my order until the 9700 or 9800 comes out in the next several months (if then)? My 5 year old Windows 98 machine is in sad health and I'd like to swith soon.
Is changing out the 9000 for the 9700/9800 a difficult task? (I've never worked on a computer before so I wouldn't even know what to look for inside there - hopefully the instructions have some good photos) Is it as simple as just unplugging one board and plugging in the new one?
So my dilemma is, should I go with the ATI 9000 now or delay making my order until the 9700 or 9800 comes out in the next several months (if then)? My 5 year old Windows 98 machine is in sad health and I'd like to swith soon.
Is changing out the 9000 for the 9700/9800 a difficult task? (I've never worked on a computer before so I wouldn't even know what to look for inside there - hopefully the instructions have some good photos) Is it as simple as just unplugging one board and plugging in the new one?
Comments
<strong>You may have to install drivers as well, but that should be easy to do.</strong><hr></blockquote>
No need for this, since OSX handles all the drivers from nVidia and ATI.
If you are a hardcore gamer, or plan to be one, go with a Radeon 9700. Dont wait for the 9800, since I believe it would be overkill.. (The G4's suck at games right now...)
And dont get worried about changing a grafix card. Its almost as easy as pluggin' in a keyboard/mouse..
<strong>
No need for this, since OSX handles all the drivers from nVidia and ATI.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Okay cool, I wasn't completely sure on that... only used to the PC side for that stuff.
<strong>somebody set me straight on this one: can you buy a PC ati radeon 9000 and use it in a AGP mac? what about a PC 9700?</strong><hr></blockquote>
The PC and the Mac version do have different firmware. In a recent (german) computer magazin was a description how to flash a PC Radeon 8500 into the Mac version (You'll need a OS 9 bootable Mac for this). With the example card, everything worked well, but there is no guarantee, and you might end up with an unuseable (= burnt) graphics card, if something doesn't work as planned...