[?]SAPPHIRE RADEON? 9800 XT ULTIMATE Edition in a G5?

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Is it possible to upgrade a G5 with this: SAPPHIRE RADEON? 9800 XT ULTIMATE Edition

It's supposed to have a significantly lower noise level than the original ATI card!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    I don't believe it is compatible. Even if it does technically work, you never know if an OS X update might drop such compatibility. Besides, do you really want to pay $450 for a video card? I'd just wait until Apple offically supports an ATI 9800 XT and the price drops. You can always add a quiter, more efficient fan yourself.
  • Reply 2 of 13
    No, the card is made for the x86 (windows) platform.
  • Reply 3 of 13
    any word of a mac edition coming?
  • Reply 4 of 13
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Wrong Robot

    any word of a mac edition coming?



    Buy the Mac card and buy the Zalman cooler the Sapphire uses.



    http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...ion=35-118-211
  • Reply 5 of 13
    hmm...but the mac card doesn't have 256 megs of VRAM \



    at any rate, I'm not in the market for a graphics card, as I'm getting a powerbook, and it has a pretty good graphics card(for a laptop)
  • Reply 6 of 13
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Wrong Robot

    hmm...but the mac card doesn't have 256 megs of VRAM \





    Now excuse me for my ignorance, but in what cases 256 MB of VRAM would make a (significant) difference over 128 MB of VRAM? I would like really to learn.
  • Reply 7 of 13
    mattyjmattyj Posts: 898member
    One example is the new generation of games coming out... (After all the radeon 9800 is a gaming card, so why else would it need this amounto of RAM? 3d animation at a budget perhaps). Half Life 2 will need a card with 256MB of RAM to run it at max settings, it's needed for textures etc.



    That's what I've heard.
  • Reply 8 of 13
    marcukmarcuk Posts: 4,442member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by PB

    Now excuse me for my ignorance, but in what cases 256 MB of VRAM would make a (significant) difference over 128 MB of VRAM? I would like really to learn.



    At the moment it seems to be of greates use in big antialaising in OGL or Dirext X Games. The extra VRAM seems to relly help the ATi cards when the resolution gets high, and the AA is set 4-6x
  • Reply 9 of 13
    How does VRAM affect AA?
  • Reply 10 of 13
    bartobarto Posts: 2,246member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by 1337_5L4Xx0R

    How does VRAM affect AA?



    AA effectively increases the resolution. 4x AA increases it for times (ie, each pixel is sampled in 4 places). So, a 1024x768x24 pixel image becomes 2048x1536 in the VRAM.



    That's going from 2.35 to 9.43 megabytes.



    As you can see, an extra 128MB of VRAM is going to make a difference.



    ***THE ABOVE IS SARCASM, THE BELOW IS SERIOUS***



    The usage of VRAM in graphics cards is the same as MHz is CPUs. Dumb consumers demand an easy to follow unit of measure to figure out what product is best. Because of this, graphics cards are now advertised by their VRAM, not any actual speed, and demand is placed on manufactures to put stupid amount of VRAM when even Doom 3 probably won't use more than 64MB. 128MB will be on the safe side, but 256MB is firmly on the stupid side.



    Barto
  • Reply 11 of 13
    ...sorry to join this late but i'm currently runnin round tryin to grab a more powerfull card than the one that shipped with my 867quiksilver. i found the Geforce 4 Ti 128mb AGP but i just sopke to a rep from Nvidia who send that card uses old technology and i should for the Geforce FX 5950 which is way more powerfull but its whether Apple will release it for their machines. After speakin to an Apple rep she said the cards stop at the Geforce 4 Ti.



    Why is that?....

    should i just opt for a ATi card with 256mb on board?...
  • Reply 12 of 13
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by BNOYHTUAWB

    Is it possible to upgrade a G5 with this: SAPPHIRE RADEON? 9800 XT ULTIMATE Edition

    It's supposed to have a significantly lower noise level than the original ATI card!




    Here's what i think. When the Rev. B Powermac G5s come out, a whole new wave of Mac-compatible AGP8x graphics cards will roll out with them. You'll be able to buy those cards seperately.
  • Reply 13 of 13
    >Is it possible to upgrade a G5 with this: SAPPHIRE RADEON? 9800 XT

    >ULTIMATE Edition



    Nope.



    >any word of a mac edition coming?



    No. The mac gaming market is not large enough. The next series of cards is more likely.



    >Now excuse me for my ignorance, but in what cases 256 MB of VRAM

    >would make a (significant) difference over 128 MB of VRAM? I would

    >like really to learn.



    It wouldn't with any games out now.



    >How does VRAM affect AA?



    Higher sampling rates at higher resolutions are possible.



    >The usage of VRAM in graphics cards is the same as MHz is CPUs.



    Not quite.



    >even Doom 3 probably won't use more than 64MB. 128MB will be on

    >the safe side, but 256MB is firmly on the stupidside.



    No, I'm certain Doom 3 will saturate a 256MB card. Even Max Payne 2 can suck up 140MB.



    >should i just opt for a ATi card with 256mb on board?.



    There are no 256MB graphics cards available for Mac to my knowledge.

    The Radeon 9800 pro is the best available right now. Even the 9600 would be an excellent upgrade.
Sign In or Register to comment.