Radeon 9000 pro or 9200?

guarthoguartho
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I'm considering getting the student versioin of Lightwave 8. Since my Quicksilver has the stock GeForce 4, I've got half the required vid memory. Browsing on MacMall I see 2 cards within my potential price range. The Radeon 9000 pro, and the Radeon 9200.



I read the descriptions, but I'm not too vid-card saavy so I didn't pick up on any differences. Which one's better for things like Lightwave? Will I even notice as either one will be anchored to a single-processor G4 867 with 768 megs of RAM for at least a year or two?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    guarthoguartho Posts: 1,208member
    I've done some more reading and the 9200 stuff really pushes that it's OS9 compatible. However, there are drivers available for the 9000 Pro for OS9 whereas the 9200 says "On installation CD" Seems to me that the 9000 is more actively supported.



    I would assume that higher number means higher performance, but with the word Pro omitted from the 9200 and the price slightly lower I wonder otherwise.



    Who can tell me the real difference?
  • Reply 2 of 5
    auroraaurora Posts: 1,142member
    Guartho doesnt say what geforce 4 he has. a mx is a cheapo version, a geforce 4 titanium is a good card so i would guess the mx crap that apple was pushing,. skip the 9000 and the 9200 and go for better. 9600,9800, you arent getting much from going from a 4mx to a 9000 or 9200. Might as well save up a little more or wait for those prices to drop.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    guarthoguartho Posts: 1,208member
    Believe me, I'd love to drop a 9800 in there. But I don't think it'd be worth-while to drop a cherry card into a relatively slow G4. Plus, I can't afford to anyway. Those two cards really are all that's in my price range. We're talking, in a couple of months I can afford it price range.



    Well, sooner if I don't save up for the edu Lightwave, but then that's what the card's for so it'd be pointless



    Anyway, The only reason I'm dropping the GeForce 4 (32 meg MX btw,) and not just putting up with it for the learning phase is because it's got half the video memory that Lightwave requires. In a year or two I'll probably be replacing the whole thing so I don't want to invest too much in further upgrades. However, I do want to get the better of these two cards. Can anybody tell me the difference between the 9000 Pro and the 9200? Other than the name of course...
  • Reply 4 of 5
    leonardleonard Posts: 528member
    The BIG difference is the Radeon 9200 Mac Edition is a PCI card and the Radeon 9000 Pro Mac Edition is a AGP card. You don't want a PCI card unless you're adding a second video card.



    I'm not sure how much of an improvement a Radeon 9000 would be over a Geforce 4MX?
  • Reply 5 of 5
    guarthoguartho Posts: 1,208member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Leonard

    The BIG difference is the Radeon 9200 Mac Edition is a PCI card and the Radeon 9000 Pro Mac Edition is a AGP card. You don't want a PCI card unless you're adding a second video card.



    I'm not sure how much of an improvement a Radeon 9000 would be over a Geforce 4MX?



    Holy Hell, how did I miss THAT!? Thanks a ton Leonard, you saved the day. I forgot to even check! A while back I got a new vid-card for my B&W G3. It was a Radeon 7000 32meg PCI card. At the time I think it was the biggest PCI card for Mac and I guess I got it in my head that that was the last of the PCI cards and didn't bother to check this time around.
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