Advice on upgrading MAC G5 Graphics Board

Hi,

I have a pre Intel Mac G5 Power PC and I wanted to see if it’s possible to upgrade the graphics card to run SL better. The specs on the machine are Dual 2Ghz processors, 4GB of RAM and the current graphics card is an ATI Radeon 9650 with 256mb of VRAM.

I’d just like to find out if there is a better display card out there that would be compatible with this machine that would give me better results on SL?

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks,

Reef

I'm reasonably sure you are at or close to the top of the curve with that card in that spec of Mac - which is to say, there may be some stuff lurking around which looks faster on paper, but in reality, you aren't going to see the diff.

A few general issues:

- it sounds like that's already a non-standard card (it's not a model no. I associate with G5's); have you already done an upgrade or is this a second hand machine?

- beware Mac card upgrades advertised on the 'bay and elsewhere - there are a lot of people claiming that what they got is a Mac card when really, it's a PC card re-flashed with Mac firmware. This works fine in 2D, normally, but they are very easy to break and there are some frankly skanky and nasty PC graphics card makers, especially when you get to the top end.

- Even if you stick to the One True Way, the compatibility envelope for mac graphics cards is very tight. Don't assume that a card from a later model which apparently shares the same slot type & spec, will actually work. That would be too easy 8(

Thanks Gummi.

The card is actually the one Apple supplied with the computer when I bought it.

Hi Reef...I went though hours and hours of research looking for this answer for my Dual G5 (dual 2GHz G5 with 8 gig of ram, last of the pre-intel).

What I found was there weren't many cards that would work, in fact i think I only found 1 or 2.

I only had a 128 nvidia and upgraded to the Radeon X1900 256m ram. Guessing this would be a side step for you since you already have a 256.

Sad isn't it...I can render a 1 gig photoshop file with no prob but run sl and my machine is so slow. I use mine mostly for print graphics so it was never set up for video.

I often use my laptop for sl (macbook with intel chip), much better at rendering.

Hopefully I can upgrade my desktop in the spring *crosses fingers*

JL

The ATI 9800 8x AGP is the best card you'll be able to get for your G5, I believe.