any experience with the ATI Radeon 9650?

Apple just announced new G5 PowerMacintosh systems. My choices for video cards:
ATI Radeon 9650 with 256MB
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL

I have seen a some posts about problems with the 6800, but can find no mention of the 9650. Perhaps it is too new?

Reading all the various video card stories, I think I figured out the ultimate answer to these questions: "Try it". I plan to visit the Apple Store to play SL for a while.

In the meantime, does anyone have good or bad experience with the 9650? thanks!

Hi Adam

The ATI 9650 seems to be a brand new mid-range card, seemingly the old 9600 but with 256Mb VRAM and dual link support for the 30" display. I can't find much information beyond that as to performance etc. As it's mid-range I would imagine it would be lesser in performance to the 9800 and definitely the Nvidia 6800 Ultra but should be 'OK'. It's only just been announced so no-one out there is likely to have one for a little while yet....

Unless some driver fix comes in with 'Tiger', or from Linden Labs themselves, the Nvidia 6800 is a living hell with SL on the Mac, horrible pixellation faults which affect you every time you move the cam or use appearance mode. Really fast but no good if you can't see anything clearly. It drove me crazy for months.

I now use the ATI X800 XT and am *very* happy with it. This card is as fast as the 6800 Ultra and works perfectly with SL. It also only takes up a single card slot (whereas the 6800 fouls the adjacent PCI-X) and it's pretty quiet and cool too.

The higher-clocked X850 is apparently also on the way for the Mac, but I gather that is expected to be a double width card with only a modest boost over the X800

Unfortunately the X800 isn't a build to order option at present, only retail aftermarket.

That's my understanding of the current state of play anyway...

As you say, try it and see......

If the 9650 gives good enough performance (at or close to base system cost depending on configuration) then you can always add in a higher spec card at your leisure, remembering that the ATI X800 is less expensive than the Nvidia 6800 in any case, so adding an X800 retail and selling the 9650 on eBay works out pretty well !

Otherwise, try a Tiger equipped system with a 6800 and test run SL on it to see whether or not any camera related pixellation creeps in, give it some time and definitely try appearance mode a few times to test it out. You probably saw my old thread here which gives you an idea what to look for.

Hope that helps...

I agree with Dee. If you look closely at the Tech Spec's for the entire line of G5"s you will also note that Apple intalls the ATI card only in the high end G5's. That alone tells you where Apple places the ATI card in terms of quality and performance versus the nVidia cards in the G5 lineup.

I run a ATI 9800 Pro with 256 VRAM on my G5 Dual 2.0 and 2 GM of RAM. As with Dee, I am very happy with it. The only problems are always related to SL issues - which we all share and deal with regardless of what vid card we select.

In contrast, i also run a new Toshiba laptop (3.4 Ghz) with the nVidia G-force 128 VRAM card. It, too, runs SL very well. The major difference between Mac with ATI and the Toshiba is that the nVidia card seems to give up crispness and richness of graphics in favor of a smooth rendering. Bottom line, the Toshiba plays SL in a much more 'washed out' look and less detail than does the Mac G5.

Finally, note that the G5 is running a 20" Apple Cinema Display and the Toshiba laptop has a very nice 17" screen. So, there is comparability between these two LCD displays.

Take care.

Thanks for the thoughts. If anything interesting comes up during my testing, I'll post it here.

Have loadsa fun testing !!

I confidently predict you'll find it hard to leave the store without one of those aluminium beauties under your arm he he

(ok maybe not under your arm, it almost takes two people to pick one of the damn things up )

Everything tested out well ... really well. I haven't seen any problems running SL at all. I have been able to increase my draw distance from 96m to 256m, and the world looks brand new. Thanks for your help.

Thanks for the feedback, Adam. I've been contemplating a new machine, and the Dual 2.7Ghz box was my choice, but I wasn't sure which video card to choose. So here's what I just ordered from the Apple Store:

• Dual 2.7GHz PowerPC G5
• 512MB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x256
• 400GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
• ATI Radeon 9650 w/256MB DDR SDRAM
• Apple Cinema HD Display (30" flat panel)
• Bluetooth Module
• 56k V.92 internal modem
• 16x SuperDrive double-layer (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English

I'll add more RAM and a 2nd hard drive myself.

Unfortunately, it's going to be 7-10 business days until I get it...

I don't run the 9650, but do run the ATI 9800 Pro on my G5 Dual. The 9800 has 256 VRAM and the lastest chipset features. Bottom line, I have been very happy with how the ATI card handles SL on the G5.

I also run a new Windoze XP Toshiba laptop with the nVidia G-Force 2 card. It, too does very well, but seems to sacrifice sharpness and crispness of graphics in favor of 'smooth play' performance.

Hope this helps.

I'm curious why Apple is offering the ATI Radeon 9650 instead of the, say, 6600 GT which is almost a "bargain" analogue of the 6800 Ultra. 9650 does seem pretty new, and price-performance wise, I'm curious to see how it compares on both Mac and PC. Hmmm!