Mac Graphics Cards

[gelfie]

You need a video card with a Mac Bios. This severely limits your options.

Apparently there are some bios flashers floating around for the 6800GT. But that is about it, and you'll have to Flash it yourself, and take the risk that the bios is compatible with the brand of card you bought and the next Mac OS X update.

You only other option is buying a Radeon Mac Edition, and I'm pretty sure they only go up to a Radeon 9600, albeit with 256MB RAM.

Also the 7800, if I am not mistaken is PCI-Express.

If you have a Dual Processor 2ghz G5 you either have a bunch of PCI slots and and 8x AGP Pro slot.

Or you have a bunch of PCI-X slots and an 8x AGP Pro slot. PCI-X is not PCI-Express.

So you're out of luck.

Hope this helps

[maX_Andrews]

I have a 9800XT in my dp 2.0 G5, decent card, but the x800 is much better (twice as fast, roughly)...see if you can find a mac x800 for resale anywhere. The nvidia 6800 ultra for mac will also work, but it's no faster than the x800 and costs quite a bit more, in addition to using two pci slots as opposed to one.

Here's the ATI page for the x800: http://www.ati.com/products/radeonx800/radeonX800xtme/index.html

and here's a comparison betweent this and other cards: http://www.barefeats.com/radx800.html

It can be found online here for close to $400 which is around 230 pounds, but I found it on a euro website using google.co.uk for 300 pounds including VAT, don't you just love me?
http://uk.insight.com/apps/productpresentation/index.php?product_id=ATIOG03123

[Beamtracer]

Mac Graphics Cards
Im in the market for a new graphics card, my current stock Geforce fx5200 with 64mb is becoming painful to use.

Im currently using a DP 2ghz G5 with 2 gb of ram.

I use lightwave 3d 8.5 and also run dual monitors.
I recently installed an ATI Radeon X800 onto my G5 Powermac. Running Modo & Lightwave. Dual monitors, similar set-up to yours. I installed the X800 XT myself and it works beautifully. Never had any issues. I'd recommend it.

[Mr Leeches]

thanks for the help guys.

Looks like the x800 is the way to go, now to convice my better half that this £300 graphics card is going to make our lives better in some way :)

[Beamtracer]

thanks for the help guys.

Looks like the x800 is the way to go, now to convice my better half that this £300 graphics card is going to make our lives better in some way :)

BTW, when you buy your new card, whichever one it is, it's best to download the latest driver from the manufacturer's website, rather than use the CD that comes with it. The one on the CD will likely be out of date.

[anevsky]

well you should also mention what apps you use mostly.

I have recently used one of the new quad g5 - with a 7800gt. I used Maya quite a bit and the gfx card seemed to have some issues. Not only was it "slow" but it seemed also to have some little bugs here and there. The work was mostly rendering so i didn't mind so much (the machine itself renders very well) but it would become an issue if I had to do my regular work there.

[zugok]

well you should also mention what apps you use mostly.

I have recently used one of the new quad g5 - with a 7800gt. I used Maya quite a bit and the gfx card seemed to have some issues. Not only was it "slow" but it seemed also to have some little bugs here and there. The work was mostly rendering so i didn't mind so much (the machine itself renders very well) but it would become an issue if I had to do my regular work there.

Can you please explain what "issues and bugs" you encountered on the G5 Quad with the 7800? I have been using Maya for some time, mainly for game development, so I have not used every function in Maya. From my experience on my Quad with a 7800, Maya seems to work great, I have not encountered many limitations yet.
I am also a regular user of Maya on a PC so I have encountered some slow performance, but on the Quad G5 and the 7800 it seems fairly close.

For me probably the biggest difference between Maya on the Mac and PC is less support for Plug-ins in Maya.


For those wanting to upgrade their G5 with a 7800, should read the latest news on the strangedogs.com forums.

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