[Dgysy]

I have a new Powermac (933Mhz) for which I'm considering upgrading my video card from the Geforce 4MX to the Geforce 4Ti card.

I've read from several people who have done this and have not seen any appreciable, or for that matter any improvement in speed or video quality.

The reason I'm thinking of getting it is if it will improve video performance and speed when OS X 10.2 is released in Quartz Extreme.

It's about $425 from Apple (including tax) which is quite a bit towards one of the new Powermac's when released.

What is your opinion? Do you think it will make a nice difference when Jaguar is released?

Is there anyone using the Geforce 4Ti card with the pre-release of Jaguar, and have you seen any difference with it compared to the stock MX version?

[Ken_F2]

Dygs,

No, the Geforce4 Ti is not worth it. You won't notice a difference in 10.2; I have tested, and there is no difference between the 4Ti and 4Mx. In future versions of OSX, with more intensive effects, you might notice a difference at the highest of resolutions, but such new "intensive" effects are a long way off. By the time OSX is able to take advantage of the greater processing power of the Ti, new and better cards will be out (and the Ti will be a fraction of what it costs today).

Indeed, in late November, nVidia will release its next-generation chip architecture. It will not be called the Geforce5, but will have an entirely new name (the Geforce brand will be retired). nVidia claims the new chip will deliver as much as a 50% improvement over the Geforce4 Ti4600, if I recall correctly from the latest interview. And the new nVidia card won't just increase frame rates, it will add support for all sorts of new lighting and other programmable / custom-defined effects.

[CatOne]

The GeForce 4 Ti is not going to be any faster for "run of the mill" stuff -- in general 2D graphics. Pretty much everything you do in OS X is 2D, so you will see no improvement with that (even with the upgrade to 10.2 when it comes out).

Where it IS significantly faster is in 3D gaming applications. If you are a BIG 3D gamer (Quake 3 Arena, etc.) then you will see a SIGNIFICANT improvement. But in overall use you will see next to none.

I suspect by your question that you're not a huge 3D gamer, because otherwise you would have already trolled Firing Squad, Tom's Hardware, etc., where they've already benchmarked the cards on PC's against themselves ;-) Also, the Mac really isn't as good at gaming as PC's are (more properly, games typically come out for PC's first, and there's better selection of games), so...

I'd probably recommend against it. Me I'm a full "power user" so just the chance that it'll be faster on a 3D game will have the $200+ premium fly out of my pocket :-P

-B