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kdixey · Jul 22, 2003, 12:21 AM

I'm upgrading my truty G4 sawtooth (I'm on a super tight budget and as much as I would LOVE to get a new machine it's not in the cards right now).

I am thinking of an 80 or 120gb WD Caviar or Seagate Barracuda (w/ 8mb cache), an 800 mhz G4 upgrade card and a new video card. My video options are get an old OEM 32mb geforce mx4 or go the flash route and pick up a 64mb radeon 7000 and have at it.

When it's done the old machine should get me through another year until I can afford a spanky new G5.

Anyone out there gone the same route and if so do you have any sage advice?

DrBoar · Jul 22, 2003, 01:33 AM

My G4/400 has bigger HD and faster grapical card and I have been thinking long and hard about CPU upgrades. I got a ATI 8500 card as that was the only aviable card at the time now I would have settled for the 4mx card. As the 8500 is a overkill for any G4 CPU. I would go for a G4/800 CPU and a cheap nVIDA card from OWC.

I assume the you mean Radeon 9000 not 7000. The 7000 is a PCI card and only marginaly better than a AGP 128pro card.

I hope to get a G5 early next year so I will bear the slowness of the G4 in oS X, enven typing in Word is sluggish and some games like UT 2003 are unplayable. But I am not willing to sink another 300 dollar in a computer I will replace in 6-8 months. If I would keep it for a year or more I would go for the CPU upgrade.

emdash · Jul 24, 2003, 02:45 PM

So I just read a bunch of old threads on this topic and I'm still confused.

At OWC, they have GeForce4 MX 32MB AGP cards for $65! Radeon 8500s or 9000s seem to run in the $150 range. What's up with that? Are the Radeons really worth more than twice the money compared to the GeForce4 MX? I realize they have twice the memory, but how important is that?

Basically I guess what I'm asking is, Is there a compelling reason to steer clear of the GeForce 4?

Thanks for any guidance....

(Sawtooth 450/Rage 128/DVIator/17" ASD, btw. Semi-intensive Photoshop, but no gaming. I'm trying to stick with this machine until the rev. b G5s.)

kdixey · Jul 26, 2003, 01:37 AM

As I understand it the geforce cards at OWC are OEM cards from Apple and slower than a Radeon 8500 or 9000. For my purposes, anything from a geforce 2mx would be a major improvement. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the geforce cards at OWC look like quite a bit of bang for the buck and I can live with the fact that they'll have less performance than the Radeons. I don't really do much gaming so I suspect I won't see a HUGE difference for my applications. I'll let you know what happens if I decide to get one.

emdash · Aug 15, 2003, 02:42 PM

An update:

So I took the plunge and got the GeForce 4MX from OWC... installed it last night, and what can I say? There's a noticeable improvement in the GUI. It's not mind-blowing, but everything seems to have moved up one rung on the snappiness ladder. Huge bookmark menus now open about as fast as in OS 9; the genie effect is now very smooth (and the super-slomo multi-genie effect makes me giggle that much more uncontrollably); I can grab windows and rattle them back and forth without ever seeing them jump. It's fun! Well worth the $65 to give my old Sawtooth a little present.