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ARK · Sep 29, 2003, 03:03 PM

Well a year has gone by and I am still enjoying my dual Quicksilver G4.

Lately I have thought about changing out my GeForce4 MX video card with something better. Not that I necessarily need it because it runs my games fine, but I want to get the highest performance I can. So what are my options?

The Quickilver has 4xAGP right? Is the GeForce4 Titanium my best bet?

If I get a GF4 Ti, whats the best way to update drivers for it. Is there anything special I have to do or will drivers automatically come with system updates? i.e... is it sort of plug and play?

Thanks!

Boochie · Sep 29, 2003, 04:05 PM

Presently I have a G4/867 (single-CPU) with a GeForce 4Ti. I upgraded the gfx card last year from the stock GeForce 2MX card it came with. It made a *huge* difference in frame rates. In JKII multiplayer I usually get 50-80 FPS, depending on the complexity of the scene and the number of players visible.

You don't need to do any driver updates, just plug in whatever card you get and enjoy!

mac freak · Sep 29, 2003, 05:23 PM

Your best bet is the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro.
Here she be.

However, if you don't want to spend so much, you can go for a used 9700 Pro. Or a GF4Ti, but it really pales in comparison to the Radeon 9x00 family.

I don't think ATI sells a Mac 9600 Pro, unfortunately.

ARK · Sep 29, 2003, 06:12 PM

Seems like the Ti and the Radeon 9800 Pro are about the same price. PRICEY. I would have though they would have gone down in price by now considering 4X is old hat. When are the prices going to go down? They've been at the same price since last year.

Anyway, whats better Ti or Radeon 9800?

mac freak · 06:46 PM

The Radeon 9800 is light years ahead of the Ti.
A few graphs:

The Ti you'd be getting is also not as fast as the 4800, though it's faster than the 4200 (it's the 4600, which isn't listed).

EDIT: Ack, guess I can't remotely load those pics. Oh well.

Eriamjh · Sep 29, 2003, 07:41 PM

How about a flashed PC radeon 8500?

Vash · Sep 29, 2003, 08:28 PM

btw, In my experiencec because of the 867's low mhz(sadly that is low now). A Geforce4MX makes no framerate difference in any of the games than a GF4Ti. They all depend on CPU usage now...For example, JK2 with the dual 1ghz quicksilver gets higher fps at 1280x1024 than the 867mhz quicksilver at 640x480, both using the GF4Ti. No, I do not have benchmarks and what not to back this, but it is true, believe me. Also, is there anyone with a single 867 mhz that can play UT2k3 with over 30fps? No matter what I do it will not go above 30...either High CPU demand, or something is messed up on my machine. Oh, and yes the Radeon 9800 is way way too much overkill for such a machine.

ARK · Sep 29, 2003, 09:12 PM

Yeah I have the Dual Ghz Quicksilver. Why is the 9800 overkill?

a2daj · 10:56 AM

The Mac Radeon 9800 Pro just came out a few months ago. I don't see why anyone would expect the price to drop already. Now the GF4Ti, that's a whole different story. That should only be selling for $180 tops these days for the Mac version. Crazy pricing...

I do not think a Radeon 9800 Pro is waaay overkill for a dual 1 Ghz machine. The 9800 Pro will be CPU limited but it will also allow the user to increase the graphics quality in games without a major performance penalty, if any. I have a dual 1.2 GHz Quicksilver with a 9800 Pro installed and I can crank up many of my games to 1600x1200 and still maintain good framerates, in some cases not performance difference than 1024x768 (in CPU limited games). I could also enable some of the nifty features like FSAA and Anisotropic filtering in most games with the 9800's 3D Overrides. Heck, I can even enable FSAA in Diablo II with the 3D Overrides. For me, since I can barely stress the card's bandwidth I can concentrate on improving image quality. I can make Ghost Recon look a lot better:
http://homepage.mac.com/a2daj/PhotoAlbum14.html

Link · Sep 30, 2003, 02:47 AM

Any computer will benefit from a good graphics card. Having a rad9800 in even a 733 isn't overkill since to an extent, it'll still be faster then had you used a gf4ti

Besides if you ever upgrade the CPU, it won't be overkill anymore

ARK · Sep 30, 2003, 04:33 PM

So do all fingers point to a Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition as the best option for me?

Did you have to update any drivers or was it plug and play?

superfula · Sep 30, 2003, 07:44 PM

Originally posted by ARK:
So do all fingers point to a Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition as the best option for me?

Did you have to update any drivers or was it plug and play?

Just plug it in. No drivers needed

DBvader · Sep 30, 2003, 08:46 PM

i was looking into getting a new video card for my Dual 867, and i was thinking of getting the 9800 as well. When i asked around about i waas told that i would get better performance than my 9000 for sure, but that becuase of my slow bus speeds (and the fact that most of these games are limited by the CPU and not the graphics cards) i wouldnt be able to harness the full power of the card...If youre fine with that, and done mind spending tons of cash for the card, then i guess thats what you should get.

Sadly, performance will still lag SEVERELY behind PCs

ARK · 09:00 PM

With a dual Ghz Quicksilver would the slow bus speed still hender a ultra fast video card?

What is the bus speed on Quicksilver? Is it 133?

Im not quite sure how all of that works. Video card talking to the processor stuff.

Originally posted by DBvader:
i was looking into getting a new video card for my Dual 867, and i was thinking of getting the 9800 as well. When i asked around about i waas told that i would get better performance than my 9000 for sure, but that becuase of my slow bus speeds (and the fact that most of these games are limited by the CPU and not the graphics cards) i wouldnt be able to harness the full power of the card...If youre fine with that, and done mind spending tons of cash for the card, then i guess thats what you should get.

Sadly, performance will still lag SEVERELY behind PCs

superfula · Sep 30, 2003, 09:05 PM

Originally posted by Vash:
btw, In my experiencec because of the 867's low mhz(sadly that is low now). A Geforce4MX makes no framerate difference in any of the games than a GF4Ti. They all depend on CPU usage now...For example, JK2 with the dual 1ghz quicksilver gets higher fps at 1280x1024 than the 867mhz quicksilver at 640x480, both using the GF4Ti. No, I do not have benchmarks and what not to back this, but it is true, believe me. Also, is there anyone with a single 867 mhz that can play UT2k3 with over 30fps? No matter what I do it will not go above 30...either High CPU demand, or something is messed up on my machine. Oh, and yes the Radeon 9800 is way way too much overkill for such a machine.

There's not a lot of true statements in here, but I'll try to hit the worst ones

1) with a QS 867, a geforce4Ti makes a HUGE difference vs the 4mx. I've tried both. The only games that really push the cpu are the first person games...UT, etc. You can throw SC4 in there, but there isn't a processor fast enough for it.

2) 867 is NOT slow for games. Again, I have no problem with mine.

3) Radeon 9800 isn't overkill. While SOME games will be limited by the processor, there are VERY few out now that come close to doing that.

Unfortunately the 4Ti card is way overpriced, and it's next to impossible to find a 9700, since someone has to take it out of their machine and sell it. The 9000 isn't fast enough to run any new games. Even Tiger woods 2003 is too much for this card. I think the best card to buy is the 9800. You can always buy a faster process for Sonnet, powerlogix, or a couple others that sell G4 upgrades. Then the 9800 will be that much more valuable for you

sodamnregistered2 · Oct 3, 2003, 12:41 AM

Will the UI responsiveness improve with a new video card?

I have a GeForce 2MX 32MB and the UI performance is pretty horrible.

Will a new video card help this at all, or do I need more CPU horsepower as well?

I have a dual G4/800 with 1.5GB RAM.

rhogue islander · Oct 3, 2003, 11:25 AM

You should certainly get the 9800 Pro over a Geforce4ti.

I've had both in my (now up for sale) Dual 1ghz Quicksilver.

Oddly the 9800 Pro performed 5-10% slower at 1024x768, but performed better at higher resolotions.

The real benefits of this card over the geforce4ti are the opengl overrides and superior image quality, both in game and on the desktop.

Check buy.com for a decent price, around $370 last time I checked.