[Tim Kosch]

Food for thought and discussion...

I have a dual G5 (1 GB RAM) with an ATI Radeon 9800 video card. I have all the standard noises that have been posted (chirping and beeping that can be taken care of through CHUD/NAP and noise through the audio ports). I do have a digital mixing system (Roland VM-3100 Pro and an Mbox through Mackie HR824s). I just bought some light pipes but haven't tried them yet to see how they work.

Anyway, I thought my G5 was very loud compared to my Alienware PC (which seems to have a bunch of fans too). I couldn't really tell if I had any bad fans in the G5 (or if it was the video card) so I picked up a 9600 card (with a heatsink) on ebay for $100. Great deal on the card. I wanted to see how loud the 9800 really was. I just installed the 9600. The temperature seems to be about the same, around 52.5 C or so (whatever that is worth using the Temperature Monitor software) but I can hear a very quiet G5. A nice little purring sound and a very reasonable sound level. It makes the hard drive sound really loud now and the chirping and beeping is obviously more noticeable.

I seems that website graphics load a little slower. I have a broadband connection so that isn't affecting it. I guess I would have gone with the 9600 since I do all my gaming on the Alienware (for now at least) but I got a deal on the 9800. I can always sell the 9800 but I think eventually the G5 will be put in a place where the fan noise is not a problem and reinstall the 9800.

If you are wondering why I went with the 9800 it is because someone in the forum found a great deal from MacConnection on CTO G5s. I have to tell you about the deal...a dual G5, 1 GB RAM, 9800 Card, minus the modem for $2,599 (and no shipping). Bought mine on Halloween. I had been planning this configuration at the academic price (around $3,400).

Just wanted to share...thoughts?

Tim

[Hydra]

If you are a gamer or even the casual gamer the 9800 is worth the extra money and mild sound pollution for top notch performance in the G5. If you you aren't then it's a waste on both counts. Also I doubt there is any real performance advantage of the 9800 over the 9600 in browser rendering - Quartz Extreme may leverage the power of the 9800 a little more but I doubt it would be noticeable.

-Jerry C.

[Cadaver]

There's virtually no way you're seeing any speed difference between the Radeon 9600 and 9800 in terms of browser screen draws. There's far more fluctuation in 'net speeds then could ever be made up by the difference in speed between a 9600 and a 9800 (broadband or not. Hell, dedicated T3 line or not).

Quartz Extreme, despite leveraging the GPU as much as possible, is still far more limited by CPU, bus and AGP bandwidth than the GPU.

Unless you're playing cutting edge 3D games or doing high-end OpenGL work, you'll never see a difference between the two cards.

...and, the 9600 is silent.