[new mac user]

I suppose that the "noisy" fans of the 9800 only blow at max rpm when the card is under heavy use (3D gaming).

If that is the case, maybe it's not an issue, as you generally have music and audio effects going on while playing.

I am about to order a Dual 2.0 Ghz G5 with 2GB and I am not quite sure of upgrading to the 9800, because I would like to play Doom 3 at least with an acceptable level of quality/detail (also I prefer to have more video RAM as I am planning to get a second display by the end of the year).

What would you do? I've heard about a 9800 Pro Mac Edition, it is the same 9800 that appears a BTO in Apple stores?

Many thanks

[eddiecatflap]

..steve did say at the intro of the g5 that we'd able to plug in all the high end pro cards

..did he mean things like the nvidia quadro's etc ?

[Arkham_c]

The 9800 fan blows all the time at a constant speed. It's loud. It's the one thing about my computer that I'm not happy about. Otherwise it's a great machine.

[rhogue islander]

The retail 9800 Pro has no ADC connector and runs at a slightly higher clock. Check out the review of it over at www.xlr8yourmac.com

A big advantage of the retail 9800 over the OEM is the ability to custom specify anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering for each of your game applications. You also get Versavision which allows you to switch to portrait display modes for lcd panels which can rotate 90 degrees. These control panel options are not available for the OEM 9800.

I have two of these, one in my mac and one in my PC. I do not find them especially loud, although you can occasionally hear the fan speed ramp up and down during some heavy 3D action. (this is usually inaudible to me anyway as I'm either wearing headphones or have the volume turned up while gaming)

[southtdi]

On a side note....... you mentioned you were getting it with 2gb's of ram. I would sugest that you not get the extra ram form Apple since they are way overpriced. I bought my extra form crucial but there are other places out there that also sell good mac ram for far less than Apple does.

[k2director]

Originally posted by Arkham_c:
The 9800 fan blows all the time at a constant speed. It's loud. It's the one thing about my computer that I'm not happy about. Otherwise it's a great machine.

I agree. I opened up my dual G5, and put my finger on the ATI 9800's fan to stop it for a moment, and my G5 was MUCH quieter. I've even considered buying a quieter fan for the ATI (someone once posted the parts and steps to install it in this forum), but I'm holding out until the new G5s ship to decide whether I'm keeping my current G5 or upgrading...