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iamnotmad · Nov 16, 2005, 12:30 PM

For a Quicksilver DP800 upgraded to Dual 1.8. Thoughts? Thanks.

brokenjago · Nov 16, 2005, 12:39 PM

What are you going to be doing with it?

Big Mac · Nov 16, 2005, 12:40 PM

The 9800 is a better card if you can find it. The price they want for the "new" 9600 is laughable.

iamnotmad · Nov 16, 2005, 12:42 PM

Some games, Blizzard stuff, Simcity 4, otherwise general stuff, and 2d stuff. Also 3d content creation (lightwave). Looking at the specs at ATI he 9600 has some stuff the 9800 does no have and is even faster in certain respects (clock speed wise). But I always thought the 9800 was better. Not so sure now.

iamnotmad · Nov 16, 2005, 12:42 PM

~$200 for 9600 too much? The 9800 can be had for ~$250

chefpastry · Nov 16, 2005, 12:44 PM

The only advantage that the 9600 has over the 9800 is the ability to run Apple's 30" monitor. Other than that, the 9800 out performs the 9600 in every regard.

Todd Madson · Nov 16, 2005, 01:35 PM

Perhaps consider an "older 9600 XT" which is faster than the "new dual platform 9600".

But a 9800 would likely be ideal for what you want if the 9600 seems too
underpowered.

P · Nov 17, 2005, 10:10 AM

Don't look too much at the clockspeed. The 9800 has 8 pixel pipelines and the 9600 just 4, so it is always going to be much faster. ATi's naming scheme isn't exactly trivial to figure out, which may be the point of it, but in essense the 9600 is the midrange part of the "9" generation (now 2 generations old) and the 9800 is the highend part - mainly distinguished by the number of pxel pipelines and vertex shaders, where the 9800 has double that of the 9600. Wihtin each line there is SE, regular (no name), Pro and XT with increasing clockspeeds but the same basic chip setup.

Kristoff · Nov 17, 2005, 11:16 AM

I had a 9600xt in my G5 and replaced it with a 9800 pro mac special edition, and it was a world of difference.

I took the 9600xt and did the tape mod, and got it working in my old quicksilver and it's pretty nice in there.

Be careful b/c some of the 9800s wont work in a G4.

iamnotmad · Nov 17, 2005, 03:26 PM

thanks everyone. comparing retail to retail - looks like the $50 dif is worth it.

iamnotmad · Nov 18, 2005, 07:31 PM

well I managed to swing a 9800 256MB from amazon (had a gift card so only cost me $200). I have a gforce3 64mb right now, and I am really hoping the 9800 will improve my general UI usage (2D OSX GUI interactions). Will it? Will it improve framerate on QT playback? Adding the dual 1.8 did not do a whole hell of a lot for that suff, at least not as much as I expected.

By the way I am using a dell 24" at 1920x1200 so I imagine that's a little straining on the geforce and the 9800 should fare better. Is that correct?

thanks.

a2daj · Nov 19, 2005, 03:31 PM

It might make a small difference but I'd say the biggest gains from any 'faster' video card will be in 3D performance unless you're going from a setup which doesn't support Quartz Extreme to a setup that does. It may have better QT playback and possibly decrease DVD playback CPU usage, but with a dual 1.8 G4 it probably wouldn't matter too much.

Kristoff · Nov 19, 2005, 04:12 PM

Small difference? hardly.

Core Image support is not a small thing.

Going from a GeForce3 to a 9600XT in my Dual 800 QuickSilver made a HUGE difference in all aspects of UI, Scrolling, Exposé, Dashboard, and--of course--gaming.

It also made QuickTime faster (like when moving a window with a playing movie), it made iPhoto manipulations faster, and iMovie as well thanks to CoreImage support of the 9600XT that the GeForce3 lacked.

iamnotmad · 07:38 AM

excellent! Really looking forward to this. I've transformed my good ole trusty g4 from dual 800 with GF3 to Dual 1.8 with ati9800(256mb). Already have ram maxed at 1.5GB. this will surely hold me over until we get well into intel PM's.

thanks again everyone.

a2daj · Nov 19, 2005, 09:33 PM

Originally Posted by Kristoff

Small difference? hardly.

Core Image support is not a small thing.

CoreImage support doesn't affect all aspects of the GUI.

brokenjago · Nov 21, 2005, 10:39 PM

Just burdiet.

Kristoff · Nov 21, 2005, 11:07 PM

Originally Posted by a2daj

CoreImage support doesn't affect all aspects of the GUI.

Who said it did?

What I said was actually quite different.

I said that Core Image support was not a small thing--which it isn't.

Then I went on to say that that going from a 9600Xt to a 9800 pro mac special edition made a world of difference in all aspects of UI on my G5--which it did.

But, thanks for replying and adding no value to this thread what-so-ever

a2daj · Nov 22, 2005, 11:31 AM

The question asked was how the new card would affect the GUI. You brought up Core Image in what looked to be a direct response to what I said about GUI performance improvement. I was basing my observations on going from a Radeon 8500 to a Radeon 9800 Pro. Obviously, opinions will be subjective based on what the user observered. I didn't see much improvement.

Thank you for replying and being an ass about it. Get over yourself.

Ron Goodman · Nov 22, 2005, 12:39 PM

I put a 9800 Pro Mac Special Edition on my G5 a year ago and pulled it last week because the fan noise got so bad. I replaced it with the current 9600, which is blissfully quiet(heat sink, no fan).

t500 · Nov 25, 2005, 09:59 PM

I have a Dual 1.8 G5 (900mhz bus). I got rid of the Nvidia 5200 and put in a Ati 9600 (64 megs or ram). What would I get by replacing this card? With the Intel boxes around the corner will it be worth the price an upgrade. Gaming is the main reason for the upgrade, and there have not been recent major game releases. What are your using these monster cards for?