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Cliff Corner · Jan 20, 2002, 04:57 PM

My dual g4/500mp got stuck with this ATI Rage 128, and I'm really starting to get tired of it. I was wondering what graphics cards people are using here, I'd really like better performance in games like RTCW (even though I'm sure fps will improve in the final release) as well as Giants:CK.
Thanks

jsuplido · Jan 20, 2002, 05:12 PM

The GeForce 2 is enough.

mr. burns · Jan 20, 2002, 06:20 PM

i have the same machine and i just ordered a radeon 7000. i'll tell you how it is tomorrow when it comes.

mac freak · Jan 20, 2002, 11:50 PM

If you can wait a bit, the Radeon 8500 ships next month, and the GeForce4 just MIGHT be announced and shipped as well...

I'm not sure whether or not either will be readily available as a kit from Apple w/an ADC port, but I'm hoping

(god damn Apple and their friggin' ADC ports!)

Leonard · Jan 21, 2002, 10:33 AM

The ATI Rage 128 is old in terms of graphics cards... it's decent for 2D, but not 3D.

A Geforce 2 MX or Radeon would be one step up from the ATI Rage 128 and would give you decent 3D for a casual gamer. You should be able to find one of these cards for under $180 (should be able to find a Geforce 2 MX for under $100). There are a few variations of the Radeon, the OEM AGP card that was sold by Apple which had ADC and VGA connectors, and the PCI and AGP versions that ATI sells with DVI, VGA, and s-video connectors.

A Geforce 3 or Radeon 8500 would be the next step up and would give you the up-to-date gaming experience for the 3D gamer. Unless Apple lowered the price (they definitely over-priced it), the Geforce 3 is rather expensive. The only problem with the Geforce 3, I think, is that Apple still has not released all the features of the Geforce 3 in the drivers.

I currently have a Geforce 3 in my new G4 dual-800 bought this summer, as well as a PCI Radeon for a second monitor.

[ 01-21-2002: Message edited by: Leonard ]

xyber233 · Jan 21, 2002, 10:52 AM

Buy either of the new radeons. You wont be disappointed

.

mr. burns · Jan 22, 2002, 01:54 PM

got the card. i'm impressed. it plays as well as the old radeon did, just that much cheaper.

Jan 22, 2002, 05:28 PM

mr. burns, what games are you running? What fps are you getting?

Thanks!

xyber233 · Jan 23, 2002, 08:47 AM

Do you play UT? What are the framerates?

mr. burns · Jan 23, 2002, 02:05 PM

some things i've noticed:

deus ex runs well in 1024x768@32bit. i don't know the whole procedure for taking frame rate readings so i'll leave that to someone else. but i do have a lot of video game experience so if i say it's playable, it's playable. quake III is a little goofy. i'm still fooling around with different settings. one thing i know for sure, don't play with 32bit textures in a deathmatch

and try to avoid the lightmap option too. i've also noticed that if i play the game and quit, i get an opengl error if i try to open up the game again. logging out and logging back in again solves this but it's an annoyance. i don't play UT so i cant help you guys on that, but i'm about to go try out the wolfenstein test and see how that goes.

Jan 23, 2002, 02:39 PM

Guys, the Radeon 7000 is _not_ a gaming card!

This doesn't mean you can't play games with it *duh* it means it'll run out of steam because ATI chopped out a lot of the cool 3D features of the full Radeon.

If you want to play games, I would recommend a full Radeon over the 7000 card. If you want to crunch spreadsheets all day, get the 7000

xyber233 · Jan 23, 2002, 04:16 PM

Hehe, it still beats a Rage 128 card

.

Jan 23, 2002, 04:23 PM

Originally posted by xyber233:
<STRONG>Hehe, it still beats a Rage 128 card.</STRONG>

Hmm, well the 128 is 3-4 years old.

mac freak · Jan 23, 2002, 06:54 PM

No sh!t sherlock!

NeoMac · Jan 23, 2002, 07:25 PM

Do you know what is shocking?

The LCD iMac has a GeForce 2mx-400! That the top of the line in that series. Only it has 32MB instead of 64MB of (DDR) VRAM.

Coming from Apple, I'm astounded.

Jansar · Jan 23, 2002, 07:27 PM

Apple should make their GeForce 3 standard. And for God's sake, why $500?!

The PC version is around $150 or less.

MysteryWhiteBoy · Jan 23, 2002, 08:57 PM

I have a question. Leonard says the rage 128 is good for 2D but not 3D. Is this card too old for the most up to date ATI 3D accelerators and the most up to date Open GL drivers? I upgraded my OS and my ATI and Open GL drivers to the 9.2.2 level, and my machine won't boot with them enabled.

I have a 500mHz G4 with AGP graphics, 1 gig RAM, 135 gigs between 3 HDs. It was the high end model of the second generation G4s with 1 AGP and 3 PCI slots. The card is the preinstalled graphics card.

rambo47 · Jan 23, 2002, 09:04 PM

If you want a good card - but not for OS X - I have a Voodoo 5500 PCI lying around here someplace.

With the new Radeons coming out the older ones should drop in price. I have a 32 MB PCI Radeon in my Yosemite and its a kick-ass card.

warnergt · Jan 23, 2002, 09:39 PM

I just dropped a Radeon 7000 PCI Mac Edition into a PowerMac 8600/300. UT plays fine! I gave the machine a USB card, too, so I can use a multibutton mouse -- absolutely necessary for UT (you know).

Without the Radeon 7000, UT was impossible on the 8600. The Radeon offloads the graphics processing and leaves plenty of PowerPC horsepower for the game. Now, I can get my kids off of my G4/D500 (so I can play UT)!!!.

yukon · Jan 24, 2002, 12:40 AM

never had any problems with my rage128. fast 2D, and usable 3D. the radeon improved FPS at highr resolutions. The radeon8500 should be interesting, but i guess I'll wait for the GeForce4