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chasg · Dec 8, 2006, 11:17 AM

Hi All,

A knowledgeable Aperture presenter said something very useful to his audience at a seminar I attended the other day: an upgraded video card in a G5 desktop machine will do a great deal to accelerate Aperture (which I'm migrating to at the moment. fyi: I am a photographer by trade).

I knew that the GPU did most of the heavy lifting for Aperture, but I really hadn't considered just upgrading my video card in my G5 (dual 2.0GHz) rather than what is normally the next logical step: upgrading the whole machine to a Mac Pro.

So, until CS3 comes out (making a Mac Pro purchase more logical), I'm looking to upgrade only my video card in my G5. Can anyone make any recommendations? I have to say honestly that the latest and greatest really isn't necessary (and it'd be a waste, as a Mac Pro really is in my future), so I'd like to keep the cost down. I just want something that will work much better with Aperture than the stock video card I've got now (which I can see is a 128Mb AGP card of some sort).

Thanks in advance,

Chas

Goldfinger · Dec 8, 2006, 12:28 PM

It's quite simple really. The biggest and baddest you can afford. Just think about what you're willing to spend and get the best one you can afford. Aperture will love you for it. An expensive card won't be a waste since Aperture will use every last bit of processing power it has.
X1600 128MB at the minimum I'd say.

Big Mac · Dec 8, 2006, 12:32 PM

I don't think the X1600 was ever available in AGP form.

chasg · Dec 8, 2006, 12:38 PM

yeah, biggest and baddest is always the rule :-)

Despite that, it doesn't make sense at this time (for me) to get anything high end, as a Mac Pro will supersede the G5 (when CS3 comes out), and any new graphics card I get will gather dust along with the G5 (well, it'll be sold, but history has shown me that an upgraded video card isn't going to raise the price of a used machine all that much).

I'm having trouble finding _any_ AGP cards though (that are a step up from what I've already got)

:-(

Chas

Goldfinger · Dec 8, 2006, 04:08 PM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

I don't think the X1600 was ever available in AGP form.

That I don't know. I don't know too much about all the graphics cards and their versions.

Originally Posted by chasg

yeah, biggest and baddest is always the rule :-)

Despite that, it doesn't make sense at this time (for me) to get anything high end

I understand. That's why I said: get the best one you can afford. You don't need to buy the most expensive card out there, just the most expensive one that's within budget.

What do you have right now ? An Nvidia 5200 ? Almost anything is better than a 5200.

I did some research and the fastest card out there for AGP G5s is the ATI X800 XT (I could be wrong, but I think that info is correct). An ATI 9600 or 9800 Pro would probably be a lot faster than the 5200 as well.

Both the X800 and 9800 are in the recommend cards list for Aperture so should work pretty well (GeForce 5200 and ATI 9600 aren't).

check Apple - Aperture - Tech Specs for recommended cards.

chasg · Dec 8, 2006, 04:31 PM

Hi Goldfinger, thanks again for the info (I appreciate the research you did, I found the same card after some Googling, but I couldn't determine where it sits in the "I'm the fastest" hierarchy :-).

Sorry, I didn't mean to misinterpret you re: "biggest and baddest". I _can_ afford the best that's out there, it just doesn't make sense at this time (but I'm sure you already picked that up :-)

It took ages to ferret out this info, but the card installed is a Radeon 9600 XT 128MB ("ages" because System Profiler doesn't indicate the card model, I had to dig out the Apple emailed shipping receipt from the archives to get the info).

Of course, now I'm wondering if the ATI X800 is significantly faster than the installed 9600 XT. So, more googling, but I have to admit that graphics cards have never been my forte. I don't know what specs to compare, beyond the obvious memory capacities. Any suggestions?

Thanks again,

Chas

Goldfinger · 05:07 PM

Radeon X800 Mac Edition versus others

Most of the graphs here show the X800 as well as the 9600XT. The X800 seems significantly faster in those games. But if you look at the Motion render the difference isn't that big anymore. The tech specs show that the X800 has 2x everything the 9800 has so the difference with a 9600 should be even bigger.

Radeon 9600 Pro 256MB 4X AGP Dual Link DVI another bunch of comparison graphs

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Mac 2X/4X AGP 256MB <-- Check out the iMaginator graph. X800 vs 9600 (256MB version). That's a graph that shows core image rendering which is what Aperture relies on.

But the X800 Mac edition is an expensive card...

chasg · Dec 8, 2006, 05:09 PM

Particularly useful Goldfinger, many thanks! (I bow to your superior Google prowess ;-)

Looks like 300 pounds (why doesn't the pound symbol I originally typed work here?) for a X800 may be money well spent. Add two more GB of RAM (to bring my machine up to 4.5GB) and I think I'll be able to delay that Mac Pro purchase for quite a while yet (until the Mac SuperDuperPro, maybe!)

Thanks again,

Chas

CatOne · Dec 8, 2006, 07:08 PM

ATI X800XT is the best AGP graphics card you can get for a G5.

They are now discontinued; look for some still in the channel or look to eBay.

chasg · Dec 9, 2006, 10:50 AM

Thanks CatOne,

Looks like that card is really hard to find. I've only come across a couple of the PC versions on eBay (not sure what sort of firmware change needs to be done to make it a Mac version), and none in the uk stores I've checked (several list it as "special order", that means "never" :-/

Thanks again,

Chas