[muchachotron]

i am planning on purchasing a quad g5 pretty soon, but i'll probably buy it from amazon or another retailer besides apple direct.

can i buy a 7800 gt card from somewhere else (such as one of these joints)?:

http://www.provantage.com/xfx-pvt70gudf7~7PINE053.htm
http://www.chumbo.com/info.aspx?id=2...e=09-8273662-2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...C-pr1c3grabb3r
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...e=pricegrabber

these all seem to have the same specs as the one that you can get on a BTO g5 from apple, is there a reason you can't do this? i've never upgraded a video card in my machines before, always just used the stock card but the 7800 seems like such a good card for the price.

if this won't work (please explain why, i'd like to know), what are similar/better cards that you can purchase outside of the apple store to upgrade from the stock GeForce 6600 that you get with the quad?

.d

[Jerk_circus]

Those ones in the links are PC video cards. They wont work in a G5 unless you flash them. And flashing them is no easy trick, but can be done. Check out strangedogs - They have DIY's for flashing video cards. I've been looking to upgrade my 6600 to a 7800 too. I cant find any place that sells them...and I'm not sure if I want to flash a PC one either...I need to find out more about the flashed cards before I can make a decision. Hope that helps

[2009059]

I've seen mac versions on eBay for pretty good prices

[muchachotron]

so if you can't purchase the 7800 by itself for the mac, is there another mac-ready card that is as good, perhaps from ati, that you can purchase?

.d

[Lateralus]

Nope.

[Cadaver]

Originally Posted by muchachotron

so if you can't purchase the 7800 by itself for the mac, is there another mac-ready card that is as good, perhaps from ati, that you can purchase?

.d

No. And don't forget the Quad uses PCI-express... and there are no retail Mac-compatible cards (yet) for PCI-express based Macs.

If you really want the card, you're only real option is to BTO it from Apple directly. Or find one for sale on eBay (caveat emptor).