[dfbennett]

Hi,
I've got a Sawtooth G4 350 with 512mb ram and a ATI Rage 128 Pro 2x AGP and a DVD-ROM. I'm contemplating replacing it with a Radeon or Geoforce 2 MX card. Would it need to be Apple OEM for it to work(I want an AGP card not a PCI card)? Second, can the Geoforce 2 MX do DVD decoding with Apple's DVD player or would I need an ATI card to do that? Third, what about Rave? Can non ATI cards do rave acceleration? Lastly, where could I go about obtaining one and how much would it cost? Thanks

[spicyjeff]

You can get a retail Radeon AGP Mac Edition card. It has S-Video, VGA, and DVI connectors. The best price I can see is $149 at Microwarehouse. And ATI cards do RAVE acceleration.

[Leonard]

The ATI Rage 128, ATI Rage 128 Pro, ATI Radeon, Geforce 2MX, and Geforce 3 are all compatible with Apple's software decoding DVD player. The only difference between OEM cards and retail cards is that the OEM cards have the ADC connector and the retail cards have the DVI connector. Both OEM and retail cards have VGA connectors. Retail cards may have other additional connectors or features.
ATI cards and Nvidia Geforce cards all do RAVE and OpenGL acceleration.

You can get ATI Radeons from any retail outlet. Apple does not sell the OEM Radeon anymore, but you could probably find one on Ebay or a Mac parts shop.

You can get retail Geforce 2MX cards at any retail outlet and flash the ROM. Apple currently only sells the OEM Geforce 3 I believe.

[ 09-20-2001: Message edited by: Leonard ]

[Macmeniac]

Originally posted by dfbennett:
<STRONG>Hi,
I've got a Sawtooth G4 350 with 512mb ram and a ATI Rage 128 Pro 2x AGP and a DVD-ROM. I'm contemplating replacing it with a Radeon or Geoforce 2 MX card. Would it need to be Apple OEM for it to work(I want an AGP card not a PCI card)? Second, can the Geoforce 2 MX do DVD decoding with Apple's DVD player or would I need an ATI card to do that? Third, what about Rave? Can non ATI cards do rave acceleration? Lastly, where could I go about obtaining one and how much would it cost? Thanks</STRONG>

I would definitly go with the Radeon 32 MB DDR !!!

lokk at:
www.barefeats.com

The Radeon has the better hardware than the Geforce 2 MX . Of course at the moment there is a better driver support from Nvida but ATI will bring better drivers to outperform the hardware benefits soon.

A better idea is to wait a few weeks and to buy the new Radeon 8500 or 7500 (I dondt know if both will be released for thr Mac) which will be cheaper and as well as the geforce 3 in minimum, believe me !


http://www6.tomshardware.com

It really depends what you're using your machine for. In general, I'd say go for the Radeon. There are less compatibility issues since it's been around longer. Also, I'm not sure how you could buy a Mac based Geforce2 MX without worrying about flashing the rom, etc.

Both work with the lastest version of DVD player. Technically, the Radeon is a better piece of hardware, but ATI is notorious for poor driver performance. On paper, there's no way it should lose to the Geforce 2MX, but with OpenGL, it does.

nVidia seems a bit faster at OpenGL due to superior drivers. However, RAVE is MUCH slower on nVidia cards. For example, on a friend's G4 667, Radeon performance was very similar between Q3 (OpenGL) and UT (Rave) (~70fps). On the default nVidia Geforce 2 MX, Q3 was a little faster, but UT was dog slow (about half the frame rate - if that, but still playable).

For your machine, given the need for compatibility of legacy software, I'd go with an ATI solution, possibly even wait for the newer 8500. Going forward with newer machines, I'd stick with nVidia. nVidia + OpenGL = Sweet!

Steve