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Chinasaur · Jun 29, 2005, 06:27 PM

1. Looking for the most powerful video card for a G5 that does NOT have a fan AND is native G5 so I don't have to run extra cables. I ask, because frankly, I am lost in the sea of ATI and nVidia card numbers and what means what. Looking for most texels/GPU's/etc plus most RAM.

2. Thanks in advance!

3. Yes I searched

G5man · Jun 29, 2005, 07:39 PM

all the video cards in te new G5 have fans deal with it!

Lateralus · Jun 29, 2005, 08:02 PM

Originally Posted by G5man

all the video cards in te new G5 have fans deal with it!

Your posts are starting to annoy me. Get your facts straight.

No revision of the Power Mac G5 has shipped with a graphics card that had a fan. The FX 5200, 9600 Pro, 9600 XT and 9650 are all passively cooled.

To answer the question; While the 9650 features the largest amount of memory, the 9600 XT is the fastest over all.

Chinasaur · Jun 29, 2005, 09:32 PM

Lateralus,

Thanks bro!

liquidtrance123 · Jun 30, 2005, 09:19 AM

Originally Posted by G5man

all the video cards in te new G5 have fans deal with it!

have you ever even seen the inside of a G5 Powermac?

Agent69 · Jun 30, 2005, 09:32 AM

I picked up a Radeon 9650 from a fellow board member, which I intend to use when I pick up a PowerMac. It is fanless.

Lateralus,

Doesn't the highend BTO options for PowerMac have fans (X850 and the high end nVidia card)?

Todd Madson · Jun 30, 2005, 09:59 AM

The 9600 XT I have in my G5 dual 2.5 is indeed fanless (I was a bit surprised about that).
Yes, the performance is rather interesting - I was expecting to have to upgrade to an X800
or X850 right away but this will do for now. Maybe in a year when the prices on those X
cards drop a bit. $500 is a lot of coin just to get a bit more video craziness and the 9600 XT
is working great for the moment.

powertrippin · Jun 30, 2005, 10:27 AM

9600XT.

Also, you can use ATIccelerator II to overclock the CRAP out of the 9600XT without any problems. It overclocks on hte fly, so you can run stock speeds when you're doing normal surfing, email, etc, and then clock it's core OVER 500mhz (that's a 25% INCREASE!) for gaming or whatnot. It's a great card.

Just don't go over 360mhz on the memory.

Lateralus · Jun 30, 2005, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by Agent69

I picked up a Radeon 9650 from a fellow board member, which I intend to use when I pick up a PowerMac. It is fanless.

Lateralus,

Doesn't the highend BTO options for PowerMac have fans (X850 and the high end nVidia card)?

Of course they do, but I said shipping with. BTO is different.

G5man · Jun 30, 2005, 11:36 AM

hey I'm sorry I am a pc user most of the time but I am wanting to switch to the Mac no I have not seen the inside of a G5 PowerMac

Agent69 · Jun 30, 2005, 06:53 PM

Originally Posted by G5man

hey I'm sorry I am a pc user most of the time but I am wanting to switch to the Mac no I have not seen the inside of a G5 PowerMac

Than gander here. The pictures are old now, and of a single processor PowerMac G5, but they are nice.

zoetrope · Jun 30, 2005, 07:23 PM

So I have a question, and possibly Lateralus might be able to answer this. Is the 9600XT better for graphics apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign? I have a Dual 2.7 w/ the standard 9650. I don't have a dual display, nor will I ever, nor am I a gamer. Would I be better off with the 9600XT?

Lateralus · Jun 30, 2005, 08:01 PM

Most likely, yes. The 9650 really isn't powerful enough to run anything that would saturate 256MBs of RAM. Except, of course, two large high resolution displays.

If you're not doing anything that necessitates the large amount of RAM or the dual-DVI, then the 9600 XT will be faster. How much faster? Not a whole lot. All of the 9600s are members of the same family afterall.

That said, you'd probably be better off using ATIcellerator to overclock your 9650 to and past 9600 XT speeds. Once that is done you're pretty much on a level playing field since the only things that really differentiate the 9600 Pro, 9600 XT and 9650 from one another are their designations and their clock speeds set by Apple. Other than that, their cores are identical and pretty much capable of handling the same clock speeds.

So, yeah, I wouldn't bother swapping cards. Just overclock the one you have with ATIcellerator.

Chinasaur · Jun 30, 2005, 09:29 PM

Good data! Thanks all! Now to watch the Marketplace for a 9650 or 9600XT and list my 9800 Pro

g5man..btw..Fry's is selling off old G5 stock. They had a 1.6 for $1050 today and another dual 1.8 for $1,400. Check around..G5 prices are coming down.

zoetrope · Jun 30, 2005, 09:44 PM

Lateralus, thank you very much, particularly for the quick response! I'm using ATIcellerator II, and have overclocked my 9650 to just a hair under 9600XT speeds, about +25% for proc and +10% for memory. Things are noticeably faster, particularly rasterizing and vector scaling. I'm going to leave it there because I don't want to damage my card and that seems to be plenty fast enough.

Lateralus · Jun 30, 2005, 10:38 PM

Taipan · Jul 1, 2005, 11:27 AM

Originally Posted by zoetrope

Lateralus, thank you very much, particularly for the quick response! I'm using ATIcellerator II, and have overclocked my 9650 to just a hair under 9600XT speeds, about +25% for proc and +10% for memory. Things are noticeably faster, particularly rasterizing and vector scaling. I'm going to leave it there because I don't want to damage my card and that seems to be plenty fast enough.

Hi!

Did you add a fan? AFAIK the Mac version of the 9600XT has a lower clock than the PC one (which basically makes it rather a 9600 than a 9600XT), but it's also fanless, in contrast to most (if not all) PC 9600XTs. There's probably a reason for that...

zoetrope · Jul 1, 2005, 12:25 PM

Originally Posted by Taipan

Hi!

Did you add a fan? AFAIK the Mac version of the 9600XT has a lower clock than the PC one (which basically makes it rather a 9600 than a 9600XT), but it's also fanless, in contrast to most (if not all) PC 9600XTs. There's probably a reason for that...

No, I didn't add a fan. So if the Mac version of the 9600XT is fanless, why would I need to add a fan?

Lateralus · Jul 1, 2005, 12:53 PM

You don't really need to. I ran my 9600 Pro past XT speeds and the stock cooler was sufficient. It might help a little bit if you're using a hacked 9600 in the AGP 4x slot of a G4 since the G4 cases were not 'thermally correct'. But the expansion card fan in the G5 case should keep enough air moving around the Radeon to keep anything from getting dangerously hot.

Todd Madson · 02:56 PM

Powertrippin: so I could keep the memory at stock speeds (360 is the max?)
but clock the core at 500?

This I have to try but perhaps I'll just do 5% increments.

Wouldn't want to blow anything up or the like.

ihatesuvs68 · Jul 2, 2005, 09:52 AM

Originally Posted by Todd Madson

Powertrippin: so I could keep the memory at stock speeds (360 is the max?)
but clock the core at 500?

This I have to try but perhaps I'll just do 5% increments.

Wouldn't want to blow anything up or the like.

If you want, sure. I put my memory to around 340 mhz to be safe, and put the core to around 500mhz. WOrks fine, no artifacting.

G5man · Jul 2, 2005, 11:44 AM

Originally Posted by Chinasaur

Good data! Thanks all! Now to watch the Marketplace for a 9650 or 9600XT and list my 9800 Pro

g5man..btw..Fry's is selling off old G5 stock. They had a 1.6 for $1050 today and another dual 1.8 for $1,400. Check around..G5 prices are coming down.

thanks but no thanks I would rather search eBay

Chinasaur · Jul 3, 2005, 08:22 PM

As you wish, but you won't find a NEW Dual 1.8 G5 on eBay for $1,400...that is legitimate anyway.

d.fine · Jul 4, 2005, 04:24 AM

Originally Posted by powertrippin

9600XT.

Also, you can use ATIccelerator II to overclock the CRAP out of the 9600XT without any problems. It overclocks on hte fly, so you can run stock speeds when you're doing normal surfing, email, etc, and then clock it's core OVER 500mhz (that's a 25% INCREASE!) for gaming or whatnot. It's a great card.

Just don't go over 360mhz on the memory.

how much over 500 are you talking about? Do you notice any difference in speed when working in apps like Illustrator, PS, or Cinema 4D (my guess is C4D would see the biggest benefit).
Thx

jhogarty · Jul 4, 2005, 09:40 AM

Is the ATIccelerator a program you need to download? I don't see it on my box.

J...

d.fine · Jul 4, 2005, 10:04 AM

Yes it is, you can get it here

BEWARE :

ATIccelerator II comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. If you destroy your costly 9800 Pro or your now worthless Rage 128 because of a bug in this program or your careless utilisation of it, you're on your own!

jhogarty · Jul 4, 2005, 10:42 AM

Thanks!

J...

hldan · Jul 4, 2005, 01:53 PM

I would highly recommend checking out that accelerator program very carefully as there is no backing out if your graphics card gets damaged. Some people on this forum are serious computer geeks and know what they are doing while moderate computer users may make costly mistakes and you cannot blame the posters for telling you to use this software.
Some graphics cards are not designed to take the pressure of overclocking so be careful and do your homework.

Mafia · Jul 4, 2005, 03:14 PM

i just upgraded from a fanless (9600xt) to a fanned card(x800xt). i was actually extremely happy with the performance on the 9600xt but i just got a x800xt for 350 and it ended up being free (THATS RIGHT!

) and the fan really isn't an annoyance at all i am usually watching tv or listening to music so i don't notice it. but i would def say unless you are going for a 30 inch display i'd try to pick up a 9600xt if you absolutely have to go fanless.

Mafia · Jul 4, 2005, 03:24 PM

Originally Posted by Chinasaur

Good data! Thanks all! Now to watch the Marketplace for a 9650 or 9600XT and list my 9800 Pro

g5man..btw..Fry's is selling off old G5 stock. They had a 1.6 for $1050 today and another dual 1.8 for $1,400. Check around..G5 prices are coming down.

check the marketplace now

Chinasaur · Jul 4, 2005, 06:12 PM

Mafia,

YGM

Chinasaur · Jul 4, 2005, 06:14 PM

I have a friend who says I'm obsessed over the noise and keeping my G5 quiet.

After living iwth noisy a.. PC's for years..I treasure the quiet of my G5 and I'm not willing to trade it for the performance of a card with a fan.

Al G · Jul 4, 2005, 07:37 PM

Just for the record, I have a Radeon 9800XT. They were never available retail, only as BTO option, and only for a relatively brief period on the rev. Bs (discontinued as an option before the rev. Bs were discontinued).

Anyway, my point is the 9800XT has a fan but it is a different kind of fan from other cards and it is totally silent. Well, at least it's silent until the heat sink gets totally caked with dust, but after you blow out the dust it goes back to being silent.

Too bad the 9800XT isn't easier to get a hold of and/or more cards don't use that type of fan.

Chinasaur · Jul 9, 2005, 05:27 PM

I'm enjoying the 9600XT I bought from Mafia. You can really tell the difference between it and a FX5200. I can tell the difference between it and my 9800 Pro, but it's not enough difference to put up with fan noise.

I've looked and can't find a comparison between the 9600XT and a 9800 Pro. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks again and thank you to Mafia for quick shipment and a pleasant buying experience.

reader50 · Jul 9, 2005, 06:38 PM

Originally Posted by Chinasaur

...
I've looked and can't find a comparison between the 9600XT and a 9800 Pro. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
...

barefeats.com is the place to look for such comparisons. Here are three examples that I found right away:

http://barefeats.com/doom3b.html
http://barefeats.com/motion.html
http://barefeats.com/motion02.html

Chinasaur · Jul 9, 2005, 08:50 PM

Thanks R50!

a64 · Jul 12, 2005, 12:03 PM

Many PC users use Zalman heatsink/heatpipe.
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/...x=138&code=013

I've used couple b4 (for PC, 9700Pro and 9800Pro) and they cool the cards much better than stock heatsink fan, if you use it with the optional fan. but even if you use it without the optional fan it should have any problem cooling 9600 series cards.

hpence · Jul 12, 2005, 03:04 PM

due to the design of the G5. you cannot use heatsinks that have parts on the backside of the grphics card - it would collide with the housing of the processor(s). You MAYBE have 1/2 inch of leeway, but that still isnt nearly enough room for any dual sided setup.

a64 · Jul 13, 2005, 05:38 AM

Oh ok, i'm can build and overclock and tweak and any pc to max but i'm not familiar with mac design.

p.s. i meant Zalman hsf shouln't have any problem cooling 9600 series, not "should".

Anyway i think you can use other pc video heatsink setup for Mac cards, they are plenty diff models available which are single side, (most of them have fan tho) but for 9600 cards i'm sure they can run with fan turned off. Good quite video card heatsink are Zalman VF700-Cu or NV Silencer.. (but they do have fan unlike the one i posted previously)