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Video Card upgrade for G5
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: UK
Status:
Offline
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Hi,
I'm new to this forum, and video cards aren't my strong point so sorry if this seems basic. I got my dual 2.0Ghz G5 about this time last year, and spent all the money I could afford on the basic machine - so I got the worst video card I could, knowing I'd upgrade it, and that the cards in a year's time would be much better anyway. Anyway, the computer blew my socks off, and I haven't needed the upgrade yet. But what I was wanting to ask was when is the best time to get a new video card for my machine? I know the new G5's are PCIe, whereas I don't think mine is. I don't want to wait so long that my machine's to obsolete to take the new cards, and end up trawling through ebay for second hand ones. Especially with the Intel transition - I don't know how long these machines will be supported for, so I want to get the best configuration for my beloved G5 so that it'll last me a while - my heavily upgraded pismo's still going strong after 5 years. It's got this card in at the mo, which I know is pretty out-of-date - hope that's enough info for you guys to tell me what video cards will work with it:
GeForce FX 5200:
Chipset Model: GeForce FX 5200
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
Slot: SLOT-1
VRAM (Total): 64 MB
Vendor: nVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0321
Revision ID: 0x00b1
ROM Revision: 2060
I want to basically get the best video card that will ever be released for this machine - has that point been and gone yet? What should I be looking for?
Thanks a lot, seems like a great forum, hope this post isn't too boring to reply to!
Ian
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Feb 2005
Status:
Offline
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The nVidia 6800 Ultra or the ATi X850 are both great cards. If you want to run two 30inchers you'll need the 6800 Ultra. I have the 6800 Ultra...great card!
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: rodeo island
Status:
Offline
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I'd go for either the 9800 Pro SE or X800XT.
ATI has generally better driver support (opengl overrides, display rotation) than Nvidia on the Mac platform.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: UK
Status:
Offline
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So are all the modern video cards still compatible with the first 2 generations of G5 then? Because I heard that the newer ones had different PCI slots.
Thanks,
Ian
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
Status:
Offline
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Originally Posted by Ian_Bullock
So are all the modern video cards still compatible with the first 2 generations of G5 then? Because I heard that the newer ones had different PCI slots.
No. The older PowerMac G5 has AGP for graphics, so it can't accept the newer PCI Express cards. I doubt we'll ever see faster Mac AGP cards than what is available today (6800U and X850XT).
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Status:
Offline
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Originally Posted by Ian_Bullock
So are all the modern video cards still compatible with the first 2 generations of G5 then? Because I heard that the newer ones had different PCI slots.
Thanks,
Ian
Actually, the problem is the new PowerMac G5s with PCI Express are so new there are almost no video cards out to upgrade to. The older Power Mac G5s with AGP 8x Pro have a better selection.
Get the X800XT ! Nice price, great card.
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Mac Pro Dual 3.0 Dual-Core
MacBook Pro
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