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G5, video card upgrade?

D

dwd3885

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 10, 2004
2,133
158
In expecting to receive my refurb Dual 2ghz G5 with a stock GeForce 5200 video card, I am wondering if it is worth purchasing a better video card for the Mac.

So it has AGP slot and all. Do you think there will be anymore AGP graphics cards yet to be released? I kind of doubt it, but it would be a nice thing to do for the tons of customers who don't have the latest Macs. An affordable agp video card.

Is it worth upgrading the video card? I don't do any gaming at all. No 3D rendering either. Basically, I just encode movies, edit video, and the basic normal use. But I do watch a lot of HD content on it. Will it be ok?

Because I would like to not have to upgrade the card until the X850XT or 6800Ultra become cheaper for me. The max I'd like to spend on a video card is always $150. Because they become so outdated, so fast in the PC world. Is it the same as the Mac world?
 
We are kinda stuck..

AGP on the Macs is dead :(

You do not have a great card in the 5200 ... a decent upgrade is the OWC (www.macsales.com) ATI 9600, its a decent card for $75.

Past that, you can go with the ATI 9800 (multiple variations up to the ATI 9800 XT).

Then the ATI X800 series, with the ATI X850 being the top dog (you wont find an X850, its was BTO for only several months). The ATI X800 is still being sold and can be found for $350 or so.

The now deceased 6800 series from Apple (6800 Ultra and 6800 GT) are fine cards, and both support the 30" screen. Both can be found on Ebay for $300-500.

I seriously doubt we will ever see additional Retail AGP cards for Macs. If you are daring and can follow directions, then Flashing a PC card might be possible. These range from the 9800 through the 7800 (soon)... visit www.strangedogs.com (forums).
 
The best way to get a good card for $150 is to flash-it-yourself a Radeon 9800. I've done this myself and it's not difficult, as long as you remember to put a PCI video card in there so you can see what you're doing and remember to start up OS X in safe mode.
 
is the 5200 that bad? I mean, is it able to play HD content and all?
 
I have the 5200. No problems here except for one thing, every now and then my 20" ACD gets static like lines across the display. It's really weird and infrequent, otherwise I would be sending it back to Apple. Maybe the ATI would solve my issues.

With a good amount of PM people switching when the new intels are released, I bet I could get a sweet dual core G5 for a nice price!
 
The 5200 is fine for what you plan to use the computer for. Don't worry about it much. However if you ever plan on gaming, you'd probably want to upgrade it down the line.
 
_bnkr612 said:
With a good amount of PM people switching when the new intels are released, I bet I could get a sweet dual core G5 for a nice price!
Click to expand...

i already got the Dual Processor G5. But the dual core is sweet :) Just can't wait until September or so. That would be 6 months without a desktop!
 
You'll be using the CPU for decoding that HD video. The 5200 is just fine unless you're going to be doing some gaming or more GPU intensive editing.
 
Eidorian said:
You'll be using the CPU for decoding that HD video. The 5200 is just fine unless you're going to be doing some gaming or more GPU intensive editing.
Click to expand...

well i had a dual g5 before and it had the 5200 video card and i got some stuttering while watching the King Kong HD trailer. I didn't know if it was the video card or not. But I guess you're right, the CPU decodes HD video. So maybe I was just doing something wrong when that happened. It was a while ago, maybe December
 
A great upgrade for you would be a flashed 6800GT like mine (click in the video card link in my sig to read about it). The PC version of the card is a lot cheaper than the Mac version and it has working dual DVI, 256MB VRAM and will handle any game you can throw at it. It will also perform very well with Motion or HD video.

Doing the flash is pretty simple - all you need is some scotch tape a PC with AGP and some free software.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
A great upgrade for you would be a flashed 6800GT like mine (click in the video card link in my sig to read about it). The PC version of the card is a lot cheaper than the Mac version and it has working dual DVI, 256MB VRAM and will handle any game you can throw at it. It will also perform very well with Motion or HD video.

Doing the flash is pretty simple - all you need is some scotch tape a PC with AGP and some free software.
Click to expand...

can't do it, as i do not have a pc!
 
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