I can't believe that it seems to be impossible to upgrade the graphics card in my G5 quad without having to buy a whole new system!! I just bought a 30" Apple Cinema display and it looks GREAT!! But in order to really get it useable under aperture, I need to upgrade the graphics card to a Nvidia 7800 or a Quadro. I can get either of these as an upgrade option when I order a G5 but I can't seem to find them anywhere as stand alone products. Anyone out there found these anywhere?
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I really can't get a graphics card for my G5 Quad???
- Thread starter Cloud10
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Welcome to the real world of high end Apple computing. Unfortunately third party hardware availability for Apple platform is so minuscule, I'm surprised that Apple is doing as good as they are.
After buying just released C rev Dual 2.0 PowerMac I had to be quick to buy ATI800XT from buy.com as the only means of connecting my ACD Apple Monitor and enjoying fast graphics without DVI to ACD converter. It now seems that people with PCI Express bus now have even less options available to them.
After buying just released C rev Dual 2.0 PowerMac I had to be quick to buy ATI800XT from buy.com as the only means of connecting my ACD Apple Monitor and enjoying fast graphics without DVI to ACD converter. It now seems that people with PCI Express bus now have even less options available to them.
Hey Cloud10 keep an eye on the ATI home page they demoed the ATI X1800 XT Mac Edition for PCIe Macs at MWSF.
Cloud10 said:
Right now the ONLY Mac PCI-Express card you can get retail is the GeForce6600 256MB. It can handle a 30", but maybe not at the level of performance you want.
Apple has had no stock of 7800s or Quadros at all - this has been a constant issue with all of Apple's high-end nVidia cards. As soon as one arrives from the factory they put it in one of the BTO Macs and ship it off. They used to offer the 6800GT as an upgrade kit, and everyone assumed that they'd do the same with the 7800GT at some point, but that hasn't happened yet. The powerful X1800XT will probably show up as a retail-available card, but there is no ETA as yet.
Options are few. You could search all the resellers (like OWC and Power Max) on the off chance that they have a 7800 pulled from a G5 available. Other than that, you'd have to sell your G5, order a new computer, and wait.
I've never heard of anybody getting one from Apple a la carte but maybe if you get on the phone with them you can work something out? good luck.