Is this Unusual Quadro FX4500 Behaviour?

[dhoggan]

Hi everyone,

I've only just joined the forum although I've spent some time looking over previous threads hoping I might find an explanation to something that's bothering me. Hopefully someone may be able to help.

I have a G5 (dual 2.3) running 10.5.8 with a Quadro FX4500 bought separately. I had run a fresh install of Leopard with the original 6600 and then swapped in the FX4500 as I couldn't find anything to say I need to reinstall. It's connected up with the PCIe power cable and seems to work just fine - no graphics glitches or other oddities.

The issue is that it all seems a bit "meh" performance-wise. Looking at some of the Barefeats FPS figures for Unreal Tournament 2004, they were getting FPS values in the high-70s during bot matches at 1920x1200. By contrast I'm getting as low as 25-40 FPS.

What seems really odd is that unplugging the PCIe power cable gives the same FPS results. I've checked the cable and power is reaching the card according to a multimeter on the PCB side of the card's power connector. It is almost as if the card is not using the power from the cable and only using the PCIe slot power, running at a reduced speed as a result.

Can anyone help explain what I'm seeing?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[Dronecatcher]

The issue is that it all seems a bit "meh" performance-wise. Looking at some of the Barefeats FPS figures for Unreal Tournament 2004, they were getting FPS values in the high-70s during bot matches at 1920x1200. By contrast I'm getting as low as 25-40 FPS.

Try running OpenMark and compare your results:

Some PPC OpenMark benchmarks

I got bored and ran GeoFX Openmark 1.6 OpenGL benchmark on some of my PPC macs, the results were interesting. Now including measurements for other PowerPC macs from forum members! Now a WIKI! Thanks to all who helped create this list! ATI Rage Mobility 128 ---------139 (G3 Pismo Powerbook...

forums.macrumors.com

I was very underwhelmed when I had a FX4500 in my Quad - I wasn't using it for games but it offered no apparent advantage over my 6600.

 

[dhoggan]

Will do.

 

[dhoggan]

Curious. Seems to be in line with expectations. Was watching the power monitor on the G5 and it went from around 135W to around 205W. Not sure it that would be the CPU or the GPU. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm no closer to why but at least I know the card seems to be OK.

I wonder how Barefeats got such a decent FPS then - they didn't mention tweaking any settings. It is a shame as I want to use this as primarily an old-school gaming machine as I have lots of boxed games for PowerPC. Many of them are 3D shooters, so FPS capability is important.

Oh, is there an easy way to tell if this is an orignal Aple FX4500 or a flashed one?