Video Cards in Old Machines.

[macgeek2005]

My dad just bought a Radeon 9200/128 video card for his PowerMac G4/350Mhz. "yikes".

I keep on telling him that he didn't gain much speed because that computer has a 350mhz cpu and a 100mhz bus, but he won't believe me. Am I wrong, or is he wrong? How much speed gain do you think the computer profited by, with that video card in it?

 

[exeterbohemian]

the video card won't affect the overall system speed in the least. that's something limited by the processor, ram, and bus. an improved video card such as that will, however, show significant improvement in anything that involves intensive video processing. like finalcut or any sort of 3d game, i'd imagine.

 

[Heb1228]

If he's running Tiger, my guess is that OS X will be able to make use of some of the newer video technology. My guess is somewhere around a 5% increase in everyday usage and perhaps more in graphics-intensive work.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Stuff like Quartz Extreme are not enabled on this video card, nor is Core Image supported.

But games will fun faster. Maybe simple Aqua-fun stuff (minimizing windows, zoom-open of windows) will perform a little better, but I assume it will hardly be noticable.

But now you can get a DVI monitor attached to it!

It simply is the best grfx card for the B&W G3 and PCI-grfx G4.

 

[risc]

Am I wrong, or is he wrong?

Does it really matter? If he is happy with the new card let him be.

 

[SmurfBoxMasta]

Stuff like Quartz Extreme are not enabled on this video card. But now you can get a DVI monitor attached to it!

It simply is the best grfx card for the B&W G3 and PCI-grfx G4.

Actually, you CAN enable QE using a simple haxie called PCI Extreme. Granted it is not as fast as it could be if it were an AGP card, but all the GUI & screen redraw & eye candy are much smoother & faster with a 9200.

It made a HUGE difference in my B&W over the Rad7k I had before it.

And having a dvi monitor helps with better rsolutions and all digital output too

So yea it is THE best pci video card for those machines, no doubt