Upgrading my ATI 9650 Radeon graphics card

You have PCI-X slots, and your computer needs an AGP graphics card. There's not much selection at this point - Mac AGP cards are difficult to find, especially the faster ones like ATi's X800 and nVidia's 6800GT/Ultra.

Virtually no one sells new versions of these cards anymore. Your best best is probably eBay, and you must make sure that the card specifically mentions Mac compatibility. Some of the cards on there will have been originally Mac cards, whereas others were originally PC cards that have had the ROM flashed with a Mac ROM. As I recall, the X800's DVI ports don't work if the card was originally a PC card, so I'd recommend avoiding those particular cards. The Mac originals will be fine.

Well, what apps are you running that feel sluggish? A faster card would of course only help if those apps rely on the graphics card for some processing.

I'm looking to upgrade my GPU and I want to know whats the best card that I can get for my computer it's a Dual 1.8 G5. Motion does not let me run the app if I don't have a minimum 128mb of video ram. I've been looking around and I'm not sure which card to pick. Is PCI X the card I can use or is it only AGP.

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Hi Benny,

If you're sure you have the Dual model then you have PCI slots. But you still need an AGP card so all of Steve's advice above applies to you too.

If you guys can find a Mac Edition 9800 that might not be a bad way to go:
http://www.google.com/products?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=MacEdition9800&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=X&oi=productresultgroup&resnum=4&ct=title

But it won't be as fast as the cards Steve listed. Good luck.

Edit: Nitescotsman, thinking again I don't think the 9800 would give you much gain compared to what you have now.
Found these; but to tell you the truth the one up for bidding sounds better than the other one to me. But I've dealt with Macanix and their products seem ok, it's just suspiciously low priced: http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/applemacanixW0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQmdoZ
http://cgi.ebay.com/ATI-Radeon-Graphics-Card-X800-AGP-MAC-for-macW0QQitemZ270301688180QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_2?hash=item270301688180 &_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&trkparms=72%3A570%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

Message was edited by: Samsara

Now here's another one, from the land down under, for an extremely low price, $148.21.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260316712295&ssPageName=MERCO SIVI_ROSI_PR4_PCN_BIX&refitem=260307876833&itemcount=4&refwidgetloc=closed_view_it em&refwidgettype=osi_widget&_trksid=p284.m185&trkparms=algo%3DSI%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D4%26ps%3D42

I don't think that this or Applemacanix x800 are the real deals, this second one is definitely not. And both have similar warnings about monitor compatibilities. I think that's what Steve was referring to.
If those warnings don't involve you I guess they would be a good deal. But I'm pretty sure that the one up for bidding is the real deal, the one and only real x800xt. I have one in another Mac and it sure looks and sounds like it. Of course the best thing to do would be to ask. I bought mine new for a little over $300 a few years ago and it was worth every penny. But don't go nuts if it gets around that price.

Thanks For The Response I think I'm going for the X800