PCI E Express - budget video card options? PC flashed cards?

Hi-

The 7800 GT, X1900 and Quadro 4500 all have flashable counterparts.
Add to the Radeon line the X1950, and to the Geforce line, the 7800 GTX, and you have a pretty good variety.

A search on eBay will reveal many selling the various cards.

BTW, the 7800 GTX is the fastest PCIe card available for the dual core G5.

Would there be much of a difference in performance from the GeForce 6600 to the 7800GTX?

Hi-

Well, the 6600 has total memory bandwidth of 16 GB/s and the 7800 GTX has 54 GB/s, a 300 MHz GPU vs 550 MHz, 128 bit memory bus vs 256 bit, and processes 1/4 the shader pixels per clock as the 7800 GTX.

The difference in performance is huge.

I probably should have started a new thread for this, but how do you flash the VC to work on the Mac?

http://themacelite.wikidot.com/
PCIe cards should be flashed in a PC.
The utilities available to flash on a Mac have trouble with other than AGP.

A bit on the X1950:
http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Flashing.html

Create an account (free) and you should be able to answer any questions from the posts in this forum:
http://strangedogs.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=logout

OK, I just have one more question, is there that much difference between the 7800GT and the 7800GTX?

Hi-

The 512 MB VRAM version of the GTX, it is much faster than the GT.
The GTX has faster core clock (550 MHz vs 400 MHz), faster memory clock (1.7 GHz vs 1.0 GHz), more pixels per clock (24 vs 20), and more total bandwidth (54 GB/s vs 32 GB/s).

Now if you compare the 256 MB VRAM version of the GTX to the GT, the GTX is still faster, but not by a big margin like the 512 MB version.

Some additional notes on G5 PCIE cards:

The BIG issue with flashing any of the 7800 cards is that at least 50% of them come with 64K EEPROM chips, which is about 40K too small for Mac ROM file. No way to know without pulling fan and looking at chip or doing a "Nvflash -v" in DOS. So, buying a used 7800 is a bit of a crapshoot unless you have means to switch chip if need arises. The 7800GT used is like $20-30. Finding a 512 Meg GTX is nearly impossible.

I actually wrote the 7800GTX ROMs, both the 512 Meg and 256 Meg versions. Sadly, they both worked great in Tiger but Leopard does not play so well with the 256 Meg version. The 512 Meg version does not seem affected. I had based the 512 version on Quadro ROM while the 256 GTX ROM was based on 7800GT ROM. Not sure if anyone has stepped up and written a better GTX 256 Meg ROM, but as far as I know they have not. There are at least 4 Ebay card flashers selling these cards with my ROM...pity I can't get a commission but such is life.

Flashing the X1900 GT cards is more of a sure thing, but as Japamac states, you need a PC. The X1900GT is a great card, used they are $20-40. No ROM chip issues with these.

With any of these cards you will need the special Apple power cable. It is $12.95 from ATI in USA, though there are retailers worldwide if you search hard enough. They all charge more than ATI though.

Well, I got my 7800GTX. And I am definitely impressed with it, makes quite a bit of difference even with loading web pages.

I was going to try and get one and flash it myself (seems the PC versions with the PC ROM go for quite a bit less than the flashed ones), but I couldn't find one that wasn't flashed, and the flashed ones seemed to be going for a ton as it was, I managed to get one for a bit less than normal, but after trying it I don't regret what felt like a lot for a used card. It is too bad you can't make anything off these cards, but I know many of us out there are glad we can at least use this card in our G5s, I know I am, and thank you for doing it.

Some interesting dialogue indeed - and good to see Rubytuesday is still alive and well.

Let's not forget the understated - however extremely noteworthy - PCIe ATI x1900 G5 Mac Edition.

+Even if it is 'just' a crippled GT version with a 507clock and 1206 memory.+

Granted, for outright pace, it's no 7800GTX 512, nor is it a match for an x1900xt in a Mac Pro, however, I seriously doubt you would see any difference at the desktop level. The x1900 (90nm) is also a generation ahead of the 7800 (110nm) design and therefore runs cooler, uses far less power and has an s-video option to boot.

Oh yeah, let's not forget that it has the ability to run 2 x 30" monitors...

If your thinking of doing that on an OEM 7800GT, or on a flashed 7800GT/GS from ebay - +it's not going to happen anytime soon.+

Throw into the mix a cheap TMG AT2 cooler and ATI Accelerator software and you would see even better performance.

Reflect on the Quadro 4500s' ridiculous price tag and the refusal of Apple to offer the 7800GT as an aftermarket option and the x1900 becomes even more attractive.

I recently brought a G5 Dual Core 2.0 which cost $368USD and added an x1900, which cost another $108USD.

+I also have a MSI7800GTX 256 on the way for $30USD which I can't wait to fry up like eggs and ham.+

Rants aside, the fact remains that the rare (and often overstated) privilege of having a 7800GTX 512 in your well-aged G5 will still cost you how much?

THREE HUNDRED US DOLLARS.

Laughable indeed.

rants aside, the fact remains that the rare (and often overstated) privilege of having a 7800GTX 512 >in your well-aged G5 will still cost you how much?
THREE HUNDRED US DOLLARS.
Laughable indeed.

A lot of our software costs far more than that. What's laughable about spending $ 300 to keep a more than adequate workstation in operation, instead of spending $ 3000 plus an additional $ 2000 in software for a new replacement? There's a recession you know.