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SAPPHIRE TECHNOLOGY RADEON HD 3850 512 MB GDDR3 AGP

Does this card work with dual G5 under OSX 10.4.11 ?

Bought a NVIDIA GeForce NV40 6800 Ultra 256MB DDL (DVI/DVI) (AGP Pro ) - but it caused lots of crashes. Power failures/restarts. Once I put back the old ATI 9850 crashes stopped.

I can get
SAPPHIRE TECHNOLOGY RADEON HD 3850 512 MB GDDR3 AGP
for about $100. How does this work for Second Life?

Thanks

G5 dual 2GHz, 4.5GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.4.11), ( London, UK )

Posted on May 27, 2010 5:31 AM

Reply
12 replies

May 27, 2010 6:56 AM in response to William Donelson

Well, you've pretty much run through them....

Not sure what's up with your power issues... dirty PSU , perhaps?
Shouldn't have any problem with the higher powered cards.
My 340W PSU handles the 7800, the 6800, and the X800 without problems.

From fastest to slowest (roughly and relevant to use):
Radeon X850XT
Geforce 7800 GS
Radeon X800XT
Geforce 6800 Ultra
Geforce 6800 GT
Radeon 9800 XT
Radeon 9800 Pro

Other than those, there are the Radeon 9600 Pro and XT and the Geforce FX5200, none of which is really worth considering.

All are natively supported in Tiger.

May 27, 2010 7:43 AM in response to William Donelson

Is it really better than 6800 Ultra?

Depends on the application. Equal is closer to the fact:
http://www.barefeats.com/radx800.html

but the X800XT AGP is about $40

For a WinPC version, maybe.
For an OEM Mac edition, at least $200, more often $250.
New flashed X800 cards are around $300, with cheaper, VGA only flashed cards for $250 or so.

My X800 XT works fine in Tiger 10.4.8 and 10.4.11.
But then, so do my 7800 GS and 6800 GT cards.....

May 27, 2010 9:03 AM in response to japamac

In Second Life, the NVIDIA GeForce NV40 6800 Ultra 256MB in my dual G5, 4.5 GB Ram, OSX 10.4.11 - would run fine for 3-10 mins or so, then suddenly drop down to 1-2 frames per second and also would interfere with typing in chat too. Very frustrating.

It also was causing random power-offs, and I had to go through the Opt-startup menu before boot each time, just to keep from power off during system startup. Once I went back to my old video card all those problems went away.

The old card will only show "Low Quality" graphics in SL though.

Under OSX 10.5.8, the 6800 Ultra does work, albeit only at 10-15 fps.

--------

The X800XT on ebay here is:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ATI-Radeon-X800-XT-256Mb-AGP-Graphics-Card-DVI-SVGA-/35034 1703377?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UKComputing_Computer_Components_Graphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item5191fe26d1#ht_ 1314wt913

cheers!

May 28, 2010 5:19 AM in response to William Donelson

The OEM version has 1 ADC and 1 DVI port.
Use of an ADC to DVI adapter would allow use of two DVI monitors.
http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/productinfo.php?productsid=326

As for the offer, I doubt that $150 will do it.
Look at the others for sale.
The typical going price is $250+....... getting higher as time passes.

It can't hurt to try, though.

Aug 1, 2010 2:43 AM in response to japamac

My warmest (working) recommendation ... go on ebay and try to get a cheap FireGL X3 (X800XT) with Dual DVI ... I just got one yesterday for 11 Euros (now THAT is cheap)... anyways, I tried flashing it in the pc, it did flash although not proper, so I put it into my G5 and booted it up with remote desktop, went and flashed the card in the Mac, went flawless, upon reboot my 37inch display flickered and came online ... both DVI ports work, I am happy 🙂 Selling my mac flashed Radeon 9800 Pro on ebay now - thats how u get free upgrades 😀

Aug 1, 2010 3:16 AM in response to pjp_1976

Hi-

Thanks for that.
I am running a X3.
It is a good card, but has it's own character.

Let me know if you have any wake from sleep issues and reports including *com.apple.driver.ndrv.ATY, Tracer*.
Still trying to sort the root of the issue, and believe that it is ROM related.

Also, watch for heat issues.
The OEM X800XT clock speeds over clock the X3.
An ATI Silencer took care of heat issues for me without reducing clock speeds.

Aug 1, 2010 6:35 AM in response to japamac

Actually I am not noticing any sleep nor driver issues at all. ROM revision is 109 (the latest) and I flashed mine in my Mac (not PC ... PC flashing does not seem to work on any X800 type card for me, not sure why) ... used my Macbook to establish a Remote Desktop Session so I could see what I was doing. Also ... no heat issues, am yet to hear the fan of that card, u can hear it briefly (very rarely) when playing WoW set to maximum quality and 1920 by 1080 resolution but other than that am not noticing anything unusual about the card 🙂

Actually it just crossed my mind ... u are running it in a G4? I am not really sure if that card was ever intended for use in G4 machines, as far as I know the last card made known to work flawless in a G4 type Mac is the Radeon 9800 Pro ... but I am not sure about the X800 ...

Message was edited by: pjp_1976

SAPPHIRE TECHNOLOGY RADEON HD 3850 512 MB GDDR3 AGP

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