ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB good upgrade from stock?

Question

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB good upgrade from stock?

Hi,

I currently have an ATI Radeon 9650 in my Dual 2.0Ghz PowerMac G5.

I have found a good deal for an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB card.

Do you think it is a worthwhile purchase?

Specs on the 9800: http://www.superwarehouse.com/ATIRadeon_9800_Pro_Mac_Edition_128MB_VideoCard/100-435050/ps/333809

Posted on Jun 20, 2006 10:57 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 20, 2006 11:59 AM in response to PockyRevolution

Yeah, I have the ATI RADEON 9800 Pro SE 256MB Mac Edition. I love it.

1. Overall - you won't see that much of a change.
2. 3D - you'll see a nice speed increase.
3. Gaming - you'll see a lot of improvement.

Check this out for a little less money and a better ATI card:

http://www.superwarehouse.com/ATIRadeon_9800_Pro_Mac_Edition_256MB_VideoCard/p/1483803

Also, check this out for a speed comparison:

http://www.barefeats.com/rad9800s.html

There are some other cards out there as well.

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Answer 2

ds store

Level 7

30,855 points

Jun 20, 2006 12:28 PM in response to PockyRevolution

No, what you want is this.

http://www.ati.com/products/radeonx800/radeonX800xtme/index.html

buy page is here

http://www.ati.com/buy/pricesmacusa.html

It has a Dual Link and a ADC port on the back, so you can hook up anything from a 30" Apple (Dual Link) to any regular DVI (hooks up to Dual Link) to any legacy ADC (plastic) Apple display.

It's also the fastest current card on the market for your machine.

Check out the ATI upgrade program, you might qualify for a discount.

They send you the new card, you send them the old. But it may be wise to have two video cards, one for backup as they are getting scarce.

3D gaming is always pushing the video card envelope, so it's actually best to get the best right away to prolong your 3D gaming experience.

If you "half-step" it, then when you use a new game, it's crippled.
3D gaming performance is almost entirely video card performance dependent.

See Barefeats comparison here

http://www.barefeats.com/radx800.html

I have the new Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, which 3D animates all the rides. I've created a park that's only 1/4 of the available space and I'm getting dropped frames on my 6800GT and that's more powerful that the 128MB ATI card you mentioned.

Quake 4 runs great on my card, Doom 3 is fine, just a few stutters.
UT2004 runs great. Nanosaur 2 is very smooth.

So spend your money wisely, get the powerful card. Trust me.

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Answer 3

ds store

Level 7

30,855 points

Jun 20, 2006 9:30 PM in response to ds store

HO ho!! found them.

A couple of Nivida 6800 cards, one a GT and the other a Ultra

both have two dual link DVI ports for two 30" displays

make sure you get the software driver, it has to be installed first before the video card goes in. Prepare for sticker shock, but it's quiet card.

http://www.welovemacs.com/agpg5vica.html

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Answer 4

Jun 21, 2006 8:32 AM in response to ds store

Hi all,

Thanks for the input and links.

In the end I went with the 9800 Pro 128 as the cost was only $80 to me. Yes I realize there are much better cards, but those were around $400.

The barefeats page helped me see the difference in the 9600 vs 9800 GPU:

http://www.barefeats.com/rad9800s.html

Barefeats conclusion:

PERFORMANCE
1. If you have the standard Radeon 9600 Pro in your G5 Power Mac, the Special Edition 9800 Pro runs most 3D graphics intensive apps TWICE as fast. If you have the GeForceFX 5200, it's as much as THREE times faster.

We ran typical 2D tests like AppleWorks scroll, Photoshop zoom scroll, Xbench Quartz 2D, Xbench User Interface, and QuartzWindowBench. The Radeon 9800 Pro cards had an average 13% advantage over the Radeon 9600 Pro.

2. If you have a G5 Power Mac with the CTO Radeon 9800 Pro (OEM), the Special Edition will be 6% faster -- unless you run with FSAA enabled -- in which case it is 23% faster.

We ran typical 2D tests like AppleWorks scroll, Photoshop zoom scroll, Xbench Quartz 2D, Xbench User Interface, and QuartzWindowBench. The Radeon 9800 Pro Special Mac Edition had no advantage over the OEM or Retail Editions.

3. If you bought the Radeon 9800 Pro (Retail Edition) for your G5, the Special Edition will be 2% faster -- unless you run with FSAA turned on -- in which case it is 15% faster. If you bought the Retail Edition for a G4 Power Mac, that's as good as it gets. The Special Edition only works in a G5.

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Answer 5

ds store

Level 7

30,855 points

Jun 21, 2006 9:09 AM in response to PockyRevolution

Yea I got a 9800 Pro Special Edition sitting in my obsolete bin, took that thing out about 2 years ago.

Wasn't cutting the mustard anymore with all the new games, Quake 4, Doom 3, UT2004 and Railroad Tycoon 3.

Oh well, life of a 3D gamer.

Hey you do know how to add maps to UT2004 right? There are literally tens of thousands of maps and mods people have created for this game.

1: Update UT2004 with the latest Mac update and bonus pack.

visit this site

http://www.3dgamers.com/games/unrealtourn2k4/downloads/

you want the patch

ut2004-macpatch3369-2.dmg.bz2

2: visit this site and free register, use a mac name to support our platform.
(bookmark these links!!)

http://www.unrealplayground.com/maps.php?game=ut2k4&type=ons

3: Now download the files and control click on the original UT2004 icon to "show package contents"

4: Place like extension files into their respective folders. Start UT2004 and the new maps and mods will be there.

5: Do clone your boot drive to a external drive occasionally, you don't want to lose all this work because of a problem or failed hard drive.

You can learn how to clone by visiting Carbon Copy Cloner forums for free advice and software.

I find UT2004 to be one of my most used games because of the tons of maps for it. I got several hundred different worlds to play in.

Enjoy. 🙂

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Answer 6

Jun 20, 2006 10:59 AM in response to PockyRevolution

For what purpose? Gaming, 3D, overall graphics?

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Answer 7

Jun 20, 2006 11:04 AM in response to Cory Cooper

Hello!

My priorities:

1. Overall
2. 3D
3. Gaming.

Thanks

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Answer 8

Jun 20, 2006 11:08 AM in response to PockyRevolution

Another spec page for the 9800:

http://www.shopping.com/xPF-ATIRADEON_9800_PRO_MacEdition

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