Any Advice would be welcome

Question

Hi All... First time poster long time reader.
Anyhow I am seeking any advice on the following:
I am currently running a G5 Quad with 4.5g ram, two 20" displays, GeForce 7800GT Graphics card and all the usual suspects (programs) for high end photo and video editing etc.
I am wanting to give the graphics side of things a kick and have been looking at the Raedeon X1900 G5 Mac edition now that it is available (finally) in Australia.
My only concern (which I cannot find an answer to) is will this card be of benefit alongside the GeForce. Will the two cards combine to enhance the overall performance or will there be no benefits and more likely conflicts between the two models?
The X1900 is rather X'y when it comes to price and I am a bit hesitant on such an outlay when I could definately put the money to better use.
I really want to maintain an upgrading protocol on the Quad as it is a really solid, powerful and reliable machine and has never let me down in any aspect.
My main goal is to improve production time in the high end film work and increase the overall vram and perhaps share the load btween the two cards.
Does anyone out there know, or could recommend any suggestions??
Thanks in advance
Shano
G5 Quad   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

Answer 1

Hi,
you have very good graphic card and changeing it for X1900 GT has no sense.
As Steve wrote, we can not install 2 cards (SLI or CrossFire) to improve performance, only PC users can do this.
Although the ATI X1900 G5 edition is a never card then Nvidia 7800 GT - it is a kind of ATI's "equivalent" of Nvidia (maybe a little bit faster in some tests, but in others - slower or the same).
As you can see on the test (in Steve post), only X1900XT (but in MacPro) is faster then 7800GT. But for G5 there isn't X900XT. For G5 there is X1900 GT with 2 times less memory (256MB) and with less ROP (12 in GT vs. 16 in XT) and less Pixel Shaders (36 in GT vs. 48 in XT), and also with lower frequency of VRAM and GPU.
All that things cause that, in your situation I think that it's not worth to pay almost 350$ for an ATI card.
Check also those sites showing ATI X1900XT vs. others:
http://www.barefeats.com/quad10.html
http://www.barefeats.com/quad12.html
So, if you want to add something to your Quad I think that adding 4GB of RAM could help (for example Motion, 3D Apps) running faster more than ATI X1900 G5 card.
As you see below I have the ATI card and I am very satisfied, but I have it bacause few motnths before I couldn't find 7800GT or if so - it was very expensive (about 739 $) - so when ATI appears, I bought it.
And one more thing...
if you want to have as fast computer as its possible - I think that in Autumn (maybe ealier), Apple will introduce MacPro 8-core and maybe (I hope so) with NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX. And this is the CARD!!!!!!! And that computer will kick out every model existing now.
Still you have fast computer with fast card - the only sensible change is to MacPro 8-core with at least ATI X1900XT card, and it could be soon...
Marek.