IMac 24" with 7600 video card - enough juice?

Building out my shopping list and I will be editing HDV from either a Sony HDR-HC7 or a Canon HV-20.
We are somewhat between the iMac 20/24" and other than the larger screen area, I felt the Nvidea 7600 would give some additional performance. It seems like a no-brainer upgrade the video card for the price on the 24"
If I did the 20" then I would upgrade the video memory on the 1600 to 256MB.
One of the main reasons for the iMac will be for my wife and kids to edit HDV in iMovie and FinalCut Express (if they re-initiate the $99 offer that was just removed ... yikes!).
Just looking for some personal experiences.
Thanks
Jim

The iMac is a great machine, whether it's a 20" or a 24".
My suggestions include:
1) put at least 2GB RAM in it if you're serious about editing, esp. editing HDV,
2) upgrade at least to the 500GB internal hard drive, believe me in the long run you will appreciate having it
3) get yourself a good external firewire drive. I'm partial to the Lacie d2 Extreme drives, the 320GB model is currently $140 at newegg.com. Granite Digital & Weibetech also come highly recommended for video. Look for drives that support FW400 & FW800, 7200rpm, 8MB cache or more.

Similar Messages

24" 2008 iMac with busted video card, advice needed.

I have a 2008 24" iMac in which the video card is busted. The machine will turn on, get to the log in screen with no issues, however there is absolutely no video output to the screen.
I have attempted connecting it to an external monitor using mini DVI to VGA and a VGA cable, but the machine is not set to display to an external monitor.
Having the video card replaced will cost in the region of €300, an amount I'm reluctant to spend on a machine which is seven years old.
I have it backed up, so I'm really looking for advice to to how to wipe it so I can sell it on for parts, or other suggestions...

Your welcome, your new iMac likely does not have a Firewire port so you will need a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter like:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD464ZM/A/apple-thunderbolt-to-firewire-adapte r?fnode=51
I noticed several available on E-Bay however where you decide to get one is totally up to you.

Issues with games, video card issue?

Hi,
I have been having issues with games lately. Mostly they are hidden object games from Big Fish, but they start up then minimize, it doesn't crash completely just minimizes, I click on it again and it works for a few seconds and minimizes itself again and again. I am unable to play the games because it keeps minimizing. could this be an issue with my video card? I have attempted updating it but it doesn't seem to help. Any ideas?

Ok OK, Update...
the games work perfectly on my father's HP which runs windows 7...so it definatly is NOT because of not updated stuff....I really dont know what else to do at this point....no suggestions from anyone?!?!?!

Can I use a thunderbolt display with dvi video card?

Can I use a thunderbolt display with dvi video card?

Nope, you can only use it with a Thunderbolt port.

Apple Multiple Scan 1705 - usable with modern video cards?

I still have an old Apple Multiple Scan 1705 display which I've been using continuously since ~1995. Even though I don't have a Mac anymore (I know, I know, mea culpa), I hooked it up to my PC and it has worked great. But, I recently received a newer hand-me-down PC from my sibling. It didn't come with a monitor, but I thought that would be OK as I could just switch the monitor from my old system to the new system.
As it turns out, it's not that easy. When I boot it up, the monitor goes blank after POST, usually between the XP screen and the welcome screen. Sometimes I can actually get as far as seeing the desktop, but the screen usually goes blank before I can navigate anywhere. It works fine in safe mode, though. From what I've read on the Web, this would appear to be an "infinite loop" problem, where the OS and the video card stop speaking to each other.
I may be on a fool's errand here, trying to combine a PC video card (an NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS) with an Apple monitor which is ten years older than it. I've done some basic troubleshooting, such as reinstalling the video card drivers and visually inspecting the hardware and connections. But I wonder if it is even possible for the two to communicate properly. For the record, I'm running Windows XP SP3. Has anyone else been foolish enough to try this?
My girlfriend hates the bulkiness of this old CRT monitor and wants to get a flat panel anyway, but while I save up for that, it would be nice to be able to use the new computer with the old monitor. Even if it won't work, I've gotten 13 years of use out of the monitor, so I certainly got my money's worth. But I thought I'd check with the community and see if there's any life left in the old display.
Thanks for your help!

In Windows XP, in order to change the resolution for the monitor, you have to right-click on the desktop and select "Properties". This bring up "Display Properties". From there, you click the "Settings" tab. This gives you some basic options. For a wider selection of resolutions and refresh rates, click on the "Advanced" button. Then select the "Adapter" tab and press the "List All Modes" button. This lists all the available configurations for resolution, refresh rate, and colors. I fiddled around with these, trying all of the configurations that were supposed to work according to the Apple Multiple Scan 1705 specs. Unfortunately, anything other than VGA 640x480 60Hz would cause a "blue screen of death".
My girlfriend had indicated that she wanted to get a flat panel display anyway (to get back some of that desk real estate), so I decided to cut my losses and buy a new monitor. Unfortunately, I now have the exact same problem with the new monitor. So, it seems the problem is not with the monitor after all. Or, at the least, that's not the only problem. Once I resolve what other hardware/software issue is going on, I'll see if the 1705 display will work. But for practical purposes, you can consider this question resolved.
Thanks for entertaining my obscure question.

Genius needs to help! problems with my video card and system

Hey guys! I'm going to post my specs first so that you get a good idea of what I'm running on:
MSI Neo2 LS 865PE.....MAT=Slow
Pentium4 2.4C.....FSB=233=2.8C hyperthreading enabled ~>1.55V
Corsair TwinX 1gig PC3700.....memory on "AUTO" in BIOS with timings at 3,4,4,8 ~> 2.7V
Radeon 9700NP.....stock speeds ~>1.7V
AlienX case with 2 fan400 watt power supply and 6 case fans
Zalman Alum/Copper heatsink fan
1:I've had this motherboard for a few months now. I upgraded my video card from a nVidia Ti4200(128meg) to a Radeon 9800 a month ago, but I couldn't get it working at 8X AGP, no matter what voltages I threw at it. I returned it for a Radeon 9700NP hoping that it would work, but it still won't.
I'm using BIOS 1.9 and since there is no option to select your AGP speed, I could only try using ATI's drivers. Once booted into Windows, there is a slider you can move to select you AGP speed. On my machine It says that It has performed some tests and has concluded that AGP 4x is the best for my system....but my system supports AGP 8X!
I've moved the slider over to 8x (which requires a reboot) at least 5 times with each card but the slider refuses to move past 4xAGP after the reboot.
2: My second problem: I had an old stick of KingMax PC3200 and decided to buy 3 more sticks. Unfortunatly, the 3 I bought did not match the one I had, so I only put 2 of the new sticks I bought into my system. Immediatly, My system would crash, lock up, files were corrupt, and I got PLENTY of blue screens of death with a long message containing: 0x0000007 with all these other numbers and "0"s. I did a search online and found out I had a hardware incompatibility problem. I never got this with my old stick of ram.
I returned the 3 sticks of Ram and replaced them with the Corsair. Put my new Radeon 9700 in, formatted my hard drive....and within 24 hours, my system locked up 3 times, rebooted itself 5 times, and gave me the same BSOD as mentioned above with the same long message.
I didn't change anything except for the memory and the video card. I've been wanting to overclock, (thats why i bought the faster memory ) but I'm not sure what to do at this point.
I have my FSB at 233 but I'm scared to go any higher because of previous system instability at stock speeds. My RAM was running on 400 and MAT=Turbo with the most relaxed timings at 3,4,4,8.
I've given myself hours of sleepless nights formatting when my system wouldnt boot into windows; overclocking....etc. I NEED HELP. PLEASE. PLEASE. Anything could work at this point.
I'm trying to get more info on how to run my system at a 5:4 ratio, also.
If anyone has problems like me or knows what could be the problem with my system, please reply to this post, it would help me a lot. I've been trying to fix these problems for a few months now so anything is greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot to you guys that responded. I brought my computer home this past holiday and I want to let you know where I stand as of now. I guess this thread is like my blog for my computer. I want to clear some things before my first post makes everyone confused.
1- I have only 2 sticks of memory in my system: the Corsair PC3700 TwinX 512x2
I returned the 3 KingMax I bought, and still keep my old stick just in case.
2- I am using the 400 watt power supply that came with the case. I read some reviews of the case and I know the reviewer did not have problems with the power supply. In my BIOS, there are some voltages it is weak on. Lets say: it it should be 5.00+, my power supply will be feeding it 4.96v or something like that, but I dont know, or think, that is a major problem...
3- My computer will refuse to boot if memory speeds are set at anything below 400. SO....if I want to use a 5:4 ratio and have to set my memory speeds to "333" in BIOS, my system refuses to boot.
4- This morning, I did manage to overclock my FSB to 250. Specs are as follow:
Memory Timing @3,4,4,8,4.....speed set at "AUTO".....MAT at "SLOW"
MY 2.4C's FSB was raised to 250 = 3.0gig
AGP/PCI frequency: 67.xx/3x.xx (cant go any lower)
CPU voltage: 1.5500
Memory voltage: 2.75
Video Card voltage: 1.7
Everything was fine for the whole day until I heard something click in my computer around midnight, and then seconds later, my computer froze and made a continuous beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. (you can imagine)
This "click" and system crash has been plaguing me for months now. I dont know whay it happens. I was just using AIM when I heard the click and my heart stopped.
My memory speeds have been set to "AUTO" even at the FSB of 250. But I don't know if this still means my system is at a 1:1 ratio. I know the BIOS then adjusts the memory to work at 500 if my FSB is 250...so I assume it is? I love 3gig, but somehow I feel that 2.8 is faster, since the FSB=233 running parallel to my memory, also at 233
A FSB of 250 is good enough for me, that's what I've been waiting 6 months for. If anyone knows how to set other ratios to achieve a FSB of 250+, please let me know, but as I said, my memory won't boot if its set at "333"

Is there a fix for MAC Pro with Dual video cards that randomly logs off and on?

From my readings on the Internet this seems to be a know problem. That even furthers my frustrations with the latest OS X upgrades. So far on both my MACBOOK PRO and my MAC PRO it has been a major downgrade as both systems are no longer stable. Enough with my complaints...
Is there any plan to address this problem with the MAC PRO? I can't believe 10.8.1 didn't fix it. More can be read on it at:
http://jvm-technology.blogspot.com/2012/08/mac-pro-users-experiencing-random-log .html
Does anyone have work around to use dual screen monitors with the system? I have two video cards, the article says to remove one. Has this worked for anyone? Can I use dual screens with the one video card. Before I go messing around with these type of things I just want to be sure that this is a real fix. For the price of the cards and the system I really can't believe apple has this issue in the first place and has not fixed it.

Self-hosted add-ons have to be fixed for every new version of Firefox. Two to 6 months for updating an add-on is ridiculous for a program which has a new version release every '''6 weeks'''. If that extension was hosted at the official Add-ons website, Mozilla would take take care of "bumping" that extension, as long as it keeps working, for every new version of Firefox, as the new version is released.
See this thread from yesterday, I posted instructions about how to "bump" that extension for Firefox 7.<br />
https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/884484
You can also use this extension to "bump" an already installed extension for compatibility with the currently installed version of Firefox. <br />
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-on-compatibility-reporter/

Running iMovie 08 on a PowerMac G5 with two video cards?

I have two video cards installed on my PowerMac G5. The primary card is the Radeon 9600 XT (AGP). I also added a relatively inexpensive Radeon 9200 (PCI) to run a second monitor.
Under iMovie HD, this setup works well, although it does warn me that one of the video cards is unsupported. (As long as the iMovie windows are on the primary monitor). Final Cut Pro Studio 2 also has no difficulties with this setup.
iMovie 08, while it installs, starts up with a window saying that Quartz Extreme is required and only allows me to quit. The 9600 XT does support Quartz Extreme, while the 9200 does not.
While I do not use iMovie for my own video editing (I do have Final Cut Pro), I need to be able to open and see student projects created in iMovie. It seems odd that iMovie could have stiffer video card requirements than Final Cut Pro (or Motion 3).
rhf3

Hello! You are correct "iMovie requires a Mac with an Intel processor, a Power Mac G5 (dual 2.0GHz or faster), or an iMac G5 (1.9GHz or faster)". You can't upgrade the G4 to run iMovie 08. Tom

How good is a Macbook Pro with dual video cards for gaming?

I've been a PC guy my whole life (aside from my iPhone which I love). My gf has been pushing me to try out a mac and considering how my PC laptops have a pretty good track record of dying on me or encountering some other problems after a year or two, I can't help but consider making the investment. The only thing is, I'm a big gamer and usually get the latest games. I'm not super tech savvy though I do my research and get a sense of what kind of specs are better and worse.
In terms of gaming, I always assumed that more ram = better. In that sense, I'm a little put off that even the most expensive MacBook Pro only comes with 4 gigs of ram (which is what my year and a half old laptop has now) especially when it seems most newer laptops have 8 gigs minimum for a fraction of the price (and 16 gigs if you're willing to spend as much as you would on the most expensive macbook pro). Does RAM somehow work differently on a Mac or is it truly that little?
Also, how does the whole dual video card thing work, does that mean I'd be having the power of those two cards put together?
Personally, I've been leaning towards the Asus G53SX-NH71 because I can buy it for less than the cost of the cheapest macbook pro and as far as gaming purposes go it seems to have more power than even the most expensive Macbook which costs over double the price.
Am I missing something here? Do the dual video cards really bring that much to the table or for gaming purposes am I better off with a PC?
Thanks.

I've been watching this forum for years, and I'll have to say that gamers are not a big group around here. A few things. First, getting 8GB of RAM for the MacBook Pro is cheap. Most people either don't care, pay Apple to do it, or, like me, DIY. The max you put in a MBP is 8GB, so no 16GB, unless you were looking at the iMac or MacPro.
Second, there is no dual video card in a MacBook Pro. There is an integrated video card, an Intel HD3000, which shares RAM with the CPU, or a discrete video card, an AMD, various versions on different MBP's. The Intel is for low battery usage. The AMD is more powerful, and it's to be used when you've got power. The video card has more applications than just gaming, but also in video and photo editing.
No one here is going to talk you into one platform or another. If you are only going to game in Windows, then it's a waste to get a Mac. If you're going to game in Windows but want the Mac side to do everything else, the build quality and elegance of the Mac will far exceed most products out there. You can run Windows in Boot Camp natively, and as I understand, gamers love it, because the Mac is actually a better Windows machine than most Windows machines. But I don't play games, so I have no proof.
So the choice is yours. And we could argue all day long about the side by side comparison of a cheap Windows machine vs. the Mac. You are using the price vs. price comparison that is a false dichotomy, ignoring how one values various features. For example, the trackpad on a MacBook Pro far exceeds (and I mean light year exceeds) anything on any other laptop out there.
I spent 10 minutes answering your question. I'm not debating you on x vs. y. The choice is totally on what you're going to do. Most of us are trying to contribute to the world, so gaming is low on the needs list.

Mid 2007 24" imac only boots without video card installed

, do i need a new one or is it something else?
one day it decided to not boot. No chime, black screen. Can hear fans and cd/dvd spin. Diag. leds 1,2&3 lit 4 is not. Did some googling, and eventually found out that if i take the MMX ATI 2600HD video card out of the computer and turn it on, it boots up fine (still no chime however) and i am able to use screen sharing from my other mac to access it. Everything looks and works as normal, only there is no screen of its own. the keyboard wors fine, mouse, cd/dvd drive etc. I have already purchased and installed a new PSU at $120 which did not fix a thing, so i am hesitant to just assume that buying a new video card will solve my problem. so my first question is, will buying and installing a new video card fix it? and if so can i purchase an upgraded video card other than the stock ATI 2600HD? i have heard that there is an NVIDIA card that is compatible a GeForce 8800 GS 512MB i believe. and third, if it is compatible, will it work with the Heatsink for the ATI 2600HD or do i need to buy that as well??
I am trying to avoid the BS canned answer that apple loves to give as a solution, which is replace the logic Board. At nearly $1,000 I'll spend my time and effort it may take to actually find the reason it broke and attempt to fix it rather than just replace the whole thing with a new one. any suggestions or advice graetly appreciated.

so, a strange development on my imac problem. I have ordered a new video card for it, a 2600hd pro. today out of curiosity i punched the numbers i could find from the card that was in there and it comes up as a ati 2400xt card. that card was the one for the 20" model not my 24". whats up with that? does that mean that when my new 2600hd pro gets here it will not work in my system? I sure hope so or apple has some splaining to do!

Video Card Enough?

I'm looking at purchasing the 24" iMac. However, I'm wondering if I will need the higher end graphics card. I don't intend to do any gaming on the system, but will definitely use Aperture, iMovie and more than likely Final Cut Express for home movies. Will the ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO w/256MB card suffice or should I go for the updgrade? Thanks...

Aperture and iMovie, YES - The "low-end" choice is certainly good enough. Final Cut Express - It will not limit the software's capabilities in any way, but I'm sure Final Cut, whether Express or Pro, will benefit from having a better video card. Whether it makes a difference to you depends on what features you use and what you ask the software to do.
Upgrade the RAM to the maximum. That will have more impact than the video card. You can do it after market to save some money.

IMac early 2008 8800GS video card issue

I have had this machine for 2.5 years and all is fine until 1 day (mid of Nov) that it would not start (blank screen after apple logo).
Nov 19, 2010
I brought it to the Richmond centre apple store in Richmond, BC, Canada (since I have applecare). I was told by the apple genius there he would need to replace the logicboard and the video card with estimates of $1500+ (i was thinking i m so lucky that I have bought applecare). The repair took 1 full week and at the end they only replaced the video card. I was happy to have my imac back (Nov 25, 2010)
Dec 7, 2010
The iMac would not start up again (same symptoms to the first one) except that this time I was able to boot into safe mode (any other modes or from ext HD or DVD will not work). In safe mode, the screen has a huge vertical bars like barcode, so I have no other choice but to bring it back to apple store again (this time to Oakridge Centre in Vancouver, BC). The Apple genius there said there's a problem with the logic board and they will replace it. The repair took 1 day and both logicboard and video card were replaced (Dec 9, 2010).
Dec 30, 2010
The iMac would not start again (blank screen after apple logo). This time I m so frustrated. How can you have repair the machine 2 times, replace most of the machine components and yet the machine would not start. I m losing so much confidence with both the iMac and the technicians at the Apple store. I give the machine a few more chances to boot/cooldown, disconnect to power source. It would boot up after disconnected to the power source for extended time but the screen garbled up as soon as you bring up the dashboard or attempt to use any applications.
Jan 1, 2011
New day of the year and I have to bring the iMac to repair. I ask for either a replacement or a refund as I have no confidence in the machine that I have. The Genius said that we cannot do that but we will take it in and have a look (I have no other choice but to leave it with the hands of the technicians.)
Jan 3, 2011
Apple technician called around 8pm in the evening, he told me the problem was with the LVDS cable that attaches the logic board to the lcd panel. I was very patient (because i seriously don't think it's the LVDS cable) and not let my anger out as he is just a fellow who's trying to fix my computer. Long story short, he told me they don't have the parts and need another 3-5 days.
Anybody has a similar problem? Does it make sense that the LVDS cable can cause the mac not able to boot up?

I agree that policy with regard to replacement of online purchases vs in-store doesn't make any sense. As a customer, this experience would of frustrated me a lot. It's good you were able to eventually get a new iMac but it makes sense for them to try to fix it first before replacing it. I think before the 3rd repair I would've escalated the issue until I got to the store leader. If they understand you need it back quickly, they will usually do their best to make you happy. Of course, not everybody's perfect.
In my experience, if you need to have something soon, you need to politely go up the management chain. I never heard of the first tier employee being able to replace an iMac or do any other kind of replacement. It's always the store leaders and Genius admins that can accommodate these kind of issues.
The store leader is your friend and it's their store's reputation on the line. Ask for his/her email address and vent out your frustration to them. Recommend what you would've done as an AppleCare person to accommodate your issue. It's this kind of feedback that makes them better. Who knows, they may even reward you for your valuable feedback.

CWGraph3D Slow With New Video Card

I have an application that uses a CWGraph3D to plot data that is usually 300 x 300 data points. It used to work fine, but I've recently bought a computer with a nVidia GeForce 7600 GT and another computer with a nVidia GeForce 7900 GS, and the graphs plot so slow that the application is unusable. I also have another computer with a nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX and it runs fine. If I swap in one of the other video cards to this computer, then the application is unusable, which makes me think the graphics card is the problem. Is there any documentation that says what kind of graphics cards should be used so that the graphs will work? Is there a way to get the graphs to work with these graphics cards other than turning off hardware acceleration?

Hi TheDoug,
There is documentation that states which video cards work
with these graphs because realistically, they should all work, but they are of
course limited by the card with what type of frame rate you will see as your
points you plot grow larger. I noticed you said you are plotting around 300 X
300 data points, but does this same behavior occur in our example programs that
plot less data points than this? If the example programs work fine, it would
not be a compatibility problem but instead would be a limit of the video cards
themselves. The only way to fix this on the non-working video cards would be to
limit the amount of points you are plotting or, as you stated, turn off
hardware acceleration.
Regards,
Brandon Vasquez
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
http://www.ni.com/support
Brandon Vasquez | Software Engineer | Integration Services | National Instruments

MSI Mo. not compatible with ATI Video card??

Is that right, ppl ?
I just want get some advices from you
I'm going to buy a new video card : ATI R9600 Pro
and I'm using MSI i865PE NEO2 Mother board.
So , Any problems will happend ??? or that's allright ?
plz give me some advices
Thanks !

Quote
Originally posted by jeep327
Ive got a 9800 Pro and havent had any problems with my 875P Neo-LSR board.
the graphics card is the only thing that works well with my mainboard right now 3D Prophet ATI Radeon 9800 PRO on a 875P NEO main..

Aperture Won't Launch With 2 Video Cards

I use 3 monitors with my G5 Dual 2.5GHz for running a number of programs simultaneously and also for Final Cut Pro editing. In the center is an Apple 23" HD Cinema Display. On the left is an Apple 15" DVI flat screen and on the right is an Apple 15" VGA flat screen.
Aperture will not launch at all. It gives me an error stating that the video card is not supported. The main card is a GeForce 6800 GT DDR that has the 23" and the 15" DVI connected. The problem is the Radeon 7000 that has the 15" VGA hooked up. I took the Radeon out and Aperture ran fine so I know where the problem lies.
Obviously I cannot keep taking the Radeon in an out of the G5 whenever I want to use different programs. Does anyone have any suggestions? I hope Apple will have an update where you can tell Aperture what monitors to use or video card to ignore. That should alleviate the problem. Is there a way of using Terminal to turn off the Radeon which would allow Aperture to run? I just bought this program and was all excited to start using it. Now I'm bummed. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Power Mac G5 Dual 2.5GHz Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Maybe there is a way to turn the Radeon 7000 on and off through Terminal? Some process I can quit to run Aperture on the 2 monitors connected to the nVidia GeForce 6800GT and then restart that process when I'm done so I can go back to using 3 monitors?
Thanks.
Power Mac G5 Dual 2.5GHz Mac OS X (10.4.7)

IMac 24" with 7600 video card - enough juice?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for