Graphics boards available for Mac?

[onelin]

My cousin has a Mac G4 (400, I think) and has a hell of a bad time playing Warcraft III. It has an ATI Rage128 and has missing textures, black lines, OpenGL errors, the works. Info is so sparse for Mac I haven't been sure what to tell him. I'm spoiled on my AthlonXP1900+ w/ GF4Ti4400, and he was shocked at how amazing it looked in comparison when I let him play.

What's the best option available to him without getting ripped off by Apple paying $400 for a GF4 Ti? (which I don't believe will get pushed by an older, single-processor G4 400(?) ...it's at least a couple years old) He is wary of ATI because he's had some bad issues with his ATI TV card in OS 9...but right now it looks like the Radeon8500's are far more available than GF4's for him. What's the scoop? I know he has an AGP port , so that's not the limiting factor... it's mainly drivers/compatibility at a similar to PC cost price range (if that's ever the case with Mac)

Thanks

 

[AdvancedRobotics]

"What's the best option available to him without getting ripped off by Apple paying $400 for a GF4 Ti?"

$400 for a mac gf4? :disgust:

For $400, tell him this (all off newegg, of course):
-ECS k7s5a - $54
-Duron 1.1Ghz - $45
-Enlight case w/ 300w PSU - $53
-128Mb 8500LE - $107
-Crucial DDR (128Mb PC2100) - $47

TOTAL: $306

That leaves $100 for fans, a monitor (if he doesn't already have one) and soundcard/ethernet card (the k7s5a has both onboard LAN/sound tho).

Brand new, MUCH faster system for less than the video card. Thats what I would suggest to him.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Well IMHO he'd be definitely best served by an ATI Radeon8500 MAC VERSION which really kicks ass and should certainly offer full compatability with modern games, play them very well, offers excellent image quality and MPEG playback. Should come in around $150 but gives perf better than GF3 cards and is close to GF4TI cards at a much lower cost.

 

[onelin]

thanks for the input so far, I'm hoping to hear a few more ideas but that may be the only options. hah, I'll have to tell him about that PC for less than a videocard option, but he'll probably decide on a Radeon8500 Mac...monitor's not an issue, his 21" Sony is going to waste till he gets a better card or system I think he's too stubborn to convert, and I don't want to try anyway.

AnAndAustin: happen to know where I can pick up a Mac edition? esp at that price? Pricewatch's search option seems to be broken with a 'server busy' error since last night...Apple's site says jack (and is so far the only place I have seen for anything) ... macworld.com's price search links me right to normal visiontek GF4's ...which I highly doubt have Mac drivers included (if it'd work to begin with)

 

[AdvancedRobotics]

newegg has an 8500 for mac for $245: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?DEPA=8&submit=manufactory&catalog=48&manufactory=1126

But even BETTER, ENPC has an 8500 for only $168: http://www.enpc.com/cgi-bin/enpc/ATIR8500MACBOX.html

Best of luck to you in finding a solution for your cousin

 

[Rand]

Your probably going to have to go with ATi uless you want to order directly from Apple, and even that might be difficult. It's not very easy to obtain an nVidia Mac board unless you purchase one with a full system from Apple.

ATi Mac boards are available in the DIT market, though at a bit of a price premium compared to their PC counterparts.


ENPC has the Retail boxed Radeon 8500- $174
Besides that all I really know of that's easily available for the MAC is ATi's Radeon 7000, which should be available for the Mac at around $100