Power Mac G5 PCI e gpu upgrade

[NossedEvo]

Hey Happy New Year & thank you for the read.

Had my money saved up for AMD's x8 but was underwhelmed. Tried to pull the trigger on a i7 2600k, but I've been green too long.

Hedged my bet & bought an i5 460M 5650 equipped HP Envy Beats lappy (meh) & had enough left over for a G5 that presented itself on Kijiji. $200 with Mac keyboard, & mouse and Acer X183H monitor -- all absolutely mint. In 2005 I pined for a G5, but could not afford the hefty purchase price, and duplicate Adobe graphics software.

Partial Spec's: dual 2.3GHz dual core PowerPC 970MP processors, 2x 1gb (stock dimms?) ram, stock psu, & OS X 10.5.8. It also has the stock 6600.

I'll be using the rig to run old Photoslop CS2 primarily. Like to see how well it will run older racing sims like N'03 & Colin McRae Rally too.

I know I'm limited in choices. I don't have the chops for flashing non-Mac cards, at this point in time.

Query: which (pci slot) gpu would you recommend for an old G5 Power Mac?

The Quadro FX4500 is a little pricey, so PS will have to make do with a mainstream card. Some say the 7900 GTX will work (I've read) but I'm only sure about the 7800 series, and that I won't get the advantage of the 512mb, and will be limited to 256. There's a premium price, but the 7800 GTX/GT seems to be generally accepted as the quickest solution.

The X1900 GT scores more than 50 points higher than the 7900 GTX, and around 175 over the 7800 GTX on the Passmark charts. It's currently around $150 - $250 cheaper than the GTX's.



I'm wondering if the different (Mac) drivers account for the difference between expert opinion, and the benchies.

(Reminds me of the 4670 being declared, 'The Fastest AGP GPU', but scored significantly lower (in the Passmark bench scores) than my XT1950 Pro. I was confused then, and history repeats.)

I'm leaning towards the frugal 1900GT, and using the savings to fill out the ram.

Any advice on the gpu, or any advice/resources a new G5 owner would benefit from, would be gratefully received.

Thanks



.

[ythe1300]

Don't do it, it's not worth it, find 6 7800GTs and flash them until you get it right. ( they are only like ten dollars on the forums. )

[NossedEvo]

Thanks ythe1300. I really appreciate your time, and advice.