Hardware :: Dual Video Card Effectiveness?
Oct 14, 2008
I originally posted this in the MacBook Pro thread, but it got lost in a discussion of glossy screens.
I have a question about the dual video cards. In terms of outright effectiveness (when plugged in), is a 256 mb dual video card setup (like that on the new 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro) equivalent to a 256 mb single video card, or a 512 mb single video card?
For example, for the upcoming game Starcraft II, specifications are a 256 mb NVidia card as "minimum," and a 512 mb as "recommended." These ratings are for a single video card. Would the base MacBookPro with dual cards rated at 256 mb be equivalent to the "minimum" or "recommended"?
View 16 Replies
ADVERTISEMENT
Oct 2, 2007
Will the stock Mac Pro video card: NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT, work in a PowerMac G5 Duallie 2.0 (mid 2004 model) with the pci-x slots? would a Cube G4 Rage 128 video card work in thePM G5? (I bought a G5 without a video card and I need to test it and find a cheap video card for it).
Information:
17" MacBook Pro 2.16/120/2gb ram
Mac OS X (10.4.10)
Mac Pro 2.66, 250 & 80gb hdd, 2 DL-SD, 7gn ram, APX & BT
View 1 Replies
View Related
Aug 5, 2010
So the other day I came home to find my powermac g5 frozen with the fans going crazy. After a hard reset the machine would no longer boot any further than the grey apple (kernel) stage. After pulling the video card the machine would boot up and I could log in using remote desktop from my laptop.
The machine ran that way for a couple of days until I got a new video card. When I put the new video card in the machine would not boot again.(The new card is exactly the same one as the old one)(ATI Radeon X800 XT mac edition).
After pulling the card the machine still wouldn't boot (exact same behavior as with the card) until I let it sit unplugged for 20 minutes or so. Also when it's not booting I can see that a little red light comes on on the logic board behind the cpu's.
Anyways I'm thinking it may be a power supply issue but if any experts wanna help me out with some advice I'd be very grateful.....
Continued
Well Today I tried using a pci video card from a g5 xserve and it exhibited the same behavior so now I know it's not the agp slot.
When it has the cards in it won't do anything except make the bong and the fans come on and then after a minute or so a red light comes on behind the processor and the fans start revving up super loud.
At first it would display up till the grey apple stage of the boot sequence and then hang.Now the display does not come on at all. When it is doing this the machine will not respond to any keystrokes etc.
When I pull the cards out all is normal and I can boot into target disk ,safe boot,whatever except I need to connect to it via remote desktop to see anything. Like this the machine is stable and will run normally. I also tried disconnecting the optical drive and hard drives and swapping the ram to see if that helped but it didn't. Of course I have reset Pram and the pmu also. Is the logic board toast? I can't run any hardware test or asd's with no video to see if there are any errors...
View 13 Replies
View Related
Nov 10, 2010
my video card went out on one of my G4 towers. [URL] The card that was in it was an Nvidia GeForce 2 MX and it ran Leopard 10.5.8 pretty nicely. I figured I might as well get a better card and see if it runs smoother. Can I put an Nvidia GeForce 4 MX in, or do I even want to? I want a good video card, preferably with an ADC connector as I still use my original monitor.
View 19 Replies
View Related
Oct 25, 2009
I've had my Dual 2.7 G5 since early 2005. It has been a great computer for me over the years. Noisy as hell, but great. A month ago my screen started to distort every now and then (see pics below). The computer would freeze when the screen distorted. Then when I would reboot, the distortion and artifacting would occur even at the grey boot up screen and lock up. With enough reboots it would finally get back to the desktop and be fine for a few days. This no longer works anymore. I haven't successfully booted the computer in over 2 weeks. After the distorted grey boot screen it will go black and all you see is the artifacts, never getting to the desktop. Is this a dead video card? I'm running the stock AGP Nvidia GeForce 6800 GT. If this is a dead video card, do you have any suggestions for the best AGP replacement. I'm looking for something powerful. All I'm finding are very pricey 256mb cards. I'm willing to pay for a powerful card.
View 23 Replies
View Related
Nov 2, 2009
I have a Powermac Dual G5 @2.0ghz, with 8gbs of ram, and 2 1tb drives running the latest version of 10.5. The problem I have is that I have 4 LCD monitors that I was using with my PC. I swapped that out with my mac, and while I am no novice, I didnt take into account that I cant just put any AGP and PCI video card into the system. What I need to know is if I can use two PCI video cards both with Dual Monitor outputs, and if so, which cards should I buy, and where? I found some video cards on ebay that are PCI, and it is quartz extreme compatible, but I am unable to use it with the AGP card already installed. The person selling the cards was unable to answer whether or not two of those cards could be used together. I only have about 75 per card to spend. Please help, I cant go on using this awesome machine with only one 19inch LCD. and I cant afford to buy new monitors
View 1 Replies
View Related
Apr 3, 2009
I have an early '08 24" iMac, with a 320GB HD, 8800 GS, 2.8GHz, and 2GB RAM. iTunes takes about 30 secs to come up and boot up is taking longer than it should. Logging in also takes a good bit for it to load preferences and such (I have no login items)
It is getting just a bit slow for my liking, and I was wondering how much impact an upgrade to 4GB would do (2 < 4).
View 7 Replies
View Related
Sep 4, 2009
Ok so I have a old Mac Performa 640CD/Dos that I am trying to to get up and running again. I had a monitor for it but it fell off the couch and broke. So I thought maybe I can use an adapter with it in order to use PC VGA monitor. Well after getting the first adapter and trying it, no luck, then I tried one that had dip switches on it. Tried 640 x 480, 800 x 600, almost all the dip switch combination with no luck on getting anything on the screen. Could it be that I might have a bad video card and it needs replaced? Or is this particular model not compatible with PC VGA monitors?
View 4 Replies
View Related
May 25, 2010
Well I got rid of the quicksilvers since they died. Power supplys gave out and took the motherboards, So I sold what was left on EBAY.
My G4 Ethernet was sold to a co-worked and he is quite happy.
And I got this off ebay today:
Dual 1.8GHz PowerPC G5Procs
2GB RAM (2 x 1GB PC3200U DDR SDRAM)
Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-117D
Samsung HD160JJ/P 160GB SATA HDD (not apple labeled, not original to this system)
(1) Power Cord
pci106b,9 PCI Ethernet Controller
Well I didnt' read the fine print and BAZINGA! I noticed that it comes without a video card.
So For video editing, watching hulu and youtube and netflix What do you guys recommend.
I do have a PCI GEforce at home with 512 megs for PC and I was wondering if I could flash it and if so, does anyone know of a good walkthrough?
View 22 Replies
View Related
May 8, 2009
i have a powermac g4 sawtooth. it stutters on youtube videos and other videos so i was wandering whats a decent video card thats compatible with it?
View 14 Replies
View Related
May 13, 2010
trying to watch show on cwtv.com got this message. What the heck?
Your computer's video card is unable to render the video and controls.
View 1 Replies
View Related
Jun 2, 2009
Further to my other thread here I would specifically like to ask what would be the best graphics card for my ailing PMG5 Dual 1.8?
I believe my ATI X800XT has died and I may need to get a new card but finding one that will work in my aging machine is proving difficult. There is a slim possibility its the monitor that s the problem (I will be testing that tonight).
Ideas, links to and any information regarding GPUs for a PMG5 would be appreciated. I believe it would need to be AGP (Not PCI-E), is that correct?
View 2 Replies
View Related
Jun 15, 2012
Mac pro with dual processors not recognizing my SD card.
Info:
power mac G5, Mac OS X (10.3.9)
View 7 Replies
View Related
Apr 16, 2008
All this talk of 8800GT's on the Mac Pros is putting me in the mood for upgrading the 64mb ATI 9600 in my stock PM g5 dual 2 GHz.I have an old Formac Oxygen ADC monitor (used as one screen of my dual head system) but the ADC connector on the graphics card seems to be dead, and everytime I plug the monitor in to the port, the Mac just keeps 'tripping' out and won't power up - almost like something is shorting out.As a result, I'm stuck to using just the DVI port (1 screen is so limiting after being used to 2!!), connected to an ancient VGA monitor. I really miss having a dual screen set-up, and this is another reason why I would like to upgrade the card. would be good to still be able to use my ADC monitor, but I guess only the older, low spec cards had these, and I'm probably gonna have to ditch the monitor and get a couple of DVI screens.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Dec 31, 2008
There's enough external space for two USB ports in the expresscard 34 slot. Is there a card that has two USB ports and is flush with the edge of the laptop? All I can find are dual stacked ones that stick out like this:
View 15 Replies
View Related
Apr 7, 2012
I have a Dual 1.8ghz G5 with 6 gig of Ram and wish to upgrade the Graphics Card. Can anyone tell me a decent card that would improve my system and that would be compatible with the machine. I currently have a 64mb card installed.
Info:
PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
View 6 Replies
View Related
Apr 28, 2010
I see here that my Mac Pro (Early 2008) is compatable with:
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600
ATI Radeon HD 4870
It looks like in many cases there's two versions, and the mac version costs about 10x as much on ebay and in stores. Is that accurate, or is one of these models mac and pc compatable, and therefore the laws of supply and demand work in my favour?
(fyi: I just want the cheapest one, I don't do heavy GPU work)
View 3 Replies
View Related
Oct 5, 2008
After reading through several pages of post's on here I am still at a stand still on upgrading my original macpro 2.66ghz quad core. The reason I am upgrading the stock card is I cant handle the grainy look on my photos after using my same moniter with my new macbook pro. Also I am going to be using my bootcamp vista side to play bluray and hd dvds. I recently purchased the new buffalo dual external drive but the images are blury and after a hd video test my graphics card failed misserably. Can someone point me in the right direction. I want to spend around 275-300 shipped. My lcd display supports hdmi and all recent standards.
View 24 Replies
View Related
Dec 7, 2008
Searched and only found info on using a single external monitor, is it possible to run two off of a macbook (not pro) with some sort of external graphics card? It would be outputting to two 1680x1050 monitors. Currently have it with the single one and don't wanna just let my other monitor go to waste (use it for 360 so its off most of the time).
View 5 Replies
View Related
Feb 27, 2009
I have a 2 x 2GHz Dual Core Intel Mac Pro, with 9GB of DDR2 RAM and 2 Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT graphic cards each running a Samsung 24 inch screen. I recently bought Call of Duty 4 and found that the game runs terribly on anything higher then around medium sort of settings. I know the 7300 Graphic cards aren't the best for gaming, but they have done the job for me perfectly until now. I'm a photographer so I calibrate my screens with a Spyder and run a separate colour profile through each video card per screen, and its always calibrated perfectly.
I'm just curious if there is any actual performance advantage of having 2 video cards other then running a separate colour profile through each card? So for example, If I'm playing call of duty and only 1 screen is displaying information, does the other card just sit there, or does it jump on board and process information for the game being played? Because I would have thought having 2 7300's would somewhat give better performance during gaming then just the one?
View 2 Replies
View Related
Oct 7, 2010
Looking for a good PCI (32 bit) esata controller card for my G5, im considering these two cards but dont wanna shell out the cash $110. I want a card that can handle more than 4 drives, RAID 0,1 and 5 compatible. [URL:...] The sonnett card is waaaaay to expensive... But, the Off brand card is more like what im looking for just needs to be $30 cheaper. PCI-X will work too, because its backward compatible with 32Bit PCI
View 3 Replies
View Related
Oct 21, 2009
Firstly sorry if this has been answered before
I have a 2 x 2.8 Mac Pro and want to have dual monitors for Photoshop and Dreamweaver development
The monitors I have are 2408WFP Dell displays
The MP has a ATi HD 2600XT fitted
What is the best solution for dual monitor support.
ATI 4870 or ATi X1900 or GTX285?
Does the ATI 4870 support 2 DVI monitors with adaptors?
Can I use the 4870 with the 2600??
View 6 Replies
View Related
Oct 23, 2007
[URL] Will this fit a PowerMac G5 1.6 ghz. I have a AGP port 8x. Do you think this is a good card if someone is running dual monitors with Motion and Final Cut
Information:
Mac OS X (10.3.8)
View 1 Replies
View Related
Sep 3, 2009
I have the stock video card from my g4 mdd 1.42ghz
its 64mb
agp
ati radeon 9000
1 dvi
1 adc
what i know: the 1 dvi can push relatively big monitors. to make dual display work i need a adc to dvi converter. what I dont know. can this card drive 2 19" monitor maxed out ? (1400x900)?
View 2 Replies
View Related
Dec 9, 2007
I just got an AirPort Extreme Card from Apple that has been refurbished. I installed it in my G5 and then on power-on, the system hangs before the chime even sounds? I remove it and everything is back to normal...
Information:
Power Mac G5 Dual 2GHz
Mac OS X (10.5.1)
MacBook 2.16, PowerMac G3 B&W, PowerMac 8100 AV, PowerBook 540c, Mac Plus
View 5 Replies
View Related
Oct 17, 2009
The past few months I've made threads asking about eSata express cards and external storage and have received useful information. However, I've always neglected to ask this obvious and direct question. I've been recommended a few cards, one from OWC always comes up. But I never bothered to ask about "dual" versions because I thought I'd be able to find it on my own.
After weeks of casually looking around I wasted a few hours yesterday hard core searching online. I really need a storage solution for my exploding cache of photos and video that's been stockpiling and needs editing.
Perhaps FW800 or another interface could be a better solutions. But when I choose my new MBP 17" a few months ago I specifically kept the fact it retained the express card slot in mind because of it's higher transfer rates.
I'd get 1 TB but I'm thinking realistically I need 2+ TB of storage... and also I think I need to finally get my rear in gear about redundancy. I use Time Machine with an external FW400 HDD and back up my music separately there too but want to keep in mind future space should have redundancy in mind.
View 14 Replies
View Related
Nov 2, 2010
Has anyone had any experience with splitting the video output of a Macbook Pro to two monitors? I wanted to use something like this:
Any specific things that I need besides the stand, monitors, and vga splitter?
View 1 Replies
View Related
Jul 21, 2009
I have a Samsung 2033SW hooked up to my mac and whenever I play video full-screen on on screen (either the laptop or the samsung), the other screen blacks out. This happens whether I use VLC, RealPlayer or Quicktime. How do I set it up so that I can play full-screen video on one and still be able to use the other screen for other stuff?
I'm pretty sure it's not because there aren't enough resources because I can still play "fit-to-screen" on one screen and still have access to the other screen.
View 1 Replies
View Related
Sep 15, 2009
I just got a G5 1.8 Dual and have an S-Video connector I would like to run to my 720p tv to view my itunes movies. I am using the s-video in on my HK receiver. The picture is pretty sharp, but it is in black and white. I am running 10.5.8, and I have the same problem when I connect my MBP running 10.6. ?
No worries. A direct connect to tv solves the problem.
View 4 Replies
View Related
Sep 17, 2008
I have a Power Mac G5 2.3Ghz dual-core system (M9591LL/A) with 2.5GBs of RAM and an Nvidia 6600 PCIe graphics card with 256MBs of RAM.
I tried playing a full-screen HD episode of "The Office" on Hulu.com and it was extremely choppy (like 0.5fps). The sound was fine. It's still quite choppy (~2fps) in a normal browser window (not full-screen)
Is this normal? Does this video card not support it? What is the most powerful card that can be installed in this machine? I'm not opposed to buying a PC card and flashing the ROM if need-be.
View 15 Replies
View Related
