ATI Radeon 9600 Pro vs nVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra

[Fender2112]

OK folks I need some input on the video cards that Apple offers with their G5 systems.

1) Is the ATI 9600 worth the extra $45? I have an ATI card now and never had proplems with it.

2) When I got my current video card I was disappointed that the screen "redraws" from my CAD program did not improve. I was told that this had more to do with the CPU and not the graphics card. My question is: At what point does the CPU pass control to the GPU on the graphics card? What part of rendering is done by the CPU and how much of the processing does the grapics card do?

 

[hugemullens]

THe gpu will do most of the rendering when its told to. Your software and drivers werent optimized for your card, thus the cpu didnt know to offload, and did it itself. The radeon 9600 is well worth it in my opinion, not cause its so great, but the FX 5200 is not a very good card. The 9600 should clean the floor with it. Go 9600, dont choke your new g5 with a sub-par video card.

 

[Fender2112]

Originally posted by hugemullens
THe gpu will do most of the rendering when its told to. Your software and drivers werent optimized for your card, thus the cpu didnt know to offload, and did it itself. The radeon 9600 is well worth it in my opinion, not cause its so great, but the FX 5200 is not a very good card. The 9600 should clean the floor with it. Go 9600, dont choke your new g5 with a sub-par video card.

Thanks. That's the short and sweet answer I was looking for.

 

[iJon]

yep, he is right. 5200 is a good card, but for the extra money its well worth it. it will kick it to the curb and take its lunch money too.

iJon

 

[Fender2112]

Originally posted by iJon
yep, he is right. 5200 is a good card, but for the extra money its well worth it. it will kick it to the curb and take its lunch money too.

iJon

I hope the 5200 carries a lot of lunch money, $45 to be exact.

Thanks for the input.

 

[aethier]

http://www.tomshardware.com it seems that the radeon 9600, nvidia 5600 ultra, and 5200ultra are all rather dissapointing cards. the gforce ti 4200 actualy scored better then all three cards at some points... its a shame the 9800pro is so damn expensive, i am still trying to decide whether the g5 is for me (looking @ dual 2ghz have the money) or make one kick ass gaming PC...I would be able to chose between 9800 pro or 5900ultra

aethier