G4 user advice??

Hi all,
Thanks to Mike Horton, I checked out the min specs for motion and it seems that the ATI and GeForce graphics cards are the winners for card options as suggested by Apple.
I have a single 1.25 G4 mirror door with lots of ram and hard drive. It runs FCP 4.5 very well. I realize that Motion wants a dual G5, but I simply want to be able to load it up and try to learn to use it. A new Mac is not an option until next year, when even the G5 may not be available.
Can members with similar machines tell me which cards work best for them? ... and as importantly, which don't?

thanks,
Rick in Memphis

Rick,

I have a Dual 1 Ghz G4 (2002 Quicksilver). I installed an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition (NOT the Mac Special Edition...which is for the G5) earlier this year and it allows me to run Motion. I highly recommend this card for the G4's.

I am finally getting my Dual 2.7 G5 next month and will be selling this great card on Ebay.

- Joey



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I too have the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition on a G4 dual 1.0 GHz with Motion from Final Cut Studio. That card is out of production, as I understand it.

There is a new card that replaces it and operates with 256 MB VRAM instead of the 128 MB VRAM that my 9800 Pro card has.

It is listed as the ATI 9600 Pro card at ATI and works in either a G4 or G5 or a PC. I believe it is the ONLY card that will currently work in your G4 to allow loading Motion (2).

Thanks John and Joey.
If the ATI 9600 Pro is the only one in production that works on my G4, that narrows it down quite a bit doesn't it?

Nope, there is a 9600 Pro and a NEW 9800 Pro 256 MB coming soon that will work with both G4s and G5s. The "old" 9800s are out of production, but still available AND they come with ADC/DVI connectors (an ADC to DVI adapter is $100!).
Video card memory is not the only thing affecting performance, the 9800 family has more processing power. In the www.barefeats.com web site you'll find benchmarks that compare these cards, including Motion performance tests.



Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires - Argentina
www.adolforozenfeld.com

Hi. I have a 9800 2/4 x AGP 128Mb card. It is really noisey! Has anyone replaced the original fan with quieter fans / heatsinks etc ?

regards
m

The 9800 Pro Mac Special Edition (256MB VRAM), for G5-Only, has the ADC and DVI.

The 9800 Pro Mac Edition (128MB VRAM), G4-Only, does not have an ADC port, only DVI and VGA.

Tests at Barefeats seemed to show that the 9800 Pro Mac is faster than the 9600 Pro Mac and PC card (256MB VRAM - DVI), even though the 9800 has half the VRAM, so if the older 9800 Pro Mac can be found for a good price, that could be a way to go.

[www.barefeats.com]

The "NEW" 9800 Pro Mac Edition with 256MB VRAM is probably the best bet. Only $60 more that the 9600 Mac/PC card.

BTW: Would it kill ATI to use a touch more imagination in naming their boards?! How many variations of 9800 Pro Mac Edition, Special Edition, New, blah, blah, blah do they have to squeeze out of one series? Different numbers is a far better way to identify the cards, especially when they only fit particular computers. Remember the confusion over the 9800 Pro Mac Edition and 9800 Pro Mac Special Edition when Motion was first released?

Regards,

...Tom

I had major issues with trying to make Motion run with any degree of satisfaction on my pre-mirror dual 1G G4. Motion would drop off the radar in Activity Monitor for no reason that I could tell. We thought it must be the RAM but chips from different mfrs and in various combination made no difference. Upgrading from Motion to Motion2 in the suite made no difference, still balked.

We got our new G5s about two weeks before Apple announced the new machines. Sheesh.

bogiesan