Greetings! Judge Wapner is on at 5, so I have to be quick.

I have a G4 quicksilver 733, and I am planning to upgrade the processor and graphics card. I hope to use DVD Studio Pro and Motion at an acceptable performance level, (rocket speeds not necessary).

So, does anyone have any recommendations regarding Graphics cards and Processor Upgrades. I was thinking about on of the ATI cards and an OWC Mercury Extreme G4@1.4GHz.

How much ram? I would go for AT LEAST a radion 9000, but a newer one would be far nicer...

-Knife

Knife;
Thanks. Yeah, I figured on a 9000 series. Any one in particular?
As far as ram goes, I've got 1.12 GB.

the fastmac upgrade that krusher did the review on is very nice. I would take that route for the processor upgrade. As for the video card, I must say that I am lacking in that arena. :silly:

http://macmod.com/content/view/227/79/

Reason for Edit: Forgot to add link

Post edited by: oojacoboo, at: 2005/02/26 23:16

Thanks.
I see some new postings and maybe I should dig through the archives.

Re: Processor Upgrades. I hadn't heard of that processor company. I read the review and although it certainly sounds like the author acheived an improvement, it's not really surprising considering what he was comparing it to. Duh, a Ferrari is faster than a 1967 Beetle. I would be more interested in a head to head comparison of several comperable processors. I think MacWorld did such a thing but I can't find the article. I remember the author of that article compared issues like documentation, ease of instalation, overclocking (is that the opposite of under dishwashing?) price to performance and stability.

Re: Graphics Cards
I've done some reading and research and I think I have learned some things. The cards are somewhat OS specific or dependant. It shouldn't have surprised me but I'm sort of a dope sometimes. My problem is I still use certain apps in OS 9.2.2 I guess I'm too cheap to upgrade everything at once. So short term, I need to be able to run both OS 9.x and OS 10.3. What I gather from ATI's web site is that 9200 is the newest I can put in. Am I wrong?

You can check out the comparison to the Sonnet upgrade card here as well. There may be some future ones coming.

Link :: Sonnet Upgrade

I myself would look into the 9800. Motion needs that kind of juice. If you are on a tight
budget pick up the 128mb version of the 9000 or try to find a Nvidia 4ti 128mb. As for the
processor, go with a dual of lesser speed than a single fast card. I would go with a dual 800 or
1gz. Video work needs power and I think the 9000 128/dual 800 would make you happy and
productive. Good luck.
-maestro

Thank you Mr. Maestro.
I agree about getting as muscular of a graphics card as one can, when anticipating the use of Motion. Everything Apple writes certainly give that impression. However, if I am not mistaken I would not be able to continue to use OS 9 for other applications (if I install the 9800). Right? I'm sorry to say it but I still switch between 9 and 10.

Re: Processor Upgrades, why do you suggest a slower dual. I'm not a tecnophyle.

Post edited by: BrainMan, at: 2005/02/27 19:13

Off the record, I would HIGHLY recommend the FastMac processor

And yes, there is a pending review of the upgrades from all the other manufaturors as well and a round up article on which one I select as the best in class.

Maestro, I think those are valid ideas but If I remember right you can't run Motion on anything slower then an 867 so you'd be better off getting a dual 1gig not a dual 800 (like the one I have)