Video Card upgrade - G4 Powerbook

Hi all,

I'm curious about the video cards in the G4 pb's. I like the 12.1 in form factor. Is the graphics card (nvidia go5200) upgradable to the ata radeon 9700 or other card? My suspicion is that I won't really need a better card for most of what I do (some photoshop, and eventually some 2D and 3D cad, if I can find a decent program for the mac platform for this). If I can upgrade, the decision gets easier. If not, then I need to decide how much I need/care about a better graphics card.

Question 1 then - Is the graphics card in the 12.1 in. G4 Powerbook user upgradeable, and to what other cards?

Question 2 - What is available in either mac or PC world in the sub 14 inch form factor that has higher end graphics than the integrated intel stuff?

 

If you are looking for 14 inches or smaller, the Dell Inspiron 600m has a 64 mb MR9000 dedicated, and the sturdier version of that (in the Latitude series, I believe the D610), which has the new Sonoma, that has the MRx300 with 64 mb vram. Also the sony s series, a 64 mb 9700, (or if you want to, you can order the not in U.S. S series that has the new sonoma with a GFX 6200 128 mb vram, but I've read that card performs worser than the 64 mb vram 9700, from Japan). The S series is actually smaller than the Dell, with a 13.3 inch screen, I believe. Thats all I can think of.

In Macs side however, they can't use integrated intel stuff, because they don't use intel stuff, and they don't use the concept of integrated Graphics cards. Its pointless though, because you'd have to go lower end with a 32 mb card in the iBooks. The 15 and 17 inch pbooks have the nice 128 MB MR9700 though, if you decide for a bigger notebook.

 

I dont know if this is actually true but someone told me that a 32mb of dedicated vram would perform as well as 64mb of shared vram[?]

 

No, and I've seen 32 compared to integrated/shared and 32 is better. But its kinda funny, now they have PDA dedicated 16 mb graphics. So you could get a PDA with better graphics than a computer. Something just seems messed up with that, to me.

 

The current 12" PowerBook has a 64MB nvidia that is not upgradeable. Remember that under OS X, your graphic performance from this chip is absolutely outstanding. I have a 12" and absolutely love it. I use all of the Adobe Creative Suite apps., and Macromedia Studio MX 2004 - many running simultaneously. - Even on an external monitor at times, with no glitches whatsoever.

Barry J. Doyle
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