Will the Sapphire X1650 Pro PCI e Work in a Mac G5

[FireStormRecords]

I have to Sapphire X1650 Pro PCIe cards and was wondering if they will work in my powerMac G5 I've looked on the internet and just can't find an answer can anyone tell me if they will?

 

[Helltech]

Your PowerMac G5 has 1 available 8x AGP socket for upgrading your video capabilities.

Seems like you have AGP, not PCI-e, and I think you can only upgrade video cards that Mac offers, so I would doubt it anyway.

 

[FireStormRecords]

actualy its the late model G5 and uses the GeForce 6600 LE VRAM Type: GDDR SDRAM The NVIDIA GeForce 6600 LE with 128 MB of GDDR SDRAM occupies a 16-lane PCI Express slot.
and has 3 PCIe, AP/BL Expansion Bays: 2 3.5" This model has "two open full-length four-lane PCI Express slots", "one open full-length eight-lane PCI Express slot", a 16-lane PCI Express slot that is occupied by the graphics card, as well as expansion slots for AirPort Extreme (802.11g) -- antenna internal -- and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. hope that helps the current video card is a Geforce 6600 with 256 mb of ram hope that helps

 

[nforce4max]

If it is flashed for a mac then yes but if not and want to do it very cheaply then you need a pc to flash the card then it will work. Why not aim higher like a x1900xt which is a Lot faster than a x1650. At least I know a few things about macs and own a ibook with ssd mod.

You know what ask around on some Mac forums seeking advice from people who have either worked with or owned a late model G5 as they can give better advice. If money isn't to limited and support under osx for ppc machines that you could look at a mac flashed 8800gt. That will blow away your current card. If not then look at a x1900xt. Yes they are noisy and put out some heat but easy to take care of. To clean it all you need is a brush lol at the in take at the end of the card.

 

[FireStormRecords]

If it is flashed for a mac then yes but if not and want to do it very cheaply then you need a pc to flash the card then it will work. Why not aim higher like a x1900xt which is a Lot faster than a x1650. At least I know a few things about macs and own a ibook with ssd mod.

You know what ask around on some Mac forums seeking advice from people who have either worked with or owned a late model G5 as they can give better advice. If money isn't to limited and support under osx for ppc machines that you could look at a mac flashed 8800gt. That will blow away your current card. If not then look at a x1900xt. Yes they are noisy and put out some heat but easy to take care of. To clean it all you need is a brush lol at the in take at the end of the card.

Thanks Been asking around and no luck as of yet. The only reason I asked is because I already had these laying around, and this is my first Mac and I' am really surprised how little there is readily available for Mac( least wise every were I've looked ) this is by far the most helpful answer i've had from any one.

 

[nforce4max]

Back then apple actually made some quality machines, they had lower specs and were slower for the money but they lasted better. G3 through the G5 was about as good as Macs got but the Intel macs I will never to buy one. To expensive and they cut corners to make larger profits. I got my G3 to boot from flash though.

 

[FireStormRecords]

Back then apple actually made some quality machines, they had lower specs and were slower for the money but they lasted better. G3 through the G5 was about as good as Macs got but the Intel macs I will never to buy one. To expensive and they cut corners to make larger profits. I got my G3 to boot from flash though.

I have not bench tested this one but the performance is quite good for its age my biggest complaint is lack of software and hardware choices I was on a home brew pc for years last one was running an Asus PK5 Deluxe wi fi app LGA 775 socket with a q9550 and 8 gig DDR2 pc8500 2 7200 rpm 500 gig eSATA HDD and the two Sapphire X1650 pro's mentioned above I mainly used it for Video production using Pinnacle Studio Hd Movie Box Ultimate and on the old PC it was breeze, not available for mac and runs to slow on my old back up pc may just start looking around for a new processor for that system and put it back together and use this one just for the recording studio

 

[nforce4max]

I have not bench tested this one but the performance is quite good for its age my biggest complaint is lack of software and hardware choices I was on a home brew pc for years last one was running an Asus PK5 Deluxe wi fi app LGA 775 socket with a q9550 and 8 gig DDR2 pc8500 2 7200 rpm 500 gig eSATA HDD and the two Sapphire X1650 pro's mentioned above I mainly used it for Video production using Pinnacle Studio Hd Movie Box Ultimate and on the old PC it was breeze, not available for mac and runs to slow on my old back up pc may just start looking around for a new processor for that system and put it back together and use this one just for the recording studio

You can try to flash the card or look on eBay for a x1900xt. I agree about software, apple really screwed us ppc owners over. Always keep a pc on hand though as some things still need a pc.

 

[nforce4max]

Try the x1650 pro before buying any thing and keep search for information of supported cards for the power mac g5.

 

[COLGeek]

All discussion aside, the particular X1650 Pro you have will likely not work in your G5. Also, while "flashed" PC to Mac GPUs are available and are "guaranteed" to work, you may find that not all features of such cards work properly in the long run.

This is definitely an area of "buyer beware". You would be better off finding a compatible natively supported GPU that your G5 supports. Keep in mind that a Mac GPU made for an Intel based Mac may not work in a PPC based Mac. Apple is very stringent in the types of hardware a particular hardware baseline will support. Kludges and work-arounds may exist, but your mileage will vary.

Good luck!

 

[nforce4max]

All discussion aside, the particular X1650 Pro you have will likely not work in your G5. Also, while "flashed" PC to Mac GPUs are available and are "guaranteed" to work, you may find that not all features of such cards work properly in the long run.

This is definitely an area of "buyer beware". You would be better off finding a compatible natively supported GPU that your G5 supports. Keep in mind that a Mac GPU made for an Intel based Mac may not work in a PPC based Mac. Apple is very stringent in the types of hardware a particular hardware baseline will support. Kludges and work-arounds may exist, but your mileage will vary.

Good luck!

The difference between G5 era mac flashed pci-e cards and intel mac pro is the bios. One needs the G5 bios which complicates things and finding a worthy upgrade will prove to be expensive and possible difficult that is ready to use. pci-e g5 macs are somewhat rare making painful and frustrating finding things.

Question to OP is this a liquid cooled unit or air?

 

[COLGeek]

The difference between G5 era mac flashed pci-e cards and intel mac pro is the bios. One needs the G5 bios which complicates things and finding a worthy upgrade will prove to be expensive and possible difficult that is ready to use. pci-e g5 macs are somewhat rare making painful and frustrating finding things.

Question to OP is this a liquid cooled unit or air?

As I recall, there is a physical difference in the size of the CMOS/BIOS on the PC and Mac versions of the same "family" of GPUs. The Mac being the larger capacity of the 2. I personally would not recommend any converted PC to Mac GPUs. Often, they are often of questionable worth/value/stability and simply not worth the effort unless they are free. Just my $0.02 from experience trying to get similar GPUs to work with my old G5 a couple of years ago (may she rest in pieces).

 

[nforce4max]

As I recall, there is a physical difference in the size of the CMOS/BIOS on the PC and Mac versions of the same "family" of GPUs. The Mac being the larger capacity of the 2. I personally would not recommend any converted PC to Mac GPUs. Often, they are often of questionable worth/value/stability and simply not worth the effort unless they are free. Just my $0.02 from experience trying to get similar GPUs to work with my old G5 a couple of years ago (may she rest in pieces).

Actually there is three different versions with two being for mac. One using a efi compatible bios that was commonly sold for the mac pro while a rare version was sold for the G5. The Bios is typically stored on the gpu it's self rather than what was the norm since the early 80s or the late 70s with a separate physical bios on the card but not part of the normal core. In the late 90s some experimented with a biosless card with code being stored on the board but they had to be compatible. MGA200 is one such card. Back to the G5 they used a different bios rom or bin image that would allow support in osx on the mac but for the homebrew community that is a little different.

The physical difference from what I have found between the G5 x1900xt and the mac pro version is that the mac pro version uses the same cooler as the pc version. The G5 used a single slot version that used the cooler that was on the x1800xl/aiw and x1900gt/aiw. The G5 version was available in normal retail on newegg for a time.

 

[COLGeek]

Actually there is three different versions with two being for mac. One using a efi compatible bios that was commonly sold for the mac pro while a rare version was sold for the G5. The Bios is typically stored on the gpu it's self rather than what was the norm since the early 80s or the late 70s with a separate physical bios on the card but not part of the normal core. In the late 90s some experimented with a biosless card with code being stored on the board but they had to be compatible. MGA200 is one such card. Back to the G5 they used a different bios rom or bin image that would allow support in osx on the mac but for the homebrew community that is a little different.

The physical difference from what I have found between the G5 x1900xt and the mac pro version is that the mac pro version uses the same cooler as the pc version. The G5 used a single slot version that used the cooler that was on the x1800xl/aiw and x1900gt/aiw. The G5 version was available in normal retail on newegg for a time.

Thanks for the info. I do recall the third version (PC/Mac) now. I remember seeing them on ATI's website once upon a time when I thought of buying one "just in case". Never happened.

HOOAH!!!

 

[FireStormRecords]

its a great computer but I' ve about decided to sell it there is no software readily available in todays market my DAW software works fine but I am having hell finding video production software and photo editing software that will work on it there were versions available for a time when it was new but not readily available now. And thats a shame because this particular unit works quite well (not sure if that was the case with all of them but this ones pretty darn fast for a 5+ year old computer