Switching graphics cards between a iMac G4 and a MacBook Pro

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wsoong


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Hey guys,

I have a iMac G4 and a MacBook Pro. The MacBooks graphics card is a Radeon X1600 and the one installed on the G4 is GeForce FX 5200. I was wondering could I take the FX 5200 card out of the G4 and swap it with the X1600 in the MacBook. I am not sure if the FX 5200 will work on the MacBook or if the X1600 will work in the G4. I use my MacBook mostly for gaming and the G4 for things apart from gaming. I also am not sure if swapping the graphics card will damage my computers. If anyone could help me out that would be great!
 
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wsoong said:
Hey guys,

I have a iMac G4 and a MacBook Pro. The MacBooks graphics card is a Radeon X1600 and the one installed on the G4 is GeForce FX 5200. I was wondering could I take the FX 5200 card out of the G4 and swap it with the X1600 in the MacBook. I am not sure if the FX 5200 will work on the MacBook or if the X1600 will work in the G4. I use my MacBook mostly for gaming and the G4 for things apart from gaming. I also am not sure if swapping the graphics card will damage my computers. If anyone could help me out that would be great!
Click to expand...

To the best of my knowledge...the graphics hardware in BOTH the iMac AND the MacBook Pro are NOT removable.

Thus if the graphics hardware is not removable in either computer...no swapping is possible either.

- Nick
 
dtravis7

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Nick is totally right.

First the iMac G4 is AGP and the Macbook Pro is PCI express. Two totally different interfaces. Second, like Nick said, at least with the MBP the Video chipset is part of the main board. I am sure the iMac G4 with it's small round enclosure is the same.

But even if you could which you can not for both the above reasons, a NVidia FX5200 is a very old and slow video chipset and would be horrible for todays games. The ATI Radeon X1600 would blow it down in gaming.
 
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All iMacs other than the 24" white intel and the aluminium models have their graphics circuitry integrated into the logic board.
 

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