G4 Video card upgrade..?

I own a g4 quicksilver 2001 specs are: 1.4 ghz processor, 1.5 gig of sdram, 180 gig hd, and have a NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 64 mb. Problem is I want to upgrade my video card, but i'm not sure which would be best/compatable with my computer. May sound a bit nerdy, but the reason why I want to upgrade is to play a game called World of Warcraft. I hear the graphics are incredible, and I don't think my card can handle it. Any suggestions?

I have a laptop with a GeForce 4 440MX with 64MB of RAM (AGP4x), and it'll run WoW okay. Not fantastically, mind.

I'm not 100% sure (being new to the Mac thing) if you need a Mac-compatible video card (though I think you do), but a great, low-cost solution would be the GeForce 6600 series, if there is a Mac version. If not, the ATi Radeon 9700 and up ought to serve you just fine. All PC games, regardless of how beautiful they may be, can be adjusted to run best on your particular setup, though this will be at the price of resolution, texture quality, etc. If you're not in the market to spend hundreds upon hundreds of dollars, you might just have to turn the settings down a little, too.

Hope this helps, feel free to ask any questions.

The ATI Radeon Mac editions work pretty fine...
The choices are:
9000 Pro (not sure if that'll be much better than the GeForce4)
9600 Pro (can be found on eBay, it's the stock G5 card, needs some mods to work in G4)
9700 Pro (was a BTO option for the MDD-G4, can be found on eBay, but is very rare)
9800 Pro (NOT the Special edition, as that is G5-only, and would need some mods. The normal Mac edition works fine in the G4, and actually is the fastest card you can put in it...but it's not cheap!)

The stock nVidia GeForce 5200 of the G5 PowerMacs, can also be used, after some mods to the card.

There still is the option to flash a PC-card with a Mac-ROM, that would be the cheapest option, but as I never tried it, can't really say more about it.

Google is your friend, it will help you find out more details about what I wrote...

What mods does a 9600 need to work in a G4? I gave my friend my old Radeon 9600 gfx card when I upgraded. I told him I'd help him install it in his G4 Powermac 876 Mhz SP. His Mac uses AGP, so all we need is the proper drivers for the Radeon 9600, correct?

Thanks for all the helpful tips. I think i'll save a little more and go with the radeon 9800.

sevenhelmet said:

What mods does a 9600 need to work in a G4? I gave my friend my old Radeon 9600 gfx card when I upgraded. I told him I'd help him install it in his G4 Powermac 876 Mhz SP. His Mac uses AGP, so all we need is the proper drivers for the Radeon 9600, correct?

Click to expand...

Nope you need to modify the 9600 on a hardware level. The link Harryc posted is a tutorial for doing the mod, though I would only recommend it to somebody who has the skills for it...because if something goes wrong, you might either kill the card, or worse, the mainboard of the G4.

The G5's 9600 is normally a AGP 8x-only card. As the G4 is only AGP 4x, it's not simply plug&play. The mod will force the card into AGP 4x-mode, which is totally harmless to the card.

Once again, only do that mod if you know what you're doing!!

The MAC section of the ATI website

The MAC section of Nvidia website