Gains from Graphics Card Upgrade? -Powermac G5

Hello,

I have the last model of the powermac g5, 2.3ghz dual-core. It is used for everyday tasks such as internet, watching videos, listening to music. It currently has the Geforce 6600 with 256MB.

Is anything on a G5 running OSX 10.5 GPU accelerated? (flash, HTML5)?
Would upgrading to the Geforce 7800 GT ($90 on ebay) make any difference for the type of computing this machine is used for?

Thanks,
Robert

Not really. Sadly the day of the PowerPC computer is behind us. Had the didactical machine to you which I really enjoyed, however had to go the Intel way with a Mac Pro. If the card is listed for a G5, and is not a flashed PC card, good value.

Thanks and I am aware we are over the hill for PPC. I have a mac pro aswell. However no new applications are being installed on this, HTML5 has also made the internet more usable; and lets be honest- a dual core 2.3 G5 is powerful enough for email, MS Office, and internet use. On top of that these machines are worth nothing now and for me its not worth selling

So does anyone know what (if anything) is accelerated by the GPU on these machines. I know that 10.5 uses OpenGL for OS animations (dock, genie effect, ect), but does safari and HTML5 have GPU acceleration? Also is the 7800GT significantly more powerful that the 6600 I have now?

Thanks
Robert

hi there
i have the exact same machine as you & i switched to the 7800GT last year
tbh i didn't notice any changes in the way things worked. maybe changes to images being worked on in CS4 happened a bit faster? not sure??

one thing i definitely noticed is the fan noise from the 7800 as apart from when loaded right up my G5 was pretty silent

funnily enough i got the quadroFX4500 yesterday & fitted it for some tests
not sure i even noticed anything different with that card either although scrutinising my desktop backgrounds they do appear to have more depth??
probably just an imaginary difference but we all like to think a new upgrade has made a positive difference don't we

one thing though, the 4500 is definitely quieter than the 7800

Thanks for the replies. I guess I'll just save the money if there are no noticeable gains.

Yes save the money as G5's have limited graphic options.

I have a PPC G5 Quad, I "upgraded" too, to a ATI x1990GT. Can't say I noticed much.

I'd probably have to say, a waste of time/money, in my case.