Late Mac G5.... Upgrades worth it?

Hello fellow Mac'ers,
I've always been a Linux/Windows user but through work I have aquired an Mac G5 with the dual 2.0GHz processors and a half GB of ram. It also has the ATI video card in it. As this would be my first Mac experience, I was wondering if upgrading this computer would be worth it or if this is a relic I should just sell?

It wouldn't be a hard core editing machine, but I would like to have at least 4gb of ram and upgrade the video card if possible. As a Windows user I am a total newb to Apple and the upgrade process and selection. I mainly have two questions...
-Is upgrading this older PC going to cost more than an arm and a leg?
-If I do upgrade the PC then would this be a PC that would provide a good Apple experience?

Thanks all for your input!

G'day and welcome to the forums.

No really old technology PowerPC architecture and slow as molasses on a winter's morning. Not knowing what precise model this is also makes it harder, but G5's were first released in June 2003 and it could only run up to OS X.5 Leopard, now some seven operating systems old and no longer supported by Apple with Security and other updaters.

Yea that was what I was kinda thinking, this may turn into a Youtube only PC for the workshop then. I did manage to get it to boot today and am now able to retrieve more info if you by chance wanted.
Model: PowerMac 7.3
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Number of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 2ghz
Video Card: Radeon 9600 128MB
Ram: 512MB (2 of 4 slots used)

I had one of those machines and ran the heck out of it till the bitter end. You may even have some difficulty running modern youtube videos.

Well after tons of updates seeming to end at 10.4.11 the PC does run most websites. However, even at 360p Youtube stutters Thanks a lot guys, after doing a bit of research on parts and upgrades it definitely looks like a money pit. I will probably just gut the case and mount my current build in there, that is such a nice case. I was hoping to have something that would at least run some videos in the shop or bedroom but I forgot how old this really was. Thanks again for the input!

See the video horsepower of 128MB?

Modern iMacs run video cards of 4 and even 8GB of memory so you can imagine the difference, and we recommend here a minimum of 8GB memory with modern operating systems.

harryb2448 said:

See the video horsepower of 128MB?

Modern iMacs run video cards of 4 and even 8GB of memory so you can imagine the difference, and we recommend here a minimum of 8GB memory with modern operating systems.

Click to expand...

Yea it is no GTX10xx series lol. Now to eBay this thing before I stub my toe again on it! I really wish I could of used the case but it looks like I would need to do a lot of mods and 3d printing to make it work and the ports on the back would be a problem as well.

I may be a little biased towards PPC Macs as I still have quite a few of them. They are more useful than people will admit. not to mention a Dual 2ghz G5 is almost as powerful as an x86 2ghz dual core. I'm pretty sure your model supports up to 4GB of ram with 4 slots. The latest G5 powermac can take 16gb But those ones are pretty rare. Also you can install Mac OS X 10.5.8 if you can obtain a copy of it. TenFourfox is essentially Firefox with support for PPC, works on 10.4 and 10.5. It runs great on my G5, which I think is the same model as yours. http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/ (I have this on my 500mhz iBook G3 as well. Slow, but it is useable)

Also, you could install linux. A few distros still support PPC, with mine I was able to install linux which leads to many more modern programs. Such as an updated version of VLC to play h.265 video. Yep, h.265 on a G5. The graphic card that come in the G5 is pretty bad. If you have an AGP slot, there are a couple better cards available. Better yet if you have one with PCIe slots that opens up a bit more options.
If the machine is an AGP graphics model, the Radeon X800XT or X850XT are the absolute fastest.
The Geforce 6800 Ultra is almost as fast and is a better buy. I actually had the 6800 working in my old G4 Powermac. Quite a difference.

If it is a PCIe model, I think the ATI Radeon x1900xt and 7800GTX are the best options.
10 years ago, there were quite a few guides on how to flash PC Cards to Mac. Since things went intel, I haven't been able to find those old guides for PPC Macs.