Powermac G5 graphics upgrades

[Lars Headfuzz]

I spent as much as I could recently and nabbed myself a Dual 1.8GHz G5 Powermac (late 2004) which has an AGP 8x slot and an Nvidia GeForce FX5200 Ultra with 64 Mb VRAM.

 

While there's nothing wrong with the card that's in there, I would, if possible, like to upgrade it to something with a bit more oomph; specifically with a view to playing 720p .mkv files. It plays them ok provided I don't really have anything else running, although it does drop the occasional frame.

 

In my PC I have an Abit Siluro branded FX5200 with 128Mb VRAM. I know this worked with Natit when I was running the box as a Hackintosh, so I already have the same card available with double the VRAM on it, although provided someone can give me a defeinte answer here I'd probably plump for the best AGP 8x card I can lay my hands on.

 

Basically, my question is can you use off the shelf 3rd party graphics cards in Apple hardware without having to resort to reflashing firmware / using Natit etc?

 

If it's a question of reflashing a card, say for example an Nvidia GeForce 6800 XT, where does one obtain the necessary firmware? Or is a case of changing vendor id's and suchlike in a terminal widonw with a text editor open?

 

Thanks for any help.

 

[icyderguru]

you can obtain information regarding flashing pc gfx cards to apple cards from http://www.strangedogs.com/ - you need to register

[ritalin]

http://strangedogs.wikispaces.com/

[Lars Headfuzz]

Whoa. That's quick replying! Thanks guys!