Until 2 weeks ago, It had been a long time since we wrote a dedicated article on Graphics cards! The last time we did this (over a year ago), the tests were centered on graphics cards and game performance. We'll test doing more of the same! There certainly have been a number of changes in video cards from ATI in recent months, most importantly being the release of the ATI RADEON 9000 Pro 128MB AGP card and the ATI RADEON 9200 128MB PCI video card. How do they stack up against the competition, both from their own company with the flagship RADEON 9800 Pro 128MB AGP and the "OEM" nVidia cards that have shipped with Apple systems for a number of years?

Considering the time passed since the the last dedicated round of graphics testing, we are performing an exhaustive and complete round of tests that should satisfy everyone. This is part 2 of what will end up being 4 rounds of testing. Next up is the "Mirrored Drive Door" 167MHz/G5 systems, and finally the G3 Beige & Blue & White systems. And if you missed part 1, the 100MHz G4 AGP system tests are located here.

Well, this series of tests should really tell the tale! We've assembled every video card possible, with one exception, the ATI RADEON AGP, the original "upgrade" card, we just did not have that one to test so please don't email asking where it is. :>) I'm sorry, but we beat the bushes and could not find one. Maybe next time! (NOTE - Larry found one on eBay and I want to thank the readers that emailed offering to send their cards in -

The tests have been performed on 3 of the hottest games around, and one venerable classic in this test of 4 different speeds of processor, hopefully satisfying everybody's appetite for comparisons. New this week is a new chart type, an overall performance graph visually showing how the performance of the graphics card improves with the addition of an accelerator card into your system. While this is often overlooked, it really drives home the fact that a fast G4 processor is able to get far more information to the graphics card, and is therefore able to process it just that much faster. Look at these graphs and you'll see exactly what we mean when we say a game is processor bound, not graphics card bound. Don't hamstring your gaming experience with a slow processor! That graphics card you already own may well be enough for your favorite game!

The following G4 processors were used in these tests:
	Stock Apple G4/533MHz "Gigabit Ethernet"
	OWC Mercury Extreme G4/900MHz (867MHz guaranteed up to 933MHz operation)
	OWC Mercury Extreme G4/1.2GHz (1GHz guaranteed to 1.2GHz operation)
	OWC Mercury Extreme G4/1.4GHz (1.4GHz guaranteed up to 1.5GHz operation, running at 1.467GHz in this system)
The following components were utilized in the G4 "Gigabit Ethernet" system:
	SIIG Serial ATA controller PCI Card
	Hitachi DeskStar 80GB SATA Hard Drive
	1GB (2 512MB Modules) of OWC PC-133 SDRAM

Games tested:
	Call Of Duty
	Halo
	Unreal Tournament 2004
	Quake 3
	Overall Scores For All Tests

Click on one of the above links to view the results for each program tested. Or, if you just want to see the hard numbers, click the bottom link for the overall scores, all on one page with charts that are pretty easy to follow. We hope you find what you're looking for to help decide on a new video card or processor upgrade!