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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rackhir" data-source="post: 2408558" data-attributes="member: 149">If playing games is a primary consideration, then a G5 tower is the only way to go. They are the only macs that have upgradable video cards. Current Top cards for the mac would be a 6800 Ultra or a Radeon XL850. The 6800 is actually listed as a GT, but if you check the clock speeds and such it's really an Ultra. No information yet on the 7800 GTX, but I doubt if you'll see it before they put out the Intel based Towers, since it is going to be a PCIe only card with no AGP version. The consumer macs don't have the greatest video cards built in them, the G5 iMacs have Radeon 9600s and the Mini's have a Radeon 9200. There are also some classic mac games that you might want to check out that will never be available for OSX and thus will not run on the Intel macs. You might actually want to look for a used previous version dual 2ghz g5. They have a better motherboard than the current dual G5 2ghz. Though it is unlikely that the higher max ram (8gig vs 4gig) and the PCI-X vs PCI slots will make that much of a difference to you. The presence of PCI-X slots are generally the easiest way to determine the difference between the two.That said, the Radeon 9700 that is in the current powerbooks seems to be more than adiquate for most of the 3D games out there. You aren't going to get all the bells and whistles at 2048x1568, but 800x600 or so with a good chunk of the eyecandy should be do able. The performance is something close to a Radeon 9800 and definitely better than a Radeon 9600. As far as purchasing goes. If you go to <a href="http://www.Apple.com/store" target="_blank">www.Apple.com/store</a>, that will bring you to the main level where you can pick out and customize the config. Though the min config for a dual g5 2ghz is $2k. On the main level, in the lower right hand corner is a red tag "Sale" sign. This is where they sell refurbed macs. That is where I would go, since you can save several hundred dollars (usually about $300-$500) however, you can't customize what they ship with. But then again, stuff like memory and larger HDs are generally cheaper purchased separately. These are some other web sites that you might want to look over.<a href="http://lowendmac.com/ppc/g5deals.html" target="_blank">http://lowendmac.com/ppc/g5deals.html</a><a href="http://dealmac.com/headlines.html" target="_blank">http://dealmac.com/headlines.html</a><a href="http://www.dealsontheweb.com/index.php?headlines=true&filter=none" target="_blank">http://www.dealsontheweb.com/index.php?headlines=true&filter=none</a>You can get a Radeon 9800 Pro for a mac, for about $180 currently. It is not as good as the current top crowd (6800 U, XL850), but they will run you about $500 new.</blockquote>

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