Does anyone have an iMac G5 1.8ghz? Im interested to know what people think of it as im planning to buy one in the next few days. the specs look good and everything i just wonder if people could share their opinions with me. thanks

Kestrel

As long as it doesn't come with a GeForce FX 5200 you'll be fine.
THe FX5200 is a very pool card IMHO.
Unfortunately most macs come with that card these days.

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64MB DDR SDRAM

The G5 towers and the iMacs both come with this one. I tend to think it's a very pool card as well.

If you buy a tower you can select a different card at purchase time but I'm pretty sure the iMacs will only sell with the one. Anyone know if it's a standard size card stuck in there? I imagine you could upgrade after purchase but then what to do with the 5200...

On the other hand, I'd still like a 1.8ghz iMac for myself, I can't really afford a tower and the dubious 5200 is still WAY better than anything I use at home right now. One thing I have noticed is that the 1.8 feels much snappier than the 1.6. I think the faster bus makes a bigger difference than you'd expect from the .2ghz difference in speed.

If it is standard size, good luck swapping the cards, the graphics card is soldered onto the mother board.

My guess is iMac customers will be stuck with the FX-5200 until NVidia stops producing these and Apple no longer has any in stock.. ;-)

If you want a Mac with decent CPU _and_ GPU, about the only way of getting one is ordering a PowerMac G5 with a 9600-XT/9800-XT/FX-6800 as BTO option.

cheers for the replies, I totally agree that a different gpu would be fantastic, but i cant afford a tower unfortunately. besides im using an 800mhz ibook g3 with radeon 7500 mobility, so this will be a just a tiddly better neway :)

Please, if you get the 5200, make sure you turn off shaders when you play VO. Your framerate will thank you.

I've got an iMac G5, 20", 2GB RAM, and of course the 5200FX Ultra. Game plays GREAT on it @ native 1680x1050 resolution, all options turned on and up (except texture detail which is one away from maxed out). SHaders are off of course - somewhat unfortunately as it looks even better with them on, but was getting framerates of 1fps when there was a pebble onscreen. =)

I own the portable version of the 5200. It's OK, methinks, but then that might be because I've never owned better - and because it was quite a migration from my previous video card, an ATI Rage wuth 16Mb of Video Memory. The 5200 tends to crash, though, and that a lot. =/

Yeah thanks for the info, I heard all about the shader problem. Is that a Nvidea specific problem? Well by the sounds of it it will be ten times better than my ibook anyway. if i could get a cheap monitor from somewhere id go with the new 1.8ghz tower...

how do other games run on the iMac? do halo and ut2004 and warcraft 3 and the likes run well?

Haven't run Halo, only UT2004. It's pretty good - I've stepped down the resolution in favor of more texture detail, and play all the time in big 32-player Onslaught matches comfortably.

Sadly, it doesnt compare to the dual2.5GHz G5 I have at work with the 9800XT card in it, but it's workable. Even though I bought this iMac as a mid-end video editing station, I'm debating over selling it for the new single 1.8GHz G5 tower with a 9800XT card in it... =D

FYI, the graphics card on the iMac is part of a user replaceable daughter board. I would expect some time in the future for there to be third party upgrade options. Otherwise a decent machine. The list of user replaceable parts on this model pulls it away from the normal AIO gimpness.

I recently got the imac g5 with a 1.8Ghz Processor and it came with Knights of the old Republic and Battlefield 1942. I also have halo on it at the moment and i can honestly say its a decent machine. I would have expected worse performance from the GFX chip but its far better than i expected. Runs Battlefield fine at full res same with KOTOR, halo needs a bit of ajusting but it is a heafty game engine.