Man oh man. Of all the Mac components available, graphics cards are by far the WORST. You can buy hard drives, RAM, optical drives, speakers, monitors, and input devices from generic PC outlets like NewEgg. Processors are less available but there is plenty of competition from OWC, GigaDesigns, Sonnet, and PowerLogix, making super-fast G4 upgrades for Sawtooth and Quicksilver machines somewhat affordable. But graphics cards are just sucking it up on the Mac platform. The only company that sells retail cards is ATI, and they seem to enjoy screwing Mac users. Recently they announced the 256 MB Radeon 9800, the 128 MB Radeon 9000, and the 128 MB Radeon 7000 PCI.
The latest releases are simply insulting. ATI is MONTHS late with their so-called "new" cards. Meanwhile, they don't release a single new GPU. All they did was add more VRAM to their existing cards. It took them that many months to solder some larger RAM chips to their existing cards? What's wrong? Why isn't there an actual IMPROVED lineup, such as a 9800XT 256MB on the super high end, the current 9800 Pro for the middle to high end, a 9600 Pro 128 MB in the middle, and both PCI and AGP versions of a 128 MB 9200 for the low end? Keep the same prices as the PC versions or even hike them up a bit, just not the unreasonable amount that they have been.
This is just stupid. Especially ridiculous is the 128 MB Radeon 7000. That card is so slow (between an original Radeon and a Rage 128) that even 32 MB was more than enough to keep it efficient. To sell it for $129 five or six years after its release is just... mind-boggling. The 9000 isn't a bad card but at this point it's very low-end (I mean look, the $799 eMac and $1099 iBook both use the similar 9200), and it shouldn't be taking the place of a middle-of-the-road card. The 9600 is perfect for filling that role. The only thing that isn't heinously bad is the 9800. It's a bit more expensive than the PC version, but otherwise it's basically the same.
nVidia doesn't sell Mac cards as retail, so they're usually only available on eBay. Meanwhile, there's enough demand for good Mac graphics cards that a lot of people are making some extra cash on the side by flashing PC cards to work in Macs. GeForce 3s, Radeon 8500s, and Radeon 7000s are the most common, and they're available for good prices.
I think there's enough demand that a small company might be able to make a lot of money selling Mac-compatible video cards. Not just Mac-compatible ones, but cards specifically designed for Mac users. They could have ADC ports on all AGP cards, and outfit their physically smaller cards with a removable bracket to work in Cubes. However, I am not sure of all the issues surrounding this. Obviously there's enough demand, given the great number of flashed PC cards that are selling on eBay, but is it even possible? Will there be licensing issues with obtaining Mac-compatible ROMs, or even obtaining permission to use ATI's or nVidia's GPUs? How would a small company overcome the initial cost of setting up a video card shop? And would ANYONE be on their side? Apple would certainly not like cheaper and more flexible video cards available, and neither would ATI.
Anyway, rant over. My flashed GeForce 3 rocks the hizzy
. They are not expensive, about $75 for a VGA-only one (mine was about $100 but it has DVI, which I wanted in case I get an LCD later on), but beware because they will cause some nasty flickering in any AGP 2x Mac. You need an AGP 4x slot (Digital Audio, Quicksilver, MDD).