What type of video processor is provided by the iMac G5? Is it upgradable? What are the capabilities of the optical drive provided by the iMac G5?: EveryMac.com

iMac G5 Q&A - Updated January 14, 2007

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What type of video processor is provided by the iMac G5? Is it upgradable?

Information regarding the video system is provided on the specs page for each model, but for your convenience, details regarding the type of video card and amount of video memory also are provided below:

iMac G5	Video System	VRAM
G5/1.6 17-Inch	NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra	64 MB
G5/1.8 17-Inch	NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra	64 MB
G5/1.8 20-Inch	NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra	64 MB
G5/1.8 17-Inch (ALS)	ATI Radeon 9600	128 MB
G5/2.0 17-Inch (ALS)	ATI Radeon 9600	128 MB
G5/2.0 20-Inch (ALS)	ATI Radeon 9600	128 MB
G5/1.9 17-Inch (iSight)	ATI Radeon X600 Pro†	128 MB
G5/2.1 20-Inch (iSight)	ATI Radeon X600 XT†	128 MB

†The video system in the iMac G5 "iSight" models uses a PCI-Express (PCIe) based bus.

The video system provided in the iMac G5 models cannot be upgraded, but each can be "hacked" to support a non-mirrored external display.

What are the capabilities of the optical drive provided by the iMac G5?

The iMac G5 models shipped with either a hybrid DVD-ROM/CD-RW "Combo" drive, a single-layer DVD-R/CD-RW "SuperDrive", or a dual-layer DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW "SuperDrive".

For your convenience, the optical capabilities of each model are listed below:

iMac G5	Optical Drive
G5/1.6 17-Inch	8X "Combo"
G5/1.8 17-Inch	4X "SuperDrive"
G5/1.8 20-Inch	4X "SuperDrive"
G5/1.8 17-Inch (ALS)	8X "Combo"
G5/2.0 17-Inch (ALS)	8X DL "SuperDrive"
G5/2.0 20-Inch (ALS)	8X DL "SuperDrive"
G5/1.9 17-Inch (iSight)	8X DL "SuperDrive"
G5/2.1 20-Inch (iSight)	8X DL "SuperDrive"

For the exact speed of each optical drive reading and writing different media, please refer to the specs page for the particular model of interest.

Site sponsor Other World Computing sells optical drives and other upgrades for the iMac G5.

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