Ah, the PowerMac G5. Apple’s latest attempt to bring professional power to the PowerPC architecture, at a time when the term “Performance Per Watt” was totally ignored. It was necessary to give all the power possible whatever the consumption.
Even today, there are enthusiasts of this computer who use it for certain functions. And that’s why places like YouTube channel Action Retro have attempted the unimaginable: install an RTX 2070 graphics card in a 17 year old PowerMac G5.
Outdated Mac? One graphic, one Linux and ready
Yes, the funny thing is that technically it is possible. The PowerMac G5 with a quad-core processor had PCI-Express slots, exactly what modern graphics cards need. Where the computer limps with macOS: older versions are not configured to support several GB of video memory while the maximum graphics configuration of the PowerMac G5 was 256 MB.
The solution landed with Void Linux, a distribution of this system capable of booting on PowerPC architectures and compatible with the most modern graphics drivers. Also an alternative power supply had to be installed: The PowerMac G5 was not enough for the appetite of the RTX 2070.
The youtuber Tried several brands of cards, some starting without any problems and others failing. The experiment is not only curious: its author affirms that this computer is still capable of tasks such as being a computer to stream content on Twitch. While later they say that the Macs of two decades ago are useless.
