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I’ve got a 2005 PowerMac G5, Dual 2.3 GHz with a stock Nvidia GeForce 6600 running OSX 10.4 Tiger that I enjoy experimenting with, purely for fun and to learn writing legacy software in XCode.

Would adding a second GeForce 6600 from another PowerMac work or even be useful? I’m not trying to improve gaming performance here.

I believe the GeForce 6600 supports only a single Dual-Link DVI output (while it has 2x DVI ports on the back) so it should support Apple’s 30″ Cinema Display. Would adding a second GeForce 6600 into the 8x PCI-E socket allow one to run second 30″ Cinema Display?

Would there be any other benefit to trying this out? I don’t believe that the G5 motherboard supports SLI despite SLI starting with the GeForce 6 series.

Open CL was initially released in 2009 and as a software developer this might be fun to experiment with.

Has anyone tried this before? What happened with you did it and why did you try it?

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    Re: OpenCL. PowerPC Macs with OS X 10.6 can do OpenCL (v. 1.0 I believe). But your video card there can't.
    – RETRAC
    Mar 1, 2021 at 20:01
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    "purely for fun and to learn writing legacy software in XCode" - OT, but you should really try to build a PC able to run OpenStep. Before all the cruft was added the original IB/PB was an absolute joy to use.
    – Maury Markowitz
    Mar 2, 2021 at 16:40
  • Thanks @MauryMarkowitz, I understand that there where some versions of OpenStep that worked on x86 based machines so I'd really like to check this out and try the original Interface Builder. Great idea! Appreciate the comment!
    – Gerard de Jong
    Mar 3, 2021 at 7:08

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I’ve got a 2005 PowerMac G5, Dual 2.3 GHz with a stock Nvidia GeForce 6600 running OSX 10.4 Tiger

AFAIR that's a plain 6600, right?

Would adding a second GeForce 6600 from another PowerMac work or even be useful?

Not really.

I believe the GeForce 6600 supports only a single Dual-Link DVI output (while it has 2x DVI ports on the back) so it should support Apple’s 30″ Cinema Display.

Yes. The card has two DVI, one dual link, one single link. Both are supported, so it's no issue to connect a second screen to the second DVI connector - ofc. it can't go past 1920x1200.

Would adding a second GeForce 6600 into the 8x PCI-E socket allow one to run second 30″ Cinema Display?

Haven't tried it, but I believe it should work.

Would there be any other benefit to trying this out?

No. Except to feed curiosity :))

I don’t believe that the G5 motherboard supports SLI despite SLI starting with the GeForce 6 series.

AFAIR The plain 6600 does not support SLI, only LE/VE (which you don't want to use) and GT do.

In general I'd rather recommend to change the 6600 against an upscale 6600 GT, which will improve performance considerable. In fact, a 6800 and 7800 should work as well, and may deliver an even higher punch. Also these cards usually feature more memory, so less which is never a bad idea :)

P.s.: While this isn't the newest Mac, you might be better off asking at a dedicated Apple site, like Ask Different here on SE.

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    Thank you @Raffzahn. Just to confirm, I've got the plain 6600 as you assumed. Would like to test out some higher spec cards if I can get my hands on them and report back on anything interesting. Appreciate your response here.
    – Gerard de Jong
    Mar 3, 2021 at 7:13
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    @GerarddeJong you may want to dig around that [MacElite](themacelite.wikidot.com/] site for more information. Some cards will work right away, others may need a BIO modification soly for the Mac to accept it. Apple tried to keep control over prices and earnings :)
    – Raffzahn
    Mar 3, 2021 at 12:00

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