Radeon 9800

[JesseJames]

Has anyone been using this card? How is it with a CG program like Lightwave 3D?
Is it worth it for games?
I have a 933MGhz G4 with a Nvidia Gforce4MX card. It's okay but I was wondering if I may get that much more performance with the Radeon card.
By the way, has Nvidia abandoned us? They don't sell their newer cards on the aftermarket. WTF?

[G5orbust]

It will be a definite improvement. But, the only downside is that it doesnt come with ADC, only DVI. But, unless you have an apple display, this wont matter.


nVidia has never sold their mac boards to the general public. That being said, nVidia also doesnt create its own silicon for retail in the PC market.

[MacBandit]

I have the ATI9800 and it is fantastic. One thing to consider though is because of your machines speed you will see very little benefit in with the ATI9800 over the NVidia Ti4600. I have seen the Ti4600 going for less than $250 just recently.

The only benefit you will see is in games and Quartz Extreme. The card isn't designed to benefit graphics programs at all. If you need a card for doing 3D or video then you need to by a professional card for that.

[~Shard~]

I don't believe the 9800 will improve your graphic design programs like LightWave at all, but I could be wrong. One thing for sure, is that it will defintely improve gameplay, however with your current system, I don't think you'll be able to use the card to it's full potential. It'll definitely be an improvement, but perhaps not as much as you might expect.

[manitoubalck]

Do Ati release their FireGL X2 for mac?

[crazzyeddie]

One of the major advantages of the 9800 is that you can force FSAA and AF in your games, and the card won't even break a sweat.

[Sunrunner]

FSAA and AF? Refresh my memory, because those acronyms aren't ringing a bell....

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by crazzyeddie
One of the major advantages of the 9800 is that you can force FSAA and AF in your games, and the card won't even break a sweat.

That's true in some situations. My old Dual/1 GHz/DDR PowerMac could not supply the data to UT2003 for the AntiAliasing and Anisotropic filtering, even at the lowest levels. My Dual/1.42GHz PowerMac can. So it takes more then just the card to do those sort of filters. The computer still has to preprocess some of the data. With QuakeIII and the original Unreal Tournament then yeah even an older machine could handle the AA and AF even at higher resolutions with the ATI9800 in it. I just have to add that Unreal Tournament with AA and AF on looks better then UT2003 in my opinion. It has to do with there new graphics. It's like they hired a new artist. There's a whole different mood to the new game.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by Sunrunner
FSAA and AF? Refresh my memory, because those acronyms aren't ringing a bell....

FSAA = Full Screen Anti-Aliasing

AF=Anisotropic Filtering.

For explanations go to this link.

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030306/radeon9800pro-06.html

[G5orbust]

Originally posted by manitoubalck
Do Ati release their FireGL X2 for mac?

ATI wont sell their FireGL series, nor will nVidia sell its Quadro series, for macs.

I dont understand why either, as macs are proported to be the staple of design firms. But, then again, apps like autoCAD dont work on macs either...

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by G5orbust
ATI wont sell their FireGL series, nor will nVidia sell its Quadro series, for macs.

I dont understand why either, as macs are proported to be the staple of design firms. But, then again, apps like autoCAD dont work on macs either...

Yeah if you want to do CAD you don't do it on a Mac.

[G5orbust]

Originally posted by MacBandit
Yeah if you want to do CAD you don't do it on a Mac.

one of the worst things to happen to the mac. If Apple had pushed for CAD to have Mac support back when OSX first came out, then this world could be completely different. Strange to think how one app like AutoCAD can decide things like that.