GeForce GTX 285 Appears in Apple Online Store

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/06/12/geforce-gtx-285-appears-in-apple-online-store/)


http://images.macrumors.com/article/2009/06/12/152242-gtx_285_300.jpg


Earlier this week, the EVGA GeForce GTX 285 (http://store.apple.com/us/product/TW387ZM/A) graphics card appeared in Apple's online store in the U.S. and Canada. Compatible with the "Early 2008" and "Early 2009" Mac Pro models and currently listed as shipping in 1-2 weeks, the GTX 285 is priced at $449.95 in the U.S. Plans for a June launch of the card were revealed in late April (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/04/30/nvidia-geforce-gtx-285-mac-version-due-in-june/), and the appearance of the card in Apple's store suggests that it should begin shipping within the scheduled timeframe.

Benchmarks on the PC version of the GTX 285 revealed that it consistently outperforms the ATI Radeon HD 4870, which is currently available as a $200 build-to-order upgrade on the 2009 Mac Pro. It remains to be seen if Apple will be adding the GTX 285 as a build-to-order upgrade for new orders once the card begins shipping.

Article Link: GeForce GTX 285 Appears in Apple Online Store (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/06/12/geforce-gtx-285-appears-in-apple-online-store/)

[niuniu]

I wouldn't mind one of those in a new uMBP I tell ya :D

[appleguy123]

I wouldn't mind one of those in a new uMBP I tell ya :D
I was using apple store chat and they told me that there were external graphics cards tht go through the express card... Where do i get them and what is the performance like?

[dagamer34]

I wouldn't mind one of those in a new uMBP I tell ya :D

There are cheaper ways to carry around a portable oven.

[Renji]

as i posted in a different thread, they sell it a newegg too.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130500

[J the Ninja]

There are cheaper ways to carry around a portable oven.


Who wants 20 minutes of battery life?

[theBigD23]

That is pretty expensive. I hope the price drops soon, since this seems to be the only new card that will be available from Nvidia for a while. There is also no mini display port so you can't make it work with the LED monitor.

[peskaa]

Apple Store US you mean. Nothing in the EU!

[niuniu]

I was using apple store chat and they told me that there were external graphics cards tht go through the express card... Where do i get them and what is the performance like?

now now...

There are cheaper ways to carry around a portable oven.

settle down boys :D

[winterspan]

Remember, guys, this is an excellent gaming card for dual-booting to windows, but the ATI cards have vastly superior performance in OSX's graphics systems like Core Image et al. The Apple pro applications and professional OpenGL applications perform much better with ATI cards even if you compare a much more powerful Nvidia card. At this least this has been the case in the recent past, I haven't heard of anything changing on this front. I think it has to do with Nvidia always crippling the OpenGL drivers of their Geforce cards to force pro OpenGL apps users to get a Pro Quadro card.

[Michael73]

I've been looking for some increased graphics performance on my early '08 MP e.g. an upgrade for my 8800GT. I noticed this in the Apple store and called AppleCare to ask some questions. I'd be a bit hesitant about buying this yet as it's not listed as one of the supported cards for SL. After making it to tier 2 support, the guy put me on hold and rang up engineering and was told the list of cards on the SL page are only the ones they've tested so far and don't represent a final list of all compatible cards.

Can anyone tell me whether the Mac OS can take advantage of multiple video cards for improved video processing performance even if only one card is actually driving a monitor? I guess the other way of saying this is, can the Mac OS spread video intensive processing tasks across multiple cards if they are present for increased speed and performance?

[twoodcc]

too bad i can't put one in my 2006 mac pro

[fixmdude]

I tried loading Call of Duty 4 on Windows XP in Bootcamp on my 2007 Aluminum iMac 2.8 Extreme and it ran without any frame freezes or jumps, played just fine. I gave away my PC with dual SLI cards because it was loud, huge, guzzled electricity, and wasn't necessary anymore after getting the iMac. I had to buy that monster in 2006 to play COD because the jumpy screen and pauses kept getting me killed, but I don't see a need to spend $450 on a video card upgrade anymore now that the games are running smooth.

"Benchmarks on the PC version of the GTX 285 revealed that it consistently outperforms the ATI Radeon HD 4870"

What program do people need this newer faster card for? Can someone even tell the difference while running anything other than a special benchmark program to measure it?

[RemarkabLee]

Remember, guys, this is an excellent gaming card for dual-booting to windows, but the ATI cards have vastly superior performance in OSX's graphics systems like Core Image et al. The Apple pro applications and professional OpenGL applications perform much better with ATI cards even if you compare a much more powerful Nvidia card. At this least this has been the case in the recent past, I haven't heard of anything changing on this front. I think it has to do with Nvidia always crippling the OpenGL drivers of their Geforce cards to force pro OpenGL apps users to get a Pro Quadro card.

Not true, according to BareFeats tests on release of the 2009 Mac Pro with the 4870, they are quite close. Previous to this, the ATi had the edge over Nvidia for pro apps, but not as far as your suggesting.

[Tallest Skil]

Can anyone tell me whether the Mac OS can take advantage of multiple video cards for improved video processing performance even if only one card is actually driving a monitor? I guess the other way of saying this is, can the Mac OS spread video intensive processing tasks across multiple cards if they are present for increased speed and performance?

Not possible.

It remains to be seen if Snow Leopard will let us, though.

[mixel]

What program do people need this newer faster card for? Can someone even tell the difference while running anything other than a special benchmark program to measure it?
COD4 is a couple of years old and even when it came out it had pretty modest requirements. No iMac card I know of (I have a 2008 2.8 8800 iMac which i love for gaming) can come close to maxing the detail level in games like Crysis. And the games do look very VERY nice with everything ramped up to their maximum settings. :)

Games will always demand faster and faster hardware.. In 4 years time all our hardware will be pants and incapable of running even middling tech latest games well. I agree most gamers could get by with an 8800 level card for years to come but a lot of people I know wouldn't be satisfied with that at all.

Aren't DirectX 11 cards coming out soon, thinking about it? Would that make it a daft time to invest in an expensive graphics card?

[RebootD]

Does NVIDIA put magic into the Mac edition of this card to justify a 35% markup over the Windows version? I know we get shafted on gfx cards but it's hard to justify upgrading to this for the price don't you think?

Anyone successfully hacked a PC version yet?

[RemarkabLee]

What program do people need this newer faster card for? Can someone even tell the difference while running anything other than a special benchmark program to measure it?

Subjectively the differences may be negligible today, but who's to say what they will be like in the next 12-24 months? The next generation gaming middleware/rendering engines will most likely cause older technology to suffer slower frame rates while the 285 will be very capable.

Therefore it requires theoretical benchmark tools to differentiate between generations of graphics cards to tell them apart. In a year or so, the next 'killer game' will more than likely justify the purchase of the latest and greatest pixel cruncher.

[Peace]

Not possible.

It remains to be seen if Snow Leopard will let us, though.

The GTX 285 gets a good performance increase under SL. It can and does utilize CL.

Currently you can use both cards but not together. Two GTX 285's though.. Whoa!!

[champ01]

Where is the love for the first Mac Pro users???

Give us the compatible stuff to or are the first Mac Pro's crappy ****???

You tell me apple you tell me... :(

[BornAgainMac]

What is with the new numbering system? Where do they come up with these model numbers?

[akm3]

Where is the love for the first Mac Pro users???

Give us the compatible stuff to or are the first Mac Pro's crappy ****???

You tell me apple you tell me... :(

I thought I read somewhere that this DOES work with the older Mac Pro, but Apple isn't advertising it that way. It might have been barefeats. I hope I'm not spreading false information.

/edit: I am proven incorrect later in the thread. The barefeats article praised the AMD card for being able to do this, but confirms the Nvidia cannot. Sorry if I got anyone's hopes up.

[BongoBanger]

Now that's more like it!

[Eddyisgreat]

VERY telling that this does not include a mini displayport. Apples unification of the display line, yet they don't include it on the latest graphics cards? DVI still works for their highest end display, and we all know the MDP -> dl DVI simply don't work.

I guess the 30" "classic" is staying around for a little while longer boys.

[danbirchall]

I've heard of EGA and VGA, but not EVGA... this is 640 by what? ;)

[DELLsFan]

...What program do people need this newer faster card for?

World of Warcraft? :D

Ok, ok ... Supreme Commander comes to mind. Crysis also. I hear these are very heavy, graphics-intense games.

[MacsRgr8]

Gr8 card!... but...

But, no mini Display Port.

I have a Mac Pro '08, currently with the 8800 GT. This card is perfect except in X-Plane 9.
And, TBO.... I expected the GTX 285 would by far outperform the ATi 4870.
According to Barefeats (http://www.barefeats.com/nehal11.html) the difference between the two in X-Plane is not that much (see attached pic)... other games a bit more, but those perform well enough anyway (even on the 8800 GT, let alone the 4870)

As I would love the Apple 24" LED display, and X-Plane is the game which needs the horespower most, and seeing the price difference.. AND I saw on the Apple US Store reviews this:

Great Video Card!
Written by BD from Portland
Jun 9, 2009
I received and installed this card today in my early 2009 Mac Pro. You'll definitely want to read the manual prior to installing as you need to make sure you install the driver from the CD *BEFORE* you install the card in your Mac. If you don't the system will kernel panic and crash at startup.

That is very annoying.... :mad:

Snow Leopard will end that, but that's 3 months away....

I think I will go for the Radeon 4870 with 24" LED Display. :)

[Beric]

How is this card different than this GTX 285 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130480)?

Or is it that because it has "Mac" on it, it's more expensive? I've even seen hard drive companies charge an extra $50 for a "Mac" external hard drive over the Windows version just because it's pre-formatted for the Mac - like an average person can't use Disk Utility.

[frabber]

what is so special about this version , especially given no displayport support.

wouldn't any gtx 285 from any other vendor work?

[Transeau]

Yet another card 100% physically compatible with the MacPro1,1 but without an EFI32 ROM.

Why do I get the feeling that Apple isn't happy that I have a first gen Mac Pro? I think they really want me replace my box...

[jkerr45]

Tiger Direct sells them for $349.00.

[NinjaHERO]

Wow that looks cool.

But I don't think I have the option of that in my new 13" MBP.

[ricosuave]

I thought I read somewhere that this DOES work with the older Mac Pro, but Apple isn't advertising it that way. It might have been barefeats. I hope I'm not spreading false information.

I think this is the article you are referring to... http://www.barefeats.com/nehal11.html

They mentioned the opposite:
"One advantage of the Radeon HD 4870 over the GTX 285 is that, though it isn't officially supported by Apple in the 2006-2007 Mac Pro, we can testify that it works fine in all models of Mac Pro (OS X 10.5.7 or later) based on our own experience of testing it in all models. It also costs about $100 less than the GTX 285."

I would like to put the 285 on my 2006 MacPro. Does anybody know if it can be done?

[Transeau]

I would like to put the 285 on my 2006 MacPro. Does anybody know if it can be done?

Not without being hacked. The card has EFI64 for the "new" Mac Pro and BIOS for Windows support. It's lacking the EFI32 for the "old" Mac Pro.

Physically, it's no different than the normal EVGA GTX 285. So, if you are going to hack one to put it in a MacPro1,1, you may as well buy the cheaper one.

Now, it's just a matter of time before someone posts a new flash ROM to support the older boxes.

[ricosuave]

Not without being hacked. The card has EFI64 for the "new" Mac Pro and BIOS for Windows support. It's lacking the EFI32 for the "old" Mac Pro.

Physically, it's no different than the normal EVGA GTX 285. So, if you are going to hack one to put it in a MacPro1,1, you may as well buy the cheaper one.

Now, it's just a matter of time before someone posts a new flash ROM to support the older boxes.

I guess we will have to wait...

Your 8800 will support OpenCL in Snow Leopard. Are you satisfied with its performance?

[bboucher790]

I've heard of EGA and VGA, but not EVGA... this is 640 by what? ;)

I can tell the Mac community isn't part of the gaming community lol. EVGA is one of the top, if not the top manufacturer of graphics cards in the world.

And $450 isn't that outrageous for a card that performs this well. Yes, it's marked up from the Windows world, but what card hasn't been? You always pay a premium for Mac specific cards w/ EFI. Always. If you want to save money, find a standard Windows card that's flash compatible. Otherwise, it seems unreasonable to expect the Mac edition to cost the same price based on the history of Mac graphics cards.

@MacsRgr8
The benchmark of X-Plane shows the least change from previous cards, if you look at the full article, you'll notice the GTX285 is in a class of its own when playing games. As for Apple's Pro apps, stick with your 4870.

http://www.barefeats.com/images09/neh11_hal.gif

http://www.barefeats.com/images09/neh11_pre.gif

(Open GL Extensions)
http://www.barefeats.com/images09/neh11_oev.gif

http://www.barefeats.com/images09/neh11_cod.gif

http://www.barefeats.com/images09/neh11_etq.gif

http://www.barefeats.com/images09/neh11_wow.gif

[Cromulent]

I guess we will have to wait...

Your 8800 will support OpenCL in Snow Leopard. Are you satisfied with its performance?

The 8800 works okay performance wise although it is getting a bit dated nowadays graphics card wise.

Ditto for wanting a 2006 Mac Pro version.

[OneShotos]

1. I pre-order the card.
2. No SLI support because of Apple
3. No Dual cards because Mac's can only have 300 total watts
4. If your rich you can run two FX4800 150W each
5. Bad is Apple is not making the drivers, and not that they will excluded the card but no promises to support the GTX 285

[EmperorDarius]

Happy, gamers?

[Truffy]

It remains to be seen if Apple will be adding the GTX 285 as a build-to-order upgrade for new orders once the card begins shipping.
You'll have to wait for one of the universal DVI ports to be changed to an otherwise useless mini display port first.

[Justinf79]

So when is Apple gonna have the Radeon 4890 as a option?

[Virgil-TB2]

Gr8 card!... but...

But, no mini Display Port.

I have a Mac Pro '08, currently with the 8800 GT. This card is perfect except in X-Plane 9.
And, TBO.... I expected the GTX 285 would by far outperform the ATi 4870.
According to Barefeats (http://www.barefeats.com/nehal11.html) the difference between the two in X-Plane is not that much (see attached pic)... other games a bit more, but those perform well enough anyway (even on the 8800 GT, let alone the 4870)

As I would love the Apple 24" LED display ...Interesting stuff. I have the same 2008 Mac Pro and 8800 GT card, but my (old style) Apple Cinema Display went belly up a week or two ago.

I'm in a quandary now trying to figure out what card/monitor I can get to replace it with.

To get the new LED display I need a mini Display port card, but the only Nvidia offering is a lesser card than the 8800 GT. Now they come out with this thing, but it doesn't have mini-display.

What I don't understand is the main reason I don't keep using the card I have now is that I can't see that there are any mini Display port to DVI adapters. At least there are none in the Apple store that are the correct male/female combination.

[Steflinsky]

http://www.apple.com/fr/macosx/get

??? where is the page lol

[Dagless]

I don't know much about foreign money but is that more compared to a standard PC GTX285? And why no 295?

Apple, come on now. At least put pressure on these guys for the latest video cards.

[SirOmega]

So when is Apple gonna have the Radeon 4890 as a option?

The problem (from a card developer's point of view) is that Apple only makes 1 model on which you can add PCI-E gfx cards, the Mac Pro. Yeah the people buying MPs probably have money to spend on $$$ gfx cards. But its not a lot of people.

Remember that its not just taking a regular graphics card and slapping a "approved for mac" sticker on it. The EFI support has to be added, and for each model its different (ask the OSx86 guys, the EFI stuff from a 4870 card wont work on a 4850/4890).

Maybe if Apple ever made a xMac tower model and it sold well then more add-in board partners would support EFI.

[mdntcallr]

is this card HDCP compliant? so i could hypothetically play back a Blu-Ray movie on my mac. if and when Apple ever decides to support Blu-Ray in the OS.

[*LTD*]

I can tell the Mac community isn't part of the gaming community lol. EVGA is one of the top, if not the top manufacturer of graphics cards in the world.

And $450 isn't that outrageous for a card that performs this well. Yes, it's marked up from the Windows world, but what card hasn't been? You always pay a premium for Mac specific cards w/ EFI. Always. If you want to save money, find a standard Windows card that's flash compatible. Otherwise, it seems unreasonable to expect the Mac edition to cost the same price based on the history of Mac graphics cards.

Finally, a sensible post.

Quite frankly, I don't do much gaming beyond EVE Online and the occasional romp in some old school games that run and even look as they should on OS X, like Fallout 1 and 2, the Marathon series, etc.

EVE Online is considered one of the most graphically impressive MMOs. Makes WoW look like 8-bit sprites. I've got a MBP with a GeForce 8600m GT 256mb, with 4gb RAM. Runs EVE beautifully, with all settings maxed out.

I guess I'm in the minority when it comes to satisfaction with Apple's choice of videocards . . .

[slicecom]

Yet another card 100% physically compatible with the MacPro1,1 but without an EFI32 ROM.

Why do I get the feeling that Apple isn't happy that I have a first gen Mac Pro? I think they really want me replace my box...

Thats why I stick to ATI cards. They all have both EFI32 and EFI64 ROMs. Nvidia could easily do this too, but choose not to. I've had nothing but bad experiences with Nvidia cards anyways. 4870 here I come!

[xVeinx]

I don't know much about foreign money but is that more compared to a standard PC GTX285? And why no 295?

Apple, come on now. At least put pressure on these guys for the latest video cards.

Apple does a reasonable amount of testing on the cards, so it takes a little bit of time to get them out. The GTX 280 will be nice either for scientists hoping to use cuda or for those who do high end graphics work. Gaming is hit and miss, as most games out right now aren't all THAT demanding (crysis being an exception).

[seancusick]

I think that I know the answer, but would like to hear from others. Some site cough (9 to 5 mac) are stating that the PC version, which is about $130 less, is identical and as the same card. They are actually suggesting people buy from Amazon, complete with a link. It was my understanding that you were tied to the overpriced "mac version." They are suggesting that it is the same card. $319 works for me, $450 does not. I would like to hear from people who know the true answer. I would think that major mac sites would not state that it works, if it, umm does not. Thanks in advance. I will take my answer off of the air....

[TuffLuffJimmy]

I think that I know the answer, but would like to hear from others. Some site cough (9 to 5 mac) are stating that the PC version, which is about $130 less, is identical and as the same card. They are actually suggesting people buy from Amazon, complete with a link. It was my understanding that you were tied to the overpriced "mac version." They are suggesting that it is the same card. $319 works for me, $450 does not. I would like to hear from people who know the true answer. I would think that major mac sites would not state that it works, if it, umm does not. Thanks in advance. I will take my answer off of the air....

I've heard that you have to flash the regular one with a special Mac firmware. but I'm no expert on the subject.

[yadmonkey]

Is there an after market card for the 2008 Mac Pro which supports OpenCL?

EDIT: It appears this (http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB999ZM/A?afid=p210%7Cfrgl&cid=AOS-US-SHOP-Froogle) will do it.

[Transeau]

Thats why I stick to ATI cards. They all have both EFI32 and EFI64 ROMs. Nvidia could easily do this too, but choose not to. I've had nothing but bad experiences with Nvidia cards anyways. 4870 here I come!

In most benchmarks, the 4870 offers no advantage over the 8800. Heat and power wise, the 4870 is a beast. It will be nice to get some OpenCL benchmarks on them both. That's really the only reason I want to upgrade.

I currently keep a nice PC (Currently it's a Core 2 Quad 3.0 with an nVidia GTX 275) strictly for my h.264 encoding. It can plow through 1080p video in 1/4 of the time that my Mac Pro can. I REALLY want to do this all on one box. The GTX 285 with OpenCL could have easily done that.

[ricosuave]

In most benchmarks, the 4870 offers no advantage over the 8800. Heat and power wise, the 4870 is a beast. It will be nice to get some OpenCL benchmarks on them both. That's really the only reason I want to upgrade.

I currently keep a nice PC (Currently it's a Core 2 Quad 3.0 with an nVidia GTX 275) strictly for my h.264 encoding. It can plow through 1080p video in 1/4 of the time that my Mac Pro can. I REALLY want to do this all on one box. The GTX 285 with OpenCL could have easily done that.

How do these two cards and Computers compare ripping a movie to AppleTV using Handbrake in speed?

Does the 8800 have h.264 encoding?

[PCMacUser]

It's good to see Apple making this card available. The Mac will probably never be a 'hard core' gaming platform (SLI x4 etc) but this card brings a lot of performance to those that like to play games like Crysis, Far Cry 2, etc in Boot Camp.

I spent a similar amount of money to this on a GeForce 8800GTS 640Mb two or three years ago, and it's still a solid performer. The cash is not wasted.

[mklos]

Nice to see Apple is pushing Mini Display Port!

No Mini Display Port=NO SALE!

[PCMacUser]

Nice to see Apple is pushing Mini Display Port!

No Mini Display Port=NO SALE!

Hmm, it's not compatible with either your iMac or Macbook, so NO SALE anyway... ;)

[seancusick]

thanks for the flashing answer. It seems like 9 to 5 updated their info. I searched around- meaning google- and could not find info on those that flashed it to a mac version. Has anyone done this before? I know that mac version is not out, but looking at the specs, will we be able to flash it?

[slicecom]

In most benchmarks, the 4870 offers no advantage over the 8800. Heat and power wise, the 4870 is a beast. It will be nice to get some OpenCL benchmarks on them both. That's really the only reason I want to upgrade.

I currently keep a nice PC (Currently it's a Core 2 Quad 3.0 with an nVidia GTX 275) strictly for my h.264 encoding. It can plow through 1080p video in 1/4 of the time that my Mac Pro can. I REALLY want to do this all on one box. The GTX 285 with OpenCL could have easily done that.

Yeah, if I had an 8800, I wouldn't switch to a 3870 as their performance is very similar (I have the crappy 7300). I'm pretty sure the 4870 works fine in our MacPro 1,1's as well, its just new Nvidia cards that don't work.

[mklos]

Hmm, it's not compatible with either your iMac or Macbook, so NO SALE anyway... ;)

I will be buying a MacPro next month.....

[Subkultured]

How about running one of these side-by-side an HD 4870?

[heisetax]

too bad i can't put one in my 2006 mac pro

From my understandings ATI put both 32 bit & 64 bit drivers on their 4870 video card. Thus it will work on yours, mine & others 2006 Intel Mac Pro. this same bit of information indicated that the Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 will only work in the 2008 & 2009 versions of the Intel Mac Pro. No 32 bit drivers (support for the 2006 Intel Mac Pro.)

The Nvidia card has the advantage of not having the Mini DisplayPort connector, thus saving $99 for an adapter. Any new screens I purchase will be at least a 30" model. I was hoping for a 42" model with 3840 X 2400 resolution. But the change to LCD back lighting will keep resolutions down for a few years. At present I'd add an HP 30" display (can be connected to 3 or 4 Macs without using a costly DL KVM switch.) 2 to the GTX 285 card, but only 1 without an adapter to the ATI 4870 card.

[heisetax]

Nice to see Apple is pushing Mini Display Port!

No Mini Display Port=NO SALE!

For those with plenty of DL DVI standard connectors, a display port means an extra $100 to make the card work on that 2nd display. It changes a an expensive sale to a cheaper sale.

[Zerozal]

Does anyone know if the GTX285 will support OpenCL in Snow Leopard? It's not on the official list of cards, but perhaps it will be added. Surely it's capable, just a matter of Apple providing support?

[grue]

Nice to see Apple is pushing Mini Display Port!

No Mini Display Port=NO SALE!


Apple doesn't manufacture the card, they have no say in what connectors are on it.

Frankly if I had Mini DisplayPort it'd be a no-sale for me, since I don't want that piece of crap connector on my computer.

[avkills]

I may have to push for two of these for the 2 road Mac Pros at work. I need both outputs to be DVI; so having both as DVI is a bonus for me.

Mini Display port has no use for me at this time.

-mark

[myca]

Might get one of these for my efix hackintosh, and save a few pennies too. :cool:

There's news that this make of card has been (unoficially) working on Efix solutions with the mac FX4800 driver (same type of GPU) not only the GTX285 but all of the 200 series cards, be that the GTX260, GTX275, but no news on the GTX295 yet.

In fact with the announced support of the i7 platform I'm feeling a bit more happy about going the efix route in the firstplace.

It's pretty good that 3rd party card makers such as EVGA are making mac cards though, if a couple of other third parties like GigaByte, Asus, BFG and whoever else follow suit it should bring the prices down, which should be great for everyone. Maybe the GPU drought that the macintosh platform has suffered from for so long may be coming to an end.

[mklos]

For those with plenty of DL DVI standard connectors, a display port means an extra $100 to make the card work on that 2nd display. It changes a an expensive sale to a cheaper sale.

So?

It still =NO SALE!

[mklos]

Apple doesn't manufacture the card, they have no say in what connectors are on it.

Frankly if I had Mini DisplayPort it'd be a no-sale for me, since I don't want that piece of crap connector on my computer.

Its actually a better connector than DVI, but to each his own.....

[myca]

Its actually a better connector than DVI, but to each his own.....

Maybe, unless you want to hook it up to a 30" display without shelling out for a dongle and using up a USB port.

But once the displayport thing takes off fully things should improve, you never know Apple might allow audio to go through it too like the spec suggests, should stop all the "I want HDMI" wining. :D

[Mac Kiwi]

Why is there no 2GB version of the same card like the PC ones?.......I also note the 2G PC one is about the same price.


http://www.evga.com/products/prodlist.asp?


I want as much on board memory as possible for throwing polys around in Mud,zbrush etc...

[myca]

Why is there no 2GB version of the same card like the PC ones?.......I also note the 2G PC one is about the same price.


http://www.evga.com/products/prodlist.asp?


I want as much on board memory as possible for throwing polys around in Mud,zbrush etc...

If someone can flash the rom onto other cards that could solve that problem, and some money. I never followed the 4870 rom flashing thread, so I'm not sure if anyone had any joy with that GPU.

[Transeau]

How do these two cards and Computers compare ripping a movie to AppleTV using Handbrake in speed?

Does the 8800 have h.264 encoding?

My Mac Pro rips a 2 hour DVD and does high quality h.264 using Handbrake in about 3 to 4 hours.

My PC using "Badaboom" encoder (nVidia CUDA based encoding) on the GTX275 will rip and encode h.264 in about 30 minutes.

The 8800, in the same PC is about 1 to 1.5 hours.

[myca]

My Mac Pro rips a 2 hour DVD and does high quality h.264 using Handbrake in about 3 to 4 hours.

My PC using "Badaboom" encoder (nVidia CUDA based encoding) on the GTX275 will rip and encode h.264 in about 30 minutes.

The 8800, in the same PC is about 1 to 1.5 hours.

Those are some seriously nice numbers.

/Crosses fingers hoping a Logic update will offload to the GPU, or 2.

[cgc]

Thank you Apple for not supporting us 2006 MacPro users...I have an upgradable Mac that has no (new) video card upgrades...how long til my nVidia 8800 becomes obsolete (if not already)?

[mbene12]

My Mac Pro rips a 2 hour DVD and does high quality h.264 using Handbrake in about 3 to 4 hours. Really? is that using all 8 cores? I havent seen anything over an hour personally.

I am quite happy they are shipping this card, I feared a mac version would be vaporware. The 8800GT in my early 2008 pro died about 2 weeks back. The ONLY option other than waiting 10 days and paying and extra $100 installation on top of the $250 replacement 880 was to drop a $150 GT120 in there for the moment. I did that and it works...but nothing like it used to. Noticeable delays in all aspects. Ordered the 285 today, says they will deliver the 26th.

On a side note, is there any point (or is it even possible!) to keep the 120 for driving a second monitor? I know that when I had a 30" and a 24" connected to the 8800 the performance dropped somewhat relative to only having the 30" connected.

[Transeau]

Really? is that using all 8 cores? I havent seen anything over an hour personally.

No, that's using all 4 cores.
You have 2x more processors than me, and much more memory bandwidth.

[doctor-don]

Why is there no 2GB version of the same card like the PC ones?.......I also note the 2G PC one is about the same price.


http://www.evga.com/products/prodlist.asp?


I want as much on board memory as possible for throwing polys around in Mud,zbrush etc...

Evidently the 2 GB model -EVGA GeForce GTX 285 Video Card - 2GB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0, SLI Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV - Model: 02G-P3-1185-AR - $404.99 (sold by Tiger) and $399.99 (EVGA) - will work only in a PC, not Mac Pro.

How much difference would be seen in editing photos using the 1 GB 285 card compared to the 512 MB 8800? My Mac Pro has 8 GB RAM now (soon will be 12 GB).

[Sehnsucht]

I had the opportunity just today to use a Lenovo Thinkpad with a 1GB Quadro FX card. Beastly, but also HEAVY and HOT. The battery in it alone probably weighed more than my MacBook Pro. :p

Someone mentioned ATI cards, and I agree that we need to have a better selection of these for Macs. AMD's CPUs suck, but they can make good graphics cards and have always had better Mac support.

[PCMacUser]

How much difference would be seen in editing photos using the 1 GB 285 card compared to the 512 MB 8800? My Mac Pro has 8 GB RAM now (soon will be 12 GB).

I would say probably none. Although CS4 is able to utilise the GPU, you'd have to be editing truly massive images to see a difference. But I'm basing this all on assumption...

[AidenShaw]

I had the opportunity just today to use a Lenovo Thinkpad with a 1GB Quadro FX card. Beastly, but also HEAVY and HOT. The battery in it alone probably weighed more than my MacBook Pro. :p

Choice is good.

I need to test different laptops as part of my job, so at any point in time I'll have a number of them around - most of them configured with VPN and whatever so that any one can be my "main" laptop.

On one recent trip I took two of them. My Dell Latitude XT2 multi-touch Windows 7 tablet - beautiful, small, under 4 lbs. And a Lenovo T61p behemoth - big, heavy, but a fast dual 64-bit CPU and a 1920x1200 screen.

The XT2 was in my carry-on, and its 6 hour battery got me across the country. The Lenovo was checked, but its big screen (pixel-wise) and fast CPU quickly crunched the CPU/memory intensive tasks that I needed to do. If I had a system that weighed another kilo and was quad core - I would have brought that.

Choice is good. I'm happy that my small everyday laptop weighs less than the battery in the workhorse. I'm happy that I have both.

You have no "choice" with Apple. It's Steve's way, or the highway. Maybe someday Apple will realize how many potential customers are taking the highway. Maybe someday Apple will show Steve the highway....

[iEdd]

VERY telling that this does not include a mini displayport.

Or more likely, full-size DisplayPort. Mini DP is just for laptops where space is an issue, and used only by Apple so far, as they developed the spec.

I hate the fact that they actually made a monitor that uses Mini DP**, they should've made it have a proper DP and a DVI input, then included both a mini-DP to DP (with sound) and a DP to DVI adaptor with all laptops, but hey, ****ing people around to score an extra $30 or so for every laptop seems like the go these days. :rolleyes:

**Then again, it is a such a cheap, consumer style screen that you wouldn't want to use it with a Mac Pro anyway.

[LurchNC]

My Mac Pro rips a 2 hour DVD and does high quality h.264 using Handbrake in about 3 to 4 hours.


Something's got to be wrong here. I do a 2 hour movie with the legacy Apple TV preset in about 35 mins. The iPhone preset runs me about 15 mins. I have an 8 core 2008, but still. You must be using a lot higher preset or something?

Edit: I just ran a test and the Matrix (2 hours and 16 mins) looks like will take ~38 mins with the legacy ATV preset.

[dusanv]

Thats why I stick to ATI cards. They all have both EFI32 and EFI64 ROMs. Nvidia could easily do this too, but choose not to. I've had nothing but bad experiences with Nvidia cards anyways. 4870 here I come!
Totally. Machine won't boot without driver installed (not an issue with ATI), no EFI32, worse drivers. I'll stick with ATI (got a 4870 already, just need to plug it in).

[Sehnsucht]

You have no "choice" with Apple. It's Steve's way, or the highway. Maybe someday Apple will realize how many potential customers are taking the highway. Maybe someday Apple will show Steve the highway....

Once Teh Jobs is gone, I'm *hoping* Apple will figure out that people buy Macs for the OS, not for how orgasmically "thin and light" they are. Then perhaps they'll make the MacBook Pro thicker so there'll be room for a dedicated graphics card. I don't want/expect/need Apple to roll out 15 different models/shapes/sizes like Dell or Lenovo...all I want is the Quadro FX for my Maya work.

I have the "orgasmically thin and light" 15" MBP, and while three of mine stacked up are still thinner than my friend's Dell XPS (:D) his dedicated NVIDIA card beats mine rather solidly.

[winterspan]

In most benchmarks, the 4870 offers no advantage over the 8800.

What benchmarks are you referring to?

The 4870 is far more powerful than *any* 8800 in most 3D games on windows at least --- it mostly beats the Nvidia GTX 260.

The 4870 is also faster in Mac OpenGL stuff, like the Pro apps.

Finally, for future OpenCL/GPGPU, the 4870 has twice the raw computational power. Here is an example:


Nvidia Tesla C870GPU (Based on optimized G80/8800GTX)
518 Gigaflops (FP32)
40 Gigaflops (FP64*)

RV770 stream card (Based on Radeon 4870)
1200 Teraflops (FP32)
240 Gigaflops (FP64*)


* And if you noticed, the ATI card has a far better single-precision to double-precision performance ratio. And even the beastly new Tesla card based on the 240-core GTX285 is very powerful in raw computation, it too can only muster 75 Gflops in double precision, 3X less than the far smaller 4870

[powersurge]

If apple continues to offer video card upgrades for the Mac Pro at a nice pace maybe I will consider it as my next desktop pc. I've really enjoyed my MBP being able to run Windows and OSX is great. Best of both worlds. :)

Yeah I know its not a gaming desktop pc its a workstation but you can't swap video cards in the iMac :D

[mattlong1978]

You can never keep everyone happy but buying a video card that A) I don't have to mess around with upgrading the ROM and B) no requirments for a display port adaptor to use with my 23" Cinema Display's to me is everything I need of course there are points against here but they don't bother me in the slightest.

Just release the damn thing's in the UK and I'll be one happy Mac user :)

[podiki]

Thank you Apple for not supporting us 2006 MacPro users...I have an upgradable Mac that has no (new) video card upgrades...how long til my nVidia 8800 becomes obsolete (if not already)?

One hell of an argument for me not to get a Mac Pro. Not as upgradeable as one would except. 2006 is not that old.

[cg0def]

That is pretty expensive. I hope the price drops soon, since this seems to be the only new card that will be available from Nvidia for a while. There is also no mini display port so you can't make it work with the LED monitor.

Pretty expensive? Look at the price of say EVGA for a similar card. It is actually the first time that I think Apple is selling upgrades at reasonable prices.

[john.burn]

One hell of an argument for me not to get a Mac Pro. Not as upgradeable as one would except. 2006 is not that old.

This is completely untrue! I have the new ATI 4870 (from Apple) sitting in my mac pro working away with no problems at all. All I did was unplug the 1900x and plug this one in, not issues, no problems, no drama. 5 Minutes work.

Regards,

John.

[Justinf79]

One hell of an argument for me not to get a Mac Pro. Not as upgradeable as one would except. 2006 is not that old.

This is what I've been thinking about regarding Mac Pros lately. :(

[cg0def]

I was using apple store chat and they told me that there were external graphics cards tht go through the express card... Where do i get them and what is the performance like?

Sorry if I'm repeating what someone else wrote ( don't have time to go though a 100 posts ) but I think they were referring to this

http://www.magma.com/products/pciexpress/expressbox1/index.html

I've head that the company is working on a way of connecting a "double wide" video card to the box but I have no idea of you can do that atm. You should keep in mind that regardless of what card you connect you are still going though a 1x bus so if you are looking for performance this is not the solution. Plus the box alone costs like $800.

[Mac Kiwi]

Heres hoping this release makes EVGA look at releasing more cards in the future.


I also would love a quadro,but not the most expensive model in the lineup.A fireGL would also be nice.


Maybe the market share growth has some companies re thinking Mac releases.

[slackpacker]

I just got the GTX 285 Yesterday. Ordered it on Apples site on Wednesday overnight shipping.

You have to install the Driver first which is a 5 second process. This is because OS X 1.5.7 does not have the updated Nvidia Driver install. This is not a big deal.... why even post about it as a negative?

The winner in this post was the guy who stated that the card was not on Apple's OpenCL list.... Its an Nvidia card genius of course Its OpenCL compatible 100%.

The GTX is fast. All of you are posting about Barefeats.... but did you even look at the Benchmarks he has on the website. It shows the GTX 285 handily bests ever other graphics Card on the Mac.

1- The Card is Very Quiet. My previous card the 8800 GT was a very noisy card. I barely hear the GTX 285

2- I play ARMA II on Bootcamp. This is a Military simulator that brought the 8800 GT to its knees. I could not run the game with all the graphics options on and still get 30 fps. I now can turn up all the options to VERY HIGH as well as up my screen resolution and still I am above 30 FPS.

3- The Card has 1GB of Video memory.... Its the most VRAM in any consumer card that has been released for the Mac and yet we complain about " where's the 2 GB version" Are you kidding me....its one friggin GB!

So far I am VERY happy. The GTX 285 is MUCH MUCH faster than my 8800 GT...
:apple:

[iPhoneNYC]

Wold this be an improvement for FCP?

[slackpacker]

Totally. Machine won't boot without driver installed (not an issue with ATI), no EFI32, worse drivers. I'll stick with ATI (got a 4870 already, just need to plug it in).

I have to say this.... Are you kidding?!.....SO WHAT! you have to install a new driver... Basically your saying ATI uses the same OLD driver. Where the Nvidia is getting the latest Graphics updates that are available. I'm not going to get into an ATI vs Nvidia war but its clear you want to start one since having a Driver to install apparently the end of the world.

[slackpacker]

Wold this be an improvement for FCP?

I have not tested FCP yet but I don't think its going to make a difference. FCP really does not use the graphics card for anything. Motion I'm sure will be much faster.

[meeksdigital]

No, that's using all 4 cores.
You have 2x more processors than me, and much more memory bandwidth.

yeah, i was gonna say man, on my 8c 2.8 early 2008 mac pro i am seeing high quality handbrake rips of full length DVDs in about 25 minutes, 35 tops with the 8800GT

I'm really stoked to get my hands on a GTX 285. Should be bitchin' for FinalCut Pro, eh?

[avkills]

I have not tested FCP yet but I don't think its going to make a difference. FCP really does not use the graphics card for anything. Motion I'm sure will be much faster.

Actually you are wrong, FCP does use the graphics card for transitions and effects; and also embedded Motion projects within sequences.

Hardware encode/decode of H.264 once Snow Leopard is out is going to be a big deal; hopefully Apple does not shaft the people who have bought this card.

-mark

[mbene12]

Lol, how are people getting their cards already? I ordered it the second I saw this article and they are projecting a June 26th ship date. Has it been on stealth sale for 2 weeks or more? I swear I checked about 10 days back.

[Mac Kiwi]

3- The Card has 1GB of Video memory.... Its the most VRAM in any consumer card that has been released for the Mac and yet we complain about " where's the 2 GB version" Are you kidding me....its one friggin GB
:apple:

If your happy with 1GB then more power to ya,but some of us could quite easily use 2GB,thats not to say I will probably not buy one myself,but a lot of high end 3d sculpting apps like Mudbox for instance would use 1GB and more no problem.

[Digitalclips]

Gr8 card!... but...

But, no mini Display Port.

I have a Mac Pro '08, currently with the 8800 GT. This card is perfect except in X-Plane 9.
And, TBO.... I expected the GTX 285 would by far outperform the ATi 4870.
According to Barefeats (http://www.barefeats.com/nehal11.html) the difference between the two in X-Plane is not that much (see attached pic)... other games a bit more, but those perform well enough anyway (even on the 8800 GT, let alone the 4870)

As I would love the Apple 24" LED display, and X-Plane is the game which needs the horespower most, and seeing the price difference.. AND I saw on the Apple US Store reviews this:



That is very annoying.... :mad:

Snow Leopard will end that, but that's 3 months away....

I think I will go for the Radeon 4870 with 24" LED Display. :)

I came to the conclusion a long time ago that X-Plane is badly written. When I got the Mac Pro Octo 8 GIGs RAM and GT 8800 it was the top of the line and X-Plane ran terribly. The messages about having too many options came up even with the standard set up! I gave up on it out of frustration after upgrading to v9 and it things got even worse.

[Digitalclips]

One hell of an argument for me not to get a Mac Pro. Not as upgradeable as one would except. 2006 is not that old.

Not for a Mac agreed but most PC users would be on the next machine by three years as their 'old' one would cost more to fix than replace.

[Maury]

Not true, according to BareFeats tests on release of the 2009 Mac Pro with the 4870, they are quite close. Previous to this, the ATi had the edge over Nvidia for pro apps, but not as far as your suggesting.

Really? When I look at the benches here:

http://www.barefeats.com/nehal11.html

Halo, Prey and ET:QW run almost twice as fast, CoD becomes playable at full res, and the worst case scenario is XPlane, which is still >5% faster. It's pretty clear this card crushes the 4870 for gaming.

Maury

[Maury]

Really? is that using all 8 cores? I havent seen anything over an hour personally.

Nor me, I generally encode at 2x realtime. Something is wrong with this user's settings. Manual poking about in the high-profile settings perhaps?

Maury

[Maury]

Once Teh Jobs is gone, I'm *hoping* Apple will figure out that people buy Macs for the OS, not for how orgasmically "thin and light" they are.

That is why the buy them.

I challenge you to test this: what are the statistics on how many Mac owners even know what the name of their OS is?

Maury

[ph0rk]

must resist...

[pilotError]

EVGA already posted an update to the driver. At least they seem interested in supporting the card!

From xlr8yourmac.com:


EVGA posts Mac GTX 285 Driver Update (F16) - EVGA has posted a 18.5.2f16 (FTP download) driver update for the GTX 285 for Mac Pros. I consider this a very good sign to have driver updates released so quickly (rather than having to wait for an OS X version update).
I've updated my earlier review of the GTX 285 (page 2 and page 3) to include some re-tests with the F16 driver. (I'd previously added GLview OpenGL 2.0 results vs the GL 2.1 tests.)
The F16 driver update did improve performance in some tests (like Prey and COD4). COD4 (v1.7.1) performance was up about 10% or so, but at the 1920x1200 limits of my display the ATI 4870 still delivered higher FPS with this dual 2.66 system. (ATI just seems better optimized for that game currently - at least more efficient at other than extreme resolutions (2560x1600) where the 512MB vram/lesser GPUs run out of breath.)



FTP Download

ftp://ftp.evga.com/Driver/MAC285_2F16.dmg

[MacsRgr8]

I came to the conclusion a long time ago that X-Plane is badly written. When I got the Mac Pro Octo 8 GIGs RAM and GT 8800 it was the top of the line and X-Plane ran terribly. The messages about having too many options came up even with the standard set up! I gave up on it out of frustration after upgrading to v9 and it things got even worse.

I have the same Mac, and share the frustrations.. it's just I want to be able to play it nicely... :(
One thing I read somewhere, is that X-Plane uses just one core. It's loading the textures that can be multi-cored IIRC, but that doesn't really help the FPS during heavy scenery at the airport.

I really had hoped that the 1 GB of VRAM on the GTX 285 would help X-Plane A LOT... but, sadly, according to Barefeats, it doesn't.
As I had said, the performance difference between the 4870 and the GTX 285 running X-Plane 9 is too small to justify me to buy a card without Mini DisplayPort, and giving me headaches if I want to reinstall Mac OS X Leopard... :mad:

So, IMHO the 4870 is the better bang for your buck overall, and in 2010 I will be buying a new Mac Pro anyway, so we'll see which 1 GB (or more) VRAM grfx card is best by then. ;)

[Sehnsucht]

That is why they buy them.

I challenge you to test this: what are the statistics on how many Mac owners even know what the name of their OS is?

Maury

We say "Mac oh-es-ten."

My PC friends call it "Mac oh-es-ex."

'Nuff said. ;)

[dusanv]

I have to say this.... Are you kidding?!.....SO WHAT! you have to install a new driver... Basically your saying ATI uses the same OLD driver. Where the Nvidia is getting the latest Graphics updates that are available. I'm not going to get into an ATI vs Nvidia war but its clear you want to start one since having a Driver to install apparently the end of the world.

It's a hassle. And what happens if your hard drive dies and you have to reinstall or restore from backups. You'll need another card to do that because GTX 285 doesn't boot without drivers. Hassle. BTW, ATI isn't using the same old driver, it's the 4870 itself (it'll boot without a driver, VESA mode I believe).

[Lord Blackadder]

The biggest news here is that we have a quality third-party vendor selling an upper mid-end GPU for the Mac Pro. That is very good news. The price markup issue is still there, and it remains to be seen how often EVGA will update its product "lineup" (if one card can be called a lineup). Hopefully we won't be stuck with the same card for one and a half to two years at a stretch as with ATI's retail offerings...

...but I don't want to sound pessimistic. Hopefully this is the beginning of a growing trend. As long as Apple's market share keeps increasing more vendors will show interest in this.

[xVeinx]

The biggest news here is that we have a quality third-party vendor selling an upper mid-end GPU for the Mac Pro. That is very good news. The price markup issue is still there, and it remains to be seen how often EVGA will update its product "lineup" (if one card can be called a lineup). Hopefully we won't be stuck with the same card for one and a half to two years at a stretch as with ATI's retail offerings...

...but I don't want to sound pessimistic. Hopefully this is the beginning of a growing trend. As long as Apple's market share keeps increasing more vendors will show interest in this.

EVGA has been "serving" the gaming community for a while now, going out of their way to design graphics with waterblocks, special PCBs to increase performance (or in the case of the GTX 295, put both cores on one PCB), and design solid motherboards. With only a couple of exceptions, they have had solid bios/driver support for both graphics and motherboards. If the mac community makes it worth their time, EVGA will go out of their way to bring the best support they can.

[slackpacker]

It's a hassle. And what happens if your hard drive dies and you have to reinstall or restore from backups. You'll need another card to do that because GTX 285 doesn't boot without drivers. Hassle. BTW, ATI isn't using the same old driver, it's the 4870 itself (it'll boot without a driver, VESA mode I believe).

Touche.... only with the current OS though.

[Lord Blackadder]

If the mac community makes it worth their time, EVGA will go out of their way to bring the best support they can.

Yes, EVGA has a high reputation - hopefully both they and Apple will be able to work together to give us more powerful, regularly updated and reasonably priced video cards in the future. We all know how Apple likes to have strict control over the hardware that goes into its machines, but I think this is one area where Apple can benefit by relying on the third party manufacturers to produce the goods.

I probably would not hesitate to buy this card if I was in the market for a Mac Pro (and I hopefully will be in the next year). The price is still a little high and I've been more of an ATI user, but I want to support this move by EVGA.

[OneShotos]

Did you know that you could just move your GT120 to another slot and not use it. If you have to reinstall the software all you have to do is just move the monitor cable! :D

[Mike Teezie]

Ordered.

Looking forward to popping it into my 2008 Mac Pro.

[yadmonkey]

Is this card going to support OpenCL? It's conspicuously absent from the list in this story (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/06/10/snow-leopard-h-264-hardware-acceleration-and-opencl-requirements/).

[Black107]

Lol, how are people getting their cards already? I ordered it the second I saw this article and they are projecting a June 26th ship date. Has it been on stealth sale for 2 weeks or more? I swear I checked about 10 days back.

I ordered mine at about 1am on Friday and as of 930am today, its already loaded into the fedex truck near the destination.

I had a projected delivery date of July 1st, but I expect it'll be at the door on monday if its already listed as "out for delivery" on FedEx's site.

[TuffLuffJimmy]

We say "Mac oh-es-ten."

My PC friends call it "Mac oh-es-ex."

'Nuff said. ;)

For the last time it's pronounced Mac Oh Sex.

[powers74]

I just nabbed an octo-core yesterday, no wonder he gave me the 4870 for $10.

[MorphingDragon]

I dont care about this OpenGL crippled crap. Give me a QuadroFX!!!

[EmperorDarius]

I dont care about this OpenGL crippled crap. Give me a QuadroFX!!!

Wouldn't this do:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_quadro_fx_4800_for_mac_us.html
?

[icyderguru]

Hi,

could somebody please try the new Card in BoinxTV 1280x720 and 1920x1080.

Because BoinxTV is heavily GPU depended it should make a big difference.

http://www.boinx.com/download/

[jade44V]

I'm planning to buy a Mac Pro in the next month, and trying to figure out which graphics card would be best for my purposes. I know there are plenty of threads discussing this already but I haven't seen one that debates the subject based on my specific needs- which are Cinema 4D and After Effects mainly.

Anyone have an opinion on which is better, the ATI Radeon HD 4870 512mb or the GeForce GTX 285- or is there a better option out there for the latest Mac Pro that isn't offered on Apple's website?

I'm using a 24" Apple monitor with it, probably won't be upgrading to the 30" so that's not a factor.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[EmperorDarius]

I'm planning to buy a Mac Pro in the next month, and trying to figure out which graphics card would be best for my purposes. I know there are plenty of threads discussing this already but I haven't seen one that debates the subject based on my specific needs- which are Cinema 4D and After Effects mainly.

Anyone have an opinion on which is better, the ATI Radeon HD 4870 512mb or the GeForce GTX 285- or is there a better option out there for the latest Mac Pro that isn't offered on Apple's website?

I'm using a 24" Apple monitor with it, probably won't be upgrading to the 30" so that's not a factor.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Both will be fine for your needs. The GTX will be more powerful though. The ultimate GPU is the Quadro FX 4800 (available here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_quadro_fx_4800_for_mac_us.html), though it costs much more than the other GPUs.

[jade44V]

Thank you! I didn't know about that one.

[StructAural]

Thank you Apple for not supporting us 2006 MacPro users...I have an upgradable Mac that has no (new) video card upgrades...how long til my nVidia 8800 becomes obsolete (if not already)?

Tell me about it, last time I put down that sort of cash for something that's non-upgradeable within 2 years (I bought my 8-core in July 2007). Cheers Jobs, ya big jobbie. Lets see what the flashers and hackers can do for us...

[Digitalclips]

I have the same Mac, and share the frustrations.. it's just I want to be able to play it nicely... :(
One thing I read somewhere, is that X-Plane uses just one core. It's loading the textures that can be multi-cored IIRC, but that doesn't really help the FPS during heavy scenery at the airport.

I really had hoped that the 1 GB of VRAM on the GTX 285 would help X-Plane A LOT... but, sadly, according to Barefeats, it doesn't.
As I had said, the performance difference between the 4870 and the GTX 285 running X-Plane 9 is too small to justify me to buy a card without Mini DisplayPort, and giving me headaches if I want to reinstall Mac OS X Leopard... :mad:

So, IMHO the 4870 is the better bang for your buck overall, and in 2010 I will be buying a new Mac Pro anyway, so we'll see which 1 GB (or more) VRAM grfx card is best by then. ;)

I wonder if Snow Leopard will help X-Plane at all?

[CaptSaltyJack]

Totally p***ed off that Apple completely discontinued the 8800GT card. I have a 1st generation (2007) Mac Pro and I'm completely left in the dust now that the new GTX is out. Where can I get an 8800GT for my MP?

[myca]

Totally p***ed off that Apple completely discontinued the 8800GT card. I have a 1st generation (2007) Mac Pro and I'm completely left in the dust now that the new GTX is out. Where can I get an 8800GT for my MP?

Doesn't the 4870 work on the earlier MacPro models, or doesn't it support them?

I can only remember some confusion over which models it would support.

[Digital Fury]

Totally p***ed off that Apple completely discontinued the 8800GT card. I have a 1st generation (2007) Mac Pro and I'm completely left in the dust now that the new GTX is out. Where can I get an 8800GT for my MP?Through European Apple Stores, we have boatloads of them, as apparently we can't be bothered with the GTX 285 and have to stick with 2nd rate components. Guess I'm going to have to go through a PC version of a GTX 285 for my 2008 Mac Pro and leverage the Hackintosh community work; that's another win for crappple.

[myca]

Through European Apple Stores, we have boatloads of them, as apparently we can't be bothered with the GTX 285 and have to stick with 2nd rate components. Guess I'm going to have to go through a PC version of a GTX 285 for my 2008 Mac Pro and leverage the Hackintosh community work; that's another win for crappple.

Ouch, and the 8800 GT is still £166 in the UK, which is about twice as much as a PC 9800 GT (same card more or less, just rebranded).

Does say in the UK that it's shipping in 3-4 months though :confused:

Hmm, the GTX260 'core 216' I just ordered for my hackintosh build was only £130, heres hoping that having third parties releasing GPUs for the mac brings the silly prices down to a closer level of the PC GPUs.

[ricosuave]

Totally p***ed off that Apple completely discontinued the 8800GT card. I have a 1st generation (2007) Mac Pro and I'm completely left in the dust now that the new GTX is out. Where can I get an 8800GT for my MP?

This should work for you...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/548947-REG/Apple_MB137Z_A_nVIDIA_GeForce_8800_GT.html

[CaptSaltyJack]

This should work for you...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/548947-REG/Apple_MB137Z_A_nVIDIA_GeForce_8800_GT.html

Cool.. I appreciate the thought, but that's not the right one. :) I have the 1st generation Mac Pro (2007) which does not have PCI Express 2.0.

[ricosuave]

Cool.. I appreciate the thought, but that's not the right one. :) I have the 1st generation Mac Pro (2007) which does not have PCI Express 2.0.

Sorry,

I thought this card would work. Is this card not backwards compatible? I was looking into purchasing this very one once SL comes out.

[CaptSaltyJack]

Nope..be careful with the 8800 GT. It comes in two flavors, one is PCI Express 2.0 for 2008+ Mac Pros, and the other is PCI Express 1.x for 2006/2007 Mac Pros (1st generation).

8800 GT for 1st generation Mac Pro: model # is MB560Z/A
8800 GT for 2nd gen Mac Pro w/ PCI Express 2.0: model # is MB137Z/A

[MPQholygrail]

Just to clarify, are all of you bent on using your video cards for games in OS X? I recently found out that most games are not written to utilized OS X code. Most games such as EVE online and a handful of other games utilize a program called Cider that actually wraps API calls from the windows based code and translates them to OS X.(TransGaming) Essentially, your getting emulation crap. I would argue to run these games it would suit you better to bootcamp into vista or XP. For video cards, theorectally it is possible to install any video card PCIe 1.0 (which account for most PC cards as they are) as long as you have your Mac compatible video card plugged in.(MacRumurs, 7800 GT). Thus you can purchase say a 250 GTX and install it as it doesn't require as much power as the other cards.(Nvidia, 250 GTX). The power connector is one 6 pin connector that can be purchased through WeLoveMacs. (MacRumurs, PCI Express Power). I believe this setup would cost you less than purchasing a newer card from apple. I am sure there are other types of software hacks in order to have these cards flashed and working with OS X; however, I believe that is more of a hassle and could lead to a mess. Coming from a Generic X86 Architecture I can honestly say I enjoy spending more time looking at my monitor using the computer than inside the case. I hope this information has helped and If I am incorrect with any information please let me know.


"GeForce GTS 250." Welcome to NVIDIA - World Leader in Visual Computing Technologies. 18 June 2009 <http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gts_250_us.html>.

Slughead. "'The Deal' On Mac Pro Video Card Compatibility - Mac Forums." Mac Forums - Mac News and Rumor Discussion. 18 June 2009 <http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=231318>.

"TransGaming Inc.." TransGaming Inc.. 18 June 2009 <http://www.transgaming.com/business/cider/>.


aiongiont. "Pci express power cable for Mac - Mac Forums." Mac Forums - Mac News and Rumor Discussion. 18 June 2009 <http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=253977>.
:apple:

[icyderguru]

Nope..be careful with the 8800 GT. It comes in two flavors, one is PCI Express 2.0 for 2008+ Mac Pros, and the other is PCI Express 1.x for 2006/2007 Mac Pros (1st generation).

8800 GT for 1st generation Mac Pro: model # is MB560Z/A
8800 GT for 2nd gen Mac Pro w/ PCI Express 2.0: model # is MB137Z/A

Nope same cards, different firmware. You can flash them yourself.

[CaptSaltyJack]

Nope same cards, different firmware. You can flash them yourself.

Are you positive? You're saying I can buy the PCI Express 2.0 version and flash it to work with my 1st gen Mac Pro? Got a link to any instructions on how to do this??

[ricosuave]

Are you positive? You're saying I can buy the PCI Express 2.0 version and flash it to work with my 1st gen Mac Pro? Got a link to any instructions on how to do this??

I would be very interested to know more facts about this. Anybody have any info?

[icyderguru]

I see you are having doubts, but i speak the truth. :p
In my experience evga 8800gt cards also had 128kb romchips onboard (which is the only thing that matters), so you could go for the cheaper evga instead. Since you can only buy it used now you have the advantage to check it if you find a kind seller.

On a sidenote, somebody please dump the GTX 285 Mac Rom using nvflash. :eek:

[Drag'nGT]

Not possible.

It remains to be seen if Snow Leopard will let us, though.

Could one speculate that this would then allow the MBPs to run both graphics cards at the same time or are they limited by the hardware and not just the software?

[keithOrbit]

I will buy it when buy macpro

[CaptSaltyJack]

Nobody has instructions on how to flash these cards?

[The Rominator]

Nobody has instructions on how to flash these cards?

Acres of them in "Mac Pro,Power Mac" section.

[iAlexG]

I would love to dedicate more RAM to my 9400M but I hear the max is 256mb