ATI in PowerMacs

Woot!

I wish they'd give the iMacs better graphics cards. Geforce MXs just don't cut it, specially for a computer that won't be upgradeable. But then again maybe they want them to not last that long so they'll have to buy something else. *shrugs*

ummm...no

i got nothing against ATI. They make great products. But....no. Card of choice? Its not even the standard card. Not to mention, it sounds like people who are using ATI are using the 8500? Im all for good old bragging, but when advertising comes so close to a flat out lie, it kind of makes me take a step back and go, "huh?".

Actually, fitz, if you look at the origin post of this thread, and/or check the Apple online store, you will see that the G4 800MHz TOWER comes standard with the ATI 7500 card.

With ATI coming out with the 9000 Pro and 9700 video cards (for both Mac and pc) they are making a stronger showing.

Most people use the 8500 card becuase that is the top of the line from ATI. I have one inside my game pc at the moment. As soon as I can get the 9700 for it, I will. I am having my computer part supplier check on availablity dates and see what he can do for the price for me. It shouldn't be too hard for them to sell it to me for less then list, considering how much business I (and the company I work for) has given them over the past few years. I sometimes get items for myself from them at either cost (their cost) or just above it (a few percent). All to keep me coming back for more (like I would use anyone else at this time ).

huh?

I don't get it. Doesn't Nvidia whip ATI? Aren't the Latest ATI's the 9000 series? WTF? ATI 7xxx is weak right?

The 7500 card is more of a consumer level then a pro level. The 8500 rocks/kicks serious ass. The 9000 Pro and 9700 are [current] cutting edge, kicking all comers ass. At least until nVidia releases their next GPU and/or driver update/patch/fix. That is what they did when the 8500 came out (which kicked their [nVidia] ass)... They released better drivers (which should have been out long before that) just to stay competative with the 64MB 8500 card.

ATI fully supports OpenGL, as well as the next level of directX (on peecees) with their cards.

Personally, since I have never had ANY issues with ATI cards, I will continue to support them with my money. Just as I will whole heartidly support AMD for peecee processors (I'll be damned if I ever buy an intel processor).

Support the underdog, purchase products from Apple, ATI, and AMD...

Right now (well in 30 days) the 9700 will be king. I believe it is 48% faster than Nvidia's fastest. Nvidia will probably be back on top but it won't be until about Christmas. When I get my new powermac (if they ever release them) my order of priority for a graphics card is
1) ATI 9700
2) Nvidia Titanium

Ati's are good cards. I know a lot of you would like the 8500 to be standard, but its more than most need, if you need that, just throw one in. Everydody is looking for Pro machines, and for most enterprise, this is plenty pro. If your into Games or serious rendering business, your going to add more hardware anyway, thats the nature of a pro system unless its BTO.

All the while I'm reading this thread, I'm thinking of the patheticness of my ati rage 128, with 4 megs. How much does the 9700 have, 64, 128?


BTW This is my 100th post, pretty good from 30 and month ago.

eh? where's the 8500 in this picture?

the head/title of the press release (which is dated with today's date) reads:

RADEON™ 7000 and RADEON™ 7500 chosen by Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu, IBM, and Dell for new PCs

Click to expand...

Does "new PC" refer to the existing line or the coming one? Existing I guess, but as noted in a previous post, the 7500 is not the default config for most of the Powermac line. I'm assuming that will be the case with coming line of Powermacs as well. In fact, hopefully we'd see the 9000 or 9700 in the high-end boxes with the 8500 or geforce4 in the lower end. This press release seems kinda weird to me.

Originally posted by G4-Altivec
Right now (well in 30 days) the 9700 will be king. I believe it is 48% faster than Nvidia's fastest. Nvidia will probably be back on top but it won't be until about Christmas. When I get my new powermac (if they ever release them) my order of priority for a graphics card is
1) ATI 9700
2) Nvidia Titanium

Click to expand...

So Nvidia will update their graphics cards when the ATI 9700 mac edition is almost finished.

I'm using an OEM version of the ATI Radeon 8500 64MB. The OEM version is slightly slower than the original, but it cost $149 as opposed to $300.00 for the consumer version. I wonder if Apple uses the OEM version of the 7500? These versions usually have the clock speed bumped down. Does anyone know how to overclock these cards?

Where's the talk about the new matrox cards? When are they out? Its supposed to kicks some serious butt AND to support 3 monitors.

Pete

The 9000 Pro has 64MB and the 9700 has 128MB. Both the Mac and pc version of the 9000 have the 64MB, so I would wager that both of the 9700's will have 128MB.

pg, is that inside a Mac or pc???

As for the matrox cards, until we actually see them shipping, with prices, I will hold off on even thinking about them.

The new 9700 has some real serious spec's... check them out.

Isn't the Radeon 9000 Mac Edition faster than a GeForce 3, slower than a GeForce 4 Ti but about as expensive as a GeForce4 MX ?

It would make sense for apple to drop the GeForce4 MX in favour of the Radeon 9000, here's a few reasons :

1. The mid range towers and above will be fully dual display capable, you can get DVI - ADC and ADC - DVI adapters fairly cheaply and that means any G4 tower could be configured with any combination of ADC or DVI displays like the GeForce4 Ti can.

2. More choice for 3D people or just gamers, both need fast GPUs for what they want to do, a Radeon 9000 would handle perfectly acceptable framerates and look very smooth due to truform and FSAA being less of a performance hit while the GeForce4 Ti would have higher framerates but more jagged images.

3. Why pay more for a slightly faster graphics card that doesn't really offer any more than the entry level card all things concidered. You're getting faster performance than the Radeon 7500 and more features than the GeForce4 MX, the Radeon 9000 makes perfect sense as a mid range card for the towers.

Nevermind about how to overclock the ATI card. The Rage3d site has a program called Rage3D Tweak that aids in this task.

Originally posted by AlphaTech
pg, is that inside a Mac or pc???

Click to expand...

It's inside a pc that I built. I wish it was in a my Mac. My mac has PCI and no AGP. ouch! Hopefully next month I'll buy a new one.

boasting about a ati 7500 isnt really boasting about anything. the 7500 is a tweaked original radeon. Some laptops use this card now.

I would expect them to at least put a 8500/9000 in the power macs as the low end option. Its not as old or slow.

the 9700 will be out soon enough and looks to be an amazing card. But Im not sure we'll see apple offer it with the powermacs.

IT really is disappointing to see apple f*ck ppl over with using the the gf*mx series of cards.

for the same price and better performance you can get an ati card.

Originally posted by pgwalsh
Nevermind about how to overclock the ATI card. The Rage3d site has a program called Rage3D Tweak that aids in this task.

Click to expand...

You could also check http://www.xlr8yourmac.com if you really wanted to fiddle with your GPU.

Originally posted by pgwalsh
It's inside a pc that I built. I wish it was in a my Mac. My mac has PCI and no AGP. ouch! Hopefully next month I'll buy a new one.

Click to expand...

I've done both the oem and retail route for the game pc... I've had better results with the retail version. For one thing, you can get support a lot easier.

Originally posted by bevo
the 7500 is a tweaked original radeon. Some laptops use this card now.

Click to expand...

Not true... the 7500 card acutally has a new gpu (the 7500 gpu) just as the 7000, 8500, 9000, and 9700 all have different/new GPU's.

Saying that the 7500 is just a tweaked original Radeon, is like saying the gforce 4 is just a tweaked gforce 2.

not at all. sure the 7500 might be a bit different from the original radeon. a little here and there but its not completly different. The original benchmarks have it performing I guess between a gf2mx and a gf4mx now.

id say the 7500 is as different from the original radeon as the new ati 9000 is from the 8500.

and to say its like a geforce 2 to a geforce 4? thats ludicrous(sp?)


Id say if you had to compare it at all it might be geforce 3 (original) to a geforce ti500.

Listen up ya twit (word of the year ), the 7500 GPU IS a differnent GPU then used in the previous ATI cards. Just as the 8500 GPU, 9000 GPU and 9700 GPU are all different (going into the cards with the same numbers).

IF you can think back far enough, you will remember that the 7000, 7500, and 8500 ALL came out when the gf3 was the hot deal. The 8500 blew it's nuts off. Just as the 9700 will do for the current 'top end' gf cards.

In the original press release for these cards ATI refers to them as "second-generation RADEON chip and board technologies". Notice the second generation??? Where have we seen generations before?? Maybe the G3 and G4 processors??? Would you really call a G4 processor a 'tweaked' G3?? If you do, then you know less then Jack Shît.

For those that WANT to read the press release, you can find it here.

Originally posted by G4-Altivec
Right now (well in 30 days) the 9700 will be king. I believe it is 48% faster than Nvidia's fastest. Nvidia will probably be back on top but it won't be until about Christmas. When I get my new powermac (if they ever release them) my order of priority for a graphics card is
1) ATI 9700
2) Nvidia Titanium

Click to expand...

however, currently openGL uses none of the features you are really paying for with these cards. Which really makes me wonder why us mac users ever buy the real top-notch cards in the first place? money to burn? probably....

Originally posted by G4-Altivec
Right now (well in 30 days) the 9700 will be king. I believe it is 48% faster than Nvidia's fastest. Nvidia will probably be back on top but it won't be until about Christmas. When I get my new powermac (if they ever release them) my order of priority for a graphics card is
1) ATI 9700
2) Nvidia Titanium

Click to expand...

however, currently openGL uses none of the features you are really paying for with these cards. Which really makes me wonder why us mac users ever buy the real top-notch cards in the first place? money to burn? probably....