I just called them and apparently, they are not sold as standalone.
why wouldn't they?
Because most people using a Mac Pro right now who want an upgrade want a graphics upgrade and BluRay, not 4 more cores, so the incentive to buy a new Mac Pro is small if you can just get a modern graphics card to pop in your old one.
why wouldn't they?
Because most people using a Mac Pro right now who want an upgrade want a graphics upgrade and BluRay, not 4 more cores, so the incentive to buy a new Mac Pro is small if you can just get a modern graphics card to pop in your old one.
I'm going to be pretty upset if I can't just get one of these 8800 GT's and drop it in my current Mac Pro. I already have 8GB of FB-DIMMS that aren't compatible with the new Mac Pro's, theres no way I want to upgrade to a new Mac Pro just to get better graphics. Frankly I'm very satisfied with my current Mac Pro, if I can just get a better graphics card. I'm worried about the 8800 GT not being compatible for some reason. I don't care if the card costs $399, $399 is a hell of a lot cheaper than $2799 for the machine plus the costs of another 6GB of 800mhz FB-DIMMS.
PCIe v2 is backwards compatible (the difference is extra bandwidth, 32x lanes). 8800GT uses 16x lanes anyway so there's no benefit to PCIe 2.
Hope either Apple offers it at a reasonable price or someone flashes them soon...
... could I buy a less expensive "PC" 8800GT later, flash it and use it in the MacPro ?
... Anybody know how much better it is than an ATI1900XT in real life (i.e. not much gaming)?