NVIDIA 8800GT Option for Older Mac Pros Soon?

[MacRumors]

With the release of the Penryn-based Mac Pros only two weeks ago, Apple introduced a new video card option for the Mac Pros -- the NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT. Existing Mac Pro owners saw this is an opportunity to upgrade from current cards as well as ailing X1900XT cards.

Despite an upgrade-kit becoming available on the Apple Store, Apple quickly contacted those who ordered the video cards to clarify that the 8800GT would only work on the most recently released Penryn Mac Pros. This led one user to jot off an angry letter to Steve Jobs who reportedly responded:

I suggest you calm down. Everyone knows the issue and it is being worked.
Steve

Today, a statement from NVIDIA's Director of PR confirmed that a fix was on the way:

the company is "in the middle of bringing out an upgrade kit based on the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT solution for all Intel-based Mac Pros." What's more, this upgrade kit "should be out in a few weeks."

Article Link

[island]

I would be very happy about this but since they are swapping my Mac Pro for the latest one, oh well :P

[Eidorian]

It's about time a we got some kind of third party video card kit for Macs. Didn't XFX say they were going to make them for the Power Mac G4 ages ago?

[Eric Lewis]

yeah! this is such good news

[knome]

yayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayay. I've wanted to get rid of my 1900 for ever. The card itself isn't that bad i just really don't like ATI's driver support. The card does pretty well in osx. I can still tell its a bottleneck, but not by much. In Vista on the other hand trying to play Crysis it is incredibly apparent. But then again that game beats the **** out of any computer.

[Nick012]

Surely the dear leader meant to say worked on...

[twoodcc]

great news! depending on price, i will probably get one for my mac pro

[ariza910]

What's with all the hostility lately toward Apple? Is it that Apple isn't doing a good enough job explaining these things or are people out for blood?

This 8800 video card -> Apple and Nvidia still working on the software for it - it just came out a few weeks ago!

iPod Touch $20 upgrade -> the $20 probably went to pay for that Skyhook service part of the Google maps

Non-removable Mac Air battery -> replacement is as easy as removing a few screws. Laptop probably had to be designed that way to get it so slim.


I am trying to give Apple the benefit of the doubt here instead of thinking there is this mass conspiracy by Apple to screw all its loyal users. What do you guys think?

Oh and where is the angry letter from the user? I would like to see what ticked Steve off enough to shoot out that response/

[shoulin333]

not like there aren't ways to make it work right now..

[Ha ze]

Originally Posted by ariza910

Oh and where is the angry letter from the user? I would like to see what would tick off Steve enough to shoot off that response/

Agreed, that would be nice to read.

[Chryx]

I'm starting to think perhaps it's not merely not supported on the older mac pro's at present because they don't have drivers for it.... which are coming in 10.5.2... in a few weeks... ?

The EFI32 / 64 excuse that was being bandied about didn't hold water for me.

[Wild-Bill]

Apple could avoid all this bad P.R. if they worked on their communication skills a bit better, instead of being silent on the whole thing.

And as far as the poster above who said "the 8800GT has only been out for a few weeks", well that just isn't correct. It's been out for about two months now. Apple has had PLENTY of time to get this card ready. The fact of the matter is, they had ZERO intention of offering an 8800GT upgrade kit for pre-2008 Mac Pro owners. They'd rather you buy an entirely new system.

Since they are no longer on the PPC platform, they are out of excuses. And I guarantee you that this "fix" coming out from nVidia was the sole result of Apple users bitching (and rightfully so) about being shut out of an upgrade path.

Apple needs to wake the hell up and realize that those games won't work anymore.

The pre-2008 Mac Pro languished for 512 days before it was updated. Apple had PLENTY of time, and quite frankly should have seen this coming. If the Mac Pro manager hasn't been fired yet, I would expect him to receive a pink slip soon.

[Lixivial]

Originally Posted by ariza910

Oh and where is the angry letter from the user? I would like to see what ticked Steve off enough to shoot out that response/

It's in the link in the original post, but here it is.

[jbernie]

Originally Posted by ariza910

What's with all the hostility lately toward Apple? Is it that Apple isn't doing a good enough job explaining these things or are people out for blood?

This 8800 video card -> Apple and Nvidia still working on the software for it - it just came out a few weeks ago!

iPod Touch $20 upgrade -> the $20 probably went to pay for that Skyhook service part of the Google maps

Non-removable Mac Air battery -> replacement is as easy as removing a few screws. Laptop probably had to be designed that way to get it so slim.


I am trying to give Apple the benefit of the doubt here instead of thinking there is this mass conspiracy by Apple to screw all its loyal users. What do you guys think?

Oh and where is the angry letter from the user? I would like to see what would tick off Steve enough to shoot off that response/

Unfortunately as the company gets bigger and more and more people buy the products you bring more and more attention to what you do. There are benifits to being a small quirky company as opposed to a market leader.

If i was to try and pin point one thing, i would go with it being the fact that Apple doesn't appear to explain some of their decisions very well. This is how it is and you the customer will take it.

The $20 update for the iPod touch. One one hand i can see them offering "services" and enhanced features so a charge is justified. On the other hand, i can see it as just a software update and that same software already exists on the iPhone, and that $20 does a very good job of blurring the price difference between the two devices.

There maybe a very good explanation for the cost, but in saying that, the non Apple fans of the world will be very unforgiving to Apple late on when it comes to upgrading. Its $x to buy plus another few $$ for this and yet more $$ for that.

[jamilecrire]

Are you going to be able to run SLI? It looks like they've got 4 PCI Express slots available.

[ungraphic]

Originally Posted by jamilecrire

Are you going to be able to run SLI? It looks like they've got 4 PCI Express slots available.

only if you have an SLI connector on the cards themselves. can anyone confirm this?

however, SLI is not supported in OS X, but it does work in windows if using hacked drivers. ive got myself a pair of 7300 GTs from apple with an asus flex sli bridge and using hacked nvidia drivers, the cards run far better than withut a bridge, and a ton faster than a single card.

furthermore, i think its pretty ridiculous for apple to ship the 7300 GTs, as they are apple branded cards, put an SLI connector on them but *not* have any SLI compatibility in OS X. Given that, why did they bother with the SLI connector on the cards?

[Mindfield]

People get to play their CS:S with 1440 x 1280 res and 8x AA via BootCamp

[Mattww]

If this news is true it is great news

All we need now is AMD/ATI to announce a retail card so we can be confident that this kind of situation won't arise again when the next generation of Mac Pro models arrive. I know AMD/ATI have had enough problems of there own but this 8800GT issue shows there is a market for aftermarket cards.

[pknz]

Just wondering if they will put a surcharge for the privilege of using the card on the older Mac Pro.

[JoeCo0611]

Why doesn't Apple create a division in their company, like BFG and XFX and the other third party Graphics card designers? Couldn't Apple purchase the nVidia and ATi's GPUs and build their graphics board around it? I would think an Apple line of graphics cards for the mac pro would be very enticing to people, now having a choice and easy way to upgrade without buying a new system.

[crazycat]

That great news indeed, i am hoping for more graphics card updates for my mac in the future. I myself have the ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB and i wonder if the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT will be faster.

[jamilecrire]

Originally Posted by pknz

Just wondering if they will put a surcharge for the privilege of using the card on the older Mac Pro.

Don't you pay a surcharge for almost anything you buy for a Mac?

BTW Arsenal FTW!

[brendon2020]

This is great news, i was actually at the apple store today and almost bought the new mac pro.

[Keebler]

i might just upgrade to this card depending on the price.
i don't game, but photoshop and final cut might be happy with me if i do

[AppleNewton]

does this mean a universal card? so say i purchase one for my 2.66ghz 2007 MacPro-Quad and i decide later down the road i want to get a new MacPro-Octo. could i swap between them?

thanks! =)