I don't know much about ATI cards. How much better (than the mutant 8800GTSXyz, or whatever) would those cards be in an iMac? Are those cards realistically possible for iMac, or would they keep them Mac pro only?
The current 8800GS in the iMac is actually a mobile chip, the 8800M GTS. This is probably due to power and heat. The iMac chip is of course not upgradable. Any refresh for future iMac models will have to wait for the mobility radeon 4850 which can probably fit thermally, but ATI hasn't released it yet. Since the mobility versions aren't out there's no way to tell the performance increase, but it'll probably be significant.I don't know much about ATI cards. How much better (than the mutant 8800GTSXyz, or whatever) would those cards be in an iMac? Are those cards realistically possible for iMac, or would they keep them Mac pro only?
I don't think Apple released CUDA 2.0 for nVidia, rather nVidia released CUDA 2.0 for Apple. But yeah, even if OpenCL is open and cross-compatible, they may need to hurry up with it otherwise CUDA will get too entrenched.Mac 13 said:Oh I see but Apple made CUDA 2.0 kit download available recently. I can't wait what Nvidia and Apple have going on.
The issue is not whether the 4870X2 is available, but it is whether Crossfire is available for Mac since all X2 cards require it. It may be lack of ATI support or Apple support or maybe both for Crossfire for Mac, but if they ever allow it they'll probably wait to add it to Snow Leopard's feature list.OS X Dude said:Great - even more cards giving sub-par performance. You'd think Apple would have the best cards as a BTO in the Mac Pro at least. ATi 4870 X2 would make a sweet video editing and gaming rig in that.
However, nVidia > ATi IMO - nVidia are always producing faster PC cards than ATi and the 4870 X2 is a one-off win for them.
Any chance any of these parts could be used to update the iMac?
The current 8800GS in the iMac is actually a mobile chip, the 8800M GTS. This is probably due to power and heat. The iMac chip is of course not upgradable. Any refresh for future iMac models will have to wait for the mobility radeon 4850 which can probably fit thermally, but ATI hasn't released it yet. Since the mobility versions aren't out there's no way to tell the performance increase, but it'll probably be significant.
I don't think Apple released CUDA 2.0 for nVidia, rather nVidia released CUDA 2.0 for Apple. But yeah, even if OpenCL is open and cross-compatible, they may need to hurry up with it otherwise CUDA will get too entrenched.
In terms of Photoshop, CUDA 2.0 does not accelerate Photoshop itself. However, it is possible to write third-party plug-ins for Photoshop that take advantage of CUDA 2.0 and nVidia GPUs.
The issue is not whether the 4870X2 is available, but it is whether Crossfire is available for Mac since all X2 cards require it. It may be lack of ATI support or Apple support or maybe both for Crossfire for Mac, but if they ever allow it they'll probably wait to add it to Snow Leopard's feature list.
The issue is not whether the 4870X2 is available, but it is whether Crossfire is available for Mac since all X2 cards require it. It may be lack of ATI support or Apple support or maybe both for Crossfire for Mac, but if they ever allow it they'll probably wait to add it to Snow Leopard's feature list.
That's not true at all. The 4870X2 does not require crossfire. You only need crossfire if you want to install TWO 4870X2's.
A one-off win that may go for a long time, as I doubt 55 nm GT200 is going to help NVIDIA that much.However, nVidia > ATi IMO - nVidia are always producing faster PC cards than ATi and the 4870 X2 is a one-off win for them.
Are you sure CUDA 2.0 will accelerate Photoshop itself?In regards to your Photohop/CUDA remark: yes, it will accelerate Photoshop. Stonehenge (the next version of Photoshop) offloads much of its rendering to the GPU via CUDA. We're not just talking plug-ins, we're talking the core application itself.
Yes, RV870 should be very interesting. Although I'm concerned about the 40nm process seeing that I haven't heard that TSMC's 45nm process is in production yet.iMacmatician said:A one-off win that may go for a long time, as I doubt 55 nm GT200 is going to help NVIDIA that much.
RV870 (Lil Dragon, 40 nm (), H1 2009) supposedly uses 15% less power than RV770, giving twice the performance per watt of RV770.
Are you sure CUDA 2.0 will accelerate Photoshop itself?
http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_develop.html
Because, the documentation that nVidia provides only describe how to develop plug-ins for Photoshop.
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/nvidia-cuda-photoshop,news-2436.html
And news reports only mention Photoshop plug-ins in association with CUDA 2.0 while Photoshop itself won't have GPU acceleration until Stonehenge as you mention.
It's relevant but what said is still correct. They are coming, yes. They aren't out. Even the article title has "coming" in the title. The reason I said what I said is because someone else said they are "hoping for a 4850 in the Macbook Pro". Just wanted to clarify.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=13
Well, the benchmarks I've seen show that the 4870 generally slots in between the GTX 260 and GTX 280 while the 4850 and 9800GTX+ trade blows. I believe the only time the 4870 really exceeds the GTX 280 is in Bioshock.
The 4870X2 may be a single physical card it still requires Crossfire to function as the two RV770 are internally linked via a PCIe switch. Without Crossfire on Mac, which requires ATI support, the 4870X2 will just perform as a 4870.
This may clear things up.Yes, RV870 should be very interesting. Although I'm concerned about the 40nm process seeing that I haven't heard that TSMC's 45nm process is in production yet.
Beyond3D said:Both 45nm and 40nm have always been on TSMC's roadmap, but the 45nm general-purpose node was cancelled (it likely didn't make sense to have 45G and 40G one quarter apart!) and it's very plausible that 40LP has gained more traction than initially forecast, resulting in more customers skipping 45LP. We still expect 45GS/40G GPUs in very late 2008 or early 2009.
glad to see more cards becoming available for mac
omg, you can say what you want, but when I read the first page of comments I must conclude the mediocre mac-only user knows nothing about modern graphic cards...
atm the situation in GFX-land comes down to this: the best cards out there are the GeForce GTX280, directly followed by the ATI HD4870 (which at its turn tops the GeForce 9800GTX+).
The HD4870 is a lot cheaper though, and Crossfire is delivering a much better job then SLI, so the HD4870 is considered the best choice.
What does it do? it runs Crysis at Ultra-high (at least when you take enough in 1680*1080 resolution and 2x AA ) that's what it does
Furthermore the HD4850, the somewhat lower version of the 4870, is delivering benchmarks somewhere between the GeForce 8800GT and the GeForce 9800GTX.
About the HD3870 comments: the HD3870 is only delivering about 80% of the performance the 8800GT does.
If they put it in the iMacs (which they could do, considering the price: the HD4850 as the basic version, HD4870 as an option/standard in the 24") the Mac-gaming status goes up a whole few levels.
If they also deliver CrossfireX in the MacPro, so you can use four HD4870s at once, Apple is set in the 3D world for the next year
Did you ever stop to consider WHY a mediocre Mac user doesn't know squat about high end video cards? I bet it's the same reason a mediocre PC user doesn't know squat about them either. I.E. they don't use them or come in contact with them or have a need for them.
I'm speaking of Quadro's and FireGL's, and they are near to a requirement for stable workstation apps (MCAD and such). The Quadro 5600, exceeds the requirements, and at $2800, a bit rich for most of us. Nvidia Quadro's 1700 and 3700 would be nice.
Probably just priorities. There aren't that many bleeding edge games on OS X. I believe Quake Wars is the latest, and we are waiting for Call of Duty 4, UT3, and Gears of War, but all of those are no Crysis or Assassin's Creed.On a forum dedicated to computers, in a thread dedicated to a graphcs card update, you'd at east expect some knowledge about the matter, but at the first page I see people talking about the Radeon X19800 as if it' still up-to-date.
I am active in a lot of forums about both Mac and general computerstuff, and trust me: macusers seem to have less of an idea what's the current status of the graphic hardware.
My experience so far has also shown me macusers do generally know more aboutkernels, drivers, multithreading and so on.
I have the stock ATI Radeon HD 2600.
It would be nice if there was a comparison of this card with the 4870 or 4850.
any new on iMac video card?
Also Adobe has a plug-in for photoshop supposably it would run faster with just a software update ....
But will it Blend?
Any chance any of these parts could be used to update the iMac?
glad to see more cards becoming available for mac
There is so much wrong information in this thread that I don't know where to start...