Where is the Radeon 9000??

[Bregalad]

I'm beginning to think that ATI and Apple have some secret deal that prevents ATI from selling their Radeon 9000 Pro, a retail product they announced months ago, until Apple gets an even better video card in their new machines.

The cards have been shipping for ages as an OEM product so clearly the hardware and drivers work. It's particularly suspicious because it's now December and ATI will have soon missed the Christmas buying season.

On the PC side they have the 9000, 9000 Pro, 9500, 9500 Pro, 9700, 9700 Pro and 9700DV All-In-Wonder. We've got nothing.

Anybody out there have information on the matter? I'm sure tens of thousands of us are in the market for a card that'll take full advantage of Quartz Extreme.

Speaking of that untapped market, where are the Mac compatible GeForce cards? It makes me sick to see obsolete crap like the 2MX going for $150 on eBay when I can get a brand new 4MX 440 for my PC from any of a dozen manufacturers for less than $80.

 

[MrMacMan]

I'm not sugesting anything illegal now but you could always *cough* Flash the card *cough*.
Sure apple doesn't mean to hold the cards away from us, but sometimes people just don't get things out fast enough. Maybe sometime near Christmas.
:Checks Calander: HOLY!

 

[4409723]

To answer your question, the Radeon 9000 pro is sitting in my powermac right now. ;-)

$600 anyone, like the black market isn't it?

 

[chewbaccapits]

Originally posted by MrMacman
I'm not sugesting anything illegal now but you could always *cough* Flash the card *cough*.....

:Checks Calander: HOLY!

what does that mean..please tell......

 

[solvs]

What I'm wondering is, where is the 9700 for Macs? I've seen the 9000 listed by retailers (probably just hard to find right now; very popular, who knows how many have been distributed and to where), but I haven't even heard a peep about the 9700. Are they even making one for us, or do we have to wait until the new NVidia chip?

Anybody?


Or is that what you meant?

 

[TMJ1974]

No time soon

I spoke to ATI today and they said the retail versions will not come out anytime soon.

Unfortunately, I may have to give in and get the GeForce 4 Ti

I've seen a couple 9000Pro on eBay, but for like $175. The retail price is suppose to be $149.

Tim

 

[@HomeNow]

Dont hold your breath

more Vaper ware by ATI. If they wanted to release it, it would be out. They have already done the R&D for it with the Apple OEM card, its just a matter of modifying it for retail, ie. VGA, DVI and SVideo. The fact that it is not out yet just means that they want to get more sales out of the aging, and more expensive 8500 card rather than sell a less expensive card to a limited market.

 

[wymer100]

The problem with the release of the mac 9700 is actually a driver development problem. When the 9700 was officially announced, the mac ATI driver team quietly spoke up and said the delay for the mac-side is the drivers. They were talking about only doing OSX drivers for the card (don't know what they decided.) The reason ATI could release the 9000 (at least to apple) was that the 9000 is basically a slightly altered 8500. ATI doesn't want to kill 8500 sales with a release of the 9000. I really wish ATI would give their mac development team more support (and resources). They have good products and can do good work. They must not get the support, because their work always very much delayed compared to PC releases.

As for getting a GeForce4 right now, you might as well wait for the GeForce FX. The drivers seem more flexible with regards to mac support. It will only be a couple of months, and you will have the top card on the market. Besides, the GeForce4 will drop in price then, anyway.

For the question about flashing a video card, it basically means taking a PC nvidia video card and changing the BIOS (?) settings so that it will work on a mac. The website http://www.xlr8yourmac.com has some instructions. If you don't know what you're doing, I probably wouldn't try it.

I really am surprised someone hasn't approached a nvidia PC card maker about making 3rd party mac cards. The cards themselves are any different, just whether they are set to run on PCs or Macs. If a used Radeon PCI card can go for US$150, certainly you could get US$100+ for a new PCI GeForce2MX or GeForce4MX.