Hey everyone, I was looking at that apple website, and it seems as thou apple has forgotten about all 2008 mac pro owners. Snow Leopard's Open CL does not work with the ATI 2600 XT HD! Thats the card that came standard with every 2008 mac pro! Why apple? why?
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2008 mac pro owners, screwed by snow leopard
- Thread starter Macpropro80
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Bad apple, bad!
So if I understand what open CL does, this means that now any macbook pro or imac, will kick my mac pros ass in newer programs?
Im still confused why apple would drop support for a computer less then a year old!
They're not dropping support, and I wouldn't go so far as to say they are dropping development, as all of the current graphics cards will work in the 2008 Mac Pro, they're just not supporting the stock graphics card with OpenCL. You are free to buy a GTX285, etc, and use OpenCL just fine.
If you look at the very short list of ATI cards that are supported by OpenCL, and the news that even those that are supported aren't working well, you might get the idea that ATI support in OpenCL is proving more difficult than nvidia.
I guess I lucked out a year ago when I bought my 08 that I upgraded to the 8800 video card. I figured that, spending that much on a computer, I wouldn't get the slowest video card. Knowing nothing, back then, of OpenCL.
I dont want to buy 2 new graphic cards to make my one year old, $4000 computer run the way its suppose to. If I wanted to do that, I would have gotten a pc.
that's not really the right way to look at it. the computer worked the way it was supposed to work when you bought it. it worked the same way right before you installed SL. And it works the same today.
New technology always leaves old tech in the dust eventually. Your computer works just fine. It does work the way it's supposed to.
New technology always leaves old tech in the dust eventually. Your computer works just fine. It does work the way it's supposed to.
sorry but ive missed something, why 2 new graphics cards? one GTX 285 is all youll need now, tho ive heard at least pre-snow leopard GTX is average performance at best. i assume apple rectified that with SL but who knows.
frankly, if u are getting a stock mac pro even today, even one tricked out to the the max, u should not be surprised if u need to upgrade the GPU in a year or two at -most-. the graphics cards they sell w/ that computer are a joke for what its supposed to be doing. i myself wouldnt want to buy a laptop with less than the 'top-end' GFX card that comes with the mac pro.
Right. Because your $4000 computer didn't run the way it was supposed to when you bought it. It's technology. Things change because they can. If your computer worked then, it works now. Like it's "supposed" to I might add.
I love the smell of entitlement in the morning.
OP is right to be disappointed, many new Apple customers are irritated by the way Apple cuts the corners on firmware and driver development work. You cannot expect the kind of after market support that you are used to in the Windows world.
Nice example are the 2006 Mac Pros. Three year old top of the line computers but according to Apple wisdom they are not supposed to install 64 bit operating systems like XP64, Vista64, Win7-64. Further down the line they are also not supposed to run Apple OS X 64-bit kernel. They are not supposed to boot optical media from SATA. They are not supposed to fit modern graphics cards although they technically can. They are not supposed to use more energy saving CPUs for the same socket (54xx instead of 53xx).
All those features would be expected to be retrofitted by a pro active after sales department. Some customers would even pay for that. But Apple flatly refuses to even look into such issues. They just expect you to buy a new machine if anything new happens in firmware development that you may want on your machine. Do not expect Apple to give you ANYTHING in firmware after you purchased the machine, except they made such a catastrophic blunder that their reputation is at stake.
Nice example are the 2006 Mac Pros. Three year old top of the line computers but according to Apple wisdom they are not supposed to install 64 bit operating systems like XP64, Vista64, Win7-64. Further down the line they are also not supposed to run Apple OS X 64-bit kernel. They are not supposed to boot optical media from SATA. They are not supposed to fit modern graphics cards although they technically can. They are not supposed to use more energy saving CPUs for the same socket (54xx instead of 53xx).
All those features would be expected to be retrofitted by a pro active after sales department. Some customers would even pay for that. But Apple flatly refuses to even look into such issues. They just expect you to buy a new machine if anything new happens in firmware development that you may want on your machine. Do not expect Apple to give you ANYTHING in firmware after you purchased the machine, except they made such a catastrophic blunder that their reputation is at stake.
I do think the disappointment it justified. But Apple has already demonstrated, over and over, how they handle these situations. They're not going to help you (us) out. Sucks, but it's not worth the energy to get bent out of shape, because that won't change anything.
this is my #1 gripe with apple, BY FAR. ALL of their products are more or less -designed- to be expendable after a couple years. in this sense, i am wondering more & more if it makes sense ever buying a high-end apple machine. i would like a high-end MBP & top of the line next-gen mac pro, but even then, you have to figure they wont be able to run many new apps etc, which would simply not be the case if the same dollar was spent on the PC equivalent.
a great example of this is my uncle, who has a second-hand (ancient) laptop, but still one running OSX etc. he wanted an ipod but his computer is running panther & literally is not compatible with one (& not powerful enough to upgrade to tiger apparently). it seems obvious to me that apple does this crap merely so its users will be forced to pay top dollar every couple years, instead of upgrading the hardware or software side of things to be compatible with latest technology.
it must make a lot of business sense for them but its incredibly immoral imo.
Such practises are acceptable if you buy are spec computer like an iMac. But buying a top line tower which features modular design for thousands of options it is bitter disappointment.
Apple pimp the deal with a super OS but screw you on firmware and drivers. Nice while you enjoy the sexy bit but bad for your health further down the road.
Apple pimp the deal with a super OS but screw you on firmware and drivers. Nice while you enjoy the sexy bit but bad for your health further down the road.
Errrr... If your uncle can't upgrade to Tiger, his computer probably doesn't have USB2, which means his transfer rates to an iPod are going to be really really slow. It likely would take an entire day to sync an iPod...
Even if you could get iTunes running, it would still be a bad idea.
On topic: Just pick up an 8800, 4870, GTX 285, or whatever. I wouldn't expect the 2600 XT to be a great OpenCL performer anyway. But apparently the ATI OpenCL drivers are just trash, so this is likely an oversight by ATI anyway.
I have 3 displays, 30inch ACD, 19inch gateway, 15 inch dell.
And to the people who say, i should expect this because "thats technology"
No, thats apple screwing there customers into buying new hardware. Im not going to give them $260 more to buy 2 new nvidia 130's that have crappy miniDVi, I want to use the 2 graphic cards I payed for, and use solely because they both have 2 dual link DVI.
I dont understand why my friends 2 year old mac book pro has full support under snow leopard, and my 1 year old mac pro, which cost me twice as much, does not have full support!
I kept hearing about how much faster snow leopard will be with a mac pro because it will take advantage of the 8 cores. Whats the point of that, if a mac book with a 9400, will kick my mac pros ass because its GPU is being used as a cpu?
Its like buying a car last year and being told that the gas is no longer compatible!
If you spent $4,000 on the computer - and I hope you're including aftermarket upgrades in that price - why would you not shell out $200 more for a graphics card that doesn't bite?
I also feel compelled to point out that you have the option of flashing a PC card - or using injectors, even less work - and have all the DVI ports your heart desires. I'd think your complaint was valid if there haven't been so many solutions engineered and discussed on this very forum. It never hurts to thank Netkas, The Rominator, Cindori, and others for making these things possible for you, but it seems foolish to ignore them entirely.
Also, did you actually try the card? 's been bad about listing this stuff on the website recently. As I understood it, as long as your GPU was a 9400m (integrated!) or better - which certainly includes the 2600 - it should work, if not amazingly.
Explore options before complaining. If you could afford the $4,000 for the computer, a $200 GPU upgrade won't kill you.
I also feel compelled to point out that you have the option of flashing a PC card - or using injectors, even less work - and have all the DVI ports your heart desires. I'd think your complaint was valid if there haven't been so many solutions engineered and discussed on this very forum. It never hurts to thank Netkas, The Rominator, Cindori, and others for making these things possible for you, but it seems foolish to ignore them entirely.
Also, did you actually try the card? 's been bad about listing this stuff on the website recently. As I understood it, as long as your GPU was a 9400m (integrated!) or better - which certainly includes the 2600 - it should work, if not amazingly.
Explore options before complaining. If you could afford the $4,000 for the computer, a $200 GPU upgrade won't kill you.
And lets not forget all our friends out there with G5's who can't even run SL while Core Solo Mac Mini's that cost 5x less at the time can. Top end users aren't immune to getting screwed.
I shelled out $4000 bucks because I have a job that requires a $4000 computer. I have to import, edit, export, and burn an hour and a half of hd video in 4 hours. I need all the power I can get. I spent $4000 thinking, I would never have to buy an upgrade part. My CPU's are still one of the fastest around. Why should I need to spend $300+ for new graphic cards? because apple was too lazy to write drivers for it? Come on!
Back to my car example, thats like saying you bought a ferrari one year ago but now the gas is not compatible so Ferrari tells you, "just buy a new engine"
Just buy a new GPU card. Preferably the 4870, might as well.
I can't stand minidvi, and I need to run 3 displays! Im not shelling out $740 bucks to get 2 4870! I wish applecare would cover "blunders by apple that screw the user"
It's hardly Apple's fault you stuck with the crappy video card, nor is it Apple's fault that ATI cards are less suitable for GPGPU stuff than NVIDIA's stuff so far.