256 MB 9800 Pro???

[cocopelli]

Ok, I was browsing the mac games sight today and I decided to click on "Reccomended Systems" Link. As I suspected they listed the dual 2Ghz as the ultimate for games, but somthing I did not expect was to see they have the specs of the video card printed as a 256 MB 9800 Pro. As far as I knew there are no 256 MB video cards available for macs other than possibly professional cards of which I know nothing about. So, my question is, is this a typo or an accidental leak. Could they be upgrading to better video cards in January when they update the rest of the line??? I really hope this is true because the video card was the only thing that dissapointed me about the G5s and if they update the video card I will be first in line to order a new one Well I will be anyway but thats not the point. So what do you guys think why is it listed that way? Oh by the way here is the link. http://www.apple.com/games/hardware/index.html#ultimate

Cheers

 

[G5orbust]

I think its a typo. If not, then Apple is holding out on us!! If a 256MB version indeed exists, it should be put on market so the cards can be bumped. 256 for the 9800, 128 for 9600, 64 for FX5200.

 

[Gymnut]

I think it's valid and not a typo for an impending Mac Edition Radeon 9800 Pro/256.

 

[ZildjianKX]

Who'd even want the 256 version? Its a total waste of money... skip it and bring on the XTs.

 

[Tiauguinho]

It's been there since the G5's were released. I once submitted it to Arn, but we both considered that it wasnt worth to post news about it. And I agree with ZildjianKX, bring on the 9800 XT with ADC on the retail cards! Pretty please!

 

[iChan]

what is it that takes nVidia and ATI so long to release graphics cards onto the Mac market? whosse fault is it? Apple's or the GC producers?

 

[cocopelli]

So what exactly is the difference between the regular 9800 and the 9800 XT???

 

[Makosuke]

Originally posted by cocopelli
So what exactly is the difference between the regular 9800 and the 9800 XT???

Very little, which is why it should be very easy to make the XTs available for the Mac.

The XT comes standard with 256MB RAM, has a slightly faster clockrate (but very little), and a huge cooling fan. The chipset is almost identical, though, if memory serves. It's basically designed as an overclocker's card--more RAM, and more headroom with the big ol' heatsink to overclock it.

It's currently the fastest thing on the market (though for most games the 9800 is nearly on par--the XT's main advantages are overclocking and extra RAM for the tiny fraction of games that can take advantage of it), but my main interest is the hopefully quieter fan.

I BTO'd a 9800 as a hedge against the future, but I didn't bargain on getting a vaccum cleaner whine coming from my computer as a result of it. I almost wish I had the 9600 now.

 

[iChan]

does apple customise these graphics cards to suit their own needs or do ati and nvidia produce them for them?? if apple customise them themselves, shouldn't they put in quieter fans?

 

[ITR 81]

I think the main difference between the PC graphic cards and Mac graphic cards are just the drivers and firmware.


So I don't know why ATi and Nvidia take so long to bring new cards to the Mac.

 

[mgargan1]

could be a typo, because look at what the specs list as the cache, it says that it has 512K of L3 cache, when we all know that the G5 has 512K of L2 cache, and no L3 cache. But I wouldn't mind having a 256mb graphic chip. Although, i would never use it seeing that I have a PC for my gaming... but it'd be nice.

 

[Sol]

Knowing the market and pricing accordingly

Originally posted by ITR 81
I think the main difference between the PC graphic cards and Mac graphic cards are just the drivers and firmware.


So I don't know why ATi and Nvidia take so long to bring new cards to the Mac.

If all the Mac users bought the same graphics card boxes as the Windows users it would be impossible to tell what proportion the Mac share of the market was. Since it costs the same amount of money to develop these drivers, ATI and nVidia need to know this information so that they can price their products accordingly.

 

[G5orbust]

Originally posted by cocopelli
So what exactly is the difference between the regular 9800 and the 9800 XT???

Well the differences between the 9800XT and the 9800pro are the following:

-Memory/core clock: 9800 pro has a stock 380MHz core/700MHz memory (350MHz *2 with DDRII). The 9800XT has stock 412MHz core/730MHz memory (365MHz *2 with DDRII).

Stats courtasy of ATI

-Fill rate: The 9800XT's faster memory/core clock give it a higher fill rate ( about .26 Gpixels more than 9800 pro).

- Core: 9800 uses the R350 core. The 9800 XT uses the R360 core.

Hope that helps clear things up