7300 GT on New '08 MP?

[jemo07]

Hi,

I am one of those that is waiting for news on the 8800 GT for '07 MP, which I got in Dec '07....

Now, I was wondering if I could go the rout of updating my MP to gain access to the new 8800 cards, but I wanted to have two cards, and with the fiasco of the old ATI, I was wondering if the 7300 could be reused in the new MP?

I did take my card for a fast test at a local store, and we swapped cards, the ATI 2600 from the '08MP for the NV 7300. I came home to my '07 MP and the card worked with out an issue as others pointed out. I did see that it was a bit slower than the 7300GT but it could have been my perception.

However, the idea was that the guy at the store was going to pop in my 7300 in the New '08 MP and test to see if this work.... but in the end he first claimed it did not work, them he claimed he did not have to try it.

So, my question is, has anybody tried this yes? That is, place a 7300 GT card in a '08 MP?

 

[jemo07]

So, my question is, has anybody tried this yes? That is, place a 7300 GT card in a '08 MP?

I know it says newbie.... but we do exist you know!
Ok, thorough testing back at the local store which has a new 2.8 '08 Mac Pro proves that the ATI 2600 card could not even match my current 7300GT. We hoked up to a 30" ACD and ran some filters in photoshop, and it was SOLW! How slow, well stuff that took a minute (several layers) too something over two mins and the system was not responsive. Also took a larger file 1.5GB and open it up and it was almost useless... I was very surprise about this, some in this forum swear that the x1900 is all you will ever need in graphics if you are not a game player....

So I am asking again, could/has anyone tested one of these cards on a '08 MP?

I am planing on getting a new MP and would order it with the 8800 GT and keep my 7300 GT fro a total of 3 displays (2 x ACDs which I have now and a Wacom Cintiq 12"XW or 20WSX)

 

[Spikeanator6982]

hmm, from what I got here: http://www.apple.com/macpro/technology/graphics.html
I thought the 2600 would be faster than the 7300.

 

[phjo]

I know it says newbie.... but we do exist you know!
Ok, thorough testing back at the local store which has a new 2.8 '08 Mac Pro proves that the ATI 2600 card could not even match my current 7300GT. We hoked up to a 30" ACD and ran some filters in photoshop, and it was SOLW!

Most probably the test you did at the store only proves that the new mac pros are quite crippled with the 2Gb stock ram... I doubt that you measured the performance of the graphic cards/drivers with what you described...

Now, that being said, the 7300 does have, IMHO, an important advantage to the ati 2600xt, it is fanless !

phjo

 

[jwdawso]

Bare Feats

Check out the GPU testing results at Bare Feats. They seem to be happy with the 2600......

 

[Tallest Skil]

...but I wanted to have two cards...

Why not just get another 8800 GT in addition to the one you're getting in your Mac Pro?

This leads me to my thread-worthy point: Two 8800 GTs in the new Mac Pro (no SLI). Yes, this is possible with the hardware. Two of them don't exceed the power draw, there's another power cable for the second 8800 GT, and with two 16x 2.0 slots, the bandwidth is no problem. I just want to know if it'll be softwarily possible to rock two of them. Is it?

 

[jemo07]

Most probably the test you did at the store only proves that the new mac pros are quite crippled with the 2Gb stock ram... I doubt that you measured the performance of the graphic cards/drivers with what you described...

Test done where very simple:

Aperture import 200 images as full size previews.
Photoshop CS3 Open and run perf test.
Photoshop CS3 Open a run several filters on layers sampling all layers.
Phoyoshop CS3 Open Large File 1.5GB (almost it's limit)

System was with 4 GB or RAM.

I don't have the exact times but I can assure you that my 2.66Ghz system with dual ACD's did a much better job.

Now, most of these test don't push the CPU by much... 30% at most. But the image manipulation of the large files was surprising to say the least with the 30" ACD.

If we when on 23" ACD, then it was close, sometimes faster than home (one drive versus two RAID STRIPE)

I know that some have given this card great reviews, and I did take it home (loud) but it felt slow on my 2.66Ghz MP.

 

[jemo07]

Why not just get another 8800 GT in addition to the one you're getting in your Mac Pro?

Duno... I hate to have an overkill sitting there... giving my money to when I could keep what I have and get the 8800 in the near future.

I think that I will sit in this idea of getting a new MP until there is news on the 8800 or what ever Nvidia delivers for the OLD MP (I got it this December) , I don't see much pref improvements from what I have... for what I do...

 

[faumble]

I am on the same boat (also want to plug 2 monitors and a cintiq), and having 2 8800 when one is only used for a third monitor or cintiq is just two expensive. The 2600 is definitely better than the 7300, the problem as you mentioned is if it will cause problems with having it paired with the 8800. The issues with the 1900and the 7300 were solved by apple and now you can use both for up to 4 monitor with no issues, people have done it here, so I am guessing it will also be solved, if there are any issues since nobody knows cause no one has the 8800, and we will be able to combine these brands with no trouble. Also apple knows there is people doing this so if issues appear they will probably fixed them as they did with the old macpros.

 

[jemo07]

I am on the same boat (also want to plug 2 monitors and a cintiq), and having 2 8800 when one is only used for a third monitor or cintiq is just two expensive. The 2600 is definitely better than the 7300, the problem as you mentioned is if it will cause problems with having it paired with the 8800. The issues with the 1900and the 7300 were solved by apple and now you can use both for up to 4 monitor with no issues, people have done it here, so I am guessing it will also be solved, if there are any issues since nobody knows cause no one has the 8800, and we will be able to combine these brands with no trouble. Also apple knows there is people doing this so if issues appear they will probably fixed them as they did with the old macpros.

Thanks! I guess that I am no alone .... Let's see what we get in the coming weeks for .