Some of you may have already read Anandtech's discussion of the new Mac Pro's hardware. I was puzzled by this passage:
WTF? I translate ATI's explanation as "We've decided to punish consumers who choose to buy Mac video cards by downclocking them because they are a lower volume product".
Aside from that bombshell I found the article pretty interesting.
The Radeon X1900 XT used in the Mac Pro appears to have a 1.3GHz memory clock, which is slower than the 1.45GHz clock of the PC version. The core clock is also slower than the PC version at 600MHz, instead of 625MHz. Historically, ATI Mac Edition cards have always been clocked lower than their PC counterparts; ATI explained the reasoning behind this disparity as having to do with basic supply and demand. The demand for Mac video cards is lower than their PC counterparts, so ATI runs them at lower clock speeds to maintain their desired profit per card regardless of whether they are selling to Mac or PC markets.
WTF? I translate ATI's explanation as "We've decided to punish consumers who choose to buy Mac video cards by downclocking them because they are a lower volume product".
Aside from that bombshell I found the article pretty interesting.