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ATI 5000 Series and GeForce GTX 480 Drivers Hint at Desktop Mac Updates

If you do a google search for mac pro 2010, the sponsored link at the top says:

Apple's New Mac Pro
store.apple.com/uk/mac-pro 8-core Intel Xeon now standard. Configure yours at the Apple Store.

Has it always said that?

Waiting to exhale.........
 
wimbledonsound said:
If you do a google search for mac pro 2010, the sponsored link at the top says:

Apple's New Mac Pro
store.apple.com/uk/mac-pro 8-core Intel Xeon now standard. Configure yours at the Apple Store.
Click to expand...

8 core likely really means dual quad core, which is the current Mac Pro line. The new processors that everybody expects to see in the Mac Pro refresh are 6 cores each, so they'd be advertised as 6 or 12 core.
 
res1233 said:
They would be fools not to! Valve opened the doors, now all Apple has to do is walk through.:D Although, part of the reason macs have been having issues with performance, as people have mentioned, is because apple tends to value stability over performance, which at the end of the day is often more important, that is, before there was a significant reason to focus on performance (Steam).
Click to expand...
What?

Game developers have usually stayed away from the Mac platform because the drivers are buggy, the documentation is poor and the developer support is awful.

Apple have been too busy with the iPhone and coming up with new APIs, but not bothering to fix problems with their current APIs and driver support.

Apple are in the stone age when it comes to graphics. Apple have only just started to support OpenGL 3.0 from 10.6.3 onwards, which now is two years and four versions out of date. Before 10.6.3, OS X used OpenGL 2.1, which came out in 2006. Apple always release machines with 1-2 year old graphic cards, but charge more than twice they were when they were launched.

Mac Pro and the Geforece GTX 120 is embarrassing for Apple. Apple put this GPU in their 2009 Mac Pro machines, at the time when the Mac Pro came out, the 120 was 18-24 months old, it is a re-branded 9500 GT, Apple only included them with 512MB of memory, yet charge over £150 for the card. You could buy the OEM part with 1GB of memory for £30 at the time, nobody no longer makes them, apart from Apple. Apple still sell the card on their 2009 Mac Pro.
 
Iphtashu Fitz said:
8 core likely really means dual quad core, which is the current Mac Pro line. The new processors that everybody expects to see in the Mac Pro refresh are 6 cores each, so they'd be advertised as 6 or 12 core.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought. Just don't remember seeing that phrase there before. Unless they're going to dual CPU across the board with 8 core 'as standard' and 12 as the higher end variants. That would certainly increase the performance gap between the Pros and the iMacs...
 
I have the newest iMac 27 inch and it runs like a champ.. even the video card is decent.


However i would not mind seeing a refresh :) Maybe i'll just have to hand down my iMac to a relative or just use 2 :)
 
SimonTheSoundMa said:
What?

Game developers have usually stayed away from the Mac platform because the drivers are buggy, the documentation is poor and the developer support is awful.

Apple have been too busy with the iPhone and coming up with new APIs, but not bothering to fix problems with their current APIs and driver support.

Apple are in the stone age when it comes to graphics. Apple have only just started to support OpenGL 3.0 from 10.6.3 onwards, which now is two years and four versions out of date. Before 10.6.3, OS X used OpenGL 2.1, which came out in 2006. Apple always release machines with 1-2 year old graphic cards, but charge more than twice they were when they were launched.

Mac Pro and the Geforece GTX 120 is embarrassing for Apple. Apple put this GPU in their 2009 Mac Pro machines, at the time when the Mac Pro came out, the 120 was 18-24 months old, it is a re-branded 9500 GT, Apple only included them with 512MB of memory, yet charge over £150 for the card. You could buy the OEM part with 1GB of memory for £30 at the time, nobody no longer makes them, apart from Apple. Apple still sell the card on their 2009 Mac Pro.
Click to expand...


relax dude, they are catching up.


I think the release of Steam on MAC OS was a MILESTONE and also a Hint in what's to come in the future of Mac's and gaming.


In my opinion, we should be thanking steam, Now you're going to see some major changes coming.
 
computermilk said:
relax dude, they are catching up.


I think the release of Steam on MAC OS was a MILESTONE and also a Hint in what's to come in the future of Mac's and gaming.


In my opinion, we should be thanking steam, Now you're going to see some major changes coming.
Click to expand...

Well, they did say they're working with nVidia/ATI to improve drivers and whatnot.

So yea, there's a bright possible future ahead for the coupling of Macs and gaming.
 
Wow! A Mac thread with possibly good news about the graphics cards! I'm nearly shocked! :p

I'll be happy to see improvements in gaming since that will quiet down the windows argument. Steam really helped us on that issue. I hope Steam gets a lot of support for their Mac ports.

I'm more interested in the video processing aspect of the graphics cards. Now if 3.5" SSDs start being viable I'll see the new iMacs as 95% perfect.
 
Haven't we seen these sort of drivers for future products show up before? If so, how long has it been from showing up in something like this, to when it is actually out in a new product? Any ideas?
 
iSpoody 1243 said:
the ati 5870 would be awesome in an imac.
even tho it would end up being a notebook gpu.
Click to expand...

It still would crank some really good games, as well as it would be up to par with anything that comes out in the next 2 years.

Time to see some new gen tech for the imac. :D
 
Common Apple, bring the new Mac Pro's.
I've been stalling this purchase for months waiting for the new version.
 
I'll be seriously happy if they reveal an iMac update soon. My old white 21' iMac is nearly dead since the video card is literally pooping on me every 20 minutes and I'm waiting for a significant update to make the change.

I'm a huge gamer but also a graphic designer student and I just don't understand why they price their products so damn high. One can say that it's a ''premium'' company but if it's really premium we should have premium components aswell. Just my 2 cents.
 
xgman said:
Haven't we seen these sort of drivers for future products show up before? If so, how long has it been from showing up in something like this, to when it is actually out in a new product? Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Within weeks, or at least before you see 10.6.5. Apple wouldn't have bothered rolling 5xxx drivers into 10.6.4 if they weren't gearing up for a near-future release.
 
Looking forward to an updated 27" iMac so I can move up from my 13" MBP. After getting an iPad I realized I no longer need the mobility, and for work will need more powerful setup at home. Would LOVE dual 27" monitors... So please update external displays as well!
 
DoFoT9 said:
yea basically. there has been some success in this thread - check the last few pages :)
Click to expand...
Even if you do get a 5xxx series card working, it won't work well at all. By the look of that thread it's in its' infancy stages of compatibility and has no hardware acceleration. That means only old 2D games, no 720P and 1080P video, and no OpenCL. What's the point?

In the OSX86 community, the best supported cards are Geforce 8300+ (Up to 200 series with the exception of 210 and 220) with little ATI support.

Source:
Typing this from my Hackintosh, and active member of the community.
 
ok here is my dream for the next mac pro

new case. I like the current case (internals) but the external is getting old... try something new.

Esata ports
hdmi ports

CPU
Dual Intel Xeon X5680 (6 Core /12 multithreaded) for a 12 core (24 multi) monster
3.3-3.6 GHZ

SSD as an option for Storage

Bluray optical ? it would be nice but wont happen

bays for up to 8 Drives (just add another row across)
drop down to one optical drive if necessary

New Full size cordless illuminated keyboard

new 27" Cinema display (same screen as Imac) with isight with CF and SD card reader

all this for 20% less then current configs
 
MH01 said:
Short answer . No.

Unlike the pc side you will not get tweaked drivers on a regular basis. Apple goes for stabaility over speed so does not tweak the drivers.
Click to expand...

Oh let's not forget profit. Apple will buy cards from ATI/Nvidia not necessarily with every feature for the card enabled (See original Mac mini). I got caught with a common issue of the DVI port not able to drive 1600x1200 correctly (flashing LCD), which I narrowed down to a firmware bug.

Do you know how easily you get a simple firmware patch from ATI? You don't, unless you paid for the full card. The design Apple utilizes in some cases, (original Mac mini comes to mind again, as it was underclocked) would very likely mean overheating.

I'm hoping at least Steam will press Apple to keep the driver end up to date, at least with a frequency seen with camera support updates.
 
Just my luck if they announce something soon.
Just bought a new iMac last week.

Was forced to because my graphics card finally died in my 2006 iMac. I was trying to hold off for a new one but needed a computer.

Wish they would have just fixed my old one instead of trying to charge me 800 bucks to fix it.
 
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