ATI in PowerMacs

[AlphaTech]

Originally posted by Pants
however, currently openGL uses none of the features you are really paying for with these cards. Which really makes me wonder why us mac users ever buy the real top-notch cards in the first place? money to burn? probably....

The current line of ATI cards fully support OpenGL and all that it entails. They do this for both the Mac and pc systems. On the pc side, ATI has always supported the current AND next generation of DirectX, where you are lucky if nVidia supports the current one (until a while later with one of their driver updates 🙄 ).

The ATI cards also do more then just use OpenGL for their renders, so there is more to a video card then JUST OpenGL support (having it is a huge bonus).

With your train of though, do you 'wonder' why people want their new Mac's with L3 cache?? 🙄 😱 😛

 

[Kid Red]

Originally posted by bevo
boasting about a ati 7500 isnt really boasting about anything. the 7500 is a tweaked original radeon. Some laptops use this card now.

I would expect them to at least put a 8500/9000 in the power macs as the low end option. Its not as old or slow.

the 9700 will be out soon enough and looks to be an amazing card. But Im not sure we'll see apple offer it with the powermacs.

IT really is disappointing to see apple f*ck ppl over with using the the gf*mx series of cards.

for the same price and better performance you can get an ati card.

I have to disagree. I have the GF4 in my dual and looked into getting the 7500 but the GF4 kicked the 7500's ass in 90% of the tests. So I don't think Apple is screwing anyone, they put the best cards in the towers that were out. Simple.

 

[Maeglin OSX]

Nvidia will come out on top

ATI has some cool new stuff coming but I wouldn't rule out Nvidia coming out with some new card soon too. It's probably quite true that Nvidia knew about the 9000 and the 9700 way before we did. Nvidia has a history of making better cards than ATI. I've read about Nvidia's new technology they're working on and it sounds very promising. I think we can expect to see new Nvidia cards sooner than we think.

 

[Pants]

Originally posted by AlphaTech


The current line of ATI cards fully support OpenGL and all that it entails. They do this for both the Mac and pc systems. On the pc side, ATI has always supported the current AND next generation of DirectX, where you are lucky if nVidia supports the current one (until a while later with one of their driver updates 🙄 ).

The ATI cards also do more then just use OpenGL for their renders, so there is more to a video card then JUST OpenGL support (having it is a huge bonus).

With your train of though, do you 'wonder' why people want their new Mac's with L3 cache?? 🙄 😱 😛

um... excuse me mr rolleyes, but what is the point of supporting the next generation of anything when, by definition, its not around yet? 🙂

If you actually stopped and thought, before reaching for your keyboard and trying to flame, you may just question what the point of paying top dollar for a video card that is optimised for dx8.1 and 9, when its not available on this platform. Yes, you do pay for it, and no you can't use those optimisations.

On top of that, you may indeed question why you'd want a card that supports dx9 anyway, given that there aren't any games utilising it and nor will there be for quite some time. The comparison to level 3 cache is fatuous - your machine actually uses it, unlike dx9.

 

[Joshlew]

Apple should stick with Nvidia if they know whats good for them!😡

 

[G4-Altivec]

Originally posted by Pants



however, currently openGL uses none of the features you are really paying for with these cards. Which really makes me wonder why us mac users ever buy the real top-notch cards in the first place? money to burn? probably....

The reason I'm going for the best card that I can get is because I usually keep my systems for a few years and I'm really not the upgrading kind of guy. I have a G4/450 with ATI 128pro and a dual G4/450 with a Radeon. From my experience the first thing that starts to age is the graphics card. I figure if I buy one of the top end cards even though all features aren't implemented yet, I'll keep getting pleasently surprised everytime openGL gets updated and boosts the performance. Sorry, I have no money to burn. Well except that I keep buying Macs , but that's a different storey😀

 

[AlphaTech]

Originally posted by Pants
On top of that, you may indeed question why you'd want a card that supports dx9 anyway, given that there aren't any games utilising it and nor will there be for quite some time.

I'm sure you were saying the same thing about dx 8.1 while 8 was the current DX version, until 8.1 came out. Supporting the next version is forward thinking. You also don't have to worry about needing to update the drivers or bios/firmware later to ADD support to the product if it has it right from the start. 😛

For the record, people use MORE then JUST Mac's, even here. For the Mac's I'm fairly certain that the cards will support the next OpenGL version, even though it's not out just yet.

As with most things, you get what you pay for. When you get a top end video card, you know that you won't have any problems running software (games) that are in development now. How many people figured that X video card would be all they would ever need, only to have Y game come out which had it listed as the minimum (=piss poor performance).

 

[hal9000]

More puzzling developments this week -

Pixar announces they have settled their lawsuit against Exluna, and that Exluna is being taken over by Nvidia. Entropy and BMRT are no longer available, and the developers will presumably be working on the Cg project.

😕

 

[GPTurismo]

ATI has promised the world before, and had tech demos, repeat, TECH DEMOS that kicked Nvidia's rear. But never delivered in real life. Nvidia's updates to firmware, and just outstanding driver support make ATI look like a joke.

Sorry, the future is the former sgi graphic geniuses, Nvidia...

 

[PCUser]

[removed my irrelevant post]

 

[Cappy]

Originally posted by PCUser
These aren't tech demoes. 😡 The prototype silicon of the 9700, which will be out in a few weeks (for the PC, at least), kicks the GeForce4 Ti4600's ass. In the tests by Anandtech, the Radeon 9700 always outperformed the GeForce4 Ti4600, sometimes up to 54%! Oftentimes it was around 30%. No firmware update will bring the GeForce4 Ti4600 up to the level of the Radeon 9700.

Ah but if ATI's driver rep holds true then their drivers will bring the 9700 down to 4600 levels. 😉

Please don't put alot of stock into Anandtech's site when it comes to future purchasing decisions on yet to be released products. They're good for educating yourself on products and technology but they tend to get everything pre-release(hardware, drivers, etc.) and as someone pointed out once the real thing ships, it's nowhere near what the previews(many times cleverly disguised as reviews) were saying. If they would do more followups on items that shipped after their previews, I would have a different opinion of them.

BTW, same holds true for Tom's Hardware. Everything else about those two sites are great though. 🙂

Originally posted by PCUser
Neither ATi nor nVidia will always be the best in the graphics card business.

We all would hope that is the case but the sad truth is that nVidia has been the best in the graphics card business for a few years now(why do you think Apple hooked up with them). The 8500 was finally a little bit of a breath of fresh air for ATI. The specs have been great and on some systems the drivers actually worked like they should(note I'm referring to PC's there). They're trying to change their rep with their latest driver releases but it's going to take some time, work, and consistency.

I hope they pull it off but nVidia is a tough competitor and definitely has the mindshare in their favor.

 

[jonper-9]

>id say the 7500 is as different from the original radeon as the new ati 9000 is from the 8500.

>and to say its like a geforce 2 to a geforce 4? thats ludicrous(sp?)

I am sorry to say, but the GF4MX _IS_ in fact a modified GF2. If you want a real GF4, you have to go 4 the Ti.

 

[jonper-9]

>id say the 7500 is as different from the original radeon as the new ati 9000 is from the 8500.

>and to say its like a geforce 2 to a geforce 4? thats ludicrous(sp?)

I am sorry to say, but the GF4MX _IS_ in fact a modified GF2. If you want a real GF4, you have to go 4 the Ti.

 

[bevo]

when he said that I believe he was talking about the original geforce 2 and geforce 4 line. Not the MX series. the gf4mx is based off of the gf2 mx and shares nothing with the real geforce 4. Its a marketing thing by nvidia.