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Buying the GTX 285 in Britain?

Zagreus

Zagreus

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 9, 2009
55
0
Bradford, West Yorkshire, U.K
As I've seen from the recent flurry of posts on her, the GTX 285 has recently been made available for purchase in the American Apple Store, but the question I ask is two fold.

1. Is it possible to buy the GTX 285 in Britian or does it have to be imported from the U.S?

2. If it does have to be imported would one bought in the U.S Apple Store still work in a UK Mac Pro? I assume so these days but some things are very picky about where they'll work in the world.

I've searched MacRumours and not found an answer to this, so I hope that all of you can help, or at least point me in the right direction to find out this information.
 
Is there any word as to when Apple might release the card internationally, or at least into the UK store? Surely it can't be that hard if they've already got it in the American store, or am I missing something?
 
Imported mine from Other World Computing and it arrived in UK a week ago, and is sitting happily in UK sourced 2008 Mac Pro. Nearly went with Novatech but OWC promised stock sooner and were cheaper even with duty.

fjf: Cuda performance is very good provided card is kept at full shader clock and memory clock speed. I do this following a suggestion a couple of days ago on Cuda forums, running a small 3D prog in separate window - I expect a proper control panel shortly.

Zagreus - why are you worring about being supplied by UK Apple store?
 
10THzMac: Thanks - I have been reading your posts with interest for a few weeks now. :)

I am wondering:
1. whether the Quadro also suffers from this throttling problem;
2. whether the throttling will affect OpenCL;
3. whether a display needs to be attached to the graphics card to take advantage of GPGPU.

Anyway, it would be a lot easier for me to purchase through Apple UK than through any of the resellers I have found for either card.
 
Zagreus said:
Is there any word as to when Apple might release the card internationally, or at least into the UK store? Surely it can't be that hard if they've already got it in the American store, or am I missing something?
Click to expand...

I e-mailed EVGA, they told me they hope to get the card out in the next couple of weeks, not the ultimate answer but I think I can wait a bit longer
 
I got tired of checking the Apple store and Scan several times a day for several weeks. Ordered from OWC yesterday, shipped last night, arrives tomorrow morning.

It will probably be the same price as the UK version anyway.
 
10THzMac - I wasn't apprehensive of the UK Apple Store, I just wondered whether I would have to pay import duty or not. Also since I've never ordered from OWC before I wondered as to how guaranteed the merchandise is because obviously I don't want something to be damaged when I recieve it.

But overall the general consensus seems to be either import it or wait, also thanks for the tips on configuration I'll bare it all mind, now to just earn some money.....
 
fjf said:
I am wondering:
1. whether the Quadro also suffers from this throttling problem;
2. whether the throttling will affect OpenCL;
3. whether a display needs to be attached to the graphics card to take advantage of GPGPU.
Click to expand...
1. I honestly have no idea. Sometimes Quadros are clocked a bit slower but then can remain at their top speed, so might possibly be OK.
2. Very good question - i will try to find out.
3. No - I only have one card connected to monitor and other is pure Cuda engine. Note that TESLA does not have video out.
 
fjf said:
...
2. whether the throttling will affect OpenCL;
...
Click to expand...
fjf: I tried to find out this morning. Comment has to be a bit circumspect as most OpenCL stuff is under NDA. I was able to play with the Nvidia examples under Windows and they work very well on the 285, but for some reason none of the released examples report detailed performance data, so just cannot tell you anything. I will of course try to write my own to extract the numbers. They all run so fast subjective timing is hopeless.

Your best bet is to try to get developer access for Snow Leopard for OS X side and corresponding Nvidia access for OpenCL to access Windows and Linux, and see for yourself.

All the comments from Nvidia, EVGA insiders to forums suggest a general fix is on the way, but I have been getting on fine running a 3D app in background. I am used to earlyadopteritis and the benefits of the 285 massively outweigh the need to kick the card into fast mode. I think in a few weeks the throttling will be a forgotten issue.
 
Well I finally got my 285 delivered form OWC (my ordered was cancelled by mistake). I got hit with my local tax charge (21%) and save a grand total of €12 over buying from the UK store (mentioned above). Oh well, better than a kick in the nuts I suppose.
 
irishgrizzly said:
Well I finally got my 285 delivered form OWC (my ordered was cancelled by mistake). I got hit with my local tax charge (21%) and save a grand total of €12 over buying from the UK store (mentioned above). Oh well, better than a kick in the nuts I suppose.
Click to expand...

Mine arrived today as well as i got fedup of waiting for the UK apple store, I haven't seen any duty yet but I'm guessing I'll get an invoice from Fedex at some point no doubt overall though very pleased with it
 
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