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Dead 8800GT, upgrade possible?

Inutopia

Inutopia

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 8, 2009
299
84
South of Heaven
Hi all,


My 8800GT died the other night 3 months out of warranty, eep!

However, due to me being a loyal apple customer they have agreed to replace it free of charge anyway, yay!


What i'm wondering is this; the 8800GT was EOL'd near the beginning of 2009 and hasn't been available on any of the apple stores for quite some time (8 months +) What do you think the chances are of them giving me a 4870 instead? Does anyone know how long apple would keep a part like that in stock for?
 
Back after the fifth generation iPods came out, my fourth gen died. I had AppleCare, so I sent it back to them and they sent me a brand-new fourth-gen one. It's likely they still have an 8800 GT in stock somewhere.
 
How long after the transition was that do you remember?


I was hoping seeing as it has been almost a year and an upgrade GPU for a Mac Pro isnt as common a part as an iPod...
 
I'd say around six months or so.

Who knows what they'll give you? I've heard of people getting much better upgrades after their machines died, though IIRC that was usually after them getting said machines replaced multiple times.
 
If you are that dead set on a 4870 and get a 8800GT back then you can just sell the Apple 8800GT and flash your own 4870.
 
Update:

I got a replacement and it was an 8800GT so I guess they still have a back-stock..

Interestingly enough the replacement died within 5 minutes so I am picking up another one tomorrow.
 
If your second one died that quickly, I would push for a different card (4870 for example) on the grounds that the model is clearly flawed. You can mention that the forums are full of failure reports and that your concern is that your card will die again and you will be left with a steep bill just to keep your machine running, through no fault of your own.

Having said that, they are giving you a replacement whilst you're technically out of warranty (Applecare is your friend, believe me) so this could be taken as a noble gesture or a sign of guilty acknowledgment that the 8800GT's weren't the most reliable of cards.

FWIW My first 8800 died and I got a replacement, but a reliable machine is more important to me than anything else, so I bought a 4870 and flashed it. Got to be honest though, you may find getting a "reference design" card quite difficult now but good luck if you decide to go this route.

In fact, good luck whatever you decide!
 
Hi,

The machine is AppleCare'd but i bought the 8800GT at a different time so it is not covered by this.

I did ask them about the upgrade to a 4870 on account of the new one lasting all of 5 minutes. They said they cant do that for me, shame.

They say if this one breaks I have to take my Mac Pro into the store to have it fitted by them incase I am 'doing it wrong'... cheeky buggers haha!
 
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