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Dual 6600 GT GPU's for Mac

D

deanbo

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 6, 2003
228
0
Well Gigabyte proved it's possible on PC, (although I don't really know how impossible it was.) Only thing is it's on PCI Express. But it's just a matter of time before PCI Express comes to Mac anyway.

I was wondering what the odd's were of seeing dual 6600 GT's in an iMac G5 were once it goes PCI-E as well as PowerMac G5's.

This would certainly solve a great many Mac "gaming gripes", without denting someones wallet too much, as these chips are supposed to be far cheaper than 6800 Ultras even in dual, and give about the same performance apparently.
 
deanbo said:
Well Gigabyte proved it's possible on PC, (although I don't really know how impossible it was.) Only thing is it's on PCI Express. But it's just a matter of time before PCI Express comes to Mac anyway.

I was wondering what the odd's were of seeing dual 6600 GT's in an iMac G5 were once it goes PCI-E as well as PowerMac G5's.

This would certainly solve a great many Mac "gaming gripes", without denting someones wallet too much, as these chips are supposed to be far cheaper than 6800 Ultras even in dual, and give about the same performance apparently.
Click to expand...

Yeah, right. Keep me posted on that '6600 GT PCE-E card in an iMac G5" project, okay? :rolleyes:
 
neoelectronaut said:
Yeah, right. Keep me posted on that '6600 GT PCE-E card in an iMac G5" project, okay? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Keep me posted on the 'next time you post something useful', okay?

Deanbo - Don't expect those cards to ever make it into the iMac G5. The heat on them would be far too much for the iMac. I doubt they will even ever come to the Mac platform, but who knows.
 
MacAztec said:
Keep me posted on the 'next time you post something useful', okay?

Deanbo - Don't expect those cards to ever make it into the iMac G5. The heat on them would be far too much for the iMac. I doubt they will even ever come to the Mac platform, but who knows.
Click to expand...

lol

I agree, the iMac is too tight for that kind of heat. Maybe they'll put the GPU in an external box like the Mini power brick.
;)
 
Maby we will see the gpu in the PM but not at all on the iMac.
PCIe is bound to come to mac but dual, not so sure about that :rolleyes:
 
Running two cards against the same display requires SLI, and I doubt you will ever see that feature in a Mac.
 
Heck, Nvidia cards are hot and loud. Why would you want two in one computer anyway?

When the iMac's GPU is upgraded it will be done with an existing Mac-compatible AGP unit: good canidates are the Radeon 9600, 9700 or possibly 9800. Don't expect anything newer unless ATI or Nvidia release a new mid-level card for the Mac, which hasn't happened in a while.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Heck, Nvidia cards are hot and loud. Why would you want two in one computer anyway?
Click to expand...

I'll illustrate why with a simple equation:

Nvidia 6600 = :D
2*(Nvidia 6600) = :D :D
 
Is this a Dual 6600 on one grfx card, or actually two cards joined together?

For the latter you'll also need 2 PCI-Express slots..... highly, highly doubtfull Apple would do that in the near future.

Unless PCI Express would be a standard for all future PCI peripherals.

Imagine: 4 PCI-Express slots. Hmm.... Quad ATi Radeons X850 PE anyone?? :) :cool: (that'll play Doom 3 decently :D )
 
MacsRgr8 said:
Is this a Dual 6600 on one grfx card, or actually two cards joined together?

For the latter you'll also need 2 PCI-Express slots..... highly, highly doubtfull Apple would do that in the near future.

Unless PCI Express would be a standard for all future PCI peripherals.

Imagine: 4 PCI-Express slots. Hmm.... Quad ATi Radeons X850 PE anyone?? :) :cool: (that'll play Doom 3 decently :D )
Click to expand...

They are two cards that are joined by a tiny little connector on the top, if you don't want two card's then just remove it and you have one.

The first pic is the normal solution SLi link and the second has two GPU's on one board :eek: :eek: :eek:
 

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3Dfx did the dual GPU thing back in the day. The downside is that, as with a dual CPU computer, you don't necessarily get double the power, i.e. if one 6600 = :D then two 6600 = something like :D + 1/2 :D

Don't expect Apple to put 2 PCI-E slots in one machine. The twin GPU board is more likely, if anything.
 
Nvidia SLi is fundamentally different to 3dFX SLi, in the day. NVidia's botched implementation relies on regularly updated drivers, to tell the cards what to do for each and every game. IE, if a game isn't specified in the driver version, you will see no improvement.

I'd say that fact alone pretty much kills the dual-GPU thing. Keep dreaming.
 
Why stop at 2 graphics cards???

Honestly, give it 5 years and they'll be 4 of the buggers connected by Crystal Interface.

Probably not Crystal Interface but you can see where im going. :D
 
brap said:
Nvidia SLi is fundamentally different to 3dFX SLi, in the day. NVidia's botched implementation relies on regularly updated drivers, to tell the cards what to do for each and every game. IE, if a game isn't specified in the driver version, you will see no improvement.

I'd say that fact alone pretty much kills the dual-GPU thing. Keep dreaming.
Click to expand...

I won't contradict you there. Of course 3Dfx's implementation wasn't exactly elegant either (expensive boards hurt profit margins), though it was arguably more effective.

But like you said, the Nvidia solution relies heavily on software, software which Apple writes in a half-arsed manner nowadays.
 
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