World of Warcraft?
Ok, ok ... Supreme Commander comes to mind. Crysis also. I hear these are very heavy, graphics-intense games.
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GeForce GTX 285 Appears in Apple Online Store
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World of Warcraft?
Ok, ok ... Supreme Commander comes to mind. Crysis also. I hear these are very heavy, graphics-intense games.
Gr8 card!... but...
But, no mini Display Port.
I have a Mac Pro '08, currently with the 8800 GT. This card is perfect except in X-Plane 9.
And, TBO.... I expected the GTX 285 would by far outperform the ATi 4870.
According to Barefeats the difference between the two in X-Plane is not that much (see attached pic)... other games a bit more, but those perform well enough anyway (even on the 8800 GT, let alone the 4870)
As I would love the Apple 24" LED display, and X-Plane is the game which needs the horespower most, and seeing the price difference.. AND I saw on the Apple US Store reviews this:
That is very annoying....
Snow Leopard will end that, but that's 3 months away....
I think I will go for the Radeon 4870 with 24" LED Display.
But, no mini Display Port.
I have a Mac Pro '08, currently with the 8800 GT. This card is perfect except in X-Plane 9.
And, TBO.... I expected the GTX 285 would by far outperform the ATi 4870.
According to Barefeats the difference between the two in X-Plane is not that much (see attached pic)... other games a bit more, but those perform well enough anyway (even on the 8800 GT, let alone the 4870)
As I would love the Apple 24" LED display, and X-Plane is the game which needs the horespower most, and seeing the price difference.. AND I saw on the Apple US Store reviews this:
That is very annoying....
Snow Leopard will end that, but that's 3 months away....
I think I will go for the Radeon 4870 with 24" LED Display.
Attachments
How is this card different than this GTX 285?
Or is it that because it has "Mac" on it, it's more expensive? I've even seen hard drive companies charge an extra $50 for a "Mac" external hard drive over the Windows version just because it's pre-formatted for the Mac - like an average person can't use Disk Utility.
Or is it that because it has "Mac" on it, it's more expensive? I've even seen hard drive companies charge an extra $50 for a "Mac" external hard drive over the Windows version just because it's pre-formatted for the Mac - like an average person can't use Disk Utility.
Yet another card 100% physically compatible with the MacPro1,1 but without an EFI32 ROM.
Why do I get the feeling that Apple isn't happy that I have a first gen Mac Pro? I think they really want me replace my box...
Why do I get the feeling that Apple isn't happy that I have a first gen Mac Pro? I think they really want me replace my box...
I think this is the article you are referring to... http://www.barefeats.com/nehal11.html
They mentioned the opposite:
"One advantage of the Radeon HD 4870 over the GTX 285 is that, though it isn't officially supported by Apple in the 2006-2007 Mac Pro, we can testify that it works fine in all models of Mac Pro (OS X 10.5.7 or later) based on our own experience of testing it in all models. It also costs about $100 less than the GTX 285."
I would like to put the 285 on my 2006 MacPro. Does anybody know if it can be done?
Not without being hacked. The card has EFI64 for the "new" Mac Pro and BIOS for Windows support. It's lacking the EFI32 for the "old" Mac Pro.
Physically, it's no different than the normal EVGA GTX 285. So, if you are going to hack one to put it in a MacPro1,1, you may as well buy the cheaper one.
Now, it's just a matter of time before someone posts a new flash ROM to support the older boxes.
I guess we will have to wait...
Your 8800 will support OpenCL in Snow Leopard. Are you satisfied with its performance?
I've heard of EGA and VGA, but not EVGA... this is 640 by what?
I can tell the Mac community isn't part of the gaming community lol. EVGA is one of the top, if not the top manufacturer of graphics cards in the world.
And $450 isn't that outrageous for a card that performs this well. Yes, it's marked up from the Windows world, but what card hasn't been? You always pay a premium for Mac specific cards w/ EFI. Always. If you want to save money, find a standard Windows card that's flash compatible. Otherwise, it seems unreasonable to expect the Mac edition to cost the same price based on the history of Mac graphics cards.
@MacsRgr8
The benchmark of X-Plane shows the least change from previous cards, if you look at the full article, you'll notice the GTX285 is in a class of its own when playing games. As for Apple's Pro apps, stick with your 4870.
(Open GL Extensions)
The 8800 works okay performance wise although it is getting a bit dated nowadays graphics card wise.
Ditto for wanting a 2006 Mac Pro version.
1. I pre-order the card.
2. No SLI support because of Apple
3. No Dual cards because Mac's can only have 300 total watts
4. If your rich you can run two FX4800 150W each
5. Bad is Apple is not making the drivers, and not that they will excluded the card but no promises to support the GTX 285
2. No SLI support because of Apple
3. No Dual cards because Mac's can only have 300 total watts
4. If your rich you can run two FX4800 150W each
5. Bad is Apple is not making the drivers, and not that they will excluded the card but no promises to support the GTX 285
You'll have to wait for one of the universal DVI ports to be changed to an otherwise useless mini display port first.
Interesting stuff. I have the same 2008 Mac Pro and 8800 GT card, but my (old style) Apple Cinema Display went belly up a week or two ago.
I'm in a quandary now trying to figure out what card/monitor I can get to replace it with.
To get the new LED display I need a mini Display port card, but the only Nvidia offering is a lesser card than the 8800 GT. Now they come out with this thing, but it doesn't have mini-display.
What I don't understand is the main reason I don't keep using the card I have now is that I can't see that there are any mini Display port to DVI adapters. At least there are none in the Apple store that are the correct male/female combination.
The problem (from a card developer's point of view) is that Apple only makes 1 model on which you can add PCI-E gfx cards, the Mac Pro. Yeah the people buying MPs probably have money to spend on $$$ gfx cards. But its not a lot of people.
Remember that its not just taking a regular graphics card and slapping a "approved for mac" sticker on it. The EFI support has to be added, and for each model its different (ask the OSx86 guys, the EFI stuff from a 4870 card wont work on a 4850/4890).
Maybe if Apple ever made a xMac tower model and it sold well then more add-in board partners would support EFI.
is this card HDCP compliant? so i could hypothetically play back a Blu-Ray movie on my mac. if and when Apple ever decides to support Blu-Ray in the OS.
Finally, a sensible post.
Quite frankly, I don't do much gaming beyond EVE Online and the occasional romp in some old school games that run and even look as they should on OS X, like Fallout 1 and 2, the Marathon series, etc.
EVE Online is considered one of the most graphically impressive MMOs. Makes WoW look like 8-bit sprites. I've got a MBP with a GeForce 8600m GT 256mb, with 4gb RAM. Runs EVE beautifully, with all settings maxed out.
I guess I'm in the minority when it comes to satisfaction with Apple's choice of videocards . . .
Thats why I stick to ATI cards. They all have both EFI32 and EFI64 ROMs. Nvidia could easily do this too, but choose not to. I've had nothing but bad experiences with Nvidia cards anyways. 4870 here I come!
Apple does a reasonable amount of testing on the cards, so it takes a little bit of time to get them out. The GTX 280 will be nice either for scientists hoping to use cuda or for those who do high end graphics work. Gaming is hit and miss, as most games out right now aren't all THAT demanding (crysis being an exception).
I think that I know the answer, but would like to hear from others. Some site cough (9 to 5 mac) are stating that the PC version, which is about $130 less, is identical and as the same card. They are actually suggesting people buy from Amazon, complete with a link. It was my understanding that you were tied to the overpriced "mac version." They are suggesting that it is the same card. $319 works for me, $450 does not. I would like to hear from people who know the true answer. I would think that major mac sites would not state that it works, if it, umm does not. Thanks in advance. I will take my answer off of the air....