GTX 285 Mac Edition vs 8800 GT Mac Edition

[Topper]

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I benched tested the new GTX 285 Mac Edition and the 8800 GT Mac Edition using X-Plane.
I used the same version (9.22 rc1) for both OS X 10.5.7 and Boot Camp WinXP.
I flew in North Dakota in order to eliminate as many objects and scenery as possible thereby making X-Plane as efficient as possible.
The flight was from Grand Forks (KGFK) to Crookston (KCKN). The length of the flight is 23.59 nautical miles and took 7 1/2 minutes.
I used a King Air B200 with a ground speed of 240 knots.
The renderings (1600 x 1200, 8xAA) and weather was exactly the same in both OS X and WinXP.
I flew three times for each video card and each operating system for a total of 12 flights. I averaged out the fps.

The 8800 GT Mac Edition is 2.3 times faster running under Boot Camp (WinXP) than the same 8800 GT running under Mac OS X 10.5.7.

Running under the same OS (Mac OS X 10.5.7), the GTX 285 Mac Edition is 2.7 times faster than the 8800 GT Mac Edition.

Running under the same OS (Boot Camp WinXP), the GTX 285 Mac Edition is 1.6 times faster than the 8800 GT Mac Edition.

My conclusion is the NVIDIA cards run much faster under Windows than they do with Mac OS X.

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[Tallest Skil]

Thanks for that; even more evidence of what we already assumed.

Tell you what; it's the fact that nVidia makes worthless drivers for OS X. Apple has had to write nVidia's drivers for them in the past because they're... I dunno; pansies.

 

[Sharangad]

Thanks for that; even more evidence of what we already assumed.

Tell you what; it's the fact that nVidia makes worthless drivers for OS X. Apple has had to write nVidia's drivers for them in the past because they're... I dunno; pansies.

Why not run the same benchmarks with Ati cards to see if they're the same speed under OS X and Windows?

I'm pretty sure this is an OS X limitation as the Radeon HD 4870 is also slower under OS X.

 

[Topper]

Tell you what; it's the fact that nVidia makes worthless drivers for OS X. Apple has had to write nVidia's drivers for them in the past because they're... I dunno; pansies.

Yep, but in this case it's going to work out well for me.
I want to learn how to use Garmin's GNS 530w and G1000 avionics.
Unfortunately they are only available for Windows. Once again we are second class citizens.
But with my Mac Pro, GTX 285, and Boot Camp, I am ready!

Tomorrow I'll be doing a lot of video editing. I am very curious to see how much time the GTX 285 saves me.
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[10THzMac]

Depends on the apps

This is one view of it. Running CUDA apps the performance of 8800 and 285 is nearly identical between OS X 10.5.7 and bootcamp, as long as the cards are running at full speed. And under either OS the 285 is just over twice as fast at similar clock speed, in proportion to no of cores.

 

[UMHurricanes34]

How did the video editing go Topper?

I'm looking to upgrade my 8800GT and don't know whether to go the GTX 285 route or the HD4870 route.

 

[TheStrudel]

Do let us know. I have the suspicion that it will save you almost no editing time at all in FCS, unless you were using motion. GPU acceleration will be in the next version of FCP, not this one. What will you be using to edit?

 

[Topper]

How did the video editing go Topper?

I'm looking to upgrade my 8800GT and don't know whether to go the GTX 285 route or the HD4870 route.

It's too bad I didn't keep some kind of bench tests of video editing with my 8800 GT.
So I am sorry to say I can't give you a definitive answer.
The GTX 285 is significantly faster than the 8800 GT but I can't give you numbers.
But I thought I would save more time than I did.

If I were only using the video card for pro apps, I would unquestionably go with the HD 4870.
I'll bet it's not much slower if at all.

But this is a very unscientific answer, sorry.

What will you be using to edit?

FCP, Compression, and Combustion.
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[UMHurricanes34]

If I were only using the video card for pro apps, I would unquestionably go with the HD 4870.
I'll bet it's not much slower if at all.

I was thinking that would be the conclusion I eventually reached. I think I'll be going ATi then.