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iMac option: Radeon HD 4850.... mobility?

Tesseract

Tesseract

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 2, 2008
139
38
I'm curious as to what the "ATI Radeon HD 4850" optioned card actually is. As many of you know, Apple is notorious for mislabeling the graphics cards in the iMac line. i.e. the infamous Apple-labelled HD 2600 Pro was actually an underclocked MOBILITY Radeon 2600 XT.

I'm a bit worried that the Radeon HD 4850 option is actually a Mobility Radeon HD 4850, which would be extremely bad news, as the mobility version of that card has significantly less power than its non-mobility counterpart. Anybody have any info regarding this? I'll update as info become available.

EDIT - Short update 3/6/09: been getting conflicting reports about the HD 4850. According to posters, some Apple reps are saying it IS the mobility variant, while others are saying that "It is not the mobility version. This is the full graphics processor." In any case, to those who are wondering, even if the 4850 -is- the mobility version, it is still significantly faster/more powerful than the GT 130. Will keep updated.
 
So are you saying if it is (and how does one find out) the ATI Radeon HD 4850 Mobility that it is no better than the NVIDIA GT 130 and that waiting 4 to 6 weeks for it is not worth the money or time? All the postings I am reading seem to imply the 4850 is much better, but if they are all assuming it is not the Mobility version, there will be a lot of disappointed people. If you look at the configuration on the order page, the comparison seems to imply that the 4850 is much better for high end gaming.

"NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 or ATI Radeon HD 4850
These graphics options offer advanced performance for graphics-intensive applications such as motion graphics, 3D modeling, rendering, and animation. For great graphics performance, choose the NVIDIA GeForce GT 130. For the ultimate in graphics performance, choose the ATI Radeon HD 4850. Both come with 512MB of GDDR3 memory."
 
I wonder if in a week or two that: "4-6 weeks" may lower down. I need to get an iMac by 8th April and I'm afraid it won't arrive on time if I chose the ATI...
 
I wish Apple would be more forthcoming on its graphics processors...

Guess I'll have to wait for an answer to this one before clicking the Buy Now button.
 
cto_nvidia_perfchart.gif


cto_ati_radeon_perfchart.gif


According to their tests the ATI card is 1.8x better with COD4, 1x better with Motion 3 and 0.2x better with Quake 4.

nick9191 said:
The ATI is better, hence why it costs more.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it looks so...The only thing that is keeping me from buying it is the shipping time..
 
The 4850 will be faster across the board, and more so in newer games

Too bad we couldnt wait for the 40nm RV740 mobility parts :(
 
Guess I may wait and see what chip set it actually is.


Then again, hackintosh is looking better each day. I just didn't expect a 2199 price point.
 
I just contacted the Apple store and here is the reply. They confirm it is the mobility version.

"Ok, thanks so much for your patience, it is the mobility version.
Blazing fast!
Is there anything else I can assist you with?"

Tesseract indicates that this is not good. Can anyone elaborate on this and tell me if the NVIDEA and the Mobility version of the 4850 are that different and worth the price and wait?
 
Its gotta be mobility... From Apple's Tech-Specs for new imacs..
Maximum continuous power: 280W (24-inch models)

From ATI.com regarding Full 4850HD card
450 Watt or greater power supply with 75 Watt 6-pin PCI Express® power connector recommended
Click to expand...

So could the full machine run under 300W with THAT card? Assuming the CPU is a 65W part and the GFX is 75W, so thats 50% of the power for those 2 elements... how much does monitor draw?
 
I know this is a broad question; for the top end iMac (3ghz +4850 mobility), what kind of gameplay performace should we be expecting? Will COD4 run at full res/details?

Or should i be saving up for a PC gaming rig ? :)
 
GonzoRob said:
I know this is a broad question; for the top end iMac (3ghz +4850 mobility), what kind of gameplay performace should we be expecting? Will COD4 run at full res/details?

Or should i be saving up for a PC gaming rig ? :)
Click to expand...

Considering the price of that iMac you can probably buy yourself a really sweet PC based gaming rig with a bigger screen.


The only reason I even give second thought to a new iMac is that I can load Windows on it
 
Shivetya said:
Considering the price of that iMac you can probably buy yourself a really sweet PC based gaming rig with a bigger screen.


The only reason I even give second thought to a new iMac is that I can load Windows on it
Click to expand...

I'm done with using windows at home... i can deal with the performance hit :)

I've been using this Macbook Pro (2.16) for just over 2 years now and it's a total champ.

In that time i've been through 3 Shuttle rigs at work (I'm a game developer)... all are now in tatters.

Anyone know of any 4850 benchmarks that might be useful for comparable evidence ?
 
Annngel said:
But the benchmark doesn't show alot of difference between Nvidia 130 and the ATI 4850.

I still don't know which to choose..
Click to expand...

The difference is enough to warrant $50. Easily.

A GT130 is a 9600M and is slower than the 9600GT desktop card. A 4850 is faster than a Nvidia 9800GTX.
If that makes any sense to you then you'd know a 4850 is indeed worth $50 more than a GT130 or whatever it is.
 
archer75 said:
The difference is enough to warrant $50. Easily.

A GT130 is a 9600M and is slower than the 9600GT desktop card. A 4850 is faster than a Nvidia 9800GTX.
If that makes any sense to you then you'd know a 4850 is indeed worth $50 more than a GT130 or whatever it is.
Click to expand...

1. Does your statement base on that the 4850 is a mobile card? Or are you speaking of the 4850 desktop?

2. Is the GT130 version faster than the previous 8800 GS?

Regards,
Wing
 
winclip said:
1. Does your statement base on that the 4850 is a mobile card? Or are you speaking of the 4850 desktop?

2. Is the GT130 version faster than the previous 8800 GS?

Regards,
Wing
Click to expand...

1. I don't know of 4850's as mobile cards. I know the Nvidia mobile cards are gimped when compared to their desktop counterparts.

2. Based upon the 9600m, 9600GT and what I know of the 8800GS I would say the GT130 is slower than a 8800GS. But ultimately I would need to see the benchmarks. A 9600m is a gimped 9600GT. Not the same performance. A 9600GT should be similar in performance to a 8600GT. And of course a 8800GS is faster than that.

A 9800GTX is alittle bit faster than a 8800GT and a ATI 4850 is faster than both.
I personally own a 9800GTX and wish I bought the 4850.
 
Eidorian said:
No, the GT130 is a 9600M on the mobile and a 9600GT on the desktop side.
Click to expand...

Therefor slower? I'm sorry, I'm not used to all these product codes and **** :eek:

I sold my old iMac 3,06 GHz in favour for the rumors. Now I did order the one with the ATI chip. This will be faster than the 8800 GS also, right?
 
archer75 said:
Without a doubt.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind and fast response. Apple sales rep. have confirmed the ATI to be a mobile version.

I'm waiting for Barefeats to publish real statistics on the cards. The "1.8X" times faster bully doesn't really say anything.

Thanks Archer!
 
winclip said:
Therefor slower? I'm sorry, I'm not used to all these product codes and **** :eek:

I sold my old iMac 3,06 GHz in favour for the rumors. Now I did order the one with the ATI chip. This will be faster than the 8800 GS also, right?
Click to expand...
The 8800M GTS is faster than everything but the 4850 option on the iMac.
 
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