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Is the 2600XT vid card that bad?

I

inktomite

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 14, 2003
17
0
I see a lot of threads glamorizing the 8800 vid card on the mac pros. I ordered the 2600XT. Is there that much of a difference? I don't plan to play too many games on this thing. (mostly iLife, some aperture). Will I be missing something?

What are the strengths/weaknesses of the 2600 XT?
 
The HD 2600 isn't that bad. The 8800 GT makes it look like a VooDoo 5, though.

There's a YouTube video of a Mac Pro with a HD 2600 running Crysis very well for what you'd expect. The 8800 GT will do far better, though.

An 8800 GT is best for Final Cut Studio/Aperture/Logic people; those who need the serious graphical power for professional applications that is not afforded by the HD 2600.
 
Stick with what you have. Unless your workflow/gameplay runs into issues/limitations, consider yourself smarter for having saved a few bucks and getting your computer earlier. Waiting for the stupid 8800 while 2600 people were getting their computers wasn't all that pleasant at times.

You can always get the kit later if you feel the need.
 
3D video and gaming are the main reasons for the 8800. I'm running Photoshop and Lightroom and have no problem loading 150MB images without noticeable lag or artifacts on the 2600.
 
Peace said:
The HD2600 XT is a piece of crap. It has a hard time running the dreamscene on Vista and is hugely underclocked.
Click to expand...

It's only a piece of crap if you NEED more power (ie, gaming or heavy 3d rendering).

(What is this "Vista" of which you speak?)

For a lot of people, probably the majority, it's all they need.
 
Tallest Skil said:
The HD 2600 isn't that bad. The 8800 GT makes it look like a VooDoo 5, though.

There's a YouTube video of a Mac Pro with a HD 2600 running Crysis very well for what you'd expect. The 8800 GT will do far better, though.

An 8800 GT is best for Final Cut Studio/Aperture/Logic people; those who need the serious graphical power for professional applications that is not afforded by the HD 2600.
Click to expand...

Aperture needs rendering power from a gfx card?
 
Wait, how much benefit in Final Cut Studio will the 8800 give me? I know it renders effects but say if you set RT to Unlimited on your timeline and run some effects,is it based off of the video card solely to realtime render them?
 
That's the thing.. I can't imagine it'll benefit Aperture *that* much. My thinking when I bought this was save the money on the 8800 towards a Wii or PS3.
 
I'm a big supporter of mac, and I believe that with Apple you do get what you pay for.

I realize that quad-core xeon chips are not cheap, but I would be willing to bet less than 5% of the people who purchase these new powerhouse systems will actually make use of all 8 cored, beyond that for a $2,8000 system, that video card is complete trash. World of Warcraft (years old and not demanding by any stretch of the imagination), the only base or reference that I have for "OS X gaming" can't even run smoothly. I have the 30" monitor and in 2560x1600 it chugs with all filtering disabled. Don't even ask about Crysis or Everquest 2 under Vista... . I realize mac pro's aren't designed to be gaming rigs, but for $2800 I would hope it would be on part with a $700 new egg generic pc, but it isn't in this case.

I appreciate that they offer the 8800GT (at a premium) but we can't even get our hands on those. I ordered one a month ago from macmall, but no sign of the card. With each phone call asking where it is I get a new date of when they are expected to show up.

Ive got the 17" mac book pro, iphone, new 8core mac pro, and a mac mini hooked to my tv in the living room. Not a mac-hater by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just really let down by the performance of the stock video card, and the delay on the upgrade.
 
fs454 said:
Wait, how much benefit in Final Cut Studio will the 8800 give me? I know it renders effects but say if you set RT to Unlimited on your timeline and run some effects,is it based off of the video card solely to realtime render them?
Click to expand...

According to Apple's page on Final Cut STudio 2, Color "Color lets you preview the results — at any resolution — in real time. When you have just the look you want, render at stunning quality and blazing speeds. Color uses GPU-accelerated processing to produce RGB output in resolutions up to 4:4:4 with 32-bit float processing.". Those real-time effects take GPU power, especially at higher resolutions. As well, Motion benefits from a better GPU. Now, on this subject there was also a thread going on, on whether an ATI card was better for Color. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/427716/
 
There haven't been any benchmarks that I've seen that have the 8800 beating the 2600 in the ProApps. The 8800 is great for gaming, but FCS runs better with the 2600.
 
Ryan813 said:
I appreciate that they offer the 8800GT (at a premium) but we can't even get our hands on those. I ordered one a month ago from macmall, but no sign of the card. With each phone call asking where it is I get a new date of when they are expected to show up.
Click to expand...

What about Amazon? Lot of 8800 GT cards available. Do these work in Mac Pro?
 
No. You need an 8800 GT directly from Apple, the other ones will not have EFI64.
 
Mackilroy said:
No. You need an 8800 GT directly from Apple, the other ones will not have EFI64.
Click to expand...

You can find cards with 128k ROM then you can flash it with the Apple ROM and it works perfectly, from what I've read, for over $100 less than what Apple charges. YMMV.

There is a huge thread on it.
 
Also consider the fact that having an 8800GT will have a definite impact on resale value in the future, should one decide to sell it in favor of the"next" iteration of Mac Pros. Just something to think about.
 
prismra said:
You can find cards with 1024 byte ROM then you can flash it with the Apple ROM and it works perfectly, from what I've read, for over $100 less than what Apple charges. YMMV.

There is a huge thread on it.
Click to expand...


Update the ROM yourself? Do you have the URL of this thread?

I've been waiting for several weeks to get mine from macmall, they keep giving me new estimated dates which are worthless. I might as well as in the forums "when do you think my card will arrive" and it would be about the same effect.
 
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