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New graphics crads coming soon for Powermacs?

G

gangst

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 27, 2004
614
0
UK
Hi,

Just asking to see if anyone knows when new PCI-Express graphics cards will be available for the Powermacs.
At the moment I have an nVidia 6600GT and would like to upgrade, but I'd like to know if anything new was coming out?

Thanks for any advice
 
gangst said:
Hi,

Just asking to see if anyone knows when new PCI-Express graphics cards will be available for the Powermacs.
At the moment I have an nVidia 6600GT and would like to upgrade, but I'd like to know if anything new was coming out?

Thanks for any advice
Click to expand...


Be patient. They'll be here. Video cards on Macs are usually one full generation behind that of PCs. And in the GPU industry, that means about roughly 6-8 months. This means that the time it takes for the company (either nVidia or ATI) to redesign for the Mac version is more or less 6-8 months.
 
ScarletRed said:
Be patient. They'll be here. Video cards on Macs are usually one full generation behind that of PCs. And in the GPU industry, that means about roughly 6-8 months. This means that the time it takes for the company (either nVidia or ATI) to redesign for the Mac version is more or less 6-8 months.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice
 
I wonder if Apple will start using all 3rd party cards in its new ProMac like in the PC world? There doesnt seem to be a reason anymore for a "Mac" card from a hardware standpoint. Wouldnt it be sweet if you could get a ProMac and get any card in the retail market for it?:)
 
it'll likely work out that you need an EFI native graphics card or if we are lucky some cards that use the same chips that apple cards use may work
 
Dont Hurt Me said:
I wonder if Apple will start using all 3rd party cards in its new ProMac like in the PC world? There doesnt seem to be a reason anymore for a "Mac" card from a hardware standpoint. Wouldnt it be sweet if you could get a ProMac and get any card in the retail market for it?:)
Click to expand...



I hope so. I got a Quad when it first came out and got the 6600 card because the 7800 card would have held up the purchase by months. Now at this point if I get down on my hands and knees and beg, a Apple vendor will sell it to me a 7800 for double the going rate. It's insane.


 
Dont Hurt Me said:
Integrated graphics most likely.:D
Click to expand...

OMGWTFBBQ!!!!ONE!!!! IIG is teh SuX0rz.

haha, j/k. I'd also like it if the new Intel Mac Pros would share graphics cards with the rest of the PC world. I like having more upgrade options and I'm sure most of the people on here are sick of paying a $100 premium (or so) for the Mac version that offers nothing more than its PC counterpart.
 
jdechko said:
...I'd also like it if the new Intel Mac Pros would share graphics cards with the rest of the PC world. I like having more upgrade options and I'm sure most of the people on here are sick of paying a $100 premium (or so) for the Mac version that offers nothing more than its PC counterpart.
Click to expand...

Apple, just like most other companies, isn't going to change the way they do business without an incentive. Consumers may think whether Apple would care as long as we continue to buy Mac-related products at premium prices (video cards that are a full generation behind, for instance). In my opinion, however, such view is narrowminded and ignorant. I am not a business major but I know that businesses are driven by profits and that's the bottom line. Despite the superior architecture of Mac computers, their OS and whatnot, they still hold only a tiny fraction of the total computers market. For this reason, companies such as ATI or nVidia will tailor to the consumers' market of the majority because that's where BIG profit lies. And that is why we see top-of-the-line graphics cards for PC first.

My apologies to everyone if this is an intuitive grasp of the obvious.
 
ScarletRed said:
Apple, just like most other companies, isn't going to change the way they do business without an incentive. Consumers may think whether Apple would care as long as we continue to buy Mac-related products at premium prices (video cards that are a full generation behind, for instance). In my opinion, however, such view is narrowminded and ignorant. I am not a business major but I know that businesses are driven by profits and that's the bottom line. Despite the superior architecture of Mac computers, their OS and whatnot, they still hold only a tiny fraction of the total computers market. For this reason, companies such as ATI or nVidia will tailor to the consumers' market of the majority because that's where BIG profit lies. And that is why we see top-of-the-line graphics cards for PC first.
Click to expand...

A couple of things.

First, Apple have already changed their way of business in a manner of speaking (switch to intel, "supporting" windows via boot camp).

Second, Apple doesn't make the video cards, ATI and nVidia do. So its not so much Apple as it is ATI and nVidia.

Also, forgive me if I'm wrong, but I really only think there are two things that separate a Mac card from a PC card... the ROM and the driver. We know that it's been possible to flash a PC card with a Mac ROM, but for all but the elite, it's not a viable option. In either case, it doesn't seem like it would be very difficult for ATI or nVidia to have written the ROM and driver for the Mac, but as you've said, they tailor their products to the majority of the market. The topic here, though should be whether or not this trend (aka business practice) will continue once the intel macs (mac pros) have been released. The differential gap (between "PC" and "Mac" components) is and has been greatly narrowed with the switch to intel. (Hint: Apple has shown this with the release of Boot Camp. They provide the windows drivers that work with their cards and since the cards work under windows, we can assume that the ROM is compatible at least.) So really, it comes down to whether or not the video card manufacturers will continue to provide the same things that apple has: a compatible ROM (if not universal ?) and an OS X driver for the card. Once that happens, there will be a lot more options for Mac users and their video cards.
 
I can't see apple using last generation video cards now that they're on x86 CPU's...that'd just be a death wish to the company, or at least loads of bad PR.
 
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