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New nVidia GeForce GT 120 only for 2009 Mac Pros?!

K

KevinPlusPlus

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 16, 2007
92
0
USA
Has anyone else noticed on the product page for the standalone nVidia GT 120 Upgrade that it lists compatibility only with the Mac Pro Early 2009? Does this seem strange to anyone else?

I can't imagine there is any good technical reason that this card won't work in 2008 Mac Pros. Can we hope that this is a mistake or are we being toyed with once again in the graphics upgrade department?
 
KevinPlusPlus said:
Has anyone else noticed on the product page for the standalone nVidia GT 120 Upgrade that it lists compatibility only with the Mac Pro Early 2009? Does this seem strange to anyone else?

I can't imagine there is any good technical reason that this card won't work in 2008 Mac Pros. Can we hope that this is a mistake or are we being toyed with once again in the graphics upgrade department?
Click to expand...

i can't think for any reason why you would want this card when you can get a 8800GT, 3870, or a 4870.

The GT120 is slower than the 8800GT.
 
Chaos123x said:
i can't think for any reason why you would want this card when you can get a 8800GT, 3870, or a 4870.

The GT120 is slower than the 8800GT.
Click to expand...

Yes, but the GT120 should be a lot faster than the old "stock" 2600, and at $149 it's the cheapest of the cards mentioned, although the 3870 is admittedly not too much more at about $200. The 8800GT and 4870 cost appreciably more.

Further, there's the issue of power. You can only put one 4870 or two 8800GTs or 3870s, but four GT120s, in one Pro. So it seems like anyone with 3 or 4 ATI 2600s to support 5-8 monitors is going to be stuck with those, without any upgrade path. A narrow market probably, but still. (And no, I'm not included in that bunch. I wish.)
 
KevinPlusPlus said:
Yes, but the GT120 should be a lot faster than the old "stock" 2600, and at $149 it's the cheapest of the cards mentioned, although the 3870 is admittedly not too much more at about $200. The 8800GT and 4870 cost appreciably more.

Further, there's the issue of power. You can only put one 4870 or two 8800GTs or 3870s, but four GT120s, in one Pro. So it seems like anyone with 3 or 4 ATI 2600s to support 5-8 monitors is going to be stuck with those, without any upgrade path. A narrow market probably, but still. (And no, I'm not included in that bunch. I wish.)
Click to expand...


Well you would get one nice card, and 3 2600Xt ok cards for whole bunch of monitors anyway.

OS X can only use one GPU at time with Core Image and Open Gl anyway.

Otherwise you wasting money.
 
Wanting to use one of the 24" Cinema Displays without an adapter would be another reason to want a GT 120 in an older Mac Pro, without paying the $350 for a Radeon 4870...
 
Chaos123x said:
Well you would get one nice card, and 3 2600Xt ok cards for whole bunch of monitors anyway.

OS X can only use one GPU at time with Core Image and Open Gl anyway.

Otherwise you wasting money.
Click to expand...

I'm kinda sketchy on the display cards but are you saying? That OS X will see 1 and 1 only display card? IF you are than your wrong, and I base that on information from APPLE and some very knowledgeable people here on the forums.

If thats NOT what your saying than please explain, in more detail.

Your never to old to learn
 
michaelsviews said:
I'm kinda sketchy on the display cards but are you saying? That OS X will see 1 and 1 only display card? IF you are than your wrong, and I base that on information from APPLE and some very knowledgeable people here on the forums.

If thats NOT what your saying than please explain, in more detail.

Your never to old to learn
Click to expand...

You can't combine the power of multiple cards to have more graphical power. You can run more than two displays; that's IT, and that is useless for some people.
 
Tallest Skil said:
You can't combine the power of multiple cards to have more graphical power. You can run more than two displays; that's IT, and that is useless for some people.
Click to expand...

And isn't he also suggesting that you only get OpenGL from one? So if you had 4 monitors and two cards only the two monitors connected to card-1 (??) will display OpenGL accelerated graphics? I dunno if that's true or not (it doesn't sound right) but isn't that what he's saying?

That would really suck if true!
 
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