NVidia 7800 GT Option, More Dual Core G5 Benchmarks

[MacRumors]

Apple is now offering the NVidia GT video card as a Build to order option on the PowerMac G5 configurations. The video card from NVidia utilizes the new PCI Express architecture introduced on the new PowerMacs.

The 7800 card is a $400 upgrade for Dual 2.0 G5 buyers and a $350 upgrade for Dual 2.3/Quad 2.5 buyers. Apple provides a comparison chart of the various cards offered on the new PowerMacs.

Need faster performance for motion graphics, animation, and 3D design and visualization? Upgrade to the NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, designed to accelerate the latest creative applications and blockbuster games.

Meanwhile, MacCentral has published some benchmarks for the new dual-core PowerMac G5s. Again, no real-life benchmarks for the Quad PowerMac G5s are yet available as they are not shipping at this time. These benchmarks confirm that the Dual Core machines were generally comparable to the clock-equivalent dual processor machines.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Ah, excellent news! Good price too.

 

[Hiroshige]

This is excellent news!

Shipping time is 6-8 weeks with this card!

 

[longofest]

I was wondering where this card was in the options! But since I game on my PC box, the Geforce 6600 will suit me just fine on my new Quad .

 

[robbieduncan]

I've got a 7800GT in my games PC. It an amazingly fast card. It can push out 60fps most of the time in Doom3 and the highest quality settings with 4xAA and 8xAS turned on (1280x1024). It's about time the Apple got serious about offering top quality card in the PowerMac!

 

[MacTruck]

I don't see it on the build page at all.

 

[TrumanApple]

this quad is going to be fast...

 

[patseguin]

I was wondering if either of the new Duals would be a worthy upgrade from my 1st gen Dual 2.0. It doesn't seem like I would be getting a significant speed increase going to the 2.3GHz config. I wonder if the Quad will be the way to go?

 

[MacTruck]

this quad is going to be fast...

Lets hope so, I had to sell one of my kids to get it.

This is excellent news!

Shipping time is 6-8 weeks with this card!

Ok, I was going to cancel my previous order and reorder it with this card until I saw that 6-8 week ship time. No thanks. I want my computer some time before the macintels come out.

 

[ijimk]

will it be suported in my sig cpu if i bought it seperate?

 

[AidenShaw]

Humm, 2.26 times faster than a 1G MiniMac

Interesting, the Speedmark scores show the dual-core 2.3 to be 2¼ times faster than a 1.25 GHz MiniMac....

So, the quad-core will probably be 2½ times faster than a Mini - w00t !!



(Further proof of the validity of the comment "Lies, Damn Lies, and Benchmarks" )

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Ok, I was going to cancel my previous order and reorder it with this card until I saw that 6-8 week ship time. No thanks. I want my computer some time before the macintels come out.

I imagine that it will be available from the Apple Store as a kit in the near future - they already offer the 6600 as kit.

 

[Jesus]

WOO HOO. The quad will be groovy. Credit card at the ready.

Jesus

 

[G5Unit]

How does this card compare to my X800XT?

 

[Apple Corps]

Yes - good news on the video card. However - I do not understand the emerging commentary (various postings on various sites) that a lack of performance penalty for moving from dual processor to dual core is good news at all. The move to dual core was supposed to generate significant (50% - 80%) improvement because the dual core processor(s) could communicate with each other directly on the die and not have to go through the memory bus / controller - thus more speed.

Also - does one not have to wonder that there IS a performance penalty considering the dual core machines had the "advantage" of pci express and DDR2 533 memory?

Thoughts?

 

[Epicurus]

I was pretty sure this was coming, despite all the rumors to the contrary. Apple had to have a card priced between the 6600 and the Quadra. 6-8 weeks is a long wait, but at least Apple has quieted down the rumors by comfirming that the cards will be available (eventually). If they've been waiting for the cards for a few weeks and still have 8 weeks to go, that might be why Apple didn't offer the card to begin with. Can you imagine seeing a ship estimate of 8-10 weeks! That would really hurt sales. Now that people have had a moment to really look at the other graphics options, tossing in the 7800 with a long ship time shouldn't affect too many people's decisions to buy a PowerMac.

For me, I'm holding out for a PowerBook upgrade to the NVidia Go 7300.

 

[Tastannin]

will it be suported in my sig cpu if i bought it seperate?

Nope. Those new PowerMacs and cards are PCI Express. Not the same as PCI or PCI-X. Your G5 uses AGP for its video card anyways. Sorry.

You'd do better to either upgrade your G5 to one of the new ones, or just get a X800 XT AGP card off eBay.

 

[MacTruck]

How does this card compare to my X800XT?

I think its like the same.

 

[Sdashiki]

Wow the difference from the GeForce 6600 to the 7800 is huge

8 Gbps to 32

225 million vertices to 700

2.4 billion fills to 8

just much bigger numbers. big jump.

 

[bigandy]

Lets hope so, I had to sell one of my kids to get it.

lucky, at least you've got kids to sell to fund more mac purchases!

methinks my dual 2.7 is going out the window to fund a nice quad.... although my PB really needs updating. i'm going to maybe get the quad, and hold off on the PB until the 2nd gen intel, if i possibly can, without selling my soul to the bank. again!

 

[Tastannin]

Yes - good news on the video card. However - I do not understand the emerging commentary (various postings on various sites) that a lack of performance penalty for moving from dual processor to dual core is good news at all. The move to dual core was supposed to generate significant (50% - 80%) improvement because the dual core processor(s) could communicate with each other directly on the die and not have to go through the memory bus / controller - thus more speed.

Also - does one not have to wonder that there IS a performance penalty considering the dual core machines had the "advantage" of pci express and DDR2 533 memory?

Thoughts?

Well, I think that if you did some specific benchmarks that would take advantage of the dual core processor's strengths, you'd see how it does much better. You need to remember that the single processor dual core G5's don't have the advantage of the two separate FSB's that the older dual processor G5's have. I'm no benchmarking guru, but the new G5's have gained something and lost something, I'm not surprised that they're about even. The early buzz was that the dual cores were actually slower than the dual processors, so I think it's just a sigh of relief that its not as bad as originally thought.

 

[crazzyeddie]

will it be suported in my sig cpu if i bought it seperate?

No. Your computer uses AGP for graphics cards. The best card you can get is the Radeon X800XT or X850XT, which are still very good cards.

 

[Bear]

I was wondering if either of the new Duals would be a worthy upgrade from my 1st gen Dual 2.0. It doesn't seem like I would be getting a significant speed increase going to the 2.3GHz config. I wonder if the Quad will be the way to go?

It doesn't make sense for you to get the new dual core 2.0 or 2.3 Not enough speed increase. The Quad would be the way to go if you feel the need to upgrade.

 

[arn]

Yes - good news on the video card. However - I do not understand the emerging commentary (various postings on various sites) that a lack of performance penalty for moving from dual processor to dual core is good news at all.

Wasn't meant to be "good" news... just news. they are comparable.

arn

 

[Tastannin]

Wow the difference from the GeForce 6600 to the 7800 is huge

8 Gbps to 32

225 million vertices to 700

2.4 billion fills to 8

just much bigger numbers. big jump.

Yup, a great big jump, makes the money and wait worth it for the card, IMHO. Have you seen the EDU pricing, just outrageous, $2200 for dual core 2.0 with GF7800 card!! If I had the money, I would have ordered one already. (Muttering to self: "Must get another client thats willing to pay up front!") LOL