Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

NVIDIA 8800GT for Older Mac Pros Now Available

KindredMAC said:
Why is it that Firmware on video cards has to be so complicated for the Macs and cause us to not have a wide selection???
Click to expand...

manufacturers first make windows windowsfirmware, jsu because it has a WAY bigger user-base -> Windows has it directly

ths linux-community has a ver large base creating open-source drivers for the hardware, and on a low level it requires allmost no adjustments, cause Linux mainly uses BIOS too -> Linux has it shortly after windows

Macs however use EFI, and do not have a large open-source developer base (or at least it's way smaller then linux's) -> macs get the hardware only when the manufacturers feel like making the drivers and firware
 
alleycat said:
Back to topic…

I am estatic over the news. I'm looking forward to doing some next gen gaming, and not having to swap cards back or forth between Windows and Mac. Thank you Steve Jobs!!! :D
Click to expand...

Why have you had to swap cards? I have a 7300 installed in slot3 and an 8800GTS installed in slot 1, and when I boot up in Windows, the 8800 runs, and when I boot up in Mac OS, the 7300 runs. . .
 
SPUY767 said:
Why have you had to swap cards? I have a 7300 installed in slot3 and an 8800GTS installed in slot 1, and when I boot up in Windows, the 8800 runs, and when I boot up in Mac OS, the 7300 runs. . .
Click to expand...

Is there is any chance to have two 8800 and advantages?
 
hold on a second, spanky

diamond.g said:
I mean they got Intel to give them the Xeons early...
Click to expand...

That's one way of looking at it, but unfortunately it's not exactly the way things were....

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/4460762/

Originally Posted by Lord Blackadder
We can only hope that Apple gets preferential treatment from Intel, as they did with the quad 3GHz chips.
Click to expand...

Oh please, Lord Blackadder - pardon my presumption as a lowly commoner at seeming to question the thoughts of one of the lords of the realm. Methinks, however, that thou art beholden to one of the "myths of the fanbois" - and though I quiver in the shade of thy majesty, I must speak the truth unto thou greatness, however great the cost to my soul and family.

It seems, mi lord, that:

- The kingdom of Apple didn't have an exclusive on the chips of the Third Giga - several 2nd tier and white box vendors were also offering those sacred chips for sale at about the same time as the Lord God Jobs bequeathed the Octo-core onto the people

- Those who visited the dark lords of the grey market were able to lay their hands upon the fabled chips of the Third Giga, even without visiting the Lord Jobs in the Temple of Cupertino

- The lords of the north (HP) and south (Dell) and other realms were also offered the divine chips of the Third Giga - but those lords, since they had not built their forts to withstand the nuclear fires of the G5, decided to wait for the second coming of the Third Giga in the form of the faster cooler 120 watt holy "G0 stepping".

Please, Lord Blackadder, have mercy on my soul - I am a loyal serf of your realm, but I fear that you have supped too often from the chalice of Kool-Aid from the realm of Cupertino. I humbly submit to your judgment - I'm only hoping that truth will prevail in your realm.
Click to expand...

So yes, Apple were using the 3.0 GHz 150 watt chips before Dell and HP, but only because the other big system vendors decided not to redo the thermals on their systems for a chip that was going to be replaced by a faster, lower power 120 watt chip in a few months.

On the other hand, Intel did pull a special in slapping an old Merom into a smaller package that they were already designing for Penryn chips, and offering that to Apple first for the MacBook Cube Air.
 
Help! said:
Buying RAM from a third party is extremely common and problems are not as frequent as you are implying. Also the procedure for installation on all the Macs ive used has been very easy (except the mini).
Click to expand...

Agreed. Every single Mac I have purchased has had OWC RAM thrown into it (sometimes running exclusively on the OWC, and the Apple RAM resold to someone else)... Never had hardware issues tracked down to the RAM.

It is all about finding a good vendor, rather than the absolute lowest price.
 
Sli ?

Hi all. Glad they finally made the cards. I got a question though:

I have a 2006 Mac Pro. If place two GF8800 there, will SLI work under Windows ? (I know it won't work under Mac OS).

Cheers
 
Rogoo said:
Hi all. Glad they finally made the cards. I got a question though:

I have a 2006 Mac Pro. If place two GF8800 there, will SLI work under Windows ? (I know it won't work under Mac OS).

Cheers
Click to expand...

Don't believe so. Looks like the Xeon platform the Mac Pro uses doesn't do nVidia SLI...
 
Got mine installed a little while ago. EXTREMELY quiet. Performance in WoW is great at 2560 X 1600. Leopard effects seem to be very fast. So far a very happy camper. :p
 
pprior said:
ouch! :eek:

Please report on noise levels as soon as you can. Mine hasn't shipped yet.
Click to expand...

I installed mine, and the noise levels are very low compared to the X1900 XT. They are louder than the fanless 7300GT or 2600XT though.

Of course, I have an external RAID box which drowns out pretty much any noise the Mac Pro could produce, with the exception of the fan noise from the X1900 during startup.
 
Ordered yesterday with student discount and the free shipping, guess what is out for delivery today weee <3 u steve, apple or whoever :apple:
that was fast shipping for free lol :D

Also for people saying more expensive than pc version blah blah, just think that your paying $30 dollars for the 6 pin power cable and the extra cash is for warranty that it will work with your computer and don't have to flash it and avoid warranty or whatever.

I'm upgrading from 7300 gt and don't have the 6 pin cable, so yea if didn't come with it had to buy it anyway. ;)
 
iFizz said:
I hear you brother. If I had the 1900XT I would probably wait too. Keep an eye on barefeats.
Click to expand...

Bah....my x1900xt has been freezing my Mac Pro and strange rainbow lines 1 pixel thick have started appearing across my panels (finder, safari etc). It's under warranty and i have the option to go for either the x1900xt or the 8800gt. After reading this entire thread, i still don't know which to go for:( I use FCP, DVD Studio Pro and Motion but i probably do more in Maya, After Effects, Shake. I also do a bit of gaming in OSX and Bootcamp.

Which should i go for?

I just wish they ( :apple: )could optimise the drivers for core image fx in OSX in the 8800gt to make this an easy decision. :confused:
 
Jumped on the bandwagon

After reading all of your warm n fuzzy comments I decided to jump on the 8800GT train and ordered one tonight. Except I ordered it from NVIDIA directly instead of the Apple store...it says in stock on their page unlike Apple's 3-5 day turnaround time. We'll see how she goes!
 
An interesting twist in the tale. Apparently an ATI HD 3870 is planned for release on the Mac Pro by the end of May. The testing shows that the 8800gt is faster for most stuff, except the ATI will likely be much better than both the 8800gt and the x1900xt for Core Image FX.

https://www.macrumors.com/2008/04/29/ati-radeon-hd-3870-video-card-for-the-mac-pro-in-may/

I reckon i'll still go the 8800gt unless they decide to make it the dual GPU HD 3870 X2.
 
Help! said:
Buying RAM from a third party is extremely common and problems are not as frequent as you are implying. Also the procedure for installation on all the Macs ive used has been very easy (except the mini).
Click to expand...

Yeah I'll put another vote in for 3rd party RAM.

I've been Rock'in 2GB of extra Crucial memory in my Mac Pro since I got it almost a year ago. No problems at all. In fact I was thinking of buying 2GB more of the same stuff.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back