NVIDIA 8800GT Option for Older Mac Pros Soon?

[Detlev_73]

Has anyone read the letter?

Seriously folks, that letter which a so-called adult wrote is way too condescending, aggressive, and childish. That person really needs to chill out: is s/he really that "my way, right away" bratty, jeez folks!? I would have liked a MacBook Air WITH the SSD for around $1799, but I'm not stomping my feet on the ground, crying and carrying on like a baby in the middle of the grocery store, just because his mommy didn't get him a Dora the Explorer lollipop.

Tomorrow is another day, and Apple will continue to work on amazing products that will blow PC-lackeys socks off.

Get a grip. Be happy, or you'll probably die of a heart attack way too young.

 

[xenotaku]

seems like a carbon copy of iBank.

 

[Wild-Bill]

Seriously folks, that letter which a so-called adult wrote is way too condescending, aggressive, and childish. That person really needs to chill out: is s/he really that "my way, right away" bratty, jeez folks!? I would have liked a MacBook Air WITH the SSD for around $1799, but I'm not stomping my feet on the ground, crying and carrying on like a baby in the middle of the grocery store, just because his mommy didn't get him a Dora the Explorer lollipop.

Tomorrow is another day, and Apple will continue to work on amazing products that will blow PC-lackeys socks off.

Get a grip. Be happy, or you'll probably die of a heart attack way too young.

You don't own a pre-2008 Mac Pro, DO you? Your Macbook Air analogy is irrelevant.

 

[John.B]

Maybe...

Given that there should be nothing at all about the new Mac Pro which makes a video card for it incompatible with the previous Mac Pro...

...Maybe not. There was a discussion on Engadget today about backward compatible EFI32 support being overlooked in the firmware for Apple's version of the 8800GT. Apparently the new Mac Pro boxes use EFI64? If so, it would seem like an easy fix.

 

[SolidShadow]

This is good news for me. I bought the Macpro this summer with the intention of upgrading the video card. I was disappointed with the incompatibility news. Thanks Apple. My card is ready to purchase the upgrade as soon as it's available.

 

[pyramid6]

I was going to buy a cheap iMac because I considered the Mac Pros as non-upgradable now. This may change my mind. I'm waiting to see about processors.

P6

 

[coffey7]

I have had a much better card than this one for months already. Apple should get better cards into machines faster so people can play windows games at full res. I made a custom pc and put in a GTX overclocked 768(or some thing). Apple machines have tons of power but have weak video cards for games. how would one play Crysis the way it was supposed to be played. High Res. ATI cards stink.

 

[MacTheKnife]

Seriously folks, that letter which a so-called adult wrote is way too condescending, aggressive, and childish. That person really needs to chill out: is s/he really that "my way, right away" bratty, jeez folks!? I would have liked a MacBook Air WITH the SSD for around $1799, but I'm not stomping my feet on the ground, crying and carrying on like a baby in the middle of the grocery store, just because his mommy didn't get him a Dora the Explorer lollipop.

Tomorrow is another day, and Apple will continue to work on amazing products that will blow PC-lackeys socks off.

Get a grip. Be happy, or you'll probably die of a heart attack way too young.

I disagree completely. The letter was written in a persuasive, yet professional, manner that did not rely on abusive language to convey its tone. On the contrary, I'm quite disgusted with the response. No company should start a response to a customer that is paying thousands of dollars for its products by saying "to calm down". That is truly insulting. Whoever wrote the response should take a lesson in customer service and realize that companies are NOTHING without their customers. That response deserves one of "I suggest you get off your high horse!"

 

[pesos]

Folks, this is the price Apple has always paid for the stability of a closed system.

Why do you think Windoze NT/XP used to blue screen? 99% of the time it was due to 3rd party drivers. Video drivers continue to be the main source of instability on reasonable configured XP machines today - ATi and NVidia care only about performance, not stability. It's the main reason the video subsystem was rewritten in Vista - to separate it from the rest of the core system so a video crash wouldn't bring things down the way it used to.

OS X (and earlier mac OSes) has always enjoyed a certain level of stability simply due to its closed/limited hardware options. Imagine if Microsoft picked 2 dell desktops and 2 dell laptops and locked down their next OS to only work with that hardware.

It's going to be very interesting as Apple continues to gain market share - especially with the gamer/enthusiast crowd. It's a tough rope to walk when trying to provide cutting edge performance and upgradeability while continuing to enjoy the closed system they've always held to. It will definitely call for some staffing upgrades in both r&d and customer service - both are failing somewhat to keep up with apple's sales growth currently...

 

[Bababasjd]

It's about time a we got some kind of third party video card kit for Macs. Didn't XFX say they were going to make them for the Power Mac G4 ages ago?

I dont understqand apple charges a premium for old tech. An 8800gt. I have an 8800GTX ULTA OC, that is probably at least 2 times as fast. IS this some sort of joke. The new nvidia are coming out in a couple of weeks and apple users are still stuck with an 8800gt. WOW Apples laptops and imacs are amazing and they are top of the line, same with ipods and iphone (pricey but worth it), but apple always had an issue with their powermac line. I really suggest apple to take some drastic measures. If apple was priced around other ps users with same graphic capabilites then I would buy one but my desktop is as nice and more powerful price per preformance ratio. I mean people wonder why apple only has about 5-6 percent is because of their pricing. Apple has to cut some corners (but not all) so that they can gain more marketshare. If apple stops using xeons and uses core 2 duo that will sahve off about 1000dollars. Then apple will be marketing to the general public and then sales increase. It is really not that hard apple!

 

[SilverSpy]

"I suggest you calm down" haha too funny

 

[Wild-Bill]

I dont understqand apple charges a premium for old tech. An 8800gt. I have an 8800GTX ULTA OC, that is probably at least 2 times as fast. IS this some sort of joke.

No. The real joke is: A) the x1900xt "upgrade kit" on Apple's website costs $400.00 U.S. B) that card is two years old and was EOL'd six months ago and C) they charge $350.00 U.S. for the 8800GT "upgrade kit" (see A).

That's the real joke. Charging 4 times the retail value for an EOL'd video card. Apple has always sucked in the video card department. Now that they're on Intel there's no excuse for it anymore.

 

[Wild-Bill]

Folks, this is the price Apple has always paid for the stability of a closed system.

Why do you think Windoze NT/XP used to blue screen? 99% of the time it was due to 3rd party drivers. Video drivers continue to be the main source of instability on reasonable configured XP machines today - ATi and NVidia care only about performance, not stability.

Sorry, but your argument holds no weight since Apple writes the drivers for the video cards in its machines, not ATI nor nVidia.

 

[StealthRider]

I dont understqand apple charges a premium for old tech. An 8800gt. I have an 8800GTX ULTA OC, that is probably at least 2 times as fast. IS this some sort of joke.

I'm not sure what kind of a difference overclocking makes in performance on the 88GTX, but the 88GT is very close in performance to a standard 88GTX due to some core revisions and other changes.

 

[whimmel]

What's with all the hostility lately toward Apple? Is it that Apple isn't doing a good enough job explaining these things or are people out for blood?

I think that a lot of people have switched from Windows and they are used to being angry at the CEO.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

"I suggest you calm down" haha too funny

That definitely is something Steve would write. Succinct and to the point.

 

[Bababasjd]

I'm not sure what kind of a difference overclocking makes in performance on the 88GTX, but the 88GT is very close in performance to a standard 88GTX due to some core revisions and other changes.

Are you kidding take a look at the Ultra GTX vs the Gt there is a night and day difference.

 

[AidenShaw]

I think that a lot of people have switched from Windows and they are used to being angry at the CEO.

Which CEO?

The CEO of the company that made the graphics card?

The CEO of the company that made the GPU on the graphics card?

The CEO of the company that wrote the driver for the GPU on the graphics card?

The CEO of the company that built the system than contains the GPU on the graphics card?

The CEO of the company that wrote the operating system that runs the driver for the GPU on the graphics card?


In other words, your statement is nonsense. Windows users don't blame Redmond for a crappy graphics driver - but Apple users rightfully blame Cupertino for poor graphics support.

 

[dawnraid]

Man steves response sounds a little angry.

 

[Virgil-TB2]

people who love/hate Apple

What's with all the hostility lately toward Apple? ...

I've been thinking the same thing.
If I was to guess I would say it's (ironically) probably Apple's own recent popularity that is doing them in.

You have a lot of new users jumping on the platform because it's "cool" now and everyone wants to pretend they were behind the winning team right from the start even though they were not. You also have a lot of long time supporters who are pissed at the new popularity because their favorite marginalised anti-hero is now "mainstream."

The new users are hooked but they begrudge that fact. They sometimes seem to secretly hate the people who supported Apple through the dark years, because now they can see these folks were right all along (and they weren't.) They still lash out on the internet at those imaginary Apple "fanboys" even as they lovingly stroke their new MacBooks in their bedrooms at night. On the other hand, the long-time supporters are proud that the Mac platform is finally getting it's due, but secretly hate all the new adopters who really "don't get" the Apple way.

I'm not sure which category he is in but on this same thread a couple of posts down we have a classic example of the Apple-hater who (bewilderingly) also owns and loves Apple computers.

Here's his post title:

Apple blew it, plain & simple...

some unsupported hate statements here:

...the 8800GT has only been out for a few weeks", well that just isn't correct. It's been out for about two months now. Apple has had PLENTY of time to get this card ready. The fact of the matter is, they had ZERO intention of offering an 8800GT upgrade kit for pre-2008 Mac Pro owners. They'd rather you buy an entirely new system.

some justification for his own bitching here (and more unsupported hate statements):

... I guarantee you that this "fix" coming out from nVidia was the sole result of Apple users bitching (and rightfully so) about being shut out of an upgrade path.

now he's mad enough to swear a bit:

Apple needs to wake the hell up and realize that those games won't work anymore.

the standard "advice":

If the Mac Pro manager hasn't been fired yet, I would expect him to receive a pink slip soon.

Notice how he "knows" everything about Apple and what their "true" motivations are?
Notice how he doesn't ever support any of those statements?

But then he takes the trouble to show off his love for Apple computers in his signature, which contains the usual "I love Apple and here is how big my penis/computer is" stuff at the same time as a direct "f*ck you Apple" kind of statement. So he is proud of his Apple computers, loves them etc. but everything that Apple does (apparently) also sucks?

12" Powerbook 1.5Ghz-Maxed
Harpertown Mac Pro on order (3-5 wk wait )
Nice supply chain mgmt, apple.

three frowny faces no less!

I actually have far more respect for some weeny who thinks Vista is the Cat's Pajama's than this kind of stuff.

Make up your mind what side you are on and stick to it, or change sides based on rational thinking and facts, not whatever emotion you are feeling about Apple this week would be my advice.

 

[Virgil-TB2]

I am tired of it ...

Nothing to say but, excellent post!

 

[Virgil-TB2]

wha?

... Apple should get better cards into machines faster so people can play windows games at full res. ...

What are you nuts?

Like a better game-playing experience in Microsoft Windows should be a real goal for Apple? Jeez!

 

[abacae]

Backward compatible upgrades

I am a MacNewbie owner of the MacPro (7/2007 although I used Mac through most of the 1980s) and have to confess amazement at the very narrow scope of choice on the Mac side. My PCs have at least 9 separate choices equal to or higher than the NVideo 8800 GT which I now find is not an upgrade path for my recently purchased MacPro (which cost me more than my last 2 PCs (Duos) combined).

Even worse, now I find that when, in desperation, I want to buy the ATI 1900 upgrade, it is no longer in stock (at least where I buy). My alternative is a second hand board off Ebay. How Apple is able to keep positive vibe for their High End PCs with these really basic product problems is hard to understand. I think this incident will make a lot of us recent crossovers (escapees from the chaos of the PC) world consider moving back.

I hope the post about NVidia's planned fix are true and that it comes out soon so recent converts won't become as disappointed as I am with this investment.

Abacae

 

[pesos]

Sorry, but your argument holds no weight since Apple writes the drivers for the video cards in its machines, not ATI nor nVidia.

Sorry, but maybe you should actually read what I wrote and take a moment to process it before responding to what you incorrectly think I am arguing. My whole point was that yes, Apple writes these drivers. Why? To avoid the scenario I'm talking about that you run into in the Windoze world. Internalizing this process, however, while continuing to provide a benefit WRT stability, significantly holds them back from having the latest and greatest in hardware (and the accompanying software drivers to push that hardware's performance).

 

[MacSA]

What's with all the hostility lately toward Apple? Is it that Apple isn't doing a good enough job explaining these things or are people out for blood?

Interesting that he chose to respond. Maybe someone will email him about the HUGE price discrepancy between the US and UK price for the Apple TV. The UK did not get the price cut he announced in his keynote.