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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 Mac Version Due in June
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Exactly. Unless Apple writes better drives the card isn't going to be a good performer. For example, the ATi x1900 is still a great card to use with Apple's ProApps, and even beats out cards w/better specs, because of the drivers.
Lethal
Who said anything about putting a PC card in a Mac? It's called using the existing one, but under Windows in Boot Camp, which allows substantially better gaming performance with the same graphics card.
Actually big PC gamers have a lot of knowledge about computing requirements. For example, they know that getting a Quadro would be utterly stupid because the very, very vast majority of games don't even support those cards, and what few that do often run terrible compared to the GeForce series. Quadros are meant for things like CAD.
Neither of these cards are "bad", they're just meant for different things. Quadro for professionals, GeForce for gamers. Use the right tool for the job, people. A knife won't help you eat soup and a spoon won't help you cut a tough piece of steak.
What in the flying hell are you talking about? Cards like this ARE marketed towards gamers. It's a gaming card. That's what it was and is still being sold as and was designed for. It has been for months. This is simply a Mac version, meaning that it'll likely just get used for video editing more than gaming.
Video cards dedicated to video editing for high end professional studios are cards like the Quadro and not consumer cards like these. Try playing a game on a Quadro. If you think higher price = better performance eveywhere then you don't know at all what you're talking about. Those Quadro cards cost more because they can chew up intensive professional tasks far better than a consumer grade gaming card. They don't cost more because you get more FPS in Crysis.
And millionaire playboy? $310 is slightly above middle of the road for consumer graphics cards in the real world. Even the $400 with the premium Apple will charge for them is STILL not exorbitantly priced in terms of graphics cards. The 8800 Ultras were upwards of 5, 6, 700 dollars at one point.
Some apartment dwelling movie director wannabe will surely snap up this card in favor of a Quadro he can't afford. But if you think major studios are going to even look at the 285 when the Quadro is available for their MP's then you're delusional.
Of course basement directors will jump all over this, but you can sure as hell bet that EA and the Games on Mac promotional garbage will push these things like there's no tomorrow.
No Apple mini-display port again
How many monitors support mini Display Port? One? How many monitors support DVI (or DVI with a VGA adapter)? Pretty much all the other ones.
Far more people will be annoyed by DVI+MDP than DVI+DVI. They're just giving people what the vast majority wants. MDP has a long way to go before gaining widespread acceptance.
I've always heard that workstation cards are fail for gaming, and gaming cards are fail for CAD and other workstation-type uses. What exactly makes them different, or better optimized?
As a software developer I have to say that I wonder about this as well. Last generation of workstation cards were faster and had 1.5 gigs of ram compared to the 8800GT. The 8800GT also had fewer stream processors and only 1/3 of the ram. Even with the older core in the Quadro the benchmarks confirmed the Quadro was faster, but only slightly.
Now that the differences are a lot smaller. This card has 1gig of ram, faster and more stream processors. Both cards even use the same core this time around. The Quadro is suppose to do better in applications with mixed quartz and opengl - but that requirement has gone away now that you can use a Core Animation Layers that renders everything in OpenGL for quartz... So I donno.
Ah.... brilliant!
As I haven't ordered the ATi 4870 yet, so I count myself lucky!!
I would love having this card in my '08 Mac Pro.. me thinks X-Plane will like it! 1 GB VRAM will help there, too.
As I haven't ordered the ATi 4870 yet, so I count myself lucky!!
I would love having this card in my '08 Mac Pro.. me thinks X-Plane will like it! 1 GB VRAM will help there, too.
1st Gen don't hold your breath.
So far there is no information that this card will be available on the 1st Generation of Mac Pro.
"Both 2008 and 2009 Mac Pros will be supported." see link below.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/04/29/nvidia_prepping_geforce_gtx_285_for_mac_pro.html
So far there is no information that this card will be available on the 1st Generation of Mac Pro.
"Both 2008 and 2009 Mac Pros will be supported." see link below.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/04/29/nvidia_prepping_geforce_gtx_285_for_mac_pro.html
As someone with an early '08 MP with and 8800GT, I wonder what the performance increase is over what I've got using CS4 apps as a benchmark?
Although it's speculative, I wonder if the equation tilts in favor of this card more once SL hits later this year?
Although it's speculative, I wonder if the equation tilts in favor of this card more once SL hits later this year?
While this announcement is nice, the market is still extremely small so all we're going to see is a single ATI model competing against a single nVidia one for bragging rights.
Steve Jobs killed the Mac video card market by moving almost exclusively to notebook designs with soldered in graphics sub-systems.
Nothing short of a consumer desktop/tower is going to produce the kind of sales volume that would justify investment in Mac compatible cards. As we all realize, Apple will never produce another desktop machine under US$2000 so as a consequence there will never again be a competitive market for Mac video cards.
Whats the point? The most demanding game on OSX is what, WoW?
IF someone is going to be using a mac for gaming, they'd be using a mac pro and spending 2500+ in addition to this card which is $320 or more.
Owning a mac mini for regular stuff + a strictly gaming pc is far cheaper.
For people who own the mac pro and only running OSX, what are you guys going to use this for?
IF someone is going to be using a mac for gaming, they'd be using a mac pro and spending 2500+ in addition to this card which is $320 or more.
Owning a mac mini for regular stuff + a strictly gaming pc is far cheaper.
For people who own the mac pro and only running OSX, what are you guys going to use this for?
Please drop the idiotic standpoint that the only computer processes that need good graphics cards are games.
It has everything to do with the data being handled. More RAM for the extra Z-buffers you know will be needed, higher precision for correct (rather than simply fast) results.
Games take so many shortcuts in the processing, and require less precision in the results than a CAD application. Gaming cards simply don't have the processing units to handle the high-precision math at good speed, and games don't take advantage of the high-precision math units.
It isn't that these workstation cards are that much faster overall, but rather they can do high-precision work that the gaming cards simply can't keep up with.
If this works in the 2006 Mac Pro I will buy it in an instant (yeah I know if with be a bit slower on a 1.0 PCI-Express bus, it would still be much faster than any other available option).
They've done the 2006MP compatibility before with the 8800GT, I hope it's being considered again.
They've done the 2006MP compatibility before with the 8800GT, I hope it's being considered again.
It's not like there isn't any graphically demanding games on Mac. Call of Duty 4, Quake Wars, Red Alert 3, and Prince of Persia are pretty decent. Seeing id's games tend to come to Mac, Wolfenstein will be here sooner or later. Bioshock is also supposed to be coming. If Macsoft ever finishes their port of UT3 and Gears of War, you can probably expect more Mac games when Unreal Engine 3 becomes Mac native. Eidos also mentioned they'd have forthcoming Mac information about Batman: Arkham Asylum, which may indicate a Mac version is coming, which isn't unlikely given Feral has ported many of Eidos' games to Mac.
I think you've total epic failed to understand completely what you're talking about.
Do you know what $1400 buys you? The hardware is nearly identical, you're paying for software (drivers). Software price is not so much based on volume; it's based on what the target buyer is willing to shell out.
BTW, gaming cards often are available with higher clock-speeds, thus outperforming their "workstation" counterparts, if you want to focus just on the "cards".
Go google quadro conversion.
Well the need for two molex connectors sucks. Can't believe apple didn't see this coming and add more internal power connectors, or provide more juice in general so we can Y-Split the two that are there - Epic Fail
If they swap one of the DVI connectors for mini-non bloody latching-displayport = Epic Fail
Also in answer to those arguing the Gamers/Card Price thing, that is not a lot of money to people like us who use these machines for pretty hardcore real-time video manipulation for live performance, so these cards are not just used by gamers at all. There are many many more uses for an upped card than just gaming. As already stated Cad/Product Deisgn as well as 3D compositing in applications such a Motion and After Effects where the extra horse-power makes a hell of a lot of difference and is well worth the money for the time saved waiting for previews to render.
If they swap one of the DVI connectors for mini-non bloody latching-displayport = Epic Fail
Also in answer to those arguing the Gamers/Card Price thing, that is not a lot of money to people like us who use these machines for pretty hardcore real-time video manipulation for live performance, so these cards are not just used by gamers at all. There are many many more uses for an upped card than just gaming. As already stated Cad/Product Deisgn as well as 3D compositing in applications such a Motion and After Effects where the extra horse-power makes a hell of a lot of difference and is well worth the money for the time saved waiting for previews to render.
You're right, it isn't. Workstation cards are slower than gaming cards, which have identical hardware and often are available with factory overclocked GPU and memory. If the gaming card can't do high-precision, it's only because the driver doesn't support it.
Well other people have already covered the real points but just looking at your WoW comment, the current GPU offerings are not enough to push WoW at max settings with 60fps in most situations now.
An 8800GT at 2560x1600 with no AA but everything set to max will get you around 20-40fps in most Northrend locations. There is a lot more performance headroom than you are suggesting. I'd love to not see it drop below 60fps, or to be able to switch on some AA.
I didn't see it mentioned yet, but.....
Since it looks like EVGA may be producing the cards, there's a chance that the price may be reasonable. If EVGA can keep Apple out of their pockets and otherwise ignore their pricing recommendations, we may very well see the card priced comparable to the PC variant.
How refreshing that would be. Apple's video card pricing is simply ludicrous.
Since it looks like EVGA may be producing the cards, there's a chance that the price may be reasonable. If EVGA can keep Apple out of their pockets and otherwise ignore their pricing recommendations, we may very well see the card priced comparable to the PC variant.
How refreshing that would be. Apple's video card pricing is simply ludicrous.