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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 Mac Version Due in June

Hmm, another expensive card....

I looked at replacing my Mac Pro 8-core's Nvidia 8800 GT with a Apple badged HD 4870 512 mb, then baulked at the price (£280) & delivery times (3-4 weeks).
Assuming the GTX 285 will have it's $ sign changed to a £ by Apple but the numbers not reduced that will make it around £350-400.......
Nice card but I really won't be paying that much or waiting that long for it either.
Here is why: I found a Sapphire HD 4870 1gb PC card on eBay for £140, got it flashed to contain both Mac and PC drivers and spent £9 on a custom made power cable. I followed the instructions on this very forum, thank you to all those who contributed to the thread. It's easy, fast and working just great, less than 2 weeks after my initial purchase bid.
My WoW is now almost permanently Vsynced to 60 fps in raids and exteriors, the laggiest times in Dalaran (the busiest city) give 27 fps even with the graphics settings on Ultra, compared to 17 fps out of the 8800 GT. Can't see any point in trying to improve on that really.
As a big bonus all the ATI Native parts of OS X (Core Image etc.) love it more too. Big boosts to Pro apps despite generic 4xx0 drivers installed, can't wait for the next OS patch which could contain specific card drivers, hopefully. :D
 
Reply to airbrakes

I took the card to my local computer geek shop and got them to install it in one of their PC towers, then they used WinFlash and the Mac & PC bios zip file from: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/7473867/ Read all about how here.
They assumed once the card was flashed their PC wouldn't recognise it, but it rebooted fine after.
 
Undecided said:
What we need is a mini tower, MacPro mini, into which we could put these things, instead of having to shell out serious dough for a full MacPro.
Click to expand...

I know I may sound like a broken record but, common Apple! Give us a mini tower already! An upgradeable tower without costing an arm and a leg. Hopefully if we complain enough, somebody might (hopefully) will have mercy on us and listen and deliver. Until then, I rant!:D
 
MrGouda said:
I know I may sound like a broken record but, common Apple! Give us a mini tower already! An upgradeable tower without costing an arm and a leg. Hopefully if we complain enough, somebody might (hopefully) will have mercy on us and listen and deliver. Until then, I rant!:D
Click to expand...

You might as well hold your breath for a PowerBook G5...
 
I am very seriously thinking about moving from my Dell XPS 600 to a Mac Pro but would like to wait for this card.

Any idea how much longer before the Mac store offers this on the Mac Pro?

The article says June, just wondering if things like this show up early or late in the month...or does it matter? Are they usually pretty close to the rumor date?

Thanks
 
If I were to buy this card...

If i were to get this card for my MacPro 2008 would I be able to transplant this card to a PC computer in the future (keeping in mind that the future PC would have the same connection and the same required specs on the mother board.

Would I be able to make this card last should I chose to go back to PC?:confused:
 
Is it worth cancelling my order (placed yesterday) on an 8-Core Mac Pro equipped with the Radeon HD 4870 and wait for the GTX 285?

I really don't mind if the performance boost is minimal. I work in mostly motion-intensive applications, with a few graphic design applications as well as a some 3D here and there -which I understand that the HD 4870 handles well.
 
Umm....

I use my Mac Pro for gaming... Honestly, if I wasn't interested in that, I would have saved the money and just bought an iMac instead. Gaming was the main motivation for me to just fork out the extra money and not bother with an "all in one" machine.

As others have said, if Apple would offer some type of mini-tower or other "box with slots" - that might have been ideal. But like many people, I already own a nice 24" LCD display - and wanted to make use of it. I knew I wanted more than just one hard drive, and would prefer they be inside the computer, rather than in separate enclosures, taking up more USB or firewire ports and potentially more AC wall outlets for their adapters too.

So yes, the overall "value proposition" was there to just buy the Mac Pro tower, vs. anything else Apple offered. (Going with some generic Windows PC wasn't really part of the equation. I've already done that plenty of times before, and my goal was to get AWAY from that nonsense. I want OS X as my day-to-day operating system, not Windows -- and I want a machine that's engineered well, with decent support from its manufacturer. Most PC "gaming rigs" are noisy, gaudy-looking hunks of colored plastic with a mess of cabling inside to tame. If you build from scratch, selecting a case anywhere near the quality of the Mac Pro's aluminum enclosure, factor in a power supply as big as a Mac Pro uses (900-1000 watts), go with decent quality slide-out drive trays for the hard drives, etc. etc. -- you're not that far off from the price of a Mac Pro anyway. Doubly so if you buy from Apple's refurbished store online.)


Synthetickiller said:
EXACTLY.

What segment of users are going to use a gtx285 for gaming if they own a mac pro? Better question, what do mac pro owners use their rigs for? Gaming? That doesn't seem to be the consensus here, but people want a gaming card for non-gaming applications?
Click to expand...
 
tezro said:
Old news.
Scroll up.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't call this old news the second post above mine just says they ordered it off owc that is nothing official I mean at the time the vender could of made a mistake or a pre-order, plus they had no details or links. I saw that before I posted , Anyway I do see another post in forum about the video card maybe that's what you meant, I was only going from the rumor posts from the main page of macrumors.com
 
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