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Nvidia GTX 285 - What's going on?

Infrared said:
No cables come with the default configuration (with 2600XT).

You get one or more cables when you buy a graphics card, or
you buy the cables yourself.

You can see one such cable in this picture:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b205/Mackilroy/6-pininmotherboard.jpg

You can see how it connects to the upper of two slots.
Click to expand...
I would have thought any upgrade bought through Apple would have the cable. But as this is 3rd party, it's unknown, as it's their (EVGA) option. If they want to be cheap, then definitely not. :(

Personally, I'd assume the cable isn't included, and would go ahead and pick up what's needed. But that's me. ;) I like having spares on hand, as I've avoided needing to find something in desparation for a repair. :) Helps diagnose bad cables as well. :D
 
nanofrog said:
I would have thought any upgrade bought through Apple would have the cable. But as this is 3rd party, it's unknown, as it's their (EVGA) option. If they want to be cheap, then definitely not. :(

Personally, I'd assume the cable isn't included, and would go ahead and pick up what's needed. But that's me. ;) I like having spares on hand, as I've avoided needing to find something in desparation for a repair. :) Helps diagnose bad cables as well. :D
Click to expand...

There's no way it won't come with cables. Every graphics card I've ever purchased that has needed extra power has come with the necessary cables. My third party 3870 Mac Addition came with the power cable. The fact that these power cables are only sold by ATI direct in North America or by people diying them and selling them means that Hell would freeze over before they ship their card without the cables.
 
Spanky Deluxe said:
There's no way it won't come with cables. Every graphics card I've ever purchased that has needed extra power has come with the necessary cables. My third party 3870 Mac Addition came with the power cable. The fact that these power cables are only sold by ATI direct in North America or by people diying them and selling them means that Hell would freeze over before they ship their card without the cables.
Click to expand...
ATI already has access to them for the 3870 Mac & PC ed., and did the development themselves. It's the EVGA aspect that I'm not sure of, as they're not nVidia. They just buy nVidia's GPU's. :p

Unfortunately, I've seen a few too many items ship without all the necessary odds and ends (cables) lately, and I don't put much past corporations these days in the desire to save every cent they can. Especially if they can sell them for an additional profit. :( Remind you of anything lately, or even any specific company(ies)?

Hint: :apple: :D

That said, I truly hope they do have the decency to include them. :)
 
The 4800 came with a cable and that was a 3rd party card. The apple 4870 came with 2 cables. If the 285 did not come with cables I would be shocked.

Not including the two specialized cables for the Mac Pro with a $400 graphics card would not only be silly, but stupid.
 
xgman said:
I'll have to open up and look later, but are you saying that the Mac pro early 2008 has only a plug on the motherboard and no 2nd power cable? or are there 2 vid power cables stuffed in there somewhere? I wonder if the evga mac box comes with whatever is needed? I'm thinking it should already be in the box, but who knows.
...
Click to expand...
The 08 Mac Pro has two connectors on the mother board for a special type of PCI power cable. In the case of the 8800 that card shipped with the one cable it needed and I expect the EVGA card to ship with two. If by some stupidity it does not you can source them elsewhere - those of us that have already installed PC versions do this, or route power from the optical bay, which is also an option if you need three or more cables - I do this to power an 8800+PC 285. I will be furious if my Mac 285 does not ship with the two needed cables.

My card is on back order with OWC and their web site says it expects to ship in 7 days.
 
10THzMac

looks like cuda pkg from 4800 quadro disk fixed cude for guys with gt2xx
 
turtlebud said:
provantage, bottom line telecommunications, and cost central all show 33 in stock - wonder if they are shipping from that same southern cal warehouse.

http://www.provantage.com/evga-01g-p3-1080-tr~AEVGA0EC.htm

http://www.costcentral.com/proddeta...1GB_2PORT_DVI_I/01GP31080TR/10770930/froogle/

http://www.shopblt.com/cgi-bin/shop...BD0860P.shtml&order_id=!ORDERID!#Availability
Click to expand...

It looks like that's the case. My card shipped this morning from Bloomington, CA last night and is on its way to a warehouse in North Canton, OH. From there, it will ship to my house in Massachusetts. I kind of wish I had sprung for the 2-Day shipping, but it was an extra $40 so no way in hell!
 
justflie said:
It looks like that's the case. My card shipped this morning from Bloomington, CA last night and is on its way to a warehouse in North Canton, OH. From there, it will ship to my house in Massachusetts. I kind of wish I had sprung for the 2-Day shipping, but it was an extra $40 so no way in hell!
Click to expand...

Yep, I think we are all getting them from Southern California.
I'm a little surprised to see OWC still showing 7 days before they will be shipping.
Although our 285's are on a slow boat from China so 7 days may still be correct.

Here is GTX 285 Mac warehouse information from BLT:

285.jpg

.
 
Very excited for someone to try these in a 2006 or 2007 Mac Pro… not expecting it to work, but it'd be nice if I didn't have to buy a 4870 for my upgrade card :(
 
I only went with OWC as provantage was funny about credit cards for overseas orders. It's a bit annoying to see them taking longer to ship as well as charging more, but maybe they are just conforming to an embargo when others are not.

We are not well served in the UK. The PNY Quadro card is not on UK Apple Store despite being on US for a while (not that I would buy it). Novatech are usually excellent but want £437.60!!! (that's POUNDS) for the "Apple" 285 and claim they will have ONE tomorrow. I cannot see the card on Scan though there is a mysteriously expensive 1G card for just over £400. I can wait.
 
10THzMac said:
I only went with OWC as provantage was funny about credit cards for overseas orders.
Click to expand...

When it comes to credit cards, Provantage is strange.
They told me that my credit card was declined because the telephone number I gave them was different than my phone number with my credit card company.
My credit card company had my old phone number. I just changed it.
I do all my shopping (except for food) on the internet but that was first time any vendor ever compared phone numbers.
I wouldn't be surprised but next time Provantage will ask for an iris recognition and identification scan.
.
 
lol, annoying, but at least they seem to be somewhat conscious of security. I had "request ID" on my signature line for my card and I was never ONCE asked for my ID at a retail store. They didn't even check the signature...:eek:

If any of you guys are decent with iweb or web publishing, please answer my cry for help here.
 
10THzMac said:
I only went with OWC as provantage was funny about credit cards for overseas orders. It's a bit annoying to see them taking longer to ship as well as charging more, but maybe they are just conforming to an embargo when others are not.

We are not well served in the UK. The PNY Quadro card is not on UK Apple Store despite being on US for a while (not that I would buy it). Novatech are usually excellent but want £437.60!!! (that's POUNDS) for the "Apple" 285 and claim they will have ONE tomorrow. I cannot see the card on Scan though there is a mysteriously expensive 1G card for just over £400. I can wait.
Click to expand...

You do realise that OWC charge $521.29 for delivery to the UK minimum, which is $683 after VAT (15%) and Import Duty (14%), i.e. £425. The extra £12.60 doesn't sound that bad to likely get it far quicker from Novatech.
 
Spanky Deluxe said:
You do realise that OWC charge $521.29 for delivery to the UK minimum, which is $683 after VAT (15%) and Import Duty (14%), i.e. £425. The extra £12.60 doesn't sound that bad to likely get it far quicker from Novatech.
Click to expand...
10/10 for arithmetic. These little extras also have a certain binary random quality about them. :cool:
 
10THzMac said:
The 08 Mac Pro has two connectors on the mother board for a special type of PCI power cable.
Click to expand...

What sort of PCI cables are used in typical PCs?

And why didn't Apple choose sockets that would allow them to be used?

Thanks!
 
10THzMac said:
10/10 for arithmetic. These little extras also have a certain binary random quality about them. :cool:
Click to expand...

I got the impression that you'd forgotten about VAT and Import Duty because you were complaining that Novatech's price was so high when you're actually paying pretty much the same. I guess if saving £12.60 is worth waiting weeks for it to be shipped over then go for it.
 
My provantage order shipped yesterday and I spoke today with EVGA sales and they did say that the 285 mac card should come with the power cable.
 
Infrared said:
What sort of PCI cables are used in typical PCs?

And why didn't Apple choose sockets that would allow them to be used?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
In PC's, it's taken directly from the PSU. Either from PCIe power wires already comming out of it (hardwired), from a modular connection system, or off the Molex power connectors (smaller or older PSU's) using the cables that come in retail packaged graphics cards.

The latter isn't very neat, but it does work. For a neat installation, the modular cable connections work best. :)
 
nanofrog said:
In PC's, it's taken directly from the PSU. Either from PCIe power wires already comming out of it (hardwired), from a modular connection system, or off the Molex power connectors (smaller or older PSU's) using the cables that come in retail packaged graphics cards.

The latter isn't very neat, but it does work. For a neat installation, the modular cable connections work best. :)
Click to expand...

Ah, ok, thanks.

Hmm... I found this crazy site:

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html

I mean, wow. Cablemania! :)
 
Good to see some great discussion in this thread. Does anyone here know somewhere I can pre-order the card in the UK?
 
colinthejanitor said:
Good to see some great discussion in this thread. Does anyone here know somewhere I can pre-order the card in the UK?
Click to expand...

Here is the Novatech link

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?EVG-285A

To answer the other question about Apple's cables - I have no idea why they went for custom PCI power connectors. It has driven us nuts, but at least so far the Apple versions of cards ship with them. It's only us reckless folk who try to get PC cards working who have to source them elsewhere, coz the PC cards ship with standard 4-pin molex to PCI cables - these are fine for routing extra power from the optical bay (look for a post by Cindori with piccies), where there are standard 4-pin molex outputs! For PCI power Apple have these very annoying mini-connectors in an awkward corner of the logic board.

It you go for a heavily customized Pro - e.g. with a Mac 285 and eg a PC 295 it is probably easier to get a piggy back PSU - I have a ToughPower supply with oodles of 6pin and 8pin cables, and while it means an open case the power and cabling issues are then trivial. I will be rigging this up for my intended twin 285 setup later this month as I do not want to stress the system with four 6pin outputs (though it would probably be OK to take two off the board and two off the optical - I just do not want to risk it). Power lust like this is one reason I hope Apple do a bigger model with oodles of power and slots for 4 BIG GPUs.
 
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