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quadro

Holy crap that thing looks like a beast :D

Sounds like the first truly kick-ass, professional card for the new Pro's! For $1800, it better be, lol!
 
grue said:
I'd rather have the 216, personally…
Click to expand...
I don't believe ever released a Quadro with 216 shaders. Still it's kind of disappointing they didn't release the FX 5800 (240 shaders like the GTX 280 and GTX285) since that is really the direct replacement for the previous Mac FX 5600. The FX 4800 (192 shaders like the original GTX 260) is an impressive card, but it still means the Mac Pro is dropping a speed class in it's Quadro GPU option. This is kind of like the 512MB HD4870, which is a mid-range GPU, and not a higher-end performance class GPU like the 8800GT was when it was released. I'm still holding out that Apple will release a true consumer high-end GPU for the Mac Pro like a 1GB HD4890, GTX 275 or GTX 285, all safe single GPU options so Apple doesn't have to go to the bother of supporting SLI or Crossfire.
 
grue said:
I'd rather have the 216, personally…
Click to expand...

Absolutely!
The 260 C192 is on par with the 4870 1GB. In some bench tests the 4870 512MB will beat it.

The 260 C216 is on par with the 4890.

commander.data said:
I'm still holding out that Apple will release a true consumer high-end GPU for the Mac Pro like a 1GB HD4890, GTX 275 or GTX 285
Click to expand...

Yep, but add to that list the HD 4870 X2.
 
I wonder what type of speed boost this will give to Snow Leopard with it's videocard-as-processor feature.


apple.com said:
OpenCL

Another powerful Snow Leopard technology, OpenCL (Open Computing Language), makes it possible for developers to efficiently tap the vast gigaflops of computing power currently locked up in the graphics processing unit (GPU). With GPUs approaching processing speeds of a trillion operations per second, they’re capable of considerably more than just drawing pictures. OpenCL takes that power and redirects it for general-purpose computing.
Click to expand...

http://www.apple.com/macosx/snowleopard/
 
commander.data said:
I don't believe ever released a Quadro with 216 shaders. Still it's kind of disappointing they didn't release the FX 5800 (240 shaders like the GTX 280 and GTX285) since that is really the direct replacement for the previous Mac FX 5600. The FX 4800 (192 shaders like the original GTX 260) is an impressive card, but it still means the Mac Pro is dropping a speed class in it's Quadro GPU option. This is kind of like the 512MB HD4870, which is a mid-range GPU, and not a higher-end performance class GPU like the 8800GT was when it was released. I'm still holding out that Apple will release a true consumer high-end GPU for the Mac Pro like a 1GB HD4890, GTX 275 or GTX 285, all safe single GPU options so Apple doesn't have to go to the bother of supporting SLI or Crossfire.
Click to expand...

It's about catering to the market. They will sell a lot more $1,800 cards than $3,000 cards. The 4x00 cards always outsell the 5x00 cards. Apple probably only switched to the FX 5600 from the FX 4500 because the 8800GT would have out performed the FX 4600. Unless Nvidia have changed how things have been done the biggest advantage here is not the OSX performance for 3D CAD and DCC applications.

I wouldn't hold out much hope for an official highest end consumer card either as the market is tiny and it seems clear that graphics options for the mac pro are going to be very limited so having high end cards that offer the best bang for the buck is the way to go.
 
grue said:
well, it's clear at this point that I need to sell my 8x3.0 EFI32 machine and buy an EFI64-based machine. Otherwise I have several more years of being ignored by manufacturers ahead of me… sigh…
Click to expand...

To live on the cutting edge means bleeding money.
 
This card is mainly for the scientific market. NASA used the previous version for 3-D display's of the Mars Rovers. Minimal performance increase for the average Mac User. (Except for bragging rights!);)
 
So I am wondering,is this the only Quadro Nvidia will sell Apple,or do Apple only want the one model? Why???? no other models....hell they would sell loads of cheaper ones,let alone Fire Gl also.


I would love to know how many high end Quadros Apple actually do sell.
 
What's really dopey is that the "PC" Quadro FX 4800 has two DisplayPort connectors plus a dual-link DVI connector.

So... Bringing it to the Mac ditches the to DP connectors for one DL-DVI? When Apple is a proponent of DP now? Come on, you don't think the next 30"er will have DP? (mini or otherwise.) If you're willing to drop nearly $2000 on the video card, you're probably willing to shell out the extra $100 for a mini-DP-to-DL-DVI adaptor. And even then, it would only be for the secondary monitor, the primary could still run off the DL-DVI.
 
You know, this is actually quite interesting... by not including a mini-display port for a Mac-focused product, Nvidia are basically anticipating the following:

(1) Apple will not release an update to the 30" ACD any time soon -- for such an update would surely transition the display to mini-display port, or,

(2) Pro users no longer look to Apple for their displays for the most part; hence they don't care what Apple releases.
 
I am very glad to see Apple's continued stereo glasses support--a capability many of us science types petitioned for a few years back. "3D in window" with stereo glasses support is (mostly) a non-consumer specialty niche. However, many branches of science and engineering use 3D extensively. I commend Apple for insuring that the Mac remains attractive scientific computing platform.
 
This was my exact expression and utterance when I read this news
house-do-want_thumbnail.jpg
 
this isn't the card (most of you) are looking for

Quadro drivers are fine tuned and certified for specific applications. If your application isn't supported, you might very well be wasting your money.

I'm running Pro/Engineer WF 4, CfDesign V10, and Solidworks 2009 on a PC. In order to run these applications glitch free and at maximum performance on a Mac Pro, I need something that supports these apps via BootCamp, and the Quadro 4800 does just that.

Some of you into rendering may want to check out the Caustic RT board from some ex Apple folks. There is supposed to be an announcement the 24th of this month with details.


http://www.caustic.com/industries_intro.php
 
Umbongo said:
This may also lead to GTX 260s working with the Mac Pro (same chip).
Click to expand...

Now there's an interesting thought. If flashing a GTX 260 were possible, I think everybody here would be on that in a jiffy. Except the people who already flashed their 4870, but hey - if it's possible, all those people who were clamoring for the GTX might be in luck. Can anybody speak to the possibility of this?
 
ehurtley said:
What's really dopey is that the "PC" Quadro FX 4800 has two DisplayPort connectors plus a dual-link DVI connector.

So... Bringing it to the Mac ditches the to DP connectors for one DL-DVI? When Apple is a proponent of DP now? Come on, you don't think the next 30"er will have DP? (mini or otherwise.) If you're willing to drop nearly $2000 on the video card, you're probably willing to shell out the extra $100 for a mini-DP-to-DL-DVI adaptor. And even then, it would only be for the secondary monitor, the primary could still run off the DL-DVI.
Click to expand...

Probably not, since those pieces of crap are flakier than a leper colony in a sandstorm, apparently.

Known-to-work >>>>> might work.
 
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