Radeon 7000-2x the price of PC version ??

[SpaceMusic_Guy]

Has anyone else noticed that the 32 Mb PCI Radeon 7000 Graphics card for Mac is slightly more than twice the price of the PC version ?? Since I have older PCI Macs (Power Computing w/G3 upgrade & a 9600 w/G3 card) I've been thinking of getting a faster card, hence the Radeon 7000.

However, after being in a computer store and noticing that the EXACT same card for the PC is $50 as opposed to $120 for the Mac version (with the only difference being the drivers), I must admit I was a little disturbed to say the least. (have noticed the same thing with ATA PCI cards for Mac being alot more expensive than their PC counterparts)

I've been strictly a Mac user for 6 years.........love the platform. I do alot of 2D graphics (Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand), alot of 3D stuff with Bryce (Stills and some Animation), and Website developement/maintenance.........so I would consider myself a POWER user.

Having said that, is anyone else out there really getting sick and tired of being GOUGED for 3rd party Mac peripherals ?? I mean come on.........more than twice the price for the same piece of hardware........it's disgusting !! As if the current Power Mac's aren't overly expensive as it is. It's almost getting to the point where I've had enough of that crap and just switch over to the PC.

 

[Huked on Fonick]

I think there is other differences besides drivers, also do 3rd party companies make ATI cards becuase i know lots of 3rd Party companies make Nvidia cards, so you can get a 3rd PArty Nvida card cheeper than you can one made by Nvidia.........i beleve only Nvidia and apple make Mac versions but i could be wrong, i personaly perfer laptops.....

I could be wrong but i beleve what i said is correct........

 

[daveg5]

there is no difference

the saphire radeon 7000 at $44 from www.newegg.com is the exact card as the mac version only the firmware is diff.
as many have flashed it to mac.
ati charges this much because it can and they have no competition.
the mac one should be slightly more expensive $10-$20, heck they could even make it a dual card where it ships with pc drivers but has mac drivers on cd or to download.
Mac user have been wanting a 64-128MB PCI video card with FSAA ,ever since the voodoo 55oo was pulled, this new 7000 is not even as fast as the orig radeon mac edition. you can also get the 8500 same card diff software for about $100 cheape agp that is. the 9000 agp comes in a 128MB version and can be found for under $100 PC the 64MB version is almost $200 Mac. same with ata card etc.
The reason ati can do this is that no one nvidea, formac, or any third party wants to give them competition and without competition they will continue to price guoge while keeping the MB down. just think $129 fo a 32MB card pci and $200 for a 64MB card. PC users would laugh at this.
Ridiculous.
Ati does deserve some Kudos for keeping support for the mac going , excellant dvd playback and frequent driver updates.
But they are using this earned goodwill to sale dated underpowered mac video card at outrageous prices.
If they can sale thier remote for the same price mac or pc then why no video cards?

 

[maxvamp]

WOW man, I feel your pain!!

I went through this a few months ago when I went to add a second video card to my G4-733

Being a switcher, it never occured to me that there would be different roms on the cards to allow them to initialise on Mac hardware. This is the way they can prevent the Mac from taking them.

The part that really upsets me is that the roms on the cards are not that much bgger, and in the case of the radion, original cards could be flashed with the Mac rom firmware. They, of course, changed that later so that you couldn't.

In short, Yes it really sux. While this is probably the only product they make a real profit on, I say it is a bit much. Something more outragous is the NVideo Ti4 cards at a price of for than $400. You can get a PC card for about half that.

Apple: C'mon folks, the ADC connector is not that much...I don't mind paying more for the machines, but the add on periferals should be the same ones used on the PC. Give us half a chance to have the same hardware options our PC buddies have.

Max