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Radeon 9000 Mac Card........Way Over-Priced ??

S

SpaceMusic_Guy

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 18, 2003
68
0
Mpls., MN
I hope I'm not the only one who thinks that the price of a Retail Radeon 9000 Mac Card is WAY overpriced.

I'd really like to upgrade my Dual 450 G4 which still has the stock ATI Rage Pro card with 16 MB of ram......it's definitely not cutting it anymore, but the price of the Mac Radeon 9000 Card is a JOKE !!

Considering that the PC version (which has the same performance minus the ADC connector and Mac drivers) is less than half that price just makes me SICK !!

Is anybody else out there just tired of being GOUGED by ATI and other 3rd party companies for their Mac peripherals when their PC counterparts are HALF the price or less ??

It's really starting to DISGUST me !!!!!
 
I agree, anything sold for mac cost more even if its the same hardware such as those video cards. It is getting kind of silly just look at geforce4 titaniums,Ati's 9800,9000 the list goes on and on we pay more to be 6 months behind technology wise and then we hear about faster stuff on the pc side. Bottom line is Apples hardware sucks.double the cost for half the performance. there i said it. Software is still carrying this company.
 
well i just did a quick look and saw pc version 9800 for $265 vs $350 or more for mac versions. Mac users are getting screwed but its been this way for years.
 
and let's not even get started on the Radeon 7000 PCI, there is literally no difference except ROM code and about $80 in price.
 
Re: Radeon 9000 Mac Card........Way Over-Priced ??

You all realize that ATI incurs significant costs in developing the Mac drivers for their cards, and these costs are spread over many, many fewer units sold (for Macintosh) than on the PC side, right?

I'm not saying that this is a good thing or a bad thing, or that the higher price only covers the driver costs (i.e. that there is not extra profit in there due to less competition on the Mac side). But it's not quite as black and white an issue as most of you seem to want to make it out to be.
 
Re: Re: Radeon 9000 Mac Card........Way Over-Priced ??

Originally posted by macrumors12345
You all realize that ATI incurs significant costs in developing the Mac drivers for their cards, and these costs are spread over many, many fewer units sold (for Macintosh) than on the PC side, right?

I'm not saying that this is a good thing or a bad thing, or that the higher price only covers the driver costs (i.e. that there is not extra profit in there due to less competition on the Mac side). But it's not quite as black and white an issue as most of you seem to want to make it out to be.
Click to expand...

I do understand that. I'm willing to pay more for the Mac stuff.......but not THAT MUCH more !!

With the PC version of the Radeon 9000 being about $80, I'd gladly pay $120.00 for the Mac version......but not $170.00 !!

Same thing goes for ATA PCI Cards. When I got my Sonnet Tempo ATA 133 Card I paid $100.00. During that same time period, to get a Maxtor ATA 133 card for the PC was $50.00.

I know that the development is more so as I stated previously I'm willing to pay a little more for that.......but paying double the PC price is RIDICULOUS !! It's too much more !!!
 
Many times you can buy the PC equivalent parts and they will work in the Mac. For instance, you can flash the PC Radeon 8500 for the Mac and save alot of money.
 
Originally posted by Dont Hurt Me
well i just did a quick look and saw pc version 9800 for $265 vs $350 or more for mac versions. Mac users are getting screwed but its been this way for years.
Click to expand...

I just checked and in general for a ATI built 9800 not a 3rd party one that's a retail model in box not an OEM pull it's around $300.

That's not to say that I don't agree on the PC to Mac price performance ration but for me in everyday use the OS is the difference. I will admit I am going to build a PC gaming machine. I can build a machine for $500 including the OS that will destroy a Dual/2GHz G5 at any game.
 
Originally posted by MacBandit
I can build a machine for $500 including the OS that will destroy a Dual/2GHz G5 at any game.
Click to expand...

$500? I'd be interested to see what parts you're going to use on a $500 budget.
 
Originally posted by MacBandit
http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/products/story/0,24330,3598882,00.html

There total only came to $408 with that extra $100 I could get a faster CPU and also I can get a 250GB hard drive for $150 right now.
Click to expand...

I notice you did not buy an OS. Most games (on this hardware) require Windows. Either you are going to pirate it (illegal) or buy a copy. A copy of Win2k or WinXP costs at least £100 (in the UK, if you buy the OEM version which you can do if you get it with hardware) which must translate to at least $150 breaking your budget.
 
Originally posted by robbieduncan
I notice you did not buy an OS. Most games (on this hardware) require Windows. Either you are going to pirate it (illegal) or buy a copy. A copy of Win2k or WinXP costs at least £100 (in the UK, if you buy the OEM version which you can do if you get it with hardware) which must translate to at least $150 breaking your budget.
Click to expand...

A Radeon 9600 for $80? Where? It's $150 or more everywhere I've looked. 100GB drive for $77? Where? Only 512MB of RAM? A 52X CD-ROM? Blech! Case and power supply for $17? Where? And if you do find one, it'll be a piece of junk.

Those prices are absurdly low, and if you use those components, you'll have a middle-of-the-road PC with a good graphics card, and no operating system. It certainly WON'T "blow a G5 away".
 
Originally posted by cubist
A Radeon 9600 for $80? Where? It's $150 or more everywhere I've looked. 100GB drive for $77? Where? Only 512MB of RAM? A 52X CD-ROM? Blech! Case and power supply for $17? Where? And if you do find one, it'll be a piece of junk.

Those prices are absurdly low, and if you use those components, you'll have a middle-of-the-road PC with a good graphics card, and no operating system. It certainly WON'T "blow a G5 away".
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It will blow a Dual G5 away in gaming. Simple reason because the CPU is faster and can therefore supply a better fill rate to the video card.

I know for a fact all those prices are valid they ordered them received the parts and built the machine.

As for the OS UT2003 and UT2004 runs on Linux. Either that or I can get a free copy of Windows from one of the millions of copies out there that people junk every-time they buy a new name brand PC.

Here's your link for the ATI9600.

http://store.yahoo.com/hoct12/atirad8500le.html

Here's a link for finding prices on everything else. This is exactly what the guys at The Screen Savers went to and ordered their parts.

http://www.pricewatch.com/

Finally I saw this drive deal in this weekends paper. It's a Western Digital 250GB SE 8MB of Cache for $120 after rebates.

http://www.officemax.com/max/soluti...212&siteID=NKa3hZyYoHA-kfwt12qjlKMj1ayVBoRwPQ

Or since you're gripe was a 100GB drive for $77. How about a 120GB drive for $80. Another Western Digital SE.

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3306472

Finally if you don't like the 52x CD-Rom you can get a very good 52x burner for $34.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...7-106-197&catalog=5&manufactory=BROWSE&depa=0

As for the Case and PowerSupply I can get one locally for that price that's very very good. It's butt ugly but it would work fine. People are constantly swapping out cases now days and selling there used old beige cases for cheap.
 
whats really amazing is those are retail prices, now how much does Apple pay for their prts when buying thousands? and every one of those parts blows away what they put in Imacs/emacs No wonder Apple has so much money in the bank old hardware they sell for 3 times what they pay. Anything that has anything to do with Mac is going to cost a lot more even if its the same identicle card. and macbandit most mac 9800 are selling for $389(owc). they are charging $100.00 to say for mac. look a 9600 pro was $90 we pay $160 for a old 9000. Beam me up scotty its time to get a PC.
 
Originally posted by Dont Hurt Me
whats really amazing is those are retail prices, now how much does Apple pay for their prts when buying thousands? and every one of those parts blows away what they put in Imacs/emacs No wonder Apple has so much money in the bank old hardware they sell for 3 times what they pay. Anything that has anything to do with Mac is going to cost a lot more even if its the same identicle card. and macbandit most mac 9800 are selling for $389(owc). they are charging $100.00 to say for mac. look a 9600 pro was $90 we pay $160 for a old 9000. Beam me up scotty its time to get a PC.
Click to expand...

I bought my ATI9800 Mac Edition for $345 when it was first released. If you shop around you will find it for about $360 at the moment. OWC is typically overpriced.

As for time to get a PC. I agree. That does not mean get rid of the Mac though. For day to day use I still love my Mac. It's the OS not the hardware that one loves about the Mac.
 
Teah its sick the amount of money they charge you for mac stuff :(

ATI 9800 Pro is like £340 (UK) and my friend baught a ATI 9800 Pro (Asus) for his PC and it cost in about £150 ALMOST HALF compaired to the Mac.

This type of thing drives me mad!!!
 
i agree with bandit. i have a gaming pc i built about a year ago for about a gran and it still does awesome at gaming. i probably wont build another one though when this stops doing good simplly cause ive put my money into other things and i dont play games as much as i used to. i spend more time on my mac now doing the productive things, although i sneak a game of battlefield in every now and then.

iJon
 
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