Sapphire Launches Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition Graphics Card for Mac Pro

[rGiskard]

The ports are standard fare even on the PC side, so that part of your argument's shot.

No, the standard port configuration on this card is two DVI ports, two mini DisplayPorts, and an HDMI port. This card requires a different backplate and DVI port assembly.

The drivers are in-house from Apple. Vendors don't do driver updates for OS X on the graphics front. AMD certainly doesn't, at least not on their own - they work with Apple's software engineers, with the Apple folks doing the brunt of the heavy lifting.

Contrast this with the days of the HD3870 Mac Edition, where AMD made the drivers (and one last version of the ATI Displays software for OS X before it was all handed over to Apple). The 3870 Mac Edition was a Sapphire designed card BTW. Originally they were going to use an HiS board design, but it didn't pan out, so they went with Sapphire's design instead. I still have my 3870 here from before I got my 5770, and then a 5870 (giving the 5770 to a family member for their PC).

As for the cooler, the design is a stock design, and only the artwork/coloring is different. That's a minimal cost right there, and the backplates cost pennies as well. Given that the Mac Pro's PCIe Bay Fan blows directly onto the card, there wasn't a whole lot of engineering work that had to be done to maintain proper cooling. It's essentially the 5870's heatsink design.

All you did here was elaborate on my argument that this card cost Sapphire virtual nothing to develop. The extra costs are primarily associated with retooling to produce a different cooler and port configuration. So my argument is not "shot" as you say.

The cost of this 7950 is based on demand, not development costs.

 

[sputnikv]

there's contradictory information regarding compatibility from their website. in the product description, they say this is compatible with 2010 mac pros onward while in a more obscure spec page they say the 2009 mac pros are supported. surely if the later is true, the former is as well

 

[Navdakilla]

Beast.. now all we need is a mac pro update!

 

[rGiskard]

Very powerful card but iMac 680MX is INCREDIBLE considering it is mobile.

http://www.barefeats.com/gpu7950.html

I vaguely recall Apple using both ATI and Nvidia video card options on a Power Mac for one model year. Perhaps for the new Mac Pro they will use Radeon HD 7xxx as the low end video card with an honest desktop GTX 680 for the high end? There is the Quadro K5000 but it would be nice to have a consumer version priced between the usual crap video card and the 3D production card that are offered OEM in the Mac Pro.

 

[100Daily]

New Egg is sold out. But not before I got my over night shipping order placed! It arrives tomorrow good lord willing. It will be so fresh off the boat from China I will need to break out my SARS mask

Fyi, I have a MSI 7970 (2PMD3GD5) in my 2010 Mac Pro, works fine out of the box. Stress tested it. Voltage tested it. Works fine.

 

[HurtinMinorKey]

The cost of this 7950 is based on demand, not development costs.

I'd like to add that this is also true of most cards. Development costs do not affect marginal cost(because they are fixed costs), and the actual difference in marginal costs between cards like this is negligible.

 

[hamkor04]

they are pretty "generous" with connector and also good handy PC-MAC Installation DVDs. OK, we can see Apple will deliver Mac PRO with DVD drive.

 

[rGiskard]

I'd like to add that this is also true of most cards. Development costs do not affect marginal cost(because they are fixed costs), and the actual difference in marginal costs between cards like this is negligible.

Some cards bear the cost of driver development, such as the Nvidia Quadro series. Those require development of high end 3D drivers and with a limited sales volume the development costs are passed on to buyers.

 

[Moogintroll]

So, has anybody found anywhere selling this in the UK, Ireland or europe in general. Don't these people know that Bioshock Infinite is out next week?

Speaking of Bioshock, I'm assuming that we're going to be stiffed on that free Bioshock / Crysis 3 game offer?

 

[Kissaragi]

So, has anybody found anywhere selling this in the UK, Ireland or europe in general. Don't these people know that Bioshock Infinite is out next week?

Speaking of Bioshock, I'm assuming that we're going to be stiffed on that free Bioshock / Crysis 3 game offer?

Not seen anything about the uk yet

 

[HurtinMinorKey]

Some cards bear the cost of driver development, such as the Nvidia Quadro series. Those require development of high end 3D drivers and with a limited sales volume the development costs are passed on to buyers.

If these costs are in the form of running royalties then yes, otherwise no. The Quadro series is priced so high because Nvidia can segment demand (price discrimination), and charge higher prices to people who want a specific feature and who are willing to pay more.

In any event, basic economic theory tells us that fixed costs do not affect price.

 

[MacsRgr8]

there's contradictory information regarding compatibility from their website. in the product description, they say this is compatible with 2010 mac pros onward while in a more obscure spec page they say the 2009 mac pros are supported. surely if the later is true, the former is as well

And to make matters more complicated:

The Radeon HD 7950 is compatible with all existing Mac Pros from 2008 - 2012 (though Sapphire is officially specifying 2010 and after). It can run under Lion 10.7.5 and Mt. Lion 10.8.2 by installing special driver that comes on a disc. No special driver needed for 10.8.3.

From Barefeats

 

[Moogintroll]

overclockers.co.uk Have it for sale for £400 which even if you factor in VAT is asking too much. That's over $600 or €465.

 

[mattlong1978]

overclockers.co.uk Have it for sale for £400 which even if you factor in VAT is asking too much. That's over $600 or €465.

Agreed, especially when you can buy an HIS 7950 at the same stock speeds for £165 less and free games

 

[Moogintroll]

Agreed, especially when you can buy an HIS 7950 at the same stock speeds for £165 less and free games

Exactly, it feels too much like getting ripped off on a card which is debatably, already something of a rip-off. I won't say my hand didn't hover over the "buy" button though.

 

[Dr Charter]

What do u mean? If not Macpro, what Mac line would this fit in? If u have PC, Pc version is cheaper ny $100

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Thiseans new MP will retain physical form

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This means

He's probably referring to a thunderbolt enclosure for graphics cards. I don't know if such a thing even exists but I have heard the possibility mentioned in articles about TB.

 

[RazorWriter]

Barefeat's initial benchmark review of this card had this interesting tidbit:

And strap yourself in. We have some 'wild' non-flashed 'Windows only' GPUs that run just fine on the Mac Pro under OS X 10.8.3. We promise to include them in the next article.

Anyone know which cards he's referring to? If this is true, there could be some much cheaper cards that would run on a Mac and no flashing hassle!! Link to a resource that mentions which cards these could be?

 

[JM-Prod]

Anyone know which cards he's referring to? If this is true, there could be some much cheaper cards that would run on a Mac and no flashing hassle!! Link to a resource that mentions which cards these could be?

Probably GTX 400, 500 and 600 cards... you don't get a boot screen, and they are not recognised by the system profiler, but otherwise they work... However, unless you need CUDA, and if you find the K5000 way too expensive, go for the Sapphire! It's fully supported and it's a really nice card, and cheap too!

 

[Kissaragi]

For any uk people, overclockers now has it up on their website for pre order at £400

 

[Plutonius]

For those that are interested, Amazon increased the price to $479.99

 

[Moogintroll]

For any uk people, overclockers now has it up on their website for pre order at £400

Yea but I'm still looking for a reseller that isn't just assuming that all mac owners are gullible fools with more money than sense. You should read the comments on their forums...

 

[Kissaragi]

Yea but I'm still looking for a reseller that isn't just assuming that all mac owners are gullible fools with more money than sense. You should read the comments on their forums...

Its $480 in america, you should be glad its not £480 here with the way they charge us extra.

The comments are hardly surprising on a forum for performance pc parts. The ones wanting to use this card on their pcs because it looks pretty are funny tho.

 

[Moogintroll]

Its $480 in america, you should be glad its not £480 here with the way they charge us extra.

Sure but it's like being ripped off twice. I'm just about ok with sapphire charging more due to the niche market and R&D costs etc although even so it's still priced too high IMO. I'm not cool with the reseller overcharging too.

The ones wanting to use this card on their pcs because it looks pretty are funny tho.

And they probably criticise apple users as only being interested in how their computers look.

 

[Kissaragi]

And they probably criticise apple users as only being interested in how their computers look.

Yep, in the same thread lol.

 

[Larry-K]

And to make matters more complicated:

From Barefeats

Wow, those benchmarks aren't exactly awe-inspiring, of course I don't use any of that software.

Maybe I'll just keep my crummy 5870 for now.