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Eek my order has a different part number - MB137Z/A
 

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Well, it's just a suffix. My screen-grab was from the original confirmation web page. If I go to my order status I see the same as you...

...apart from the price! :)
 
Subscribed, the instant it works i'll be out the door. Screw work, screw school. I really hope any off the shelf will work. Either that or the apple store us gets off their damn ass's. Damn it i can't buy it from the canada store!
 
If an off the shelf 8800 doesn't work, I can make it work. Update the thread when one of you chaps has a BTO Mac Pro or the upgrade card in hand and I'll provide you with a tool and instructions for getting a ROM dump.

After that I'll do some testing and creative hex editing and get the ROM working on a off the shelf card.
 
Cheers timb,

I thought that, even if Apple don't "allow" backwards compatibility, the ROM chip ought to be sufficiently large to allow for some creative EFI/BIOS editing, avoiding the issues that arise when flashing PC cards. I'm not good enough of a hacker to actually do the work, though. I'll keep a link to this thread and report back on delivery, hopefully in a couple of weeks.
 
If an off the shelf 8800 doesn't work, I can make it work. Update the thread when one of you chaps has a BTO Mac Pro or the upgrade card in hand and I'll provide you with a tool and instructions for getting a ROM dump.

After that I'll do some testing and creative hex editing and get the ROM working on a off the shelf card.

I'm IN! Keep me posted! I have a older Mac pro and can't afford to shell out for the new one, just yet ;-)
 
What with Vista about to implement EFI support, perhaps we will luck out and be able to use any PC card.
 
Interestingly enough the slot is a PCIe v2 slot but it only supports 16x. Doesn't this defeat the purpose of PCIe v2?

No. Each v2 lane is twice as fast (in Mbps) as a v1 lane. So 16x v2 is as fast as 32x v1. There's no viable reason to have a 32x v2, unless you're somehow running like a dozen cards in SLI. My (limited) understanding is that we're only now passing the limits of 8x v1 with the 8x00 series cards, much less maxing out a 16x v1 slot.

timb - I love you so much right now.
 
Can I ask a silly question -- what types of applications does the 8800GT benefit, vs. the default ATI card that is on sale with the new Pros?

I don't play games. If I get a MacPro it would be used primarily for Home Theater purposes (HD video, using EyeTV, etc.), maybe some light video editing. (Other stuff as well of course, but I'm quite sure Xcode doesn't care about the video card).

I presume that neither the ATI, nor the 8800GT support HDCP, which would matter for future Blu-ray playback compatibility?
 
Can I ask a silly question -- what types of applications does the 8800GT benefit, vs. the default ATI card that is on sale with the new Pros?


I presume that neither the ATI, nor the 8800GT support HDCP, which would matter for future Blu-ray playback compatibility?


You reap the benefits in heavier programs,like Shake and Motion. You allso get benfits,albeit smaller,in programs like Lightroom and Aperture.
Normal vid edit (iMovie,FCP) dont benefit from faster cards.

The problem with Apple and HDCP is that apples ACDs are not HDCP compilant so you would have to resort to third party displays.
And apple atm doesnt support BR that much yet either...
 
Guys

Here is the link - available in 5-7 weeks!!!! for $349

I've ordered one, although I'm confused why they are ready to ship in the UK and we're on a 5-7 week wait:confused:

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?s=topSellers&fnode=home/shop_mac/mac_accessories/storage&nplm=MB137Z/A&mco=CB3ECC1C

Great news! ... and yes, available in 5-7 weeks is really crazy .. must be a typo ... (fingers crossed).

The card looks VERY similar to the KFA2 GeForce 8800 GT (without the HDTV though ...). See some images here : http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3441351&CatId=1826
 
PCIe v2 is backwards compatible (the difference is extra bandwidth, 32x lanes). 8800GT uses 16x lanes anyway so there's no benefit to PCIe 2.

Hope either Apple offers it at a reasonable price or someone flashes them soon...

edit: I double checked the specs. It is actually PCIe v2 compatible but doesn't require it. We're OK with older MPs.

That's not entirely correct.

It means each lane has access to double the amount of bandwidth. Not that there suddenly is 32x lanes. That would result in a ridicously long card ;)

2.5GT/s to 5GT/s for each lane, resulting in nearly 16GB/s bandwidth, up from 8GB/s with a PCI-Express v1.x 16x slot.
 
Mine is ordered. I am very glad I bought the stock MP config at the local apple store now.
 
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