Will Powermac G5 PCiE owners be left with 6600 ?

[quadgirl]

Do you think that us Powermac G5 owners are going to be stuck with the stock 6600 in our PCIE slots?

It was good news that Apple (eventually) switched from AGP to PCIE on the current (and last) Powermac G5s. But honestly, if we didn't purchase from Apple and go for the custom build then we have no way to upgrade.

18 months ago Steve Jobs was really going to town with core image and core video but have never given us any video cards up to the job. EG. spend £1400 on a Powermac (supposed to be Apple's pro line) and get what? - a £50 6600LE? or spend another £400 for the mid level machine and it has a £75 6600. And most shocking, buy a quad and STILL receive the pitiful 6600. None of these cards are good performers with Core Image/Video. How can that be in Apple top line machines?

It seems like video performance is NOT on the top of Apple's list. So how about Nvidia or ATI? Surely there is a HUGE market for these companies to make a killing. ATI did it with on AGP and it seems like XFX/Nvidia with be offering something, but how about for PCIE? Or is that? Stuck with the 6600? How do you see this going?

 

[Fuzzy Orange]

Apple can care less about the PowerMacs right now. The new Mac Pro will be announced tomorrow and the PMs will be history. That is why the graphics cards are quite poor in the PMs, as is the RAM (512 MB of RAM... in Apple's Quad-core PowerMac???).

 

[quadgirl]

Apple can care less about the PowerMacs right now. The new Mac Pro will be announced tomorrow and the PMs will be history. That is why the graphics cards are quite poor in the PMs, as is the RAM (512 MB of RAM... in Apple's Quad-core PowerMac???).

And you think Apple will change their views on Graphics for the Mac Pros? Standard will be x1600XT (or another £75 Nvidia card).

Don't mention ram, it's always been Apple's way (do you honestly think the Mac Pros will come with 1gb ram?) Yeah, 512mb in a quad core is joke - but at least it's easily expandable. When there's no after sales option on Graphics that is more of a joke.

 

[Pressure]

You can actually buy a Quadro FX 4500 (G70 aka Geforce 7800GTX) for your Apple computer.

That ought to be enough.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Right now you have to flash a PC card if you want anything other than a 6600. The Mac GeForce 7800 is very hard to find used, not available without buying a news machine and overpriced. The sad thing is that ATI and Nvidia are cranking out new products at an unprecedented rate, prices are at record lows yet the Mac has been left out in the cold...this is especially criminal with the Power Mac - it would take very, very little effort for most video cards to be converted for use on the Mac. A new ROM, and you're there.

But as it stands, you can't go get, say, a set of GeForce 7600s for SLI gaming, or a Fire GL for proffessional work.

 

[quadgirl]

You can actually buy a Quadro FX 4500 (G70 aka Geforce 7800GTX) for your Apple computer.

That ought to be enough.

You can't buy either the Quadro or 7800 GT after you've bought your mac. My point is this:

1. Apple should certainly put more powerful cards in their pro line for pro work (I'm not talking about gaming as the Powermac is not intended for gaming - that's what PCs are for)

2. Apple should offer some kind of easy upgrade with more cards available. (They recently offered an upgrade from 6600LE to 6600 in their retail store. Both cards are poor examples and are certainly getting on now).

3. Failing that, there should be far more cards available from third party companies.

As Blackadder said, the war between ATi and Nvidia is huge and only PC owners are reaping the benefits of great cards at great prices.

The point of a Powermac is to have a pro machine that is easily upgradable - Ram, hard drives, optical drives, AND graphics cards.

What do you think guys? If a Fire GL, x1800 series, or Nvidia 7 series were available for the G5, would you upgrade?

 

[Pressure]

You can't buy either the Quadro or 7800 GT after you've bought your mac. My point is this:

1. Apple should certainly put more powerful cards in their pro line for pro work (I'm not talking about gaming as the Powermac is not intended for gaming - that's what PCs are for)

2. Apple should offer some kind of easy upgrade with more cards available. (They recently offered an upgrade from 6600LE to 6600 in their retail store. Both cards are poor examples and are certainly getting on now).

3. Failing that, there should be far more cards available from third party companies.

As Blackadder said, the war between ATi and Nvidia is huge and only PC owners are reaping the benefits of great cards at great prices.

The point of a Powermac is to have a pro machine that is easily upgradable - Ram, hard drives, optical drives, AND graphics cards.

What do you think guys? If a Fire GL, x1800 series, or Nvidia 7 series were available for the G5, would you upgrade?

Sure you can, buy it, open the case, plug old card out, plug new card in . . .

The Quadro 4500 is available . . .

 

[Lord Blackadder]

You can't buy either the Quadro or 7800 GT after you've bought your mac. My point is this:

1. Apple should certainly put more powerful cards in their pro line for pro work (I'm not talking about gaming as the Powermac is not intended for gaming - that's what PCs are for)

I think that Apple offers an acceptable (if a bit limited) Pro line of cards. It would be nice to see a FireGL, but I think the issue is more that the two high end cards Apple does sell (the Quadro and 7800GT) are impossible to get unless ordered with a new computer...that is unacceptable IMHO.

2. Apple should offer some kind of easy upgrade with more cards available. (They recently offered an upgrade from 6600LE to 6600 in their retail store. Both cards are poor examples and are certainly getting on now).

I agree - but they should start by making the the cards they already sell available. We should be able to buy the 7800GT and Quadro from the Apple store and resellers.

3. Failing that, there should be far more cards available from third party companies.

I agree - Apple will never produce the range of cards that we all want to see. What need to get are Mac-compatible cards from XFX, BFG, Sapphire and others. They may be willing to make Crossfire, SLI and overclocked cards...things we'll probably never see from Apple.

Sure you can, buy it, open the case, plug old card out, plug new card in . . .

The Quadro 4500 is available . . .

Good luck finding one on the aftermarket - they are very scarce since your only source of aftermarket 7800s or Quadros are pulled cards from stripped or dead G5 towers. You could also flash a PC card but many are unwilling to do that. Like I said before, You should be able to get one from apple ala carte - but you can't.

In addition to all that, I'm an ATI fanboy (though I'll admit I love the 6800GT in my G4 tower). I'd like to see Apple offer flagship cards from both ATI and Nvidia simultaneously. Apple seems to like going with one flagship card at a time - I'd like to see more choice, which will probably only come when afterket card manufacturers get in the game.

 

[Pressure]

Good luck finding one on the aftermarket - they are very scarce since your only source of aftermarket 7800s or Quadros are pulled cards from stripped or dead G5 towers. You could also flash a PC card but many are unwilling to do that. Like I said before, You should be able to get one from apple ala carte - but you can't.

In addition to all that, I'm an ATI fanboy (though I'll admit I love the 6800GT in my G4 tower). I'd like to see Apple offer flagship cards from both ATI and Nvidia simultaneously. Apple seems to like going with one flagship card at a time - I'd like to see more choice, which will probably only come when afterket card manufacturers get in the game.

You can upgrade to either Geforce 7800GT or Quadro 4500 when you buy the Powermac G5.

It's listed under the customize menu . . .

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Correct. But if you buy a PowerMac with a 6600 series card and later decide you need to upgrade Apple will not sell you a 7800GT or Quadro. I've even heard a number of stories from people with 7800s and Quadros that getting a replacement for a dead card can be quite a hassle.

 

[generik]

This is what you get when you *think different* from the rest of the industry


/me looks forward to PC-graphics card compatible Mac Pros tomorrow

 

[incolor]

Apple will sell graphics card upgrade

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