X800XT doubles the 3D mark score over 9800xt - New interface in Macs soon?

[law guy]

I was just reading a review of new systems with the new Intel 925 and 915 chipsets on www.pcmag.com and noting the new graphics card interface. The quote below notes that the PCI-Express x16 interface had doubled scores over the 9800xt. I also noted that the chipsets are designed for 8 usb2 ports - handy. Do folks expect to see the new graphics bus in Macs anytime soon? Or has it taken Apple awhile to adapt their motherboards to new intel-spawned interfaces in the past? It seemed like functioning USB2 lagged half-a-year or so.

Anyway - here is the quote:

"Thanks to the ATI Radon X800XT, which was developed for the PCI-Express x16 interface in the Grantsdale chipset, the 8400's 3DMark03 scores almost double those from systems with the previous-generation graphics (such as the Radeon 9800XT and nVidia GeForce FX 5950)."

 

[ddtlm]

The quote below notes that the PCI-Express x16 interface had doubled scores over the 9800xt.

Read the quote again, the PCI-Exp interface does not get the credit. Nor is it going to be coming to Macs before the next major PMac update, whenever that will be.

 

[sandmann41]

on The Screensavers yesterday they said that pci express adds almost no performance over agp

 

[brap]

on The Screensavers yesterday they said that pci express adds almost no performance over agp

It'll be like the jump from AGPx4 - x8. Nothing requires that kind of insane bandwidth yet (read: pretty much nothing, excluding networking), and VGA cards will only use (on the whole) one direction - something AGP provides very well thankyou. The whole PCI Express thing is designed for faster bidirectional communication.

 

[kjwebb]

Hang on, would I be correct that PCI-Express is PCI-X?

I think it is (unless my memory is serving me wrong).

If so, Apple has already got support in the G5's.

 

[keysersoze]

Hang on, would I be correct that PCI-Express is PCI-X?

I think it is (unless my memory is serving me wrong).

If so, Apple has already got support in the G5's.

No, it's not the same. The G5's support PCI-X, NOT PCI-Express.

 

[Mindfield]

Hang on, would I be correct that PCI-Express is PCI-X?

I think it is (unless my memory is serving me wrong).

If so, Apple has already got support in the G5's.

PCI-Express and PCI-X are two completely different things.

 

[kjwebb]

PCI-Express and PCI-X are two completely different things.

Thanks for the correction.