171 replies to this topic

[rob_ART]

Did you know that the GeForce 8800 GT that's optional on the "Early 2008" Mac Pro is available in a kit?

CORRECTION: This card will NOT work on 2006 and 2007 Mac Pros. I've been informed that "the new machines use EFI64, the oldmachines use EFI32, to work in an EFI32 machine you need an EFI32 ROM."

However, if you still want to order a GeForce 8800 GT,
go to the Apple Store USA and search on "MB137Z/A" to find the kit. The price is $349. There is a 5 to 7 week wait.

You can also order a Radeon HD 2600 XT for $149. It will arrive in a few days. Search on "MB198Z/A" on the Apple Store.

ADDITION: For now, you can still buy the Radeon X1900 XT kit from Apple for $399. Search on "MA631Z/B" at the Apple Store. This upgrade will NOT work on the "Early 2008" Mac Pro.

[Quicksilver]

I say, wait and pray like crazy for someone to release a dump of the Mac 8800GT ROM, then go out and buy a regular 8800GT for $200-250 (they should be that cheap in a month or so).  There's even a fanless model, though if you beat the living crap out of your GPU like I do, buy one with a fan.

[PeopleLikeFrank]

Quicksilver, on January 9th 2008, 09:38 AM, said:

I say, wait and pray like crazy for someone to release a dump of the Mac 8800GT ROM, then go out and buy a regular 8800GT for $200-250 (they should be that cheap in a month or so).  There's even a fanless model, though if you beat the living crap out of your GPU like I do, buy one with a fan.

They already are that cheap. A few places I've seen have them in the $250 range right now, and sales will go down to $200.

[teflon]

well, this will be a boon to the osx86 project... a good card with native support? boo-ya!

[QuantaCat]

probably hits 180€ start of february.

[rob_ART]

I just posted Mac Pro BUYING ADVICE: Radeon HD 2600 XT vs GeForce 8800 GT

I ordered the new Mac Pro with the Radeon so I can get it in 3 days instead of 3 weeks. Then I placed separate order for the GeForce 8800 GT. I'll report back once I can test them head to head.

[QuantaCat]

Does the price difference pay off?

[mattw]

rob_ART, on January 9th 2008, 04:48 PM, said:

I just posted Mac Pro BUYING ADVICE: Radeon HD 2600 XT vs GeForce 8800 GT

I ordered the new Mac Pro with the Radeon so I can get it in 3 days instead of 3 weeks. Then I placed separate order for the GeForce 8800 GT. I'll report back once I can test them head to head.

I'm Looking forward to your testing results as usual. It would be interesting to know what game performance in Rosetta is like relative to native G5 performance. There are a few "classic" titles that are never likely to be updated and universal binary performance is always going to be a nice step up but if you don't have space for two Macs it is hard to know when to make the transition. I imagine it was like this for the 68k to PowerPC move as well.

[Douglas]

rob_ART, on January 9th 2008, 05:17 AM, said:

Did you know that the GeForce 8800 GT that's optional on the "Early 2008" Mac Pro is available in a kit? That means you can order one to replace the GeForce 7300 GT or Radeon X1900 XT on your "August 2007" Mac Pro.

Go to the Apple Store USA and search on "MB137Z/A" to find the kit. The price is $349. There is a 5 to 7 week wait but it will be worth it.

You can also order a Radeon HD 2600 XT for $149. It will arrive in a few days. Search on "MB198Z/A" on the Apple Store.

For now, you can still buy the Radeon X1900 XT kit from Apple for $399. Search on "MA631Z/B" at the Apple Store.

How do we know for sure that this card will work in the original Mac Pro?  Doesn't the description state that the card uses the "pci 2.0 express"?  I thought the original Mac pro used regular pci express?  I'd sure hate to spend the money only to find out it required the newer machine.  However if it will work for sure, and it's going to be a lot better than my current Radion 1900xt, I'll order it. Anyone want to buy a used radeon 1900xt?

By the way, isn't it interesting that the new Nvidia is cheaper than the Radeon 1900 xt!

Douglas

[bobbob]

Douglas, on January 9th 2008, 07:30 PM, said:

Doesn't the description state that the card uses the "pci 2.0 express"?  I thought the original Mac pro used regular pci express?

It's backwards and forwards compatible.

[Douglas]

bobbob, on January 9th 2008, 06:23 PM, said:

It's backwards and forwards compatible.

But is it sideways compatible?

Douglas

[Tesseract]

mattw, on January 10th 2008, 06:47 AM, said:

There are a few "classic" titles that are never likely to be updated and universal binary performance is always going to be a nice step up but if you don't have space for two Macs it is hard to know when to make the transition. I imagine it was like this for the 68k to PowerPC move as well.

Not really. The first generation PowerPCs were so much faster than the 68040s than many 68k apps actually ran faster on PPC.

[Eric5h5]

The first generation?  No way.  Those were the 60MHz 601s, which definitely couldn't emulate 68K code as fast as a 68040, especially considering the early implementation of the 68K emulator was slower than the later versions.  With the first PPC machines, if your apps didn't say "Accelerated for Power Macintosh", you stuck with your Quadra.  601s were more or less in the same league as the 68060, which was only about 2-3 times faster than the 68040.

--Eric

[rob_ART]

CORRECTION: GeForce 8800 GT will NOT work on 2006 and 2007 Mac Pros. I've been informed that "the new machines use EFI64, the oldmachines use EFI32, to work in an EFI32 machine you need an EFI32 ROM." Bummer.

[Quicksilver]

I'd like to read more about that.  Have any pertinent articles?  If not, I'll pester one of our Intel Endowed faculty.

[Brainplug]

Well that for me is *EXTREMELY* annoying as I purchased a mac pro 2.66ghz a couple of months ago and planned to update to a new GFX card when it became available.

Is the 2600XT better than the 1900XT?

[teflon]

not a chance, the 2600XT sucks, its only a little better than the 7300gt.
wait for the 8800GT flashing crew to see if that does anything for the situation.

that does suck, a lot.

[jgwdoc]

Can't this issue be fixed rather simply with a firmware update? Seems rather silly to think that Apple would lock all their high-end machines into a videocard lockdown.

[Quicksilver]

rob_ART, on January 10th 2008, 12:59 AM, said:

CORRECTION: GeForce 8800 GT will NOT work on 2006 and 2007 Mac Pros. I've been informed that "the new machines use EFI64, the oldmachines use EFI32, to work in an EFI32 machine you need an EFI32 ROM." Bummer.

As I said before, I'd like to hear more about this--especially the status of your source.  After all, I see no reason why they'd be using a 64-bit EFI implementation in the newer Mac Pros and a 32-bit EFI implementation in the older ones.  I would assume that there would be a number of ways to get around this obstacle, if it even exists.

jgwdoc, on January 10th 2008, 08:52 AM, said:

Can't this issue be fixed rather simply with a firmware update? Seems rather silly to think that Apple would lock all their high-end machines into a videocard lockdown.

You mean, more than they already are?

[jgwdoc]

Quicksilver, on January 10th 2008, 10:21 AM, said:

You mean, more than they already are?

If this is really true, which honestly, I can't believe, I'm just waiting to hear Frost go crazy in his next post on the topic.