11 replies to this topic

[IMG News]

Following Apple's announcement of the Mac Pro, the ATI X1900 XT has been added to the online store as an upgrade kit. Having an upgrade path for their video card was a common request from many PowerMac G5 owners.

Those who purchased a G5 Tower ran in to the problem that they could not purchase a better video card because they were only offered as 'build to order' with a new Mac.

ATI Radeon X1900 XT with 512MB of dedicated GDDR3 memory provides an ideal solution for motion graphics, animation, or 3D design and visualization. It offers two dual-link DVI ports that can simultaneously support two 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Displays for an incredibly large widescreen workspace.

The ATI Radeon X1900 XT Graphics Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro retails for $499 US and currently has a 3 to 5 week wait until it ships. Take note that it only costs $350 to add when building your own Mac Pro vs. the $499 as an upgrade kit.

Currently the nVidia Quadro FX 4500 isn't being offered as an upgrade kit.

Return to Full Article - InsideMacGames News

[zuqbu]

Although it will be named "AMD X1900XT" soon – it's a good deal.

[Hobeaux]

IMG News, on August 8th 2006, 06:42 AM, said:

Currently the nVidia Quadro FX 4500 isn't being offered as an upgrade kit.</P>

If you're a gamer, you really don't want the 4500 card. It offers minor FPS increase over the ATI card for$1300 more.

[machineman]

Cool and all, but why did they stop one short of the absolute high end with the XTX???

[iEvan]

Shame about AMD dropping the ATI name (and possible Radeon while they are at it)... but then again I was sad to see 3DFX go as well. It just makes you wonder what is going to happen in the next line of Macs? An AMD video card? Will nVidia be the focus? If Apple gets in gear and improves drivers and interface.. I have no problem with it.

As for the Quadro, it is a shame that it isn't offered because if a company picks up a Mac Pro and didn't get the Quadro at the time... they are out of luck.

[Kerrum]

For those of you who can order from the education store, this upgrade sells for $450.

-Kerrum

[Zen]

With all these different card model names/numbers, it is really hard for the average joe (like me), who doesn't have time to follow all the industry news and offerings, to get a feel for the graphic cards pecking order. I'd love to see a table showing all the major cards, a few benchmarks for each (Doom 3 FPS, for example), and the prices. Ideally, such a list would be continuously updated as new models are introduced.

I did a quick search, but I couldn't find anything like that. Anybody know of one?

Zen

[bobbob]

Zen, on August 8th 2006, 10:57 AM, said:

Anybody know of one?

Toms Hardware has its VGA charts. Almost every tech site has some kind of roundup every few months. Prices are all over the place, since people are and taxes, shipping, etc. vary so you'll have to find out how much it costs where you are.

[Carbonara]

The ATI X1900 XT that Apple is offering on thier store will NOT work in a Powermac G5.

However, ATI IS releasing a separate upgrade card just for the G5, which sounds like it's equivilent to an X1900 GT.

"Accelerate your mac" has an article about this and adds some clarification. (The article is approximately in the middle of the page.)

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/

"ATI to release (retail) PCI-Express Radeon X1900 G5 Edition - I called an ATI contact at WWDC to ask if the new "ATI Radeon X1900 XT Graphics Upgrade Kit" at the Apple store (kit priced at $499, est. 3-5 weeks to ship) would work in a PCI-Express based G5 Tower. (The Apple store kit page says it requires a Mac Pro.) I was told the X1900 XT kit card would -not- work in a PCI-e G5.
However he said that they would soon release a "X1900 G5 Edition" for PCI Express G5 towers. (equiv. to the PC X1900 GT card, less pipes than the X1900 XT for the Mac Pro tower).
The X1900 G5 edition was demoed at Siggraph in a PCI-e G5 he said and hopefully will be available at retail in a few weeks. He said the card is compatible with OS X 10.4.7 using the drivers included with card. (No official price yet, but I think it will be significantly less than the X1900 XT's Kit price.)

BTW - a Quad G5 owner with OEM Nvidia 7800GT card asked if it would work in a new Mac Pro tower. Nobody I know has a Mac Pro yet, but if anyone gets one and/or can comment on this let me know. (Update - one reader said it would not work, as Mac Pro graphics cards must be EFI compliant.)"

[Lucian]

AMD will not be dropping the ATI brand.

http://arstechnica.c...60808-7446.html

Proof that people easily believe rumors and shoddy journalism.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Lucian, on August 9th 2006, 09:23 AM, said:

AMD will not be dropping the ATI brand.

http://arstechnica.c...60808-7446.html

Proof that people easily believe rumors and shoddy journalism.

While we're at that shoddy journalism, that link you posted has no source. None. Zero. Nada. Except for "AMD says.."..

[Tesseract]

Thain Esh Kelch, on August 10th 2006, 01:41 AM, said:

While we're at that shoddy journalism, that link you posted has no source. None. Zero. Nada. Except for "AMD says.."..

The article says they contacted AMD's PR people. That's a primary source. What more do you want?