NV 6800 a waste of time

altivec_2.0altivec_2.0
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I personally think that using the 6800 from Nvidia is a waste. Did apple make some deal with Nvidia for a speical cards such as the 6800. I personally think that apple should have went to ATI for the Dual Link video card. I'd rather have a x800 over a 6800. The x800 is a much faster and overal better card. Not to mention the x800 probably wouldn't take up an extra pci slot.
«1

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 31
    marcukmarcuk Posts: 4,442member
    unfortunately the X800 does not match the 6800 in OpenGL, which is the macs native 3d graphics API. All things being equal I'd prefer an X800, because of its sensible power consumption, but there is little doubt the nVidia is the more powerful card, it just doesn't have software to do it justice yet.
  • Reply 2 of 31
    xsmixsmi Posts: 139member
    Also PCIe rules it out as well.
  • Reply 3 of 31
    xsmixsmi Posts: 139member
    sorry, just reread Ati's website and I see they have a 8X AGP version as well.
  • Reply 4 of 31
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    Might have been political. There's something funky with NVIDIA, they must be strongarming Apple. Why else would they have put NVIDIA crap in PowerBooks? ATi mops the floor with them in laptops. I mean it's sick when iBooks beat PowerBooks at graphics. Grr. Just bitter at the stupid GeForce 4 Go in my rev A 12" 867mhz PowerBook.
  • Reply 5 of 31
    onlyafterdarkonlyafterdark Posts: 141member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Aquatic

    Grr. Just bitter at the stupid GeForce 4 Go in my rev A 12" 867mhz PowerBook.



    That makes two of us.
  • Reply 6 of 31
    xsmixsmi Posts: 139member
    I agree but keeping the option of having the choice of both manufacturers is very important in the long run. Look at the CPU debacle.
  • Reply 7 of 31
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by xsmi

    I agree but keeping the option of having the choice of both manufacturers is very important in the long run. Look at the CPU debacle.



    Good point. Sometimes ATI will be the leader, sometimes Nvidia will be the big guy. By having the two major video card companie as supplier, Apple is sure to have acess to the best stuff of the market.
  • Reply 8 of 31
    auroraaurora Posts: 1,142member
    One other point though has little relvance to us in the mac world is it has direct x 9.0c the 800xt only supports 9.0a &b this has little value now but should play a part in future games written to take advantage of new pixel and vertex shaders. I agree with that the X800xt is the better card at the moment and uses less power.
  • Reply 9 of 31
    ionyzionyz Posts: 491member
    I'd also prefer a Radeon. Less space, less power, great performance. The Nvidia may perform better at OGL but losing 33% of the internal expandability for the machine is sad.
  • Reply 10 of 31
    marcukmarcuk Posts: 4,442member
    On the PC side, the 6800 ultra needs 2 molex supplies from the power unit to the card to operate, how have Apple engineered this?
  • Reply 11 of 31
    smalmsmalm Posts: 677member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by MarcUK

    On the PC side, the 6800 ultra needs 2 molex supplies from the power unit to the card to operate, how have Apple engineered this?



    The card still has the power connector that was used to power the monitor through ADC. It seems they used that to provide some extra juice to the card. Did you see that area with discret stuff behind the cooler. Looks like voltage regulation.
  • Reply 12 of 31
    randycat99randycat99 Posts: 1,919member
    It's pretty amazing how many amps of current flow into these fancy videocards these days- probably over 50 amps? If the voltage was right with this amount of current, it would probably be in the ballpark of arc welding and such.
  • Reply 13 of 31
    mattbmattb Posts: 59member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Aurora

    One other point though has little relvance to us in the mac world is it has direct x 9.0c the 800xt only supports 9.0a &b this has little value now but should play a part in future games written to take advantage of new pixel and vertex shaders. I agree with that the X800xt is the better card at the moment and uses less power.



    I generally prefer ATI cards myself but the 6800 is a very good card and arguably better than the X800 (Well other than in power usage). Yes, the DirectX difference does not directly affect us Mac users but the reason behind those differences is that the 6800 supports additional features the X800 does not. This may make the 6800 a better card for use with Core Image in 10.4. Personally, the 6800 is the first NVidia card in years I'd actually consider buying. I'm hoping ATI release a retail X800 too though.
  • Reply 14 of 31
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    NVIDIA hasn't made any good laptop chips that I know of. Sure stick to 2 manufacturers but use appropriately. NVIDIA doesn't belong in laptops, at least for now.
  • Reply 15 of 31
    unixmacunixmac Posts: 65member
    The current draw of my machine and its various components has never been an issue for me when deciding on what I am paying $7000+ for, however, bottom line performance is. That said, the 6800 is a generational leap form the current ATI selection for the Mac, so it was a no brainer for me to order it.
  • Reply 16 of 31
    mattbmattb Posts: 59member
    Yeah, that's my thinking too. There is no Mac card available that is faster or supports more features than the 6800. Even when the X800 does ship (I have no doubt it will eventually) the 6800 still could likely prove to be the faster card for OpenGL/Core Image. Compared to the current ATI 9600, 9800 and NVidia 5200 though, there is no comparison, the 6800 is the faster card as it is at least a generation ahead.
  • Reply 17 of 31
    emig647emig647 Posts: 2,455member
    You have to remember,



    the 9800xt also takes away a pci slot. On all PC cards it is single slot. So why did apple have to do that? Does that mean that the x800xt would also take an additional slot? My guess is yes.



    True the x800xt takes less power and rox0rs the 6800 at directX... but the 6800 is way better at open gl. Just look at the benchmarks for cinema. Only cards that are really beating it are the Quadro series.
  • Reply 18 of 31
    emig647emig647 Posts: 2,455member
    I did order a 6800 ultra but went back to the 9800xt because of ship dates. I'm currently macless right now and there isn't that huge of a jump between the 9800xt and the 6800ultra. The 120 dollar difference (dev discount) is definitely worth it, but the wait isn't
  • Reply 19 of 31
    moazammoazam Posts: 136member
    nVidia is known for writing amazingly good drivers for their cards. ATI drivers are questionable. If nVidia is helping Apple with the drivers, then it's wiser to go with nVidia.



    On the PC side, I always try to buy nVidia. Better driver support under all different OSs.
  • Reply 20 of 31
    emig647emig647 Posts: 2,455member
    You're definitely right, NVidia definitely has better drivers. I actually have used NVidia for PC exclusivly, but am switching over to ATI since it seems I can get better performance for cheaper. Think thats safe to say?
Sign In or Register to comment.