6800 Ultra has some competition
Ati showed the X800 on a Powermac G5 driving the monster 30" display. If Nvidia can't supply us the 6800 at least Ati can supply us with the X800 Mac version. They quietly announced it at New York this week. The X800 has an advantage over the 6800. It takes up one slot instead of two like the 6800 because of cooling for the 6800. Price and availability is not yet. I think it will become available with the next rev of Powermacs.
http://www.macworld.com/news/2004/10/14/ati/index.php
http://www.macworld.com/news/2004/10/14/ati/index.php
Comments
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...threadid=47221
I got my shipping notice today, in fact (though I ordered 6/28 :X ).
Originally posted by slughead
The difference is: the 6800 is out now.
I got my shipping notice today, in fact (though I ordered 6/28 :X ).
The X800 is shipping on the PC side, so I wouldn't expect a long lead time for the Mac version.
Originally posted by quagmire
The X800 has an advantage over the 6800. It takes up one slot instead of two like the 6800 because of cooling for the 6800.
http://www.macworld.com/news/2004/10/14/ati/index.php
... and it will sound like a vacuum cleaner!
The ATI 9800 in the Rev A G5s was loud. The quietened-down version in of the 9800XT blocks 2 slots too. I doubt that the X800 1-slot version will find it's way into the G5s!
ATI has some serious driver problems on the mac versions (and always has).
Even the brand new 9200 PCI is having terrible problems.
Originally posted by BNOYHTUAWB
... and it will sound like a vacuum cleaner!
The ATI 9800 in the Rev A G5s was loud. The quietened-down version in of the 9800XT blocks 2 slots too. I doubt that the X800 1-slot version will find it's way into the G5s!
The X800 is supposedly quieter and less power consuming than the 6800 or the 9800. That's at least what the PC spec-whore websites have been saying.
Originally posted by slughead
ATI has some serious driver problems on the mac versions (and always has).
Say it ain't so! ATI? Driver problems? Do I need to type of the definition of "synonymous" here?
(Slight disclaimer: things are much better in the PC world now. Their AIW products are still lacking decent software though)
D'oh, make that Homeworld 2. Typo too good to edit out.
Originally posted by Splinemodel
The X800 is supposedly quieter and less power consuming than the 6800 or the 9800. That's at least what the PC spec-whore websites have been saying.
If you look at the pictures for X800 PC-world boards, it may come to you that the X800 still needs some very decent cooling. I'd say we'll see a 2-slot version for G5 (if OEM equipement from Apple) or we'll get vacuum cleaners:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040723/images/packshot.jpg
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/quickbyte/20040726/images/toxic1.jpg
Copy the above URL and go to the page to view the previously posted pics
Originally posted by a2daj
My Radeon cards are working just fine, including the 9200. The FX 5200, OTOH, has had its share of problems over the last year. There were major performance issues with 10.3.3. and 10.3.5 (poor Homework 2 owners...).
here's what I read:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/...pci_tests.html
Originally posted by slughead
here's what I read:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/...pci_tests.html
I read about those too. The ones with problems are always the most vocal ones. A fix was sent out for those having problems with the screen corruption. I know several others who have not had those issues, or any others.
Originally posted by BNOYHTUAWB
If you look at the pictures for X800 PC-world boards, it may come to you that the X800 still needs some very decent cooling. I'd say we'll see a 2-slot version for G5 (if OEM equipement from Apple) or we'll get vacuum cleaners:
ATI's PC X800 can be seen here.
ATI's card would probably use a similar fan.
A description of the fan:
"The cooler of the two new X800 cards is slightly smaller than that of the "old" Radeon 9800XT. The memory modules are no longer cooled. The fan is very quiet in operation. The driver increases the rotation speed when more cooling is needed. This increases the noise to higher but still comfortable levels. This happens in particular with the X800 XT PE in 3D games."
Originally posted by a2daj
(poor Homework 2 owners...).
That evil Homework 2. Those damn teachers, how could they do such a thing!!
I mean the difference between the X800 and 9800xt is very minimal... I guess besides the fact that the X800 can drive the 30" display.
If it is PCI-Express then I say bring it on... but it won't do anything for us. The AGP 6800 ultra will still smoke it.
On the PC side the only strong point for the x800 compared to the 6800ultra is DirectX... which we are obviously lacking.
I say just get a 6800... they are WAAAAAY cheaper anyways.
Originally posted by emig647
Why produce a X800 for mac... unless it is a PCI-Express version?
I mean the difference between the X800 and 9800xt is very minimal... I guess besides the fact that the X800 can drive the 30" display.
If it is PCI-Express then I say bring it on... but it won't do anything for us. The AGP 6800 ultra will still smoke it.
On the PC side the only strong point for the x800 compared to the 6800ultra is DirectX... which we are obviously lacking.
I say just get a 6800... they are WAAAAAY cheaper anyways.
You need to do a little more homework on the X800s. They're much faster than the 9800 XT. And the performance will come to how well the OS X drivers are, and not necessarily the PC drivers. There's no hardware on either the X800 or the 6800 that's OpenGL or DirectX specific. Both are just APIs used to access hardware features on the cards. The hardware features used in DirectX that aren't part of the official OpenGL API can also be used via OpenGL extensions. In Windowsland, the venders have complete control over the drivers. NVIDIA has better OpenGL drivers, while ATI has better DirectX drivers.
In OS X, Apple controls what goes into OpenGL, and in some cases how things are implemented. Depending on how optimized the OpenGL implementation in OS X is can affect performance at the driver level and what the programmers can do. There may be certain optimizations that can't be made for either ATI or NVIDIA drivers because Apple might control things. There are some features in OpenGL 1.4 that just got implemented in 10.3.5, like ARB_occlusion_query, which could theoretically help speed up flare effects in games such as Halo, Tron 2.0, and various Quake 3 engine games which use flares (ex, CoD, JK games). So, IMO, I don't think you can take the OpenGL performance in Windowsland and accurately project how much better the X800 or 6800 will be over each other until both cards are out for Macs.
-Ender
Originally posted by Ender
Howdy, has any announcement been made as to when the X800 will become available? I'm probably going to order a G5 this week or so, and I'm thinking I will go with the Radeon 9800 because the 6800 is so much more expensive plus I'd have to buy the ADC adapter to use my 22" flat panel with it. If this X800 was around the corner though, I might be persuaded to wait.
-Ender
No announcement. The Digital Life expo was a tech preview.
From an AYM post from an ATI employee.
"Since this is only a tech preview at this point, and nothing is being officially announced, I can't really talk about benchmarks or exact specifications (clocks, pipelines, etc..) That's all subject to change in a shipping product of course. In any case, we hope to be able to say something soon to solidify the vision and make this thing a reality for our customers."
That's what they did with the 6800's, here's mine:
Dear Apple Customer,
The following products shipped on 10/14/2004. Transit time will
depend upon whether you have chosen standard or premium freight
options. If your order is shipping standard freight, it should arrive
within 10 days of shipment.
Product # Product Description Qty Ext Price
__________ ________________________________________ ____ ________________
M9593G/A NVIDIA GEF 6800 ULTRA DDL CARD-GEN 1 405.00
Due to arrive today!
Originally posted by Ender
Howdy, has any announcement been made as to when the X800 will become available? I'm probably going to order a G5 this week or so, and I'm thinking I will go with the Radeon 9800 because the 6800 is so much more expensive plus I'd have to buy the ADC adapter to use my 22" flat panel with it. If this X800 was around the corner though, I might be persuaded to wait.
-Ender
Might be a good choice, its ashame that Macs selection of videocards is so so lean