G5 Powermacs And Nvidia FX Graphics

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Does anyone have any skivvy on the G5 Powermac.

Some sources are saying July Macworld NY.



I guess given the G4 upgrades earlier in the week, this would be the earliest.



Any ideas or info, please post.



Also - any idea when Mac will make the Nvidea Gforce FX graphics card available?



:eek:

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 20
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Apple will probably wait until they see the next rev of the ATI 9700 before committing to the GeForce FX. Nvidia is in a big catfight and has some serious work to do.
  • Reply 2 of 20
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    The GeForce FX apparently needs work.



    The ATi 9700 Pro, which was just released for the Mac (yay!) holds its own quite well in <a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030127/index.html"; target="_blank">this Tom's Hardware comparison</a>, and it does so despite being underspec'd on paper, and without taking up the neighboring PCI slot, chewing 75W of power, and sounding "like a vacuum cleaner."



    Give nVIDIA time to refine the design, and give game and 3D authors time to exploit its capabilities, and by then it will make sense for Apple to ship this card - and whatever ATi has at the time, since they are clearly not taking the challenge lying down.
  • Reply 3 of 20
    bigcbigc Posts: 1,224member
    What is <a href="http://www17.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030127/images/fx-card2.jpg"; target="_blank">that</a>, a supercharger strapped onto that thing or what?
  • Reply 4 of 20
    Everyone mentions MWNY, and maybe I've missed an announcement, but how can Apple announce at MWNY if they're still holding out on even showing up to the event?



    Now granted, if they don't show, they can hold an Apple Event and make an announcement at or around the same opening day, but it wouldn't be exactly the same as a MacWorld "keynote" by SJ.



    The timing fits with IBM's "announced" target production date though. And after reading Tom's H/W review of the GForce FX, I doubt we'll see it in the next PowerMac revision. NVidia needs some time to "refine" the FX.
  • Reply 5 of 20
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Yeah, the FX is something like 500 MHz compared to the 9700's 300-something, and it takes up a PCI slot for the fan, and it's super loud, and it's $100 more... and yet, it gives only marginally better performance than the 9700 according to a number of different reviews.



    I'm not holding my breath on an FX for Mac. I'd rather stay with the 9700 (and upcoming 9800 and 9900) until nVidia can come out with the FX2.
  • Reply 6 of 20
    bartobarto Posts: 2,246member
    The Power Mac G5 will probably be out some time in the 2nd half of this year. However, it may or may not be pre-announced at WWDC (or other event).



    The Desktop G5 processor was probably cancelled by Motorola late in 2001. It is not known whether Apple withdrew support for the processor, or Motorola cancelled the processor for some other reason.



    Apple probably approached IBM in mid 2000, with a proposal to produce a desktop POWER chip for Power Macs. The POWER line are high-end server chips.



    IBM pre-announced the PowerPC 970, the first desktop POWER chip, mid last year. IBM has said it will be available in the 2nd half of this year.



    Due to Apple's probably large degree of involvement in the chip, they will probably be the first (apart from IBM) to get their hands on the chip in volume. Apple has no doubt been working on PowerPC 970 chipsets with IBM for a while, and main logic boards based on those chipsets.



    All going smoothly, people with lotsa money should be able to get their Power Mac G5 featuring the PowerPC 970 in mid 2003 if they are lucky. No doubt there will be shortages of the product.



    As for the GeForce FX, it sucks. The ATi Radeon 9700 is just as fast, but it can fit in current Power Macs and doesn't have an absurdly high power requirement.



    Barto
  • Reply 7 of 20
    bartobarto Posts: 2,246member
    Also, it is not know yet whether there will be a MacWorld NY 2003 or not. It is quite possible that MacWorld SF was the last MacWorld until the fabled economic recovery (which replaced the Motorola G5 as the main focus of RSN talk).



    Barto
  • Reply 8 of 20
    falconfalcon Posts: 458member
    [quote]What is that, a supercharger strapped onto that thing or what?<hr></blockquote>



    Nope its a leaf blower







    The Geforce FX is a certafiable flop. Barely sliding by the Radeon 9700 Pro and selling for $400 while 9700 Pro's are at $295. And the R350 is just "weeks" away. ATi is aparently trying to beat the Geforce FX to stores, which would be a major upset.
  • Reply 9 of 20
    nebagakidnebagakid Posts: 2,692member
    [quote]Originally posted by Falcon:

    <strong>



    Nope its a leaf blower







    </strong><hr></blockquote>





    OH MAN!

    <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />

    and of course for posterity: <img src="graemlins/cancer.gif" border="0" alt="[cancer]" /> <img src="graemlins/cancer.gif" border="0" alt="[cancer]" />
  • Reply 10 of 20
    kidredkidred Posts: 2,402member
    [quote]Originally posted by MacJedai:

    <strong>Everyone mentions MWNY, and maybe I've missed an announcement, but how can Apple announce at MWNY if they're still holding out on even showing up to the event?



    Now granted, if they don't show, they can hold an Apple Event and make an announcement at or around the same opening day, but it wouldn't be exactly the same as a MacWorld "keynote" by SJ.



    The timing fits with IBM's "announced" target production date though. And after reading Tom's H/W review of the GForce FX, I doubt we'll see it in the next PowerMac revision. NVidia needs some time to "refine" the FX.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    The show at issue is in 2004, MWNY this year is still on.
  • Reply 11 of 20
    wwworkwwwork Posts: 140member
    no one here really knows when or if it'll come out.
  • Reply 12 of 20
    macroninmacronin Posts: 1,174member
    An introduction of the new PowerMac 970 at the next Siggraph (July or August 2003), demoing Maya, Shake, Final Cut Pro, etc. would be a great way to show the highly jaded professional 3d/composite/edit crowd the Power of X...!



    Especially if they introduce them with nVidia Quadros or ATI FireGLs...!



    I will take a Quadro FX2000, please... Could you add an extra 128MB of that there DDRII SGRAM? Yeah, 256MB total, thanks!



    And have a few racks of PPC970 injected Xserves, cranking out film rez frames, running Pixar RenderMan software! Maybe even a 'renderoff' against some of the Wintel/LinAMD products out there...



    ;^p
  • Reply 13 of 20
    [quote]Originally posted by MacRonin:

    <strong>An introduction of the new PowerMac 970 at the next Siggraph (July or August 2003), demoing Maya, Shake, Final Cut Pro, etc. would be a great way to show the highly jaded professional 3d/composite/edit crowd the Power of X...!



    Especially if they introduce them with nVidia Quadros or ATI FireGLs...!



    I will take a Quadro FX2000, please... Could you add an extra 128MB of that there DDRII SGRAM? Yeah, 256MB total, thanks!



    And have a few racks of PPC970 injected Xserves, cranking out film rez frames, running Pixar RenderMan software! Maybe even a 'renderoff' against some of the Wintel/LinAMD products out there...



    ;^p</strong><hr></blockquote>

    Let me guess... You orgasme lasted about 215 seconds after you wrote this?
  • Reply 14 of 20
    macroninmacronin Posts: 1,174member
    Uh, no...



    You may enjoy tossing off whilst dreaming about future hardware; I do not.



    I see nothing wrong with my proposed launch of the PowerMac 970 line; in a setting which would fully speak to the Digital Content Creation / Post Production market in which Apple is positioning itself to become a major hardware/software player...



    Some may drool over the latest highend stuff out there, while others anxiously await Apples next move...



    After all, what better way to show a bunch of NT zealots what Apple can really do than by doing it at the main industry (DCC/Post) show going?!?



    ;^p



    [ 01-31-2003: Message edited by: MacRonin ]</p>
  • Reply 15 of 20
    jaredjared Posts: 639member
    I agree, I do not really think we will see the 970 at MacWorld NY...it would just be preaching to the quire.



    If they really want to sell these machines they will show it a tradeshow with graphics/video/audio/3D in mind...that way we could get PC users to jaw drop at how amazing these things are :eek: :cool:
  • Reply 16 of 20
    I thought this might be an appropriate place to ask. I understand that the ATI 9700 is suited for 8X AGP, though still back-compatiable with 4X AGP. How would the lack of an 8X AGP port on the Mac hinder potential performance of the ATI 9700?
  • Reply 17 of 20
    bartobarto Posts: 2,246member
    On a Mac, the more video bandwidth the better.



    The reason: Quartz extreme can move data into the video card faster.



    This is not appicable on PCs.



    In gaming, there is very little difference between AGP 1.0 and 3.0 (2x and 8x), as much less data needs to travel along the AGP bus.



    Barto
  • Reply 18 of 20
    ryukyuryukyu Posts: 450member
    [quote]Originally posted by Amorph:

    <strong>The GeForce FX apparently needs work.



    The ATi 9700 Pro, which was just released for the Mac (yay!) holds its own quite well in <a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030127/index.html"; target="_blank">this Tom's Hardware comparison</a>, and it .</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Where did you see that it has been released?

    The Apple Store says coming soon, but I haven't seen anything about a definitive time frame.
  • Reply 19 of 20
    bartobarto Posts: 2,246member
    <a href="http://mirror.ati.com/companyinfo/press/2003/4603.html"; target="_blank">Radeon 9700 Pro Mac Edition Press Release</a>
  • Reply 20 of 20
    [quote]Originally posted by KidRed:

    <strong>



    The show at issue is in 2004, MWNY this year is still on.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Ahh, ya made me go look for the URL that inspired me to post. It took a while, but I found a few. Apple hasn't said they're not going to MWNY, but having to re-evaluate going, and have been in negotiations with IDG as to whether they will attend or not. Thanks to MacNN here are some quotes



    [quote]

    <strong>

    <a href="http://www.macnn.com/news.php?id=18101"; target="_blank">Link to the first article</a>



    Macworld Expo attracts more than 90,000

    Tuesday, January 14, 2003 @ 9:25am



    IDG World Expo today announced that last week's Macworld Expo attracted 90,473 attendees to the Moscone Center in San Francisco, slightly up from the nearly 88,000 attendance at Macworld Expo SF 2002. The 19th annual technology event had more than 330 exhibitors making it "San Francisco's largest annual technology event and the world's most comprehensive Macintosh OS event." The next Macworld Expo will take place at New York City's Javits Center, July 14 - 18, 2003; however, it is unclear whether Apple will attend, although IDG has offered a money-back guarantee to exhibitors if Apple does not atttend.



    <a href="http://www.macnn.com/news.php?id=18090"; target="_blank">Link to second article</a>



    eWeek: IDG guarantees Apple presence at MWNY

    Monday, January 13, 2003 @ 2:35pm



    An eWeek article discusses the dispute between Apple and Macworld Expo organizer, IDG. "IDG has moved to reassure nervous exhibitors with a bold offer: If Apple doesn't commit to July's show in New York, they can get their money back." IDG is expected to try and resolve the issue by the end of this month.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Here's another from MacCentral:



    <a href="http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0210/19.macworld.php"; target="_blank">Apple to be banned from Macworld Expo SF?</a>



    Not trying to argue, but it certainly appears that Apple is holding out.



    Edit: it helps to have the "U" in URL.



    [ 01-31-2003: Message edited by: MacJedai ]</p>
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