The ATI Radeon 9550 on iBooks Thread

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Hope this thread helps out, so we can just talk/bitch/verify whatever about the new iBook video card.



too much other ranting and raving on the 'Ibooks released thread', bear with me please...



here's what we do know:

its not a 'mobility' version of 9550, it IS a 9550

32mb vram

agp 4x



1. what evidence do we have that it supports quartz 2d extreme?

2. how does it compare with the eMac ati 9600?

3. how does it compare with the iMac g5 ati 9600?

4. why did apple choose 9550 instead of mobility 9600?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 27
    fieldorfieldor Posts: 213member
    4. To keep cost down, because the 9550 fits exactly on the 9200 spot, so they won't have to R&D a new motherboard.
  • Reply 2 of 27
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sunilraman



    here's what we do know:

    its not a 'mobility' version of 9550, it IS a 9550





    What are you talking about? The fact that it is in a laptopt means that IT IS the mobility version.



    Quote:



    1. what evidence do we have that it supports quartz 2d extreme?





    It has DirectX 9.0 support. For us this means that Q2DE and the Core graphics technologies of Tiger will work.



    Quote:



    2. how does it compare with the eMac ati 9600?

    3. how does it compare with the iMac g5 ati 9600?





    Here you can do a comparison for yourself. Just choose Radeon 9600 128MB and Radeon 9550 AGP. You will see that the 9550 is essentially a down-clocked version of the 9600 (as far as I know, both the eMac and the iMac have the plain Radeon 9600, not Pro or XT or whatever else). See also here.



    Quote:



    4. why did apple choose 9550 instead of mobility 9600?




    I think this has to do with better differentiation from the Powerbook line and price. Remember that Apple sinks right now money for the transition and it will do everything to make savings.
  • Reply 3 of 27
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Originally posted by PB

    "What are you talking about? The fact that it is in a laptopt means that IT IS the mobility version"



    well, i see that now. it's a fucking crippled 9550 at that, being 4x AGP and 32mb (WTF?) vram. maybe i've had too much gin tonight but marketing it as "ATi 9550" is misleading, because the PC Ati 9550s you can get are about $100 more or less(!) and those have 128mb ram at least. It should really be spec'ed as "ATi 9550 Mobility".



    This is totally pointless spec'horing at this stage, but also do we know if it has a 64-bit or 128-bit path? xbitlabs.com mentioned "Graphics cards based on the RADEON 9550 will work at 250MHz/400MHz speeds for chip/memory, 75MHz below core clock-speed provided by the RADEON 9600. Additionally, ATI may roll-out a version of the RADEON 9550 with 64-bit bus"





    "It has DirectX 9.0 support. For us this means that Q2DE and the Core graphics technologies of Tiger will work."



    this is excellent, no complaints here :thumbs:





    "Here you can do a comparison for yourself. Just choose Radeon 9600 128MB and Radeon 9550 AGP. You will see that the 9550 is essentially a down-clocked version of the 9600 (as far as I know, both the eMac and the iMac have the plain Radeon 9600, not Pro or XT or whatever else). See also here."



    cool, this is useful stuff.

    i doubt the 9550 in the iBook is clocked at 250mhz as spec'ed on the ATi comparison page, but i guess we'll need something like ATicellerator2 to get the clock speed readings to be sure.





    "I think this has to do with better differentiation from the Powerbook line and price. Remember that Apple sinks right now money for the transition and it will do everything to make savings"



    agree, looks like everything is full steam ahead for Intel rollouts. cakendar Q1 2006 hopefully. 6-9 painful(?)months away.





    bombay sapphire gin and grapefruit juice is nice.

    woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
  • Reply 4 of 27
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    If it's a downclocked 9600, those daring folks out there can make it be a 9600 with ATIcellerator.



    This is a portable, though, so be careful, boys.
  • Reply 5 of 27
    so if the 9550 does support CI, why isn´t apple updating the corresponding hardware requirements list (see: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/coreimage/ )for it?



    my guess is, that it just isn´t CI ready.

    i condisder it rather interesting, that they are updating their hardware and ignoring their own OS requirements.
  • Reply 6 of 27
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ice_climber

    so if the 9550 does support CI, why isn´t apple updating the corresponding hardware requirements list (see: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/coreimage/ )for it?



    my guess is, that it just isn´t CI ready.




    When Tiger has been released, the list had not even the Radeon 9600 (Pro), which has been added lately. It started from the 9600 XT and up. Same thing for the 9550. Give them some time. They are somewhat screwy when it comes to update their web pages the last two years .
  • Reply 7 of 27
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Placebo

    If it's a downclocked 9600, those daring folks out there can make it be a 9600 with ATIcellerator.



    This is a portable, though, so be careful, boys.




    unless i'm playing 3d games full-on my radeon 9200 mobility is doing well on 20% processor overclock and 6% memory overclock.



    say what you will about the iBook, except for bad batches of lcds and batteries on certain production runs, it takes quite a bit of punishment overall, in a proven form factor.



    i say go nuts with that 9550
  • Reply 8 of 27
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ice_climber

    so if the 9550 does support CI, why isn´t apple updating the corresponding hardware requirements list (see: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/coreimage/ )for it?



    my guess is, that it just isn´t CI ready.

    i condisder it rather interesting, that they are updating their hardware and ignoring their own OS requirements.




    The page has been updated. 8)
  • Reply 9 of 27
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by lundy

    The page has been updated. 8)



    oh bloody hell. cool. if i am not wrong this means all new shipping mac models support core image fully. except mac mini
  • Reply 10 of 27
    a little update for the CI website, a big motivation for future ibook buyers! :-))

    kudo to prediction of pb.
  • Reply 11 of 27
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by lundy

    The page has been updated. 8)



    Guess no one at Apple is reading our polite comments on their web page update practices .
  • Reply 12 of 27
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sunilraman

    if i am not wrong this means all new shipping mac models support core image fully. except mac mini



    Yes, it is correct, all (even the eMac) except the Mac mini. Which I find rather confusing.
  • Reply 13 of 27
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by PB

    Guess no one at Apple is reading our polite comments on their web page update practices .



    No remember what Anders the moderator IIRC said on some other thread. Apple is DRIVEN by what we say on AppleInsider. The web team would have seen our bitching and be like, damn, we can't let down our loyal AppleInsiders, and quickly fixed the core image page



    Steve, if you are reading this (as I know you are), I really think you should try and get a US government contract for Mac OS X1 flies the mission to mars. all the r&d money you could ever want oh, and try the other black turtleneck today.... yeah, that's it....
  • Reply 14 of 27
    exhibit_13exhibit_13 Posts: 110member
    ok, so they've updated the core image requirements page with the 9550, but am i crazy but have they not included the X850? it has the X800, but not the 850 (at least as of wednesday evening). i'm sure its compatible, but again, they're a little slow...
  • Reply 15 of 27
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by exhibit_13

    ok, so they've updated the core image requirements page with the 9550, but am i crazy but have they not included the X850? it has the X800, but not the 850 (at least as of wednesday evening). i'm sure its compatible, but again, they're a little slow...



    Apparently, there was not enough bitching for that .
  • Reply 16 of 27
    andersanders Posts: 6,523member
    Hmm...



    WTF Apple Doesn´t your shit-for-OS even support the ati X850? I am DONE with this platform if that is right Iam cancelling my Mac mini order if they do nothing . They better come up with a solution pretty soon or they are DOOMED.
  • Reply 17 of 27
    mattyjmattyj Posts: 898member
    It's a shame the card doesn't come with 64mb of memory. This card is probably crippled beyond most gaming use because it only has a measly 32Mb.



    ATM I have my 9700 mobility 64Mb in my 15" Powerbook overclocked. The GPU has a 15% higher overclock and the memory a 9% overclock. It does help, but having the 128Mb version would have been better (Apple and their lame "you can only get 128Mb of Vram if you have a superdrive" rubbish).
  • Reply 18 of 27
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by mattyj

    It's a shame the card doesn't come with 64mb of memory. This card is probably crippled beyond most gaming use because it only has a measly 32Mb.





    Well, yes and no, since the iBook display cannot go beyond 1024 x 768.
  • Reply 19 of 27
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by PB

    Well, yes and no, since the iBook display cannot go beyond 1024 x 768.



    unless you use screen spanning hack
  • Reply 20 of 27
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Anders

    Hmm...



    WTF Apple Doesn´t your shit-for-OS even support the ati X850? I am DONE with this platform if that is right Iam cancelling my Mac mini order if they do nothing . They better come up with a solution pretty soon or they are DOOMED.




    right on, dude. i was totally expecting the Mac Mini to be updated to have an nVidia 7800 GT i'm off to go build my own ultra-awesome AMD PC with blue glowing lights and liquid cooling and stuff and install windows vista Beta 1. screw this apple bullsh1te. l33t haxx0rs rulz..!!!1111!111!!
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