It's the real card. The X1600 comes in both standard and Mobility configs. It's not listed as a Mobility version, and iMacs never ship with Mobility chipsets, anyway.
It IS a sweet upgrade, huh? Apple actually stuck something that comes within spitting distance of cutting edge into their non-upgradeable product line! I believe it does onboard H.264 decoding, as well...
Since my DVD collection is backed up on my Mac (so I dont need every single DVD with me) in h.264 files, does that mean if I were to play them on these new iMacs that they would play flawlessly due to the X1600's h.264 decoding? Or does it mean that the GPU is simply helping out the CPU and shifting some of the work?
Currently, my 1.8Ghz iMac G5 can *just about* play them smoothly, until I start jumping about the timeline, then it starts to lag a bit.
Since my DVD collection is backed up on my Mac (so I dont need every single DVD with me) in h.264 files, does that mean if I were to play them on these new iMacs that they would play flawlessly due to the X1600's h.264 decoding? Or does it mean that the GPU is simply helping out the CPU and shifting some of the work?
Currently, my 1.8Ghz iMac G5 can *just about* play them smoothly, until I start jumping about the timeline, then it starts to lag a bit.
The question is whether or not Apple has exposed the H.264 decoding acceleration of the X1600 in the OS X drivers or not. In the past, there have been featurers that have gone unused in Apple's drivers. Some people complain about Apple's DVD playback looking ugly - that's because it's not using all the hardware video effects it could.
It could be very different for Intel Macs, though, because having identical video card firmware (and an easier time of translating driver functions) means that Apple could probably implement a lot more.
My 2.1 GHz iMac G5 can play 720p video perfectly, so I wouldn't be surprised if an iMac Core Duo or MacBook Pro could play 1080p without a hitch.
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Comments
Read all about it:
http://www.ati.com/products/RadeonX1600/index.html
It IS a sweet upgrade, huh? Apple actually stuck something that comes within spitting distance of cutting edge into their non-upgradeable product line! I believe it does onboard H.264 decoding, as well...
The card seems to classed as mid range among all the card available for PC's, which I suppose isn't bad.
Miles better that the GeForce 5200 that's in my current Mac.
Originally posted by lucida
Thanks that's good to know.
The card seems to classed as mid range among all the card available for PC's, which I suppose isn't bad.
Miles better that the GeForce 5200 that's in my current Mac.
It's a little bit higher than mid-range. There's only one card more powerful than it in ATI's gaming lineup (the X1800).
Originally posted by Shalmaneser
It's a little bit higher than mid-range. There's only one card more powerful than it in ATI's gaming lineup (the X1800).
For a few more days
Currently, my 1.8Ghz iMac G5 can *just about* play them smoothly, until I start jumping about the timeline, then it starts to lag a bit.
Originally posted by DTG
Since my DVD collection is backed up on my Mac (so I dont need every single DVD with me) in h.264 files, does that mean if I were to play them on these new iMacs that they would play flawlessly due to the X1600's h.264 decoding? Or does it mean that the GPU is simply helping out the CPU and shifting some of the work?
Currently, my 1.8Ghz iMac G5 can *just about* play them smoothly, until I start jumping about the timeline, then it starts to lag a bit.
The question is whether or not Apple has exposed the H.264 decoding acceleration of the X1600 in the OS X drivers or not. In the past, there have been featurers that have gone unused in Apple's drivers. Some people complain about Apple's DVD playback looking ugly - that's because it's not using all the hardware video effects it could.
It could be very different for Intel Macs, though, because having identical video card firmware (and an easier time of translating driver functions) means that Apple could probably implement a lot more.
My 2.1 GHz iMac G5 can play 720p video perfectly, so I wouldn't be surprised if an iMac Core Duo or MacBook Pro could play 1080p without a hitch.