From my limited knowledge, EFI appears to be a very good thing, and Apple has adopted it, if I understand. I like the idea of drivers being written for the hardware, not the operating system. How many times have we heard that such and such a graphics card or other device will not work with a Mac simply because no one has written a driver for Mac OS X? EFI will eliminate the no-driver-for-a-Mac problem once everyone gets on board, no?
Just a thought, but EFI may be a little like case of USB. It was an Intel technology that nobody was using much, until Apple put it in the iMac. In order to sell printers for the Mac, everyone quickly put a USB ports on them. Intel was very happy about that, I'm sure. Now we have EFI in the same boat, it looks like. Graphics cards evidently need to work with EFI to sell to Apple and Mac users.
Please correct if I misinterpreted the article. I want to understand EFI.
Yes but this time m$ is not useing it in there new os.
Back in the usb days they had someting like win95b or c that add usb.
Vista 64-bit will eventually support it, and Vista+1 (which is likely coming out in 2009) will support it.
I think the crucial fact here is that a hybrid card isn't that much more expense, and can sell you more cards. If there was an xMac, I think we'd see a lot more hybrid cards though, because right now the upgradeable GPUs for Mac market is 24-inch iMacs and Mac Pros.
My mac pro is silent at the moment (no heavy HD usage) but I can hear the Dell across the room.
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I have to agree. THe PC side is offering 100x more in terms of system flexibility, and they are also offering most of the things I need in terms of hardware., and Apple isn't really offering much of a departure from what they were offering 8 years ago besides the mini. VIsta is looking like an option to me now as well. Even though MS is just copying our current version of tiger with Vista it's at least usable (I hope) and has all the hardware, graphics, and flexibility I would like.
8 years ago i couldn't run all the major OS's on Apple hardware. That's no longer true. I run both Windows and OSX regularly. I have thus far been able to avoid Linux because OSX is close enough but that's not hard either. I understand that outside Parallels Solaris is still a bit dodgy but that should be cleared up eventually either with a new Bootcamp release or some Solaris installer tweaks.
If you don't see evidence of change on the hardware side you're simply being obtuse. More video cards will come. Even if not, the current subset fit the majority of needs of most pro users.
XP is more than usable. OSX is simply better and will remain so moving forward. I say that as a C# dev that depends heavily on 3D and Managed DX...which is why I bootcamp into Windows all the time.
As an aside, I swapped out a Dell Precision purchase for a Mac Pro purchase and haven't had any regrets with Bootcamp or Apple hardware yet.
Yes but this time m$ is not useing it in there new os. . .
I guess I am missing something. If a graphics card works in a Mac with EFI, isn't it still possible to have another driver for it that works with Windows? Or, does a graphic card for an EFI computer actually prevent the card from running with a conventional driver, as it does now?
I assume that graphics card makers will go with EFI since it is a coming technology, and assume it will still work with a Windows driver in XP and Vista. The advantage to them would be compatibility with Intel Mac, possibly Linux now or in the future, and certainly Windows eventually.
Comments
From my limited knowledge, EFI appears to be a very good thing, and Apple has adopted it, if I understand. I like the idea of drivers being written for the hardware, not the operating system. How many times have we heard that such and such a graphics card or other device will not work with a Mac simply because no one has written a driver for Mac OS X? EFI will eliminate the no-driver-for-a-Mac problem once everyone gets on board, no?
Just a thought, but EFI may be a little like case of USB. It was an Intel technology that nobody was using much, until Apple put it in the iMac. In order to sell printers for the Mac, everyone quickly put a USB ports on them. Intel was very happy about that, I'm sure. Now we have EFI in the same boat, it looks like. Graphics cards evidently need to work with EFI to sell to Apple and Mac users.
Please correct if I misinterpreted the article. I want to understand EFI.
Yes but this time m$ is not useing it in there new os.
Back in the usb days they had someting like win95b or c that add usb.
I think the crucial fact here is that a hybrid card isn't that much more expense, and can sell you more cards. If there was an xMac, I think we'd see a lot more hybrid cards though, because right now the upgradeable GPUs for Mac market is 24-inch iMacs and Mac Pros.
I have to agree. THe PC side is offering 100x more in terms of system flexibility, and they are also offering most of the things I need in terms of hardware., and Apple isn't really offering much of a departure from what they were offering 8 years ago besides the mini. VIsta is looking like an option to me now as well. Even though MS is just copying our current version of tiger with Vista it's at least usable (I hope) and has all the hardware, graphics, and flexibility I would like.
8 years ago i couldn't run all the major OS's on Apple hardware. That's no longer true. I run both Windows and OSX regularly. I have thus far been able to avoid Linux because OSX is close enough but that's not hard either. I understand that outside Parallels Solaris is still a bit dodgy but that should be cleared up eventually either with a new Bootcamp release or some Solaris installer tweaks.
If you don't see evidence of change on the hardware side you're simply being obtuse. More video cards will come. Even if not, the current subset fit the majority of needs of most pro users.
XP is more than usable. OSX is simply better and will remain so moving forward. I say that as a C# dev that depends heavily on 3D and Managed DX...which is why I bootcamp into Windows all the time.
As an aside, I swapped out a Dell Precision purchase for a Mac Pro purchase and haven't had any regrets with Bootcamp or Apple hardware yet.
Vinea
Yes but this time m$ is not useing it in there new os. . .
I guess I am missing something. If a graphics card works in a Mac with EFI, isn't it still possible to have another driver for it that works with Windows? Or, does a graphic card for an EFI computer actually prevent the card from running with a conventional driver, as it does now?
I assume that graphics card makers will go with EFI since it is a coming technology, and assume it will still work with a Windows driver in XP and Vista. The advantage to them would be compatibility with Intel Mac, possibly Linux now or in the future, and certainly Windows eventually.
My mac pro is silent at the moment (no heavy HD usage) but I can hear the Dell across the room.
Vinea
That sounds promising - do you have the x1900 or the 7300?
David
That sounds promising - do you have the x1900 or the 7300?
David
Oddly, I have 2 7300s. I don't recall why we bought them this way as it connects to only 1 30" display.
Vinea