Well thanks to ATi for giving us the offcuts. Not only are they slower than the PC versions by 25Mhz, X850s (R480) are due first 2 months of 2005. I guess thats a good way to clear the old lower quality X800 stocks.
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X800 Video Card Wednesday?
- Thread starter Mudbug
- Start date
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Bigheadache said:
It's the price we pay for using Macs.
At least this isn't nearly as bad as it was about 5 years back. I recall that Apple announced the ATI Rage 128 and ATI stated it would be available for retail shortly. Of course 1 year later after Apple announced the "new" Rage 128 Pro, ATI finally got around to releasing the non Pro it retail. Events like that, ATI's horibble drivers on both my Macs and PCs(Fortunately this in the past.) really left me with warm fuzzy feelings about them.
My friend bought a X800 Pro and used software to clock it up the higher 850 speed and enable the extrat 4 pipes.
<]=)
eclipse525 said:
Not quite, IMHO....
I hear Steve now: "drivers, drivers, drivers" (any resemblance with the other Steve <Ballmer's "developers 3x"> is circumstancial
)
That's what I thought. The number of pipes are built into the GPU. I do not think raising the frequency of the GPU will enable the pipes.
Although I wish they would release the ATI RADEON X850 XT Platinum. (Even thought it is a dual-slot solution)
Although I wish they would release the ATI RADEON X850 XT Platinum. (Even thought it is a dual-slot solution)
carlos700 said:
There's hardly any difference between the X800 XT, X800 PE, X850 XT and X850 PE in PC gaming performance.
The X800 couldn't be made in enough quantities to meet the demand, where as the X850 should fix that problem. Essentially the X850 is a slighly higher clocked version of the X800 and is easier to produce in large quantities.
The PE over the XT is a slight overclocking, and also available in AGP 8x, not only PCI Express 16x.
So, IMHO the X800 is a better choice for Mac, as it is ONLY one PCI slot wide and ATi has already underclocked it too.
gizzard said:
you are wrong.. Use rivatuner to softmod unlock the extra 4 pipes. You must have the X800Pro VIVO edition though. On the PC side this is the second most popular mod on current generation cards (the most popular being overclocking the 6800GT to 6800 ultra)
Platform said:What is the "best" card 6800 or X800
In the PC world:
For OpenGL games (Doom 3): nVidia's GeForce 6800 Ultra
For DirectX games (Half Life 2): ATi's Radeon X800 XT
Mac games are always OpenGL. So, it would seem that the 6800 Ultra would be the best grfx card for Mac OS X.
But, those damn drivers....
Even though Apple themselves make the drivers for the nVidia cards, they perform worse than ATi's. Added the fact that the Ultra card is $ 100,- more expensive than the Radeon, makes the X800 the better buy.
Unless Mac OS X 10.3.8 and higher get better GeForce drivers, the ATi card will stay the better choice.
MacsRgr8 said:In the PC world:
For OpenGL games (Doom 3): nVidia's GeForce 6800 Ultra
For DirectX games (Half Life 2): ATi's Radeon X800 XT
Mac games are always OpenGL. So, it would seem that the 6800 Ultra would be the best grfx card for Mac OS X.
But, those damn drivers....
Even though Apple themselves make the drivers for the nVidia cards, they perform worse than ATi's. Added the fact that the Ultra card is $ 100,- more expensive than the Radeon, makes the X800 the better buy.
Unless Mac OS X 10.3.8 and higher get better GeForce drivers, the ATi card will stay the better choice.
Thanks
There's a well done performance evaluation and review
on the 3 major 256MB GPU's at xlr8yourmac.com
/http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/mac_X800_XT_review/index.html
on the 3 major 256MB GPU's at xlr8yourmac.com
/http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/mac_X800_XT_review/index.html
I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this message!
I've been watching this site for a good few years now but have literally only just signed up. I am in the biggest panic and i don't know where to post my message so i have decided to put it here. I ordered a virtually very top spec PowerMac yesterday and i am absolutely sh***ing bricks now because i don;t know if a new version is coming out very soon.
I have ordered a PowerMac DP 2.5 G5
4Gb DDR
2 x 250GB HDs
GeForce 6800 Ultra 256Mb
Bluetooth
Airport
2 x 23" Cinema HD Displays
I would appreciate it if any one could tell me if i'm making teh biggest mistake of my life, because the machine is like the best part of £6000 ($10,000+) i woould appreciate any advice or information.
I ordered it because i always watch the sight and have seen no posts about a new spec. usually the site seems to say 2 or three months in advance of a new model and so i wasn;t worried, but now having looked in the Forums peoiple seem ot be really speculating and i dont know what to do!
Thanks Avs
PS. if a moderator feels this post needs re-locating i dont mind but i just didnt know what to do.
I've been watching this site for a good few years now but have literally only just signed up. I am in the biggest panic and i don't know where to post my message so i have decided to put it here. I ordered a virtually very top spec PowerMac yesterday and i am absolutely sh***ing bricks now because i don;t know if a new version is coming out very soon.
I have ordered a PowerMac DP 2.5 G5
4Gb DDR
2 x 250GB HDs
GeForce 6800 Ultra 256Mb
Bluetooth
Airport
2 x 23" Cinema HD Displays
I would appreciate it if any one could tell me if i'm making teh biggest mistake of my life, because the machine is like the best part of £6000 ($10,000+) i woould appreciate any advice or information.
I ordered it because i always watch the sight and have seen no posts about a new spec. usually the site seems to say 2 or three months in advance of a new model and so i wasn;t worried, but now having looked in the Forums peoiple seem ot be really speculating and i dont know what to do!
Thanks Avs
PS. if a moderator feels this post needs re-locating i dont mind but i just didnt know what to do.
Avs said:
I hope you did not buy the RAM upgrade from Apple!! Buying elswhere would save you at least $500. You could have also saved money by getting the 6800GT which is about the same speed as the Ultra, in many cases the Ultra is only 0-8% faster and in the best case scenario only about 12% faster and in some cases no faster at all. Buying the GT could save you another $100 or getting it with a stock 9600XT and sell that for $100 and use that to get an X800 for $375. You could have also saved about $200 if you bought the extra 250GB HD elswhere. Other than that a pretty fine purchase as I don't expect updates for at least 3-5 months from now and even then how long does one have to wait for shipment after announcement? Also the Updates will still use the 970FX or GX and will still be single cored and may only top out at 2.8Ghz and in the best case scenario we might see 3.0Ghz which is only a 20% increase an may not even translate into 20% real world performance increase.
Avs said:
Good for you I bought a 2.5 after the macworld expo. If a new machine comes out then so be it, these current G5's are monsters you'll be happy with your purchase. You get 10 days price protection from when your machine ships so sit back and relax. There will always be new models but you've got yourself a corker
I would like to thank both of you you have both been a great help and have completely put my mind to rest. To the Gentleman who was concerned about how much i have payed for the machine. I actually sell apple for a living. I have a very good contact at apple in Ireland who sorts me out ad i get about 20%-25% off what i buy as we do a lot of business with them. I could still prbably save about 5% more if i bought third party upgrades but i like it all to be apple as its then all covered by Apple Care and is not my broblem. Thanks very much again for all your advice, This site is absolutely brilliant and has been such a help to me over the years!!
I have got my self in some what of a panic again. I hope some one can answer this as the help i recieved before was invaluable!!! So so helpfull! Based on my configuration of 2 23" cinema displays what graphics card should i go for the x800 or 6800 Ultra. i really dont know which is better!!
Well if you are doing primarily design/creative work I would go for the 6800 be it GT or Ultra. Another benefit is both the 6800's have two DVI outputs where as the X800 has an ADC port as well so you would have to use an adaptor, albeit a free one.
I went for the GT with mine as I didn't think the Ultra justified the expense. I didn't even consider waiting for the X800.
I went for the GT with mine as I didn't think the Ultra justified the expense. I didn't even consider waiting for the X800.