For those who ordered the ATI 4850....

[teamzissou]

*sigh* Checked the status this morning. Even though the ship date has always said Apr.14, the status has now changed to "prepared for shipment", but it won't ship for another 5 - 7 business days, so now the projected delivery date is Apr.24 - 30th, alot later than I expected it since I upgraded to 2-day shipping. Called them and she felt sorry for me but didn't offer anything more to ease the pain.

Is anybody else who ordered early experiencing these disappointing delays? I know people have ordered in April and already received theirs. I feel jyped.

 

[Chris Michel]

Quite fast delivery

Hi everybody
I'm new on this forum but have been following it for some months now.

I ordered an 2.93 iMac with the Radeon-Card Tuesday last week at an Apple Reseller in Switzerland and I just got informed that it's already there...
That was fast!

I really hope You get your iMacs soon too

 

[idreaminbeige]

I've been playing Dawn of War II all day in bootcamp. I have it turned up to high at 1920*1200. Even with it being a demanding game the 4850 held up great with a constant high frame rate, no dips in frame rate I noticed.

Great to hear Deltasnake, are you using windows 64bit by any chance? Hoping the imacs have vista 64 bit support without the need for manually acquiring wifi/graphics drivers etc.

 

[teamzissou]

Hi everybody
I'm new on this forum but have been following it for some months now.

I ordered an 2.93 iMac with the Radeon-Card Tuesday last week at an Apple Reseller in Switzerland and I just got informed that it's already there...
That was fast!

I really hope You get your iMacs soon too

That's probably what I should have done, I bet resellers get priority over direct buyers.
Do resellers usually have a mark-up? That's what stopped me from going to my local Simply Computing.
Thanks for the info.

 

[jmpage2]

That's probably what I should have done, I bet resellers get priority over direct buyers.
Do resellers usually have a mark-up? That's what stopped me from going to my local Simply Computing.
Thanks for the info.

Resellers are required to charge the same that Apple does. However, some of us get discounts direct from Apple, and for me, since Apple ships directly to my home, I save another 3% in sales tax versus buying it at a store.

 

[Scotty Dangles]

Fyi

I just got a $100 discount and free overnight shipping on my iMac with ATI card that I ordered on the 24th of March. I spoke with Anna, she was awesome!

I referenced this site regarding people who ordered in April and got their iMacs and she put it in the notes for everyone at Apple to see. So folks if you have not received your iMacs and ordered in March I do encourage you all to call and tell them how very irritated you are that you have yet to receive you iMacs!

Heck its free money and since the put notes all over your order there is a good chance the shipping date could get bumped!

Scott

 

[Willie Joker]

Because there is one section, labelled PCI cards. There isn't a section labelled PCI-E cards, and therefore the PCI cards section is the next best section to find them.

Don't nitpick what isn't there, I know PCI-E cards are different technology. Take the issue up with Apple.

First you said that the PCI-E was under PCI because 'it makes sense.' Now you said that the PCI section is the best section to find the PCI-E cards 'because that is the next best section to find them.'

What next, you going to say that it makes sense to find CD/DVD rom drives listed under the hard drive section?

No, it makes no sense at all to put two distinctly different types of products under one label and if someone were looking for PCI-E cards installed in any computer looking at the PCI branch in whatever OS you are using doesn't make any sense whatsoever. This makes as much sense as looking for windshield wiper fluid in the Coke and Pepsi section of the supermarket because all three happen to be liquids.

 

[Malacoda]

No, it makes no sense at all to put two distinctly different types of products under one label and if someone were looking for PCI-E cards installed in any computer looking at the PCI branch in whatever OS you are using doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Seriously, no one cares but you, and even if they do, this is the wrong thread.

 

[revx]

I called and complained once and they gave me two day shipping for free and I called and complained again today and got upgraded to overnight shipping. They claim now that I'll get it on friday or monday, if I don't, I'll be calling and complaining again, so we'll see what they'll do for me next.

 

[nutritious]

4850 is an awesome card, but i'd want something better at 1920 x 1200 if you game. It's perfect for the 20 inch though, but I don't think you can get it on the 20"

 

[jmpage2]

4850 is an awesome card, but i'd want something better at 1920 x 1200 if you game. It's perfect for the 20 inch though, but I don't think you can get it on the 20"

4850 mobility is equiv to the desktop 4830 card. Not outstanding at super high resolutions, but then again nothing that Apple offers fits the bill for this. The 4850 mobility should allow for running most games fairly well if you are wi
lling to reduce the resolution from the 24" iMac panels native high resolution.

Even the desktop Radeon 4870 offered for the Mac Pro will not run all new games at native 24" resolution at 60fps with details set to even a medium level.

For the real serious PC gamers out there, the best option is to build a budget i7 Wintel tower with SLI or Crossfire graphics cards, or go with a very high performance single graphics card like the 4870X2.

 

[jra81984]

I just got a $100 discount and free overnight shipping on my iMac with ATI card that I ordered on the 24th of March. I spoke with Anna, she was awesome!

I referenced this site regarding people who ordered in April and got their iMacs and she put it in the notes for everyone at Apple to see. So folks if you have not received your iMacs and ordered in March I do encourage you all to call and tell them how very irritated you are that you have yet to receive you iMacs!

Heck its free money and since the put notes all over your order there is a good chance the shipping date could get bumped!

Scott

I spoke with someone named Joan and she basically told me that I was completely out of luck with the situation. I explained how I have friends who have been getting their ATI imacs sooner than I did. She said unless I had their order numbers that there was nothing she could do.

But then I was irritated by that interaction and called again 5 minutes later and I also got to speak with Anna, and she was helpful! She didnt give me $100 off but I got $75 which is great! and overnight shipping.

So for those who are stuck waiting... it cant hurt to give them a call! I ordered March 20th. The change in the shipping method only bumped my delivery date up by two days... now I am supposed to get it the 28th.

 

[nutritious]

4850 mobility is equiv to the desktop 4830 card. Not outstanding at super high resolutions, but then again nothing that Apple offers fits the bill for this. The 4850 mobility should allow for running most games fairly well if you are wi
lling to reduce the resolution from the 24" iMac panels native high resolution.

Even the desktop Radeon 4870 offered for the Mac Pro will not run all new games at native 24" resolution at 60fps with details set to even a medium level.

For the real serious PC gamers out there, the best option is to build a budget i7 Wintel tower with SLI or Crossfire graphics cards, or go with a very high performance single graphics card like the 4870X2.

Um, the 4870 is plenty for 1920 X 1200. The new 4890 isn't even all that much faster than it. I really don't know what you were thinking saying that. And the mobility 4850 is awesome for a machine like the imac, so why are you complaining about it? Of course it won't be as fast as desktop cards.

Second of all, you don't need SLI or Crossfire if you're a "serious pc gamer" A lot of times they don't scale well with games, are not compatible with games, and largely depend on game profiles from drivers for support, so when a new pc game comes out, your sli/crossfire rig likely won't work with it till nvidia/ati updates their drivers. I went SLI just to play crysis, but I found it to be useless for everything else. Yeah, frame rates were higher, but only by 10-15fps in my case, and they weren't really scaling well. My single GTX 280 is doing just FINE at 2560 x 1600. A lot of gamers actually prefer the single most powerful gpu in order to avoid potential problems with sli/xfire setups.

And the 4870x2 only takes up one pci slot, but it's still a crossfire card and works exactly as if there were 2 cards taking up two slots. Only thing is there is two gpus on one pcb. It has the same limitations of a sli/crossfire set up with two cards.

 

[Prolif1k]

well, i just called and really complained a couple minutes ago...got to speak to a supervisor and then he was useless, so he put me on to his supervisor...he upgraded me to overnight shipping AND also put my order on some type of expedited list for the warehouse...does anybody know if this actually exists? or is it just ********..i dunno....but if he's telling the truth, he told me the expedited status should get me my imac by friday or monday at the latest...now i just have to wait and see if he was legit

 

[MTShipp]

well, i just called and really complained a couple minutes ago...got to speak to a supervisor and then he was useless, so he put me on to his supervisor...he upgraded me to overnight shipping AND also put my order on some type of expedited list for the warehouse...does anybody know if this actually exists? or is it just ********..i dunno....but if he's telling the truth, he told me the expedited status should get me my imac by friday or monday at the latest...now i just have to wait and see if he was legit

It was BS they fed you. you ordered same day as me and I highly dought it comes before April 27th.

 

[Redbeastmage]

I spoke with someone named Joan and she basically told me that I was completely out of luck with the situation. I explained how I have friends who have been getting their ATI imacs sooner than I did. She said unless I had their order numbers that there was nothing she could do.

But then I was irritated by that interaction and called again 5 minutes later and I also got to speak with Anna, and she was helpful! She didnt give me $100 off but I got $75 which is great! and overnight shipping.

So for those who are stuck waiting... it cant hurt to give them a call! I ordered March 20th. The change in the shipping method only bumped my delivery date up by two days... now I am supposed to get it the 28th.

Man, thats kinda funny. I spoke to an "Anna" on monday, and she was super nice and gave me free overnight shipping. She apologized that it's taking so long, and since she couldn't help me with the time in the warehouse, she wanted to at least speed up the time it would take to get it to my house once it left apple.

Now I'm prepared to ship. Ordered on march 9, prepared to ship w/ overnight shipping. hopefully it'll go out before the day is over!

 

[gerohero]

Hi everybody

Got my imac 2.93MHz 24" with ATI 4850 and numeric keyboard today via TNT.
It was ordered march 11th and shipped april 11th from shanghai to switzerland.
Not unboxed yet, need to wait untill tomorrow. Hope it's really the ATI in there...

Nice waiting by the way

 

[archipellago]

First you said that the PCI-E was under PCI because 'it makes sense.' Now you said that the PCI section is the best section to find the PCI-E cards 'because that is the next best section to find them.'

What next, you going to say that it makes sense to find CD/DVD rom drives listed under the hard drive section?

No, it makes no sense at all to put two distinctly different types of products under one label and if someone were looking for PCI-E cards installed in any computer looking at the PCI branch in whatever OS you are using doesn't make any sense whatsoever. This makes as much sense as looking for windshield wiper fluid in the Coke and Pepsi section of the supermarket because all three happen to be liquids.

yawn..who cares??

oops...

 

[Willie Joker]

Well someone else brought it up first.....

 

[jmpage2]

Um, the 4870 is plenty for 1920 X 1200. The new 4890 isn't even all that much faster than it. I really don't know what you were thinking saying that. And the mobility 4850 is awesome for a machine like the imac, so why are you complaining about it? Of course it won't be as fast as desktop cards.

Second of all, you don't need SLI or Crossfire if you're a "serious pc gamer" A lot of times they don't scale well with games, are not compatible with games, and largely depend on game profiles from drivers for support, so when a new pc game comes out, your sli/crossfire rig likely won't work with it till nvidia/ati updates their drivers. I went SLI just to play crysis, but I found it to be useless for everything else. Yeah, frame rates were higher, but only by 10-15fps in my case, and they weren't really scaling well. My single GTX 280 is doing just FINE at 2560 x 1600. A lot of gamers actually prefer the single most powerful gpu in order to avoid potential problems with sli/xfire setups.

And the 4870x2 only takes up one pci slot, but it's still a crossfire card and works exactly as if there were 2 cards taking up two slots. Only thing is there is two gpus on one pcb. It has the same limitations of a sli/crossfire set up with two cards.

Apparently you and I have different definitions of "serious gamer". The serious gamer crowd (which I used to be a part of) would scoff at anything less than a rock solid 60fps in a game at native resolution for their display with all the goodies turned on.

So let's take a look at the 4870, running at 1920X1200 with all the details turned on and an i7 CPU.

Performance benchmarks put it at 35-45 fps which is not acceptable to most of the hard core crowd. You still have to turn details down to get a respectable frame rate, or you have to completely disable AA to get good performance out of a stock speed 4870 card with a capable CPU.

World in Conflict only gets about 40-45 fps at 1920X1200 with all the details turned up.

Realize though that the 4870 that ships with the Mac Pro is underclocked and won't get this performance level.

As soon as you admit that you have to turn down the detail level with some games to get good performance it simply becomes a debate about how much of a compromise you are willing to make.

The 4850 just requires more compromise in this area than the 4870, but to many casual gamers the performance will still be considered quite acceptable even if it means running at a lower resolution or running with "medium" detail levels instead of all of the details being cranked up.

 

[nutritious]

Apparently you and I have different definitions of "serious gamer". The serious gamer crowd (which I used to be a part of) would scoff at anything less than a rock solid 60fps in a game at native resolution for their display with all the goodies turned on.

So let's take a look at the 4870, running at 1920X1200 with all the details turned on and an i7 CPU.

Performance benchmarks put it at 35-45 fps which is not acceptable to most of the hard core crowd. You still have to turn details down to get a respectable frame rate, or you have to completely disable AA to get good performance out of a stock speed 4870 card with a capable CPU.

World in Conflict only gets about 40-45 fps at 1920X1200 with all the details turned up.

Realize though that the 4870 that ships with the Mac Pro is underclocked and won't get this performance level.

As soon as you admit that you have to turn down the detail level with some games to get good performance it simply becomes a debate about how much of a compromise you are willing to make.

The 4850 just requires more compromise in this area than the 4870, but to many casual gamers the performance will still be considered quite acceptable even if it means running at a lower resolution or running with "medium" detail levels instead of all of the details being cranked up.

Yes, 60 fps used to be the minimum, but when crysis came out, 30 fps became what was considered playable. You can blame crysis for it. Honestly, I found that most of the "hardcore" crowd cares more about silly benchmarks and spend more time fiddling with their system than actually gaming. A lot of hardcore gamers I know don't mind 30 fps on some demanding games, but they certainly wouldn't settle for it if they were playing competitively. It all depends.

Yes, you will need to turn down AA and some options, but a 4870 is still fine for 1920 X 1200, and I can't really imagine a mac user complaining about its performance since they did not buy their machine for gaming and neither are the ones who are buying imacs. If they are actually buying macs for gaming, I feel sorry for them.

 

[jmpage2]

Yes, 60 fps used to be the minimum, but when crysis came out, 30 fps became what was considered playable. You can blame crysis for it. Honestly, I found that most of the "hardcore" crowd cares more about silly benchmarks and spend more time fiddling with their system than actually gaming. A lot of hardcore gamers I know don't mind 30 fps on some demanding games, but they certainly wouldn't settle for it if they were playing competitively. It all depends.

Yes, you will need to turn down AA and some options, but a 4870 is still fine for 1920 X 1200, and I can't really imagine a mac user complaining about its performance since they did not buy their machine for gaming and neither are the ones who are buying imacs. If they are actually buying macs for gaming, I feel sorry for them.

I don't think there are too many people buying Macs for gaming, but I think you might underestimate the number of people who would like a Mac that is at least competent at gaming for those times they do want to play a game. One of the reasons people choose Macs is for the aesthetic factor. Which means that many of them probably don't want their nice svelte Mac sitting next to a big clunky PC tower on the same desk top that they have to turn to when they want to go blow up their buddies in TF2.

The 4850 Mobility gets over 50 fps at 1024X768 in the GPU stress test for Crysis, so that's not bad really, I would imagine that at medium detail settings the game should at least be playable at slightly higher resolutions.

 

[Willie Joker]

Yes, 60 fps used to be the minimum, but when crysis came out, 30 fps became what was considered playable. You can blame crysis for it. Honestly, I found that most of the "hardcore" crowd cares more about silly benchmarks and spend more time fiddling with their system than actually gaming. A lot of hardcore gamers I know don't mind 30 fps on some demanding games, but they certainly wouldn't settle for it if they were playing competitively. It all depends.

Yes, you will need to turn down AA and some options, but a 4870 is still fine for 1920 X 1200, and I can't really imagine a mac user complaining about its performance since they did not buy their machine for gaming and neither are the ones who are buying imacs. If they are actually buying macs for gaming, I feel sorry for them.

If they aren't buying the iMac for gaming then why the massive thread about people waiting for the 4850 when they could have had the iMac with the nvidia card already?

I don't know anyone personally who considers 30FPS average playable whether they be a Mac or PC gamer.

30FPS means at times it's getting worse and at times better. You might have situations where you are getting near 50FPS and others at 10FPS. That's choppy in anyone's book.

Crysis was overkill because they were pushing the game forward to a time when it will be mainstream to play Crysis at 60FPS or more.

 

[nutritious]

If they aren't buying the iMac for gaming then why the massive thread about people waiting for the 4850 when they could have had the iMac with the nvidia card already?

I don't know anyone personally who considers 30FPS average playable whether they be a Mac or PC gamer.

30FPS means at times it's getting worse and at times better. You might have situations where you are getting near 50FPS and others at 10FPS. That's choppy in anyone's book.

Crysis was overkill because they were pushing the game forward to a time when it will be mainstream to play Crysis at 60FPS or more.

30 FPS doesn't necessarily mean at times you are getting 50fps and at times 10fps. If you can get a constant 30 fps, I would call a game playable and others do. In fact a lot of console games are at 30 fps.

And if people are getting the imacs with the 4850 for gaming, I'd recommend they skip on the imac. You don't need a mac for sexy. You can get a nice unibody all aluminum case like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163120 and fill it in with a q6600 and a gtx 275 or 4890 for much cheaper.

 

[jmpage2]

30 FPS doesn't necessarily mean at times you are getting 50fps and at times 10fps. If you can get a constant 30 fps, I would call a game playable and others do. In fact a lot of console games are at 30 fps.

And if people are getting the imacs with the 4850 for gaming, I'd recommend they skip on the imac. You don't need a mac for sexy. You can get a nice unibody all aluminum case like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163120 and fill it in with a q6600 and a gtx 275 or 4890 for much cheaper.

You seem to be missing the whole "and run OS X" thing here. People seem to be interested in the 4850 equipped iMac so that they can run OS X and boot camp into Windows for the occassional frag fest and do it all in one box and get decent gaming performance. Obviously the iMac with any graphics card is not going to satisfy someone who wants top notch game performance, but those folks probably will run a dedicated Windows PC anyway for gaming.

Also, I don't think you'll find too many people looking at the iMac who think that a FrankenMac Hackintosh box is "just as good".