It's really nice that Apple is making more video cards available to consumers. More choice is (almost) always a good thing, and in this case it definitely is.
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Radeon HD 3870 for Mac coming end of May
- Thread starter barefeats
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Now this is what I've been waiting for...
It does seem out-of-place as an Apple machine update, but if it is true, then I'll be first in line for one of these bad boys. I've been an ATI fan for too long so this will be a welcome purchase to handle my graphic/video needs.
It does seem out-of-place as an Apple machine update, but if it is true, then I'll be first in line for one of these bad boys. I've been an ATI fan for too long so this will be a welcome purchase to handle my graphic/video needs.
Jeez, if I hear one more comment about Crysis....
It's as if every possible benchmark out there needs to be Crysis tested before we know if it is worth buying.
It's as if every possible benchmark out there needs to be Crysis tested before we know if it is worth buying.
Why is the 8800 card considered better when the 2600 performs better on the pro apps? Is it just better for games? What about everything else besides games?
I can assure you this is more than a rumor. It's going to happen. It is not an OEM card. Apple may sell it on their website but it will not be a CTO option. It's an ATI Retail card.
In our tests with the Radeon 2600 and X1900 showed both of them running Motion and iMaginator (both Core Image intensive) faster than the GeForce 8800. This deficiency by the 8800 includes Aperture and Color.
The Radeon 3870 is going to be even stronger running Pro Apps.
The 8800 is a great gaming card but NOT impressive running Apple Pro apps that rely on Core image. The Radeon 3870 may not run games as quite as fast as the 8800 but it's a better "balanced" card if you are using it for both games and "real work."
In our tests with the Radeon 2600 and X1900 showed both of them running Motion and iMaginator (both Core Image intensive) faster than the GeForce 8800. This deficiency by the 8800 includes Aperture and Color.
The Radeon 3870 is going to be even stronger running Pro Apps.
The 8800 is a great gaming card but NOT impressive running Apple Pro apps that rely on Core image. The Radeon 3870 may not run games as quite as fast as the 8800 but it's a better "balanced" card if you are using it for both games and "real work."
i genuinely hope apple starts offering more graphics cards for macs. would be a step in the right direction.
really wished they offer the mythical mid-range Mac minitower. which could be upgraded nicely over a 2-3 year period. and then get another one.
it would also be more important to have HDCP compliant video cards, so mac's could also be used with hd content, from blu-ray discs to hd vod via itunes. to be like the apple tv
I applaud ATI for recognizing the market for such a product and for going ahead and pushing such a product out there.
Crysis? Wow! A Mac Pro graphics options being measured by Crysis?
I want to know how it does CAD/CAM, Real-time Kinematics, Fatigue, Fracture Analysis, Heat Transfer, but oh nevermind!
This bad boy kicks on Crysis!!
I want to know how it does CAD/CAM, Real-time Kinematics, Fatigue, Fracture Analysis, Heat Transfer, but oh nevermind!
This bad boy kicks on Crysis!!
At first I thought it was nothing, but I may as well add to the speculation:
I saw the Radeon 3870 as an option on the Mac Pro on the Apple Australia store on the day that the new Mac Pro was introduced. The tooltips for it weren't complete, however, and merely said that it had "XXX" pixel shaders or whatever, and its performance was "XXX" compared to that of the Geforce 8800 GT.
The next day the message was gone.
I saw the Radeon 3870 as an option on the Mac Pro on the Apple Australia store on the day that the new Mac Pro was introduced. The tooltips for it weren't complete, however, and merely said that it had "XXX" pixel shaders or whatever, and its performance was "XXX" compared to that of the Geforce 8800 GT.
The next day the message was gone.
I have the 3870x2 installed in my Mac Pro for Windows gaming alongside a failing x1900XT for Mac OS X
Questions, questions:
1. Currently the 3870x2 is not recognised in 10.5.2
2. Is this a stock ATI card or specifically engineered for Apple?
3. Can the Apple/ATI 3870 ROM be copied and flashed twice onto the x2?
4. Will the 10.5.3 drivers also support the x2 version?
5. Happy days..
1. Of course it isnt.
2. Every card must be specifically enginnered because only Apple use EFI
3. Of course not. It is different hardware.
4. Probably no. You won't get anywhere without EFI anyway.
I think the ATI is a bit more power efficient than the 8800. It's manufactured in 55nm process and has better power saving features in idle mode. If you don't game all the time, peak power consumption should not be very important.
A cool and balanced card. I think I will get one... (if it's true)
A cool and balanced card. I think I will get one... (if it's true)
Depends actually as according to barefeats (see link below; o well this thread is started by barefeats). For gaming, 8800GT wins (openGL stufff). For pro apps, HD3870 would presumably be better since X1900XT and HD2600XT already are.
check this out:
http://barefeats.com/harper10.html (ATI cards win in pro apps)
http://barefeats.com/harper8.html (8800GT wins in gaming)
Kinda hard to find because almost no pro-app users test with a 8800GTvs3870. You'll just have to wait for Barefeats results. You are free to check out the specs of the both cards yourself.
Other than pro apps and gaming, how is the general performance of the system (I mean GUI responsiveness, general apps, etc) with X1900XT and 2600XT vis-a-vis 8800GT. I guess I am just trying to ballpark 8800GT vs 3870 in terms of general system usage most of the time and medium-usage with iMovie, FCE, photoshop and other vector graphics apps. Also scientific apps that does 3D protein modeling softwares, etc. (I don't have Mac Pro yet
). Any ideas?
I know I could go and look it up, but does someone want to offer a primer on what "X2" and "CrossFire" mean?
..what i would be interested in, is, whether the nvidia pro-app-deficiency is purely driver related or hardwired?
running two graphic cards combined (not driving separate displays). similar to have having two CPU/CPU-cores. in case of GPU you get the combined memory and bandwidth.
I have the 3870x2 installed in my Mac Pro for Windows gaming alongside a failing x1900XT for Mac OS X
Questions, questions:
1. Currently the 3870x2 is not recognised in 10.5.2
2. Is this a stock ATI card or specifically engineered for Apple?
3. Can the Apple/ATI 3870 ROM be copied and flashed twice onto the x2?
4. Will the 10.5.3 drivers also support the x2 version?
5. Happy days..
Which MacPro do you have? Bear in mind, at least to my knowledge, that the the pre-08 MacPro's motherboard does not support X2, even under windows.
It's a 2006 Mac Pro 1,1
The 3870X2 works like a champ with windows and is also detected as a 512MB "Radeon 3800" in Mac OS X after some plist editing in the current 10.5.2 ATI drivers.
Note: this is the 1GB x2 version of the card and not two separate cards linked in crossfire.
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/ati-3870x2-review.ars
Stealing bandwidth is just rude!
People will get the Radeon HD 3870 for professional applications where the Radeon X1900XT still is king.
Even the Radeon HD 2600 holds it own agains the Geforce 8800 GT in professional applications.
If this rumor is try it will make Motion cry with joy
EDIT:
It's a shame though as the R700 and RV700 is coming a month later, in june. Hopefully they make an EFI version
Just to get this straight, Core Image must be better optimized for ATI hardware if those cards are beating the 8800GT.
And this is no way reflects on OpenGL performance in OSX, right? Does anyone have benchmarks for OpenGL/3d graphics applications comparing the 8800GT to the ATI cards? I assume the 8800GT would easily best the older ATI cards, and probably beat the 3870 as well.