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The ATI HD 5750 in the iMac is a mobility 5850.
- Thread starter TMRaven
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That is also a good option, especially since the CPU is socketed for future goodness.
That's up to the use but the gains from going to the Core i7 860 aren't that great.
Things are only a little different today with the Core i7 870 now at the $296 price point per 1000.
how necessary is the DX11 capabilities of 5850 vers DX10 of 4850? Is that much of a factor for OSX as it's for Windows? Hopefully Barefeats.com will have their GPU tests done soon. I'm waiting on some figures to see if I should buy the refurb or a new iMac. Also, interested in OCing ability of the 5850 to get it close to a mobility 5870.
noone cares about power consumption it's a desktop, they can easily fit the card in there, many laptop has fullsized graphic cards...
yes
more like 20 or 40 fps, and yes.
I'd love a 27-inch, but can't fit it on my desk. I'd just buy a new 27-incher if I could fit it on my desk.
I know what you mean though. Those refurb 27-incher prices are fantastic. Of course, I'd probably get a yellow screen (I went through 3 brand new 27-inchers before and gave up).
Completely understand. I really wish Apple had more choices in the 21.5" model as not everyone can fit (or wants) that huge 27" screen, even if they could afford the cost.
GDDR5 is a huge benefit for modern day gpus, because it effectively doubles your memory bandwidth, no matter the other stats involved. In reality, it should be called QDR, but I guess DDR5 was used for simplicity. DDR1-4 are all double data rate, while DDR5 is effectively quad data rate. So it's obvious why notebook check would put the mobility 5850 model with GDDR3 memory at a lower spec than mobility 4850.
+1，
no matter what other people say, my experience from laptops with 5850m 1G GDDR5 (OC a little) is almost as powerful as 5870m. and 5870m is the most powerful GPU could be fit in iMac under a reasonable TDP for now. Therefore, i will be happy to buy the new iMac.
That's because 5850 is just slightly underclock 5870
It's only 75MHz difference (625MHz vs 700MHz) IIRC
"but there again Apple values low fan speeds and low sound output over high amounts of cooling." - I do this as well. I prefer a silent computer over +10% FPS when playing games.
I care. High consumption = more heat = more noise = annoyed user (plus more expensive electric bills).
No laptops have full sized desktop graphics chips as far as I know.
That's because 5850 is just slightly underclock 5870
$400 for 5850, vs $506 for the 5870 - these are australian prices comparing the same Asus card. if the only difference is 75MHz then WHY THE HELL is it another $100? thats a major rip. they are both GDDR5, both have 1GB and all have the same ports.
Those are desktop. Desktop 5870 has 1600 CPUs and 5850 has 1440 so in desktops, it's not just a MHz increase. 5870 has 125MHz higher core clock as well (725MHz vs 850MHz). In mobilites, it's just a MHz difference as both have 800 CPUs.
ok
that makes sense. are you aware of the 1k price difference between 5850m and 5870m ?That's because 5850 is just slightly underclock 5870
yeah，u got the point.
I dont really understand all this complaining about Apples choice of GPU. Because when we talk about how good the performance is in the windows world with the same GPU everyone is thinking its great, its when we use it under OS X we all get angry.
As long as the GPU is running all the newest game at native resolution at high or ultra settings in windows but not in OS X what we need to be angry about is the drivers and the fundamental graphics handling in OS X.
I would rather apple, ati and nvidia got their brains together making drivers and getting OS X handling 3d as it should than them having to pump out the heaviest graphics card using a nuclear plant each for power just to be somewhere close to their pc-counterparts.
They need to take the problem at the roots not compensate for it.
As long as the GPU is running all the newest game at native resolution at high or ultra settings in windows but not in OS X what we need to be angry about is the drivers and the fundamental graphics handling in OS X.
I would rather apple, ati and nvidia got their brains together making drivers and getting OS X handling 3d as it should than them having to pump out the heaviest graphics card using a nuclear plant each for power just to be somewhere close to their pc-counterparts.
They need to take the problem at the roots not compensate for it.
Very well said. Totally agree, it's all about the poor OpenGL implementation in OS X together with outdated drivers. To begin with I would love to at least get the same OpenGL performance as Linux.