X1900 XT - Worth It?

[Lycanthrope]

So, while we're all sitting here all jittery and dreaming of 8 cores I have a question for you Mac Pro boffins out there.

When I finally order the Mac Pro, should I spend money on upgrading the video card to this fabled ATI X1900 XT? Bear in mind I'll be using the MP for every day computing which, to honest, rarely includes gaming. That being said I do sometimes get the urge to play Doom or UT2004 and then I just download the latest playable demo and that's enough before I get bored with it.

So, is that investment - $200/€200 - worth it at configuration time or would you think I should go with the stock graphics card and then perhaps upgrade in two to three years time - after all, graphics cards do seem to have a shortish life-span do they not?

I figured I'd be better off spending that money or more HDD or RAM...

 

[waremaster]

So, while we're all sitting here all jittery and dreaming of 8 cores I have a question for you Mac Pro boffins out there.

When I finally order the Mac Pro, should I spend money on upgrading the video card to this fabled ATI X1900 XT? Bear in mind I'll be using the MP for every day computing which, to honest, rarely includes gaming. That being said I do sometimes get the urge to play Doom or UT2004 and then I just download the latest playable demo and that's enough before I get bored with it.

So, is that investment - $200/€200 - worth it at configuration time or would you think I should go with the stock graphics card and then perhaps upgrade in two to three years time - after all, graphics cards do seem to have a shortish life-span do they not?

I figured I'd be better off spending that money or more HDD or RAM...

When you put it like that I would stick with the default card.

 

[Glenn Wolsey]

Do you have any plans down the line to use any other application in the region of Aperture, Final Cut, or Photoshop? If so, get the card. If not..I'd probably get that card too, especially with the direction Apple is heading with Core Image in applications, it may be a worthy investment.

 

[Eric5h5]

Do you have any plans down the line to use any other application in the region of Aperture, Final Cut, or Photoshop? If so, get the card.

Photoshop doesn't exactly make heavy use of 3D hardware.

--Eric

 

[Lycanthrope]

I'm an occassional Photoshop user - actually pre-iWeb I used it a lot when I constructed my web pages from scratch but now I just tend to add content.

So, no - I just run a lot of basic applications in parallel.

Oh, I like to run SETI too but I don't think any graphics card will help that - 8 cores might though

 

[Lord Blackadder]

I'm an advocate of buying the best video card you can afford, but realistically, if you don't play 3D games at high resolutions then you do not need the X1900XT.