NVIDIA GeForce 6800 vs. the rest???

[th.Sentinel]

Since this thread is about graphix cards, I got a question about the ATI 9800 Pro SE. I'm thinking of buying one very soon (mb next week), are there any problems with it? What framerates do you get in AA (avarage, and framerates on hospital (I get between 20 and 60 now)).

Also, does anyone have experience with the card using a 3D app, renderingwise does it improve it a lot?

And what other games did you try it with? I got Unreal 04, CoD, GhR, RVS, Halo, ...

I just want some stats from real life usage, without having to compare with the given facts on the internet.

[BTs_Mysterio]

Sentinel, why would you want to get a graphics card just as the rest of the top of the line are going to be bumped down again. This is graphics cards overflow season.

[[[EUR]] HoloGram]

Me, I for my part never had any problems with the ATI Drivers on PC nor on Mac.

But I had a few probs with the NVIDIA once. The bad driver Myth is gone for a few yaers now. ATI had bad drivers and bad Support with their Rage series and lower. But after that, all changed. But this is still what ppl try to tell you: ATI had always nad drivers. In fact it is not true.

My Problem with NVIDIA on Mac ist still the lack of Utils and Drivers made by NVIDIA of its own. With some featuers I can use, enable or disable. Excatly what the ControlePannel of ATI does. Implemented Drivers from Apple are ok, but not really the top performence Drivers.

[BTs_Mysterio]

The majority of ma users love ATI for some reason. I think it's because NVIDIA is so evil looking. It just has a ring to it like the word Microsoft, or Intel.

[th.Sentinel]

Myst it always takes almost a year to get those new graphix cards to get to Belgium (in the store that is). So the SE just got available and by the time those new cards are out, I prolly have enough money for a new G5 and one of those new shiny thingy's. I just need a better one asap, because when I have my two screens connected I loose half of the speed when trying to play. So I always have to disconnect one of my screens before I can start playing... annoying. So that's why I want the 9800 SE.

btw, I can't wait long enough for those other cards, I got a nasty habit, when I want something it has to be here asap!!  

[BTs_Mysterio]

I too have a 9600, but I intend to hold out until the next big leap... maybe then I'll have the money.

[cO.Kuza]

all of you are graphics card yuppies..i would give my reproductive organs for a 9200 on my iMac..thats how bad the graphics are...crypts knows..

[BTs_Lee.Harvey]

Myst it always takes almost a year to get those new graphix cards to get to Belgium (in the store that is). So the SE just got available and by the time those new cards are out, I prolly have enough money for a new G5 and one of those new shiny thingy's. I just need a better one asap, because when I have my two screens connected I loose half of the speed when trying to play. So I always have to disconnect one of my screens before I can start playing... annoying. So that's why I want the 9800 SE.

btw, I can't wait long enough for those other cards, I got a nasty habit, when I want something it has to be here asap!!  

Well sent.. I was the first to get it on GR and its good.. I have been having probs w/ 3d rendering but thats b/c i installed a bad driver (waiting for next update from apple to fix it) but static also got one and he said his works perfectly (he didnt install the drive i that ATI offered on there web site that was later found incapatable fully with 10.3.4).. Talk to him he can tell you about the FPS that he is getting.

[BTs_Lee.Harvey]

BTW.. I was jusr reading some on the 6800..... They have a ver comming out that is liquid cooled from (as they put it) "the newer computers liquid cooling systems" Does this mean that it can hook into the liquid cooling system in the new g5's?? we shall see

[BTs_Lee.Harvey]

Special note on the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra: due to size of this advanced graphics card, the adjacent PCI or PCI-X slot will be blocked and cannot be used. This reduces the number of available PCI or PCI-X slots from three to two.

I also found this on another site about the 6800    

3.      A vacant PCI slot adjacent to the AGP slot.   This board occupies two slots: one AGP and one PCI.

[BTs_Mysterio]

The benchmarks on the G5 2.5 with a 6800 are awesome, y'all need to go and see them.

[Cobra]

The benchmarks on the G5 2.5 with a 6800 are awesome, y'all need to go and see them.

See them where?

[BTs_Mysterio]

I saw some on Mac Rumors that people took at the WWDC Expo. I've seen others somewhere else, but I can't remember.

[Saberian 3000]

Well, I can say for now that that is only speculation.  As of now the ATI Radeon 9800 256mb card is the top card at this time for the Mac.  Dont get me wrong, the Nvidia 6800 looks pretty sweet, but for now the ATI is the fastest we got.  Although there is some rumors now of ATI coming out soon with a comparable card to this NVidia 6800.  

:MoD:Saberian

[BTs_Mysterio]

No, the 6800 is superior.

[Saberian 3000]

Well, my apologies, I should have ben specific.  It seems that this is coming out in the next two months but I am talking about as of now.  The 6800 is faster,espeically with the processor and the 4 DVI ports. But, as for sales it hasnt been released as of yet, and that is what I was talking about myst.  So as of now in sales the ATI 9800 Pro 256 chip is the fastest for the Mac until this finally get's released.  This will be hard to beat but ATI is saying that they already have a project in the works to compete with this.  Something to think about for the ATI users out there =)

:MoD:Saberian

[Cobra]

ATI is saying that they already have a project in the works to compete with this.  Something to think about for the ATI users out there =)

It's not like it's a big secret; it's already available for purchase (though ATi seems to be out of stock right now).

http://www.ati.com/companyinfo/press/2004/4750.html

[c| Lone-Wolf]

Ok, so my question is when, if ever, will Apple get ahold of the new 800X ATI cards and start slapping them in G5s?

Really looking to get ahold of a dual 2.5 in the near (very near) future, but if all the video cards are about to take a huge jump up in speed, i think i could hold my breath just a little bit longer.  

[BTs_Mysterio]

The X800 is rumored to have fallen short of the NVIDIA 6800 Ultra.

[Cobra]

There's really no telling when Apple will make the X800's available in PowerMacs, but it's a non-issue for me.  Performance-wise, NVIDIA and and ATi are really neck and neck at the moment.  Judging from preliminary benchmarks, it seems that the GeForce 6800 performs slightly better with no antialiasing, while the X800 takes the lead when AA is enabled (the X800 really flaunts its power with anisotropic filtering enabled at higher resolutions ? the 6800 can't quite keep up in some of these tests).  In general, though, performance doesn't heavily tip to one side, and both sides' strengths and weaknesses sort of cancel each other out.  NVIDIA's offering seems to be king technologically, with its support for ShaderModel 3.0 and 32-bit floating-point precision shader programs (ATi's card supports ShaderModel 2.0 and 24-bit fp).  ATi's got 3Dc, a pretty sweet looking ATi-developed technology that can compress normal maps to 1/4 their original size with very little loss in data quality (though I think for the moment this'll be a DirectX-only feature...maybe they'll add OpenGL support if they bring this card to the Mac).  The X800 also has physical advantages, being smaller and consuming less power than the 6800.

However, benchmarks suggest that NVIDIA's card takes the lead with OpenGL code paths, as opposed to DirectX (which is certainly relevant to us as Mac users, since we have no DirectX).  And NVIDIA is set to release an even more powerful edition of its card soon ? the GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme (teehee, silly name).  I think if you were to go with NVIDIA's 6800 in your new dual 2.5GHz, you wouldn't be disappointed, as this is certainly right up there at the top of the performance pack regardless of whether or not Apple starts offering the ATi X800.