new radeon cards

J

joecrow

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macmall.com is accepting preorders of the new radeon 9000 pro for mac. price is only $150 which i thought was pretty amazing (especially since it's part of the faster new macs). but macmall had no idea when they were shipping.

has anyone heard a date from ati?

-JoeCrow
 
Be careful, I think MacMall was one of the online retailers that had a really good preorder price on the Radeon 8500, and then suddenly the price went up real high before it was released. Luckily I hadn't preordered it yet, but I just thought I'd warn you about this.
 
i'm not too worried. they quoted me this price. i asked them if it might change, and even if it does, i still get it for $150.

-JoeCrow
 
i would go 8500 over 9000 because of the anti aliasing fetures included on the 8500 but not on the 9000. my bid is to wait for the 9700 to come out, then the 8500 will go down in price... hopefuly.
 
The 8500 is better than the 9000, hence the price. The 9000 is ATi's response to the GeForce4 MX. Take a look:

8500's features:
• Intense graphics realism in 3D gaming environments and workstation applications
• Powered by RADEON™ 8500 GPU for revolutionary performance
• 3D resolutions up to 2048 x 1536
• OpenGL® driver supports fast 3D/2D graphics acceleration
• Dual monitor support
• Supports Mac® OS 9 and Mac® OS X
• Designed and manufactured by ATI
• 64MB DDR memory offers fast processor speeds and advanced 3D/2D graphics performance
• Rapid acceleration of graphics intense OpenGL®, QuickDraw® and RAVE® applications
• Your favorite 3D games or workstation applications will run true color 3D graphics with resolutions up to 2048 x 1536 with dynamic realism and stable performance
• TRUFORM™ technology makes characters and objects more rounded and natural
• SMARTSHADER™ technology enables custom vertex and pixel shader programs for complex geometry, texture and lighting effects in real time
• SMOOTHVISION™, ATI's advanced anti-aliasing feature eliminates distracting visual artifacts for smoother-looking images
• CHARISMA ENGINE™ II supports full Transformation, Clipping and Lighting (T&L) at 62.5 million triangles/second peak processing capability
• PIXEL TAPESTRY™ II, the RADEON™ 8500 3D rendering engine, powers an incredible 2.4 gigatexels/second for superior fill rates in 32-bit at high resolutions
• The RADEON™ 8500 MAC EDITION supports traditional CRT monitors, flat panel displays and TVs
• VIDEO IMMERSION™ II technology enables integration of industry-leading digital video features, including advanced de-interlacing algorithms for unprecedented video quality
• Process full-frame, full screen DVD or MPEG-2 video

And now, the 9000:
• Advanced 3D graphics and visual quality for high performance gaming and design applications
• Dual monitor support including ADC for Apple® flat panels
• Operate two digital flat panels simultaneously at resolutions up to 1920 X 1200
• Powered by the RADEON™ 9000 Pro Graphics Controller
• Comprehensive Mac® OS X and OpenGL™ support
• Equipped with 64MB DDR RAM and the RADEON™ 9000 PRO visual processor.
• Advanced processing speeds allow for accelerated 2D/3D graphics performance.
• SMARTSHADER™ technology allows users to experience complex, movie-quality effects for ultra-realism in next-generation 3D games and applications
• SMOOTHVISION™ technology enhances image quality by eliminating jagged edges and bringing out fine texture detail, without compromising performance
• ADC connector port
• DVI-I connector port
• DVI-I to VGA adapter

As you can see, the 8500 has much more to offer than the 9000. The names are quite confusing. It's like AMD calling their 1.4GHz chip the "2100." Go figure.
 
thanks for everyone's insight. i've decided to cancel my order of the 9000 (only god knows when it'll actually ship). i've found a radeon 8500 for literally $5 more (inc. shipping) at enpc.com.

-JoeCrow
 
FYI, I just received my 8500 from ENPC today. They are legit and seemed nice enough. I think I paid $168.00 - MacMall and others have yet to reflect ATI's price drop - tisk tisk tisk. By the way, it is really nice to be able to move my finder windows around now - very smooth. What progress we are making in 2002 - we can move windows around without jerking. Next week 10.2 will allow me to resize windows smoothly - again, we live in amazing times!

Okay - I was whining and I apologize, it is just the one OS X issue that really annoyed me - it was soooooo embarrassing in front of PC users and I took a lot of razzing for it.

Wow - I just tried my fish tank screen saver Marine Aquarium (can you believe I paid for it) with the new 8500 - on two monitors it now is very fast and life like.
 
Does anyone know if it's possible (well, I guess anything's possible), if it's easy, to swap video cards in the TiBooks? I have the 550mhz model and the video is unbearably slow.
 
Originally posted by squidbite
Does anyone know if it's possible (well, I guess anything's possible), if it's easy, to swap video cards in the TiBooks? I have the 550mhz model and the video is unbearably slow.
Click to expand...

The video is built onto the motherboard so you are out of luck. I feel your pain as I have the Ti 500 with worse video than you. LOL However 10.2 does run much faster than 10.1.5 on it. You have twice the VRAM I do, so you should be ok, even without QE like me.
 
There is a huge difference from the Radeon 8500, and the 9000, a close friend of mine work for ATi, and a Technologist, testing cards with software and dealing with apple / software companies to get them working etc etc. .. and I bought a 9700 pro for my PC ... too my 8500 out.. flashed the BIOS stuck it in my G4 733... it has GREATLY improved...

Even my friend doesn't understand why they ended the life of the 8500... too bad. Good card.

Dual monitor support on it is great.
 
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