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#1 2009-04-30 4:07 am

Bat
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GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

AppleInsider thinks so, and has a pic. (They also say this comes from NV itself). Thanks ~Coxy.

The GPU maker told AppleInsider on Wednesday that the new card, simply labeled the GeForce GTX 285 Mac Edition, would ship in June.

Little information about the card was directly mentioned, though certain details are evident through an image accompanying the teaser: the GTX 285 will be made by third-party firm EVGA, a company already well-established in making NVIDIA-based cards for Windows PCs. Like the Quadro FX 4800, though, it will forgo Apple's preferred Mini DisplayPort in favor of two dual-link DVI video ports. Both 2008 and 2009 Mac Pros will be supported.
..

And whatever the reasoning, the addition will have its own impact on the Mac graphics market. While the Quadro itself is noteworthy for being one of the first NVIDIA cards of any kind to bear a third party's brand, EVGA's involvement for the GTX 285 signals the first GeForce card to share the same distinction. It also gives owners of Apple's Xeon-based workstation their second new graphics option in as many weeks as well as an elevated level of graphics technology -- an important factor with the release of Mac OS X Snow Leopard expected to reward GPUs with fast OpenCL performance.

OpenCL? What's that? And June, reputedly the time a certain wintery OS might see release... one might think that graphics were important on the Mac, and that there was something to this bidness of accelerating OSes therewith, as well as many coming apps.

(Totally opposite past opinions of mine, of course, but... smile)


title ed

Last edited by Bat (2009-06-12 6:09 pm)


If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion - George Bernard Shaw

"Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."

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#2 2009-04-30 7:01 am

mrreet2001
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Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

What no Mini DisplayPort?


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Dual 2.3Ghz G5 (4G Ram, 2x 250G HD)(10.5 server)--- 400Mhz G4 PM (10.4 Server)
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#3 2009-04-30 8:46 am

dv
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Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

OpenCL is the new GPU-based computing thing. Like CUDA.


"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures

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#4 2009-04-30 9:47 am

avkills
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Registered: 2001-05-09
Posts: 7094

Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

Ka-ching!

-mark

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#5 2009-04-30 6:06 pm

Bat
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Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

dv wrote:

OpenCL is the new GPU-based computing thing. Like CUDA.

You knew that was tongue-in-cheek, right? I've been posting about OpenCL for ages. v1.0 has been out for some time already.

Also it's GP-GPU (General Purpose GPU), and includes ATi's Brook+ API/Stream tech, for those ignoring those posts. wink

NV hasn't fielded a DisplayPort card yet, to my knowledge.


If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion - George Bernard Shaw

"Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."

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#6 2009-04-30 6:27 pm

avkills
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Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

And they will not field a displayport card until there are more than 3 devices to utilize it.  tongue

This is all good news though.

-mark

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#7 2009-04-30 7:39 pm

Bat
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Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

avkills wrote:

And they will not field a displayport card until there are more than 3 devices to utilize it.  tongue

-mark

Funny how ATi manages to implement it. They're making money, too, unlike NV these days (HP's had even mo' exploding chips). Just toss in a $2 adapter.

Forwards compatibility FTW. cool wink


If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion - George Bernard Shaw

"Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."

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#8 2009-04-30 7:44 pm

avkills
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Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

I pretty much need dual link DVI right now, so sans DisplayPort is not a biggie for me.

-mark

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#9 2009-04-30 8:44 pm

dv
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From: Minneapolis, MN
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Posts: 18087

Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

Bat wrote:

dv wrote:

OpenCL is the new GPU-based computing thing. Like CUDA.

You knew that was tongue-in-cheek, right? I've been posting about OpenCL for ages. v1.0 has been out for some time already.

Also it's GP-GPU (General Purpose GPU), and includes ATi's Brook+ API/Stream tech, for those ignoring those posts. wink

NV hasn't fielded a DisplayPort card yet, to my knowledge.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6814187062

Nothing really high end though.


"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures

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#10 2009-04-30 10:44 pm

Mr. T
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Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

A Mac 285 would be nice... 'be even nicer if we got an SLI driver.  Now, if this were a 295, then I'd be a really excited.


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#11 2009-04-30 11:44 pm

Bat
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Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

Mr. T wrote:

Now, if this were a 295, then I'd be a-really excited. :mariomax:

You need 2.8 billion transistors eating more watts and making more heat than anything extant for Crysis on a 30" CD? eek


If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion - George Bernard Shaw

"Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."

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#12 2009-05-01 8:52 am

dv
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Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

Bat wrote:

Mr. T wrote:

Now, if this were a 295, then I'd be a-really excited. :mariomax:

You need 2.8 billion transistors eating more watts and making more heat than anything extant for Crysis on a 30" CD? eek

Yes. Yes, you do.

But the 295 would require OS X SLI drivers, wouldn't it?


"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures

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#13 2009-05-01 6:44 pm

Mr. T
Best of both worlds
From: omnipresent
Registered: 2002-04-02
Posts: 4219

Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

dv wrote:

Bat wrote:

Mr. T wrote:

Now, if this were a 295, then I'd be a-really excited. :mariomax:

You need 2.8 billion transistors eating more watts and making more heat than anything extant for Crysis on a 30" CD? eek

Yes. Yes, you do.

But the 295 would require OS X SLI drivers, wouldn't it?

It would, indeed.  295 --> "SLI."  285 --> "wake me up when we get there."  (1200W PSUs aside).

Last edited by Mr. T (2009-05-01 6:45 pm)


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#14 2009-05-02 5:11 am

Bat
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Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

Mr. T wrote:

dv wrote:

Bat wrote:

You need 2.8 billion transistors eating more watts and making more heat than anything extant for Crysis on a 30" CD? eek

Yes. Yes, you do.

But the 295 would require OS X SLI drivers, wouldn't it?

It would, indeed.  295 --> "SLI."  285 --> "wake me up when we get there."  (1200W PSUs aside).

My point, which appears to have been missed, is that first, I don't remember you owning a 30" display, and second, hardly any games need that much power except at that extreme res. Most games at 1920x1200 can be comfortably handled without something eating that much power, making that much heat, even at fairly high quality settings.

If you really must have such, the apparently-forthcoming 4890X2 might be choice.

Myself, I could get by happily with a single 4890, and I'm not the most easily satisfied, as is no secret.


If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion - George Bernard Shaw

"Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."

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#15 2009-05-02 9:24 pm

Mr. T
Best of both worlds
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Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

Just a miscommunication.  I'm only interested in an SLI (or even crossover) driver for OS X -- Even if it debuts in a product I have no intention of buying (e.g. the 295).  Even if it doesn't work on previous-generation cards (e.g. the 8800), I know that I'll at least have something to look forward to.

Last edited by Mr. T (2009-05-02 9:25 pm)


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#16 2009-06-12 6:07 pm

Bat
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Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

avkills wrote:

This is all good news though.

-mark

Your chariot awaits, sir.

EVGA GTX 285 Mac Edition
EVGA is proud to announce the highest performing graphics card for the Mac today; the EVGA GTX 285 Mac Edition! With 1GB of DDR3 memory and 240 processing cores, your performance is maximized with graphics-intensive applications like 3D gaming, motion graphics, 3D modeling, rendering and animation. Take full advantage of the performance using NVIDIA CUDA and OpenGL applications. Upgrade your Mac Pro system with the EVGA GTX 285 Mac Edition today for extreme performance!

http://www.evga.com/articles/00479/

EVGA GeForce GTX 285

For maximum performance with graphics-intense applications, upgrade to the EVGA GeForce GTX 285 graphics card for the Mac Pro. Perfect for single or dual displays of up to 2560x1600 resolution, it offers 1GB of GDDR3 memory and 240 processing cores to unlock extra performance so you can get better gaming, motion graphics, 3D modeling, rendering and animation.

$449.95
Ships: 1-2 weeks
Free Shipping

http://store.apple.com/us/product/TW387ZM/A

'PureVideo HD technology' is mentioned, but I don't remember anything but the 9400m listed as being enabled for HD.264 accel in Snow Leopard. It's the same chip; they really should, just for image tuning reasons.


If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion - George Bernard Shaw

"Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."

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#17 2009-06-12 6:10 pm

robco
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Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

It's nice, but expensive. Too bad Apple won't offer it as a CTO option.


It is an odd thing, but every one who disappears is said to be seen at San Francisco. It must be a delightful city, and possess all the attractions of the next world.
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#18 2009-06-12 6:18 pm

Bat
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Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

They should add it as a CTO option. EVGA mentions full GPU accel for PS CS4 via CUDA.


If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion - George Bernard Shaw

"Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."

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#19 2009-06-12 6:41 pm

Mr. T
Best of both worlds
From: omnipresent
Registered: 2002-04-02
Posts: 4219

Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

Bat wrote:

'PureVideo HD technology' is mentioned, but I don't remember anything but the 9400m listed as being enabled for HD.264 accel in Snow Leopard. It's the same chip; they really should, just for image tuning reasons.

That's good news, though a MP (or i7 in my case) is fully capable of tackling any h.264 file -- even in vanilla Quicktime.


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#20 2009-06-12 9:38 pm

jerwin
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From: The Garden of Pure Ideology
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Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

What's so important about h.264? Why does it seem to overshadow everything else? And is this decoding or encoding?

240 cores of OpenCL goodness. Yummy.


Some subjects actually enjoy pain, and withhold information they might otherwise have divulged in order to be punished.
Central Intelligence Agency. (1983). Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual

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#21 2009-06-12 9:49 pm

avkills
demyelinated brain matter
Registered: 2001-05-09
Posts: 7094

Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

jerwin wrote:

What's so important about h.264? Why does it seem to overshadow everything else? And is this decoding or encoding?

240 cores of OpenCL goodness. Yummy.

Because H.264 is the codec of choice for Bluray.  Faster H.264 decoding means better quality and better upscaling  on higher than 1080p monitors.

-mark

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#22 2009-06-12 11:24 pm

jerwin
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From: The Garden of Pure Ideology
Registered: 2003-01-01
Posts: 7045

Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

ah. bluray. When will the mac support it?

What kind of load are we talking about anway?


Some subjects actually enjoy pain, and withhold information they might otherwise have divulged in order to be punished.
Central Intelligence Agency. (1983). Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual

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#23 2009-06-13 12:07 am

Bat
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Posts: 28541

Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

H.264 is a very high quality, very highly compressed codec. The appearance of dedicated chips for HD and some lesser decode duties, along with what they do, is detailed nicely here. You can get a decent idea of the issues and the amount of offloading, reflected in decreased CPU utilization from it.

Worth mentioning is that the new GPGPU techs are bringing apps to greatly speed video encode/transcode duties.


If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion - George Bernard Shaw

"Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."

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#24 2009-06-13 12:18 am

jerwin
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From: The Garden of Pure Ideology
Registered: 2003-01-01
Posts: 7045

Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

Ah OK. Looks like those Macs with P4 560 class chips are out of luck.


Some subjects actually enjoy pain, and withhold information they might otherwise have divulged in order to be punished.
Central Intelligence Agency. (1983). Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual

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#25 2009-06-13 6:35 am

avkills
demyelinated brain matter
Registered: 2001-05-09
Posts: 7094

Re: GTX 285 for Mac - shipping soon

jerwin wrote:

ah. bluray. When will the mac support it?

What kind of load are we talking about anway?

I would not hold my breath for Apple Blu-Ray support; as that clearly cuts into the iTunes profit.  I'm not entirely sure that Blu-Ray will even last that long.  With the ever increasing pipes being offered to our houses; the instant gratification of movies on demand and iTunes/AppleTV is probably going to win out.

-mark

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