Forums | MacLife

cleekj wrote:

ScifiterX wrote:

Admittedly Cider is an imperfect start, but it is finally a start and I seriously doubt Apple would be having the gaming companies up on stage during the actual keynote  if they did not actually plan to implement some hardware change to better support gaming within the next year or so. They would instead let the vendor announce it on their own like every other time.

As far as the GPU comment goes, I can only hope some of you hardcore gamers eventually learn the real difference between a bad card, a good card, and a gaming quality card.

I will give that to you, the 256MB 8xxx in the MBP is quite nice, The games I got to see in Windows were almost as fast as my desktop PC (C2D 2.4/7800GT) I searched for a x1900 XTX and 7950GT but they are getting hard to find anymore

But the though of being stuck with it in a desktop (iMac) is not appealing at all  video cards how ever ridiculously expensive are far far far cheaper than a new iMac...... even if one only upgrades once every two plus years...... even considering the Apple versions the x1900 BTO  from Apple is cheaper than the cheapest iMac


Both Nvidia and ATI are guilty of their DX  10 cards being slower than the last gen cards, well except for the $600 versions.......

I'm pretty sure the cost difference will get slightly more ridiculous before it gets better. Now that there is more of a game focus coming to Mac demand for more of the premium gamer cards will rise. Since the card makers will no doubt delay production, the costs will probably rise and the will charge more and/or withhold price drops accordingly. However if the Mac gaming resurrection can survive that boondoggle video card supplies will start matching their PC counter parts at overpriced instead of "they want me to pay how god damn much!?!".

ScifiterX wrote:

cleekj wrote:

ScifiterX wrote:

Admittedly Cider is an imperfect start, but it is finally a start and I seriously doubt Apple would be having the gaming companies up on stage during the actual keynote  if they did not actually plan to implement some hardware change to better support gaming within the next year or so. They would instead let the vendor announce it on their own like every other time.

As far as the GPU comment goes, I can only hope some of you hardcore gamers eventually learn the real difference between a bad card, a good card, and a gaming quality card.

I will give that to you, the 256MB 8xxx in the MBP is quite nice, The games I got to see in Windows were almost as fast as my desktop PC (C2D 2.4/7800GT) I searched for a x1900 XTX and 7950GT but they are getting hard to find anymore

But the though of being stuck with it in a desktop (iMac) is not appealing at all  video cards how ever ridiculously expensive are far far far cheaper than a new iMac...... even if one only upgrades once every two plus years...... even considering the Apple versions the x1900 BTO  from Apple is cheaper than the cheapest iMac


Both Nvidia and ATI are guilty of their DX  10 cards being slower than the last gen cards, well except for the $600 versions.......

I'm pretty sure the cost difference will get slightly more ridiculous before it gets better. Now that there is more of a game focus coming to Mac demand for more of the premium gamer cards will rise. Since the card makers will no doubt delay production, the costs will probably rise and the will charge more and/or withhold price drops accordingly. However if the Mac gaming resurrection can survive that boondoggle video card supplies will start matching their PC counter parts at overpriced instead of "they want me to pay how god damn much!?!".

Hopefully we will see GPU's that are not solely from Apple, hey a little competition should be better than none.....  I hope......

I remember buying a retail  boxed ATI branded something x Radeon for my G5 PowerMac

We are S.O.L on the price issue though......thats all ATI and Nvidia

You want GPUs, talk to a flasher .

Thats the only place your gonna be getting them nowadays. Waste of time trusting or counting on Apple/ATI/nVidia. All they'll give you is underclocked, overpriced, pieces of catfish dung.

ScifiterX wrote:

Admittedly Cider is an imperfect start, but it is finally a start and I seriously doubt Apple would be having the gaming companies up on stage during the actual keynote  if they did not actually plan to implement some hardware change to better support gaming within the next year or so. They would instead let the vendor announce it on their own like every other time.

As far as the GPU comment goes, I can only hope some of you hardcore gamers eventually learn the real difference between a bad card, a good card, and a gaming quality card.

ehh, I have my doubts about Apple with regard to this issue. I've heard my fair share of disappointing managerial tales from colleagues that have worked with Apple. That company has, and continues, not to give gaming and or real-time 3D the attention it deserves.

That said, I would love for Apple to convince me otherwise with new dev tools aimed at gaming developers, aggressive negotiations to get real CAD apps on this platform, etc.

ScifiterX wrote:

We could go round and round about this all we want but I suspect things will be better than we expect abut far worse than we'd hope for. Honestly I've been a little disappointed with most non-console gaming for a while (Mac or PC). The developers have limited selection to far fewer types of games and they typically require more and more power to improve less and less. That doesn't mean I wouldn't play games and enjoy them on a computer but there needs to be some serious work to improve things there, IMO.

WORD! cause neither my Mac nor my PC are connected to a 60" RPLCD TV with Dolby Digital surround sound

and my couch is much more comfy than my desk char but for a desk chair it is quite comfy.....

There's been pictures flying around showing a keyboard that suposedly was for a new iMac. Wheather it is a new iMac that is going to be revealed on tuesday I don't know but I have my hopes up on that keyboard. I can't wait to replace my current trashtub-keyboard with that alu-white keyboard. Now if they just could make it height/angle-adjustable too like the old Extended keyboard II.

Last edited by Mymac4ever (2007-08-01 3:44 pm)

Well that could at least get them on par with PC gaming, though I've already expressed my disappointment there.

Much of the real graphics cards is sort of a moot point. Apple traded the endian issue (which required a significant different ROM) with EFI vs BIOS issues which are far easier to work around and likely to sort themselves out as more PCs adopt EFI (and/or Mac Market share hits a high enough level). Until then ATI & NVIDIA will continue to handicap most of their cards to only really support BIOS. Beyond that it's simply a matter of having the proper driver.

I hate to break it to you but both BIOS & EFI are industry standards. EFI was designed to replace the former though it's market acceptance has been hamstringed by Microsoft & the video card makers. Microsoft refuses to support EFI on the non-32 bit versions of it's OS (which in typical fashion it blames on the PC vendors). The video card manufacturers require their cards to run in BIOS or EFI's BIOS compatibility mode (which is how the workarounds work) however that negates the many of the advantages of EFI.

  Misread.

Last edited by Mr. T (2007-08-01 10:46 pm)

FutureDreamz wrote:

Aqua OS X wrote:

FutureDreamz wrote:

So no confirmation about the Mini so far?
Anyone think that it will be redesigned?

If by "redesigned" you mean "dragged out into the street and shot," then yes.

It looks like Apple might let that Mac die off. That's what seems to be floating around the rumormill.

I guess so, as it doesn't fit with Apples model:
             |  Consumer |  Pro              |   SWITCHER       
Desktop  |  iMac          |   Mac Pro        |    Mac Mini
Notebook|  MacBook    |  MacBook Pro |   MacBook Nano/Mini?*

*Not really switcher, but low-end, cheaper, maybe ultraportable?

I don't know if they can make it any smaller, without putting in an iPod hard drive, or something.