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ATI introduces Radeon 9600 for PC & Mac

Swad

By Swad

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According to this Macworld article, "ATI Technologies Inc. on Friday introduced the Radeon 9600 Pro PC & Mac Edition, its first AGP graphics card designed to work with both Macs and Windows-based PCs. The new card is available for a suggested retail price of US$199.

 

This is the first graphics card that ATI has released for both Macintosh and Windows computers. The same card will work with an AGP-equipped Mac and Windows PC out of the same box, so Mac users can simply hunt for the best price rather than relying on Mac-specific stock from an Apple parts vendor."

 

Personally, I think that this can only be the start of a larger trend within the industry - building more products to be cross platform. The introduction of an MacIntel will only hasten this transition, as it should become easier for hardware and software companies to tweak their pre-existing products into something that will work on both systems.

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orph3us

we were discussing video card compatibility in one of the video card topics and i was unaware that you couldn't just flash any pc ati or nvidia video card to work on a mac.... How ridiculous is it for apple especially now, to make manufacturers make custom cards for macs, when it would be so easy to design a normal agp/pcie slot so that all the cards would work in it. maybe theres something im missing, but it just seems stupid (people complain about microsoft monopoly? imagine what would happen if jobs/apple had the monopoly, ya sure, apple can do what they want... but i wont be buying into their great os if they cripple hardware like this).

As well, wouldn't making special cards be more expensive (less revenue from mass production units sold for pcs)? hell maybe thats what they want, but i dont understand it. Charging a premium for the mac experience? bah....

im not rich.... think of the little people! :)

i don't feel bad about this whole warez thing with practices like these. 199$ for an old 9600pro? wtf? .... i got my 6800gt for 230... i just dont understand the need for special cards in the first place....

Sorry maybe this was more than just about video cards :P but it feels good to get that off my chest.

Here's to hoping they do what i see as the smart decision.

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orph3us

if i am missing something.... what do special mac cards have to pc cards other than a different rom? (adc connectors... just remembered that one...dvi to adc adaptors are 99 dollars yuck)

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Steven P. Jobs
if i am missing something.... what do special mac cards have to pc cards other than a different rom?

 

Apple also threw on ADC (Apple Display Connector) ports onto their cards, and my Radeon 9000 has an ADC port. I have a monitor to match, which uses said ADC port. I really like the idea of the all in one power-USB-monitor cable that the ADC features... so it's the only thing keeping me from getting a new graphics card. A 99 dollar adapter is in order if I were to jump for the 9600... so I'm kinda bummed at this announcement. Someday... I'll have a video card that's up to scratch.

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orph3us
Apple also threw on ADC (Apple Display Connector) ports onto their cards, and my Radeon 9000 has an ADC port.  I have a monitor to match, which uses said ADC port.  I really like the idea of the all in one power-USB-monitor cable that the ADC features... so it's the only thing keeping me from getting a new graphics card.  A 99 dollar adapter is in order if I were to jump for the 9600... so I'm kinda bummed at this announcement.  Someday... I'll have a video card that's up to scratch.

yarr.... well... Sure ADC is nice but I hope now that mac is going with Intel that they won't require different roms. It just seems draconian. OPEN STANDARDS ARE GOOD. They benefit everyone!

Release your custom Apple systems with ADC cards and let users who own such systems decide if they want to upgrade the existing video card with a standard pc card. At least thats what I hope they do.

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hatoncat

There's a lot of confusion about these cards...

 

As I reported on Twin Mac, this type of solution is not needed for Intel-based Macs. They will use the standard PC Video ROM, and thus will simply need new drivers that tap the PC ROM but from within Mac OS X.

 

In other words, this card only works with PMG4 and PMG5s (that have AGP4x/8x).

 

Oh, and these cards work by having a third Video ROM (essentially a bootloader) that detects if the card is running in a BIOS or an Open Firmware system and then loads the right ROM into memory... In theory any AGP card could do this, and I suspect all ATI and Nvidia cards will (provided there is a Mac with PowerPC and a compatible slot).

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RichCoder
There's a lot of confusion about these cards...

 

As I reported on Twin Mac, this type of solution is not needed for Intel-based Macs.  They will use the standard PC Video ROM, and thus will simply need new drivers that tap the PC ROM but from within Mac OS X.

...

 

Where did you get that information? I haven't seen confirmation anywhere that Apple will end up using a typical PC bios system. The only thing I know for sure is Apple will use a x86 processor. Everything else on the motherboard could be pretty much as it is on the current Mac systems.

 

-rich

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buglamp
Where did you get that information? I haven't seen confirmation anywhere that Apple will end up using a typical PC bios system. The only thing I know for sure is Apple will use a x86 processor. Everything else on the motherboard could be pretty much as it is on the current Mac systems.

 

-rich

 

Its an Intel Logicboard. Typicaly across intel based PC's they dont have to write special VGA bioses for specific Operating Systems (I.E.: Linux).

 

Has anyone found any information about grassroots projects writing / reverse engineering accelerated drivers for Mac86 yet?

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bluedragon1971
Where did you get that information? I haven't seen confirmation anywhere that Apple will end up using a typical PC bios system. The only thing I know for sure is Apple will use a x86 processor. Everything else on the motherboard could be pretty much as it is on the current Mac systems.

 

-rich

 

Apple has stated in their Universal Binary programming guide that Intel Macs won't use Open Firmware ( http://developer.apple.com/documentation/M...rsal_binary.pdf , Page 47).

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buglamp

also, I think apple is quite fond of the idea that there new product can run windows. I cant see why they would spend time trying to take functionality away from there systems when such a feature would be so attractive to the consumer. As anyone who as ever used an apple knows, attraction is the reason why apple still in business. It sure as hell isnt the breakneck speeds of the G5 when such proformance can be had on the PC side for a fraction of the cost aswell as the ability to use such speed with a hundred times as many applications. Dont let Jobs fool you, its still a stupid slow ass mac. I do look forward to the day where I can put a decent operating system on a decent computer and still be able to run anything I please.

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