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Leander
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Joined: 23 Oct 2005
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 Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 2:17 pm Post subject: whats the most powerful gfx card for an iMac? |
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cant seem to find any more powerful options that 9400m. which to me seems strange as thats really a laptop chip.
can anything else, more powerful, be got or added to an imac.
(the new imac's. 24" core2duo etc.)
same question but for the full mac tower systems. they seem limited to low graphics cards. even the top desktop mac (costing over £2000) has only a GT120 listed. wtf is a GT120? i know the 260, 275, 295. |
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cheef
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Joined: 06 Mar 2009
Posts: 476
Location: Birmingham, UK
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 3:43 pm Post subject: |
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Doesn't the Apple web site show you the full rage of graphics options when you're configuration a machine to buy?
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Leander
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 4:22 pm Post subject: |
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i didnt click the buy link...... as i wasnt going to buy one from there.
i see the options now.......... pretty dire tbh.
seriously, cant the full tower macs having anything other than a single 4870 or the nvidia gt150?
i still dont know what a gt120 or gt150 is.
is it more or less powerful than a 8800gt? |
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hackersmovie
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Joined: 07 Nov 2006
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Location: Maryland, U.S.A
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| Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 10:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Leander wrote: | i didnt click the buy link...... as i wasnt going to buy one from there.
i see the options now.......... pretty dire tbh.
seriously, cant the full tower macs having anything other than a single 4870 or the nvidia gt150?
i still dont know what a gt120 or gt150 is.
is it more or less powerful than a 8800gt? |
Well, it would seem that those cards are designed specifically for the Mac Pro. Not unheard of, Apple has hardware built for them by 3rd parties all the time, that are not available elsewhere.
Here is the "low down" according to Apple.com:
All-new, high-performance graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD deliver the fastest Mac graphics performance ever. A 16-lane, double-wide PCI Express 2.0 graphics slot supports the latest graphics cards for up to 8 GBps of data throughput. And by supplying up to 300 watts of total power to all PCI Express slots, the Mac Pro provides the headroom for high-performance, next-generation graphics cards.
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
Perfect for motion graphics, 3D modeling, rendering, or animation, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512MB of GDDR3 memory comes standard — and provides greater performance than previous Mac Pro standard graphics. The GeForce GT 120 includes both a Mini DisplayPort and a dual-link DVI port. With up to four GeForce GT 120 graphics cards installed, a Mac Pro can support up to eight 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Displays.*
ATI Radeon HD 4870
For even greater graphics performance, choose the latest-generation ATI Radeon HD 4870 with 512MB of fast GDDR5 video memory. With massive memory bandwidth and over a TeraFlop of computing power, the Radeon HD 4870 brings advanced performance to graphics-intensive applications such as motion graphics, 3D modeling, rendering, and animation. Connect an Apple 24-inch LED Cinema Display directly to the Mini DisplayPort port or a 30-inch Cinema Display to the Dual-Link DVI port.
It would seem either card would suffice for even the most demanding of video needs. What is it that your doing that requires more? As for an iMac, they are not and never have been "graphics monsters" and there's no way to add or upgrade the video card in them (other than the options Apple offers).
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Leander
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Joined: 23 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 2:44 am Post subject: |
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a 4870 in the tower is quite good. 4870's are no slouches.
the upper price bracket imacs i see can be upgraded to 4850's.. those are quite good budget cards that are more powerful than my current 8800gt.
but really, its a 2grand (nearly 3) mac and it doesnt allow for dual gfx cards?
(mac tower)
anyway, as for what i want monster gfx processing for.... games. very demanding games and some future proofing.
im going to be dual booting (boot camp) windows 7 on whatever machine i get and the pc section will be used entirely for games.
edit - unrelated to gfx, but asking here saves another topic.
can any of the macs (mac mini, imac or the full tower mac) output surround? (5.1 and/or 7.1)
if so, how do they output it? what sort of connectors are used/needed? |
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hackersmovie
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Joined: 07 Nov 2006
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Location: Maryland, U.S.A
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| Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 5:32 am Post subject: |
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| Leander wrote: | ..... mac and it doesnt allow for dual gfx cards?....
....can any of the macs (mac mini, imac or the full tower mac) output surround? (5.1 and/or 7.1)
if so, how do they output it? what sort of connectors are used/needed? |
The Mac Pro's can have up to 4 graphics cards, with the ability to drive 8 monitors!
All Mac's can output 5.1 surround as they all have an optical audio output. ( the audio output is both analog and digital) The Mac Pro's even have optical INPUTS!
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Leander
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| Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:32 am Post subject: |
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| hackersmovie wrote: | | Leander wrote: | ..... mac and it doesnt allow for dual gfx cards?....
....can any of the macs (mac mini, imac or the full tower mac) output surround? (5.1 and/or 7.1)
if so, how do they output it? what sort of connectors are used/needed? |
The Mac Pro's can have up to 4 graphics cards, with the ability to drive 8 monitors!
All Mac's can output 5.1 surround as they all have an optical audio output. ( the audio output is both analog and digital) The Mac Pro's even have optical INPUTS! |
perfect, thanks very much for the answers. |
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