GeForce GTX 285 Mac Edition Coming This June

[btarunr]

NVIDIA is pushing forth a special variant of its high-end GeForce GTX 285 graphics accelerator. This one is specific for use in Apple Mac systems that support PCI-Express addon-cards. Its hardware specifications remain the same: 240 stream processors and 1 GB of 512-bit GDDR3 memory. Available in June, the accelerator will benefit the upcoming Mac OS X "Snow Leopard" that makes use of GPGPU. NVIDIA partner EVGA seems to be ready with one. Pictured below, the card resembles the reference design accelerator commonly available for PCs.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[newtekie1]

It might resemble it, heck it will be the same card, but it will cost 4x as much as the PC version.

 

[Baum]

but if you're able to flash its vbios...

 

[phanbuey]

this is exactly the reason why I don't, and probably never will, own a high-end mac.

 

[PCpraiser100]

Mac users are gonna be happy this year.

 

[iStink]

I think if these sell ok, nvidia will release the 250, 260, and 275 for mac as well.

 

[h3llb3nd4]

funny, it's black
should'a been white

 

[3870x2]

wtf are they going to use this for? WOW?
Does a mac not have PCI-E slots? im confused. One would assume the drivers would be all that is needed?

 

[h3llb3nd4]

Mac only supports certain Hardwares
FTW they even have Mac edition SSDs

 

[newtekie1]

Most of the Mac edition stuff is complete BS. Macs can use pretty much any hardware a PC can, HDD/SSDs, memory, processors, etc.

One of the few things that still have to be specially made for Macs is the video card, and basically the only difference is the BIOS on the video card, which has to be specially written to interface with the Mac motherboard's BIOS properly.

Usually this means that the only hardware difference between a Mac card and a PC card is that the Mac card has a larger BIOS ROM chip on it to hold the special BIOS. This is also why most of the time, a standard PC card can not simply be flashed to the Mac edition, though this isn't always true.

 

[timta2]

Their justification is that they have to pay programmers to write the custom Mac bios, which I'm sure costs them some money. We all know prices usually scale with production numbers and in this case the Mac Edition cards have much smaller sales.

 

[Castiel]

Finally, getting tired of the GT 100 and 8800GT.

 

[freaksavior]

Most of the Mac edition stuff is complete BS. Macs can use pretty much any hardware a PC can, HDD/SSDs, memory, processors, etc.

One of the few things that still have to be specially made for Macs is the video card, and basically the only difference is the BIOS on the video card, which has to be specially written to interface with the Mac motherboard's BIOS properly.

Usually this means that the only hardware difference between a Mac card and a PC card is that the Mac card has a larger BIOS ROM chip on it to hold the special BIOS. This is also why most of the time, a standard PC card can not simply be flashed to the Mac edition, though this isn't always true.

yeah that the only difference. more than likely you will be able to flash the bios on here with a mac gtx and it will work.

 

[DrPepper]

What exactly would you use this for ? If your going to use it on bootcamp fair enough.

 

[Wile E]

wtf are they going to use this for? WOW?
Does a mac not have PCI-E slots? im confused. One would assume the drivers would be all that is needed?

What exactly would you use this for ? If your going to use it on bootcamp fair enough.

There are many games on mac. not nearly as many as PC, but still quite a few.

But, unfortunately, Mac video cards are alway quite expensive for some reason. It's still $280 for a Mac 8800GT and $350 for a Mac 4870.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

But, unfortunately, Mac video cards are alway quite expensive for some reason. It's still $280 for a Mac 8800GT and $350 for a Mac 4870.

Makes me glad I don't have a Mac. $250 for a 4890!

 

[DaedalusHelios]

but if you're able to flash its vbios...

EFI isn't an easy thing to circumvent. Driver is included within the device from what I have heard. It works on a different principle than typical PC bios's on PC version cards.

No added benefit except its more plug and play for Mac users which saves them 10 minutes of time and costs them twice as much. They bleed Mac users dry.

 

[Wile E]

EFI isn't an easy thing to circumvent. Driver is included within the device from what I have heard. It works on a different principle than typical PC bios's on PC version cards.

No added benefit except its more plug and play for Mac users which saves them 10 minutes of time and costs them twice as much. They bleed Mac users dry.

Nah, no driver in the device. The driver is still at the OS level. The BIOSes are just different on Mac video cards. Many PC cards can flash to Mac cards. Also, many PC cards have 3rd party Mac drivers available for them. nVidia is more well supported in that realm tho.

 

[DaedalusHelios]

Nah, no driver in the device. The driver is still at the OS level. The BIOSes are just different on Mac video cards. Many PC cards can flash to Mac cards. Also, many PC cards have 3rd party Mac drivers available for them. nVidia is more well supported in that realm tho.

I heard people made a mint flashing cards to Mac and selling them back in the 9800 pro days. I wish I got in on that back in the day.

 

[Wile E]

I heard people made a mint flashing cards to Mac and selling them back in the 9800 pro days. I wish I got in on that back in the day.

Yeah, but back then, the Mac cards used a bigger bios, so you had to trim the bios to fit on the PC card's chip. You ended up losing the functionality of either the DVI or VGA port on most cards, can't remember which.

Despite that, it was still way cheaper to buy a flashed card than a real one, so the tradeoff was worth it for many.