[geeks] nVidia 8800GT for Apple Mac Pro

[Shannon Hendrix]

I got an nVidia 8800GT graphics card for my Mac Pro.

The short review: it absolutely rocks.

I read a lot of reviews which said it was slower than the ATI 2600,  
not much faster than the 7300, even an Ars Technica review which  
showed the 7300 was faster, and several reviews which said it had no  
effect on the desktop, professional applications, or video.

I can't imagine what kind of reality altering drugs they are on, but  
they are all wrong.

Normal desktop us not much faster, but it is definitely faster,  
especially when the load of windows goes up.  I would not get an 8800  
just for that, but it is nice.

But professional apps... night and day.  Pixelmater, which uses  
OpenGL, is worlds apart on the 8800.  Quartz effects now happen in  
realtime, while the 7300 stuttered on quite a few of them.  I don't  
have a lot of apps, but I get nice speedups in what I have:

	- Adobe Photoshop Elements (less pronounced than Pixelmator)
	- Aperture
	- Pixelmater
	- most video players
	- VMware Fusion
	- iTerm (yes, complicated text renders faster for some reason)

In general, nearly everything is faster.  Games of course are  
staggeringly different, but that's no surprise.  The 8800 is  
significantly faster than even a fast 7 series card like the 7900GT.

This card is also quieter than the ATI cards, which is nice, until you  
start playing a really heavy game, and then you can just start to hear  
the fan.  Of course, I have a server and two desktop machines on my  
desk, so your mileage may vary there.

Obvious note: Yes, Apple charges way too much for this card, about  
$100 too much compared to a PC version.

However, a superclocked EVGA 8800GT is $200-250 for the PC, and is not  
a whole lot faster, so $280 is a surprisingly good price from Apple.

For me, because I use this Mac Pro for work every day, heavily loaded  
with apps, including Fusion and graphics applications, it's a nice  
speed boost.

For other people the cheaper ATI 2600 might be a better deal.

Even though the 8800 blows it away, the ATI 2900 cards are still very  
expensive, for reasons only Apple knows.




-- 
Shannon Hendrix
shannon at widomaker.com