[Big Mac]

I really don't understand what's going on in the Mac video card industry. Our platform is quite strong and growing every day, yet the Mac video card market has essentially dried up. It's really disheartening to me.

Several years ago, we had many Nubus card manufacturers, including Radius and Raster OPS. We used to have so many more choices. We switched to PCI six or so years ago, which yielded more choices; a few years ago, we had six or seven PCI cards from ATi, a card from Formac, and a couple from 3DFX.

Now what do we have in the way of video options? Three ATi cards and two Nvidia cards. Notice that there are no low end graphics acceleration options available anymore - no one's producing 16MB cards, let alone 8MB ones. I can't even find any left over ATi cards - trust me, I've looked.

Quicktime 5 performance is TERRIBLE on my 8600/300, and I simply want a card that will give me performance comparable to my iBook. I don't want to spend a fortune on a Radeon PCI card for this older machine. Can anyone provide a reasonable explanation for what's happening to Mac graphics acceleration?

[PatGmac]

I would look on eBay for a Voodoo3 2000 (Mac or PC) or PCI Radeon for Mac. You might be able to find some Proformance3 cards out there, and they're supposed to be the best 2D performers.

I just found an 8MB Ultimate Rez card from Otherworld for $40.
http://eshop.macsales.com/Item_Speci...p;Item=IXMU8MB

Although, I believe that card has problems with 9.1 and 9.2.x.

Originally posted by Big Mac:
<STRONG>Our platform is quite strong and growing every day</STRONG>

BWAHAHAHA

You are hallucinating, I recommend professional help STAT.

If you want a computer that you can expand with millions of available peripherals, get a REAL computer (PC) and not a TOY computer (Mac).

[Big Mac]

Thank you so much for the suggestions, PatGmac. I still don't know why our options are so limited in this regard.

And that's a funny troll, wiggles. It's too bad that there's a dearth of Mac video cards, but I would rather have to go through that than to face the terrible compatibility issues that arise on the PC platform, with its crappy hardware and OS. I'll let you get back to reformatting the drive on your machine, since that's what PC users love to do.

[ 11-09-2001: Message edited by: Big Mac ]

[Big Mac]

&lt;Double Post&gt;

[ 11-08-2001: Message edited by: Big Mac ]

Originally posted by Big Mac:
<STRONG>I'll let you get back to reformating the drive on your machine, since that's what PC users love to do.</STRONG>

I only reformat when I want to upgrade to a new OS.

And even then, I only reformat the boot partition.

Why would anyone randomly format their HD? For fun?

[zjokke]

Originally posted by &lt;wiggles&gt;:
<STRONG>

I only reformat when I want to upgrade to a new OS.

And even then, I only reformat the boot partition.

Why would anyone randomly format their HD? For fun?</STRONG>

When you use the same computer for more than 4 or 5 years it might be usefull to reformat the drive so it skips the (eventually) dammaged blocks. Since PC's never outdate their harddrives, you couldn't know about that!

[ 11-09-2001: Message edited by: zjokke ]

[starman]

It's not even just the video. Where's the audio support on the Mac? The PC kicks our ass with 4-point audio support in games and digital input and output via the SB Live! and Audigy cards. It's very frustrating.

Mike

[Big Mac]

Professional level PCI audio is another huge concern. I wonder what happened to Creative Labs Mac support. I think these two issues deserve a lot more attention - Apple should hear from us. I would love to see a company similar to the game porter Mac Soft that would develop drivers for hot PC expansion hardware and then resell that hardware with Mac compatibility. Maybe someone can put together a petition we can send to Apple on this subject.

[Todd Madson]

Wiggles reminds me exactly of a guy I'll call orc who used to frequent
computer BBS systems about ten years back who was a big Atari ST user.
He used the same arguments, denigrating others computers and calling
them toys. Whatever. It's ultimately self-defeating because it makes
the person denigrating the platform look like a pushy blowhard and the
ones defending the platform look like reactionary kids. Better to not
take the bait.

Ultimately, what do you want the video card to do?

If you want Radeon 8500 support for your machine, speak up. Get on the
horn to ATI and request it, better yet, write a letter.

Whining about it on a public bulletin board system will get you exactly
nothing.

[ 11-09-2001: Message edited by: Todd Madson ]

[Big Mac]

Originally posted by Todd Madson:
<STRONG>Wiggles reminds me exactly of a guy I'll call orc who used to frequent
computer BBS systems about ten years back who was a big Atari ST user.
He used the same arguments, denigrating others computers and calling
them toys. Whatever. It's ultimately self-defeating because it makes
the person denigrating the platform look like a pushy blowhard and the
ones defending the platform look like reactionary kids. Better to not
take the bait.
</STRONG>

I realize I engaged the troll, but there's no reason why I can't comment on his inane baiting. Anyway, at least he kept the thread alive.

<STRONG>Ultimately, what do you want the video card to do?

If you want Radeon 8500 support for your machine, speak up. Get on the
horn to ATI and request it, better yet, write a letter.

Whining about it on a public bulletin board system will get you exactly
nothing.
</STRONG>

I just wanted to know what others thought about my issue and whether we could start a movement online to affect change. Writing on MacNN alone obviously won't achieve results, but it helps me gauge other people's opinions. I thought perhaps I was out of touch with the community, that Mac users could be satisfied with the choices available. But I don't think they are, so I can move forward at this point.

[ 11-09-2001: Message edited by: Big Mac ]

Perhaps a write in campaign at a specific manufacturer, targeting a specific product (i.e. Radeon 8500) requesting support for that product for Macintosh would be an idea.

[Big Mac]

Originally posted by &lt;Todd Madson&gt;:
<STRONG>Perhaps a write in campaign at a specific manufacturer, targeting a specific product (i.e. Radeon 8500) requesting support for that product for Macintosh would be an idea.</STRONG>

I think it would be worthwhile for ATi to recommit to the platform by bringing Mac compatibility to more of its products. I don't think that will happen, though, now that they were snubbed by Apple in favor of Nvidia. Yet, I just can't understand why Nvidia chooses only to support to Mac cards, even though Apple has given them preferred status.

I know that ATi and Nvidia are the market leaders, but are there any other large graphics accelerator companies on the PC side? It would be great to get a third developer on board, or else there will be little competition in the market.