[Jupeman]

I was an early adopter of the 1.42 and couldn't wait for Apple to ship the 9700 Pro with it. Does anyone have any idea when 9700 Pro's will be available outside of bto?

[BurpetheadX]

It might never be. My guess will be whenever Panther is released to give a double-bang for the newest OS. However, theres always eBay. I'm sure someone will sell one on eBay soon with the intention of just making a crapload of money.

[DBvader]

i wonder if the card will be flashable, and if so, when that was going to happen.

[blizzard]

No way will it be flashable. The guys at ATi learned their lesson when word leaked that the 8500 was flashable.

[digi-j]

I would be hesitant to buy a Mac Radeon9700 from eBay because they only recently started shipping as a BTO option and are only available from Apple. There is also no better card for the Mac, and it's very expensive, so the person would be downgrading their computer if they sold it. Someone selling one would be either A. stupid, or B. ripping you off.

There is already another generation of ATi cards since the 9700, so it's possible it will never go retail and we will instead get the 9600 or 9800.

[Leonard]

I read an article recently that ATI and Nvidia have had problems keeping up to demand for their recent cards/chips and have been giving OEMs priority, so it may be a while before you see it available individually.