[Cadaver]

My Radeon 9800 SE was delivered today. I installed it in my Dual 2.0 just moments ago (replacing the stock Radeon 9600). Haven't yet had time to run any games (I'll try some later tonight once I get my kids to bed), but here's a couple of screenshots from the ATI displays control panel:




Link to Apple System Profiler image (too big to post inline)

If anyone has any specific tests you'd like me to try, let me know.

The card itself looks basically just like the OEM 9800, but with additional RAM chips on the back of the card. The card also supports S-video/Composite video out, but requires the same adapter the Apple OEM 9600/9800's do (G5 Video Adapter). Doesn't have an s-video port like the standard Radeon 9800 retail.

[Lateralus]

Congratulations.

[videian28]

what did it replace and how noticable is the difference

[videian28]

any info? very interested to see how much imporvement you get

[Leonard]

Man, the card sounds cool. I would be interested in the game performance in one of the UT games or Halo.

Is the fan quiet? (I guess compared to the 9600 or other cards)

[MindFad]

So, does it rip ass or what?

[oboxer]

Do you find that this ATI 9800 (256), has the same loud fan as the 128 version?

[The Placid Casual]

Congrats on the new card! I'll keep checking back to see how it turns out...

If you ever want to get rid of the 9600, just drop me an email as i am in the market for one to replace my 5200 in my dp1.8...

[Leonard]

How'd the installation go? Was it plug-and-play? Any problems installing it?

[videian28]

I think he is to busy playing games!

[Talk2Angus]

Do you find that this ATI 9800 (256), has the same loud fan as the 128 version?
So, does it rip ass or what?

[lenox]

Believe it or not, you don't have to repeat posts...

[Cadaver]

Sorry for the late reply... I had to go out of town for a meeting.

The fan is not particularly loud. While I don't have any personal experience with the fans in the OEM 9800's I've read they can be quite loud. The fan on the 9800 SE is only just barely noticable, and is easily drowned out by the sound of simply typing on the keyboard. Just soft white noise; not at all shrill or annoying.

As for performance, I posted some UT2K4 benchmarks to xlr8yourmac.com. This weekend, I'll try to find some time to reinstall the original OEM 9600 card and re-run the same benchmarks for comparison.

Even 6x FSAA and 16x AF did little to slow framerates down (which is a good thing). The game simply looks fantastic at 6x FSAA, 16x AF and highest in-game texture settings. Just amazing. And it plays smooth as glass, even with lots of bots & action on the screen.

Cinebench 2003 benchmarks are essentially equal to that of the 128MB Radeon 9800 Pro's on a similarly-equipped G5.

Absolutely equals and, in some cases, rivals frame rates on fast PCs with similar video cards. Essentially, with this card, frame rates no longer matter - its all about image quality.

(fyi, system is a 2.0GHz Dual G5, 2.5GB RAM, UT2K4 retail w/ latest update)

I try to do some Halo benchmarks, too, but may not be able to do so until early next week.

My 2¢ - if you already have a G5 and a Radeon 9800, there's probably no point in upgrading to this card. If you have anything else, and you don't mind the $30 premium over the 128MB Radeon 9800, then this is the way to go. The extra VRAM will make a difference when doing higher-resolution FSAA. Plus, you get to keep your two digital video outputs (including ADC) vs. the G4-compatible 128MB versions which have only DVI and VGA outs.

Do remember that this card is a G5-only (8x AGP Pro) card.

[Dimitri]

Sounds cool. I have the dual 1.8 G5 with the stock Geforce FX5200. I'm guessing I'll notice a nice improvement if I went up to this card. Definitely worth the extra $30 to me since I have a Cinema 20".

[Peter]

thats a sweet card

[angelmb]

Originally posted by Cadaver:
(...)
Do remember that this card is a G5-only (8x AGP Pro) card. [/B]

Indeed, that is the 'go for it' effect. Please Cadaver, try to upload some pic and screenshot

[Steven H. Denn]

This card you bought is the Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Special Edition from ATI correct?
Do you use FCP? if yes, any comparison between the old card & new card with FCP?




Thanks

[Cadaver]

Originally posted by Steven H. Denn:
This card you bought is the Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Special Edition from ATI correct?
Do you use FCP? if yes, any comparison between the old card & new card with FCP?

Correct, but I do not use FCP (or FCE for that matter).

For most things, the R9800MSE is only slightly faster, if at all, than the standard 128MB version. Future apps (Doom III comes to mind) that use very large 3D textures should show some benefit (as they do on the PC).

My main reason for buying (and replacing my stock Radeon 9600) was two-fold:

1) I wanted the VersaVision display rotation features of the 9800 Pro retail (not available on the OEM 9800 Pro).
2) Wanted to retain ability to drive two DVI displays. The standard retail 9800 Pro has one DVI and one VGA. The OEM 9800 Pro has two digital outs, but doesn't support features under item 1).

[jfinete]

Is the 9800 SE available in any retail stores, like CompUSA? Or is it only available from catalog/Internet stores?

[Nacente]

Congrats man!