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May 13, 2001, 02:32 PM

[edit: potty mouth patrol]

[This message has been edited by cube-dude (edited 05-13-2001).]

wumeng · May 13, 2001, 03:15 PM

Who was that idiot who just posted?

cschmelz · May 13, 2001, 06:42 PM

Originally posted by wumeng:
Who was that idiot who just posted?

Hmmm, that was interesting... The trolls are in full force today! Must be a full moon or shortage of Haldol in his area...

epimetheus · May 15, 2001, 02:03 AM

XLR8yourmac.com has just posted the following tidbit in regards to the GeForce3:

Mac GeForce3 Due to Ship Soon: -
A reader sent an email this weekend noting the wiat time for Mac GeForce3's has been cut to about 2 weeks:

"Just wanted to pass on the info that powermacs with GeForce3's have been upgraded from a 30 day to a 15 day wait. Just in time for WWDC.

jamesa · May 15, 2001, 08:03 AM

I don't have one on order, and yet I'm feeling a sense of anticipation about finding out how these things perform.

I hope they ship soon. The suspense is killing me

cschmelz · May 15, 2001, 01:59 PM

Originally posted by jamesa:
I don't have one on order, and yet I'm feeling a sense of anticipation about finding out how these things perform.

I hope they ship soon. The suspense is killing me

Just called Apple again because I am moving in a week or so trying to get a ship date. They really don't know anything more than before, they basically seem to have just changed the lead time based on a 'late May' commitment from their card manufacturer, nothing substantive, no ship date.

On top of that, they said they can't even update my address before shipment. I have to wait for the ship confirmation email to arrive, then call them and have the package re-routed. ok...DAMNIT! I'm planning on being in SE Asia for the first two weeks of June. How do I re-route the package when I don't have any friggin email?

Love my Mac, love OS X, but Apple customer service can KISS MY you-know-what...

ARGH!

May 15, 2001, 04:17 PM

oh please.. stop whining. apple doesn't care about your stupid personal problems. they'll simply disregard your order and keep your money if they're smart.

have fun in asia.. moron.

cschmelz · May 15, 2001, 06:00 PM

Originally posted by beefytron:
<Troll Snip>.

Ahhhh, I was wondering what happened to our dimwitted troll..

wumeng · May 16, 2001, 07:01 AM

Originally posted by cschmelz:
Ahhhh, I was wondering what happened to our dimwitted troll..

Indeed... if beefytron (surely infected with the mad cow disease as he is) could just realise the virtues of being a nice troll like Shrek...

May 16, 2001, 09:35 AM

Maybe Beefytron can be shipped via Fedex to Cambodia, where former members of the Kmer Rouge
would like to make Beefytron soup, with Beefytron doing the soup prep and a sharp blow to the back of Beefytron's empty skull with an AK-47 doing the BeefyPrep...

Have fun in Asia...moron..

xterminator · May 19, 2001, 06:44 AM

Innermac has the first Geforce3 MAC PREVIEW!!!
http://www.innermac.com/features/gf3preview/index.html

benchmark are impressive, but honestly I'm very happy with my G4/533 DP/Radeon, especially when I see that the Radeon still outperforms the Geforce3 in RAVE-Games like UT...

cschmelz · May 19, 2001, 11:29 AM

Originally posted by xterminator:
Innermac has the first Geforce3 MAC PREVIEW!!!
http://www.innermac.com/features/gf3preview/index.html

benchmark are impressive, but honestly I'm very happy with my G4/533 DP/Radeon, especially when I see that the Radeon still outperforms the Geforce3 in RAVE-Games like UT...

Not very impressvive from the review! Yikes!

I seem to remember them PROMISING FSAA on the mac, which seems to be absent per the review, still has the RAVE corruption...sigh...

xterminator · May 19, 2001, 01:42 PM

the radeon is the best card for UT-Fans like cschmelz and me, I can play an internetgame of TacticalOps with an avg of 65fps and peaks of 80fps.

don't know what happened to FSAA support.
the 67fps in q3 at 1600*1200 is the best news of this preview imo...

epimetheus · May 19, 2001, 02:33 PM

Reading their preview certainly didn't make me feel better that I BTO'd a GeForce3 instead of Radeon in my DP-533. I was surprised by the 2D benchmark, however-- I guess I automatically assumed the Radeon would have the best 2D performance.

Let's hope Apple workks closely with nVidia to optimize the Gf3 for OSX.

wumeng · May 19, 2001, 06:01 PM

Originally posted by xterminator:
don't know what happened to FSAA support.
the 67fps in q3 at 1600*1200 is the best news of this preview imo...

Which map were they doing this on? I'm curious to see how well the "Overload" map (if I remember the name right) in Quake 3 Team Arena performs on it -- at 1280x1024 with max detail, I get some framerate drops even on my G4/533DP+Radeon.

epimetheus · May 19, 2001, 06:23 PM

For the E3 expo, MacCentral reported that Apple had a room of DP-533's equipped with GeForce3's running a new build of QIII. The article specifically mentions the Overdose level you were asking about:
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0105/18.apple.shtml

Here's a small excerpt:

Running at 1024x768 resolution and 32-bit color depth, the Macs running Quake 3 Team Arena are regularly turning in rock-solid frame rates of 60 fps or above in enclosed areas, with all options turned on in the game except for marks on walls and eject brass. The game is even quite playable in the immense outdoor expanses of the game's Overdose level, a notorious frame killer.

Here's another impression of the Mac/GeForce3/QIII from the E3 expo, this time from MacGamer:
http://www.macgamer.com/news/?date=2001.05.18

As we mentioned above, the games were running extremely fast. To expound on that, in Quake 3 Team Arena, running at 1024 x 768 in 32-bit resolution, with all the eye candy turned on (except eject brass and marks on walls) the machines were pulling in frame rates between 50 to 70 frames per second during game play. For a period of time the Apple tech threw the Team Arena map "Overdose" into the mix. Overdose is well known for its huge open spaces, and ability to punish even the beefiest machines. Despite this reputation, we were seeing decent frame rates (in the mid 30's range) and no slow downs.

And here's an interesting tidbit from nVidia's president about the GeForce3 on the Mac:
http://www.macgamer.com/news/item.php?id=2549

When asked about the perceived lack of GeForce3's on the Mac, Perez said that NVIDIA has been shipping processors to Apple for some time now. However, Apple is the manufacturer of the GeForce3 on the Mac, and any questions about shipments of this product should be directed to Apple. Apple declined to comment, but the GeForce3 remains on sale at the Apple store. Only users of the most recent generation AGP 4X Macs (those with four PCI slots) are able to use the GeForce3. Earlier AGP equipped Macs are lacking specific hardware that the GeForce3 requires.

cschmelz · May 21, 2001, 04:30 PM

The Apple Store now lists a 10 day lead time on the GF3 add-in kit, so I cannot imagine the backordered BTO cards wouldn't ship prior to that!

Seems no discussion at WWDC though!

(Sweet 17" LCD though!)

erwagner · May 21, 2001, 05:26 PM

5 day wait for dual 533 plus GeForce3 at the apple store!!!

ofcourse if you are outwith the states it's still 45 days. PLEASE come down quick...

mnelson1282 · May 22, 2001, 10:31 AM

My PowerMac G4 733 w/GeForce 3 shipped yesterday. I should recieve it in two days time. Anyone else with similar results?

epimetheus · May 22, 2001, 11:45 AM

Yep, my DP-533 w/GeForce3 shipped yesterday as well! Woohoo!

::happy dance::

epimetheus · May 22, 2001, 03:53 PM

Also, it appears that Apple upgraded my shipping from 4-5 day UPS ground to FedEx 2-day.

mnelson1282 · May 22, 2001, 08:03 PM

Doh, I had UPS Groud, but had upgraded to FedEx 2nd Day previously. Of course it is only $30, but I wonder if I get a refund. It should be here tomorrow morning... I won't be sleeping for the next few days...

May 23, 2001, 01:51 PM

So, has anyone received a shipment notification for a GF3, who had BTO'd it back in Feb./March? Apple gave us the option to receive the G4 with a GF2 and then later receive the GF3 kit. People who placed their orders well after us are already having theirs shipped...

cschmelz · May 23, 2001, 02:42 PM

Originally posted by IHateIE5.1PR:
So, has anyone received a shipment notification for a GF3, who had BTO'd it back in Feb./March? Apple gave us the option to receive the G4 with a GF2 and then later receive the GF3 kit. People who placed their orders well after us are already having theirs shipped...

Nope, no one has reported getting shippment notificaiton on those February orders! Seems the GF2MX 'payoff' entitles Apple to keep us waiting even more! ARGH..

May 24, 2001, 09:45 AM

I've got mine now - came in yesterday - the thing even has osX loaded on it.

HeatMiser · May 24, 2001, 12:15 PM

MacMinute.com:

BTO nVIDIA GeForce3 cards arrive
May 24 - 08:26 ET: We have received a number of emails from MacMinute readers confirming their arrival of Power Mac G4s with build-to-order nVIDIA's GeForce3 video graphics cards. Two readers received their BTO models Wednesday and immediately sang the praises of its ultra fast video rendering speed. "I ran the un-optimized demo of Quake 3 in hi-res mode while copying files from a CD to the hard drive," said one reader. "I got a refresh rate of 91 frames per second! This card is everything they said it would be." A number of dealers in the U.S. also confirmed receiving their GeForce3-equipped orders, many of which they have been waiting for since early March.

------------------
I am the harsh nemesis of all that is unclean!

wingdo · May 24, 2001, 12:27 PM

My 533 DP with the GF3 card arrived Wednesday. OS X loaded as well.

xterminator · May 24, 2001, 01:58 PM

which version of Nvidia's Video Drivers have they installed?

Please post benchmarks!!!!!

epimetheus · May 24, 2001, 02:21 PM

My wife just called to inform me that my DP-533 w/GF3 has showed up on our front door! I'll get some benchmarks up tonight!

Scotttheking · May 24, 2001, 09:06 PM

Hey, can I see it?
I'm thinking about getting that system.

wingdo · May 24, 2001, 10:05 PM

Originally posted by xterminator:
which version of Nvidia's Video Drivers have they installed?

Please post benchmarks!!!!!

The OS 9.1 driver version is 2.1, booting to the 9.1 system folder

Test machine
DP 533
512MB RAM
40GB 7200 RPM HD
virtual memory on set at 513MB
Monitor set to 1152x870, millions of colors, 75Hz refresh rate

MacBench 5.0 Graphics Benchmark: 5422
(Baseline is PowerMac G3/300 benchmark of 1000)

xterminator · May 25, 2001, 04:54 AM

wow version 2.1...
What about OpenGL?

Benchmarks of Quake3 and UT please!!

wingdo · May 25, 2001, 08:52 AM

Originally posted by xterminator:
wow version 2.1...
What about OpenGL?

Benchmarks of Quake3 and UT please!!

I'll re-install UT just for you

As far as Quake3, is there a demo somewhere I can install so as to give you proper feedback?

SkiBikeSki · May 28, 2001, 08:08 PM

Please give your UT stats for both RAVE and OpenGL, I'd like to know how much of a difference those rendering devices make on the GF3. Also there is a demo of Q3 on Mac Addict CD #45. To get a frame rate, open the console by pressing ~, type in "timedemo 1" and run the demo #1" after the demo finishes, go to the console again and read the frame rate. It gives an average of the whole demo.

NickKohn · May 29, 2001, 06:28 PM

Well, I called up the AppleStore. They say our BTO GF3 upgrade kits are being packaged today and will ship tomorrow. The lady said that they will probably ship via the same carrier that you originally selected back in Feb. or March or whenever.

-optimistic every time I see that ugly UPS truck...

May 30, 2001, 01:37 AM

Originally posted by NickKohn:
Well, I called up the AppleStore. They say our BTO GF3 upgrade kits are being packaged today and will ship tomorrow. The lady said that they will probably ship via the same carrier that you originally selected back in Feb. or March or whenever.

-optimistic every time I see that ugly UPS truck...

I just checked my email and it looks like the BTO upgrade for G4s ordered back in Feb/March have shipped! The email was sent at 7:50 this evening from apple. [It's about time....]

CremerK · May 30, 2001, 06:40 PM

Mine will be here tomorrow. For a Feb 24 order, that kind of sucks, but I'm glad that is finally getting here.

Shame on Apple for making those of us who ordered so early wait longer than those who just ordered them...

May 31, 2001, 05:40 PM

Originally posted by CremerK:
Mine will be here tomorrow. For a Feb 24 order, that kind of sucks, but I'm glad that is finally getting here.

Shame on Apple for making those of us who ordered so early wait longer than those who just ordered them...

My Gforce3 card, ordered on March 4 as a BTO option, arrived today.

Bodhi · May 31, 2001, 05:55 PM

I have not received mine yet. What type of packaging...if any?

CremerK · May 31, 2001, 07:29 PM

it came in a 8x10x2 inch box, very similar to what Apple ships lots of stuff in. It came with a VERY short installation guide, a full PowerMac G4 OS 9.1 system CD and an Apple Hardware Test CD. It also came with a one page insert for "what to do if you run OS X (it only updates the drivers in the OS 9 Classic system).

I've just now got the card in and am trying to decide whether to do a full 9.1 install or try to find the updated drivers with TomeViewer. Think I will likely just do the full install.

Bodhi · May 31, 2001, 07:46 PM

Wait a minute. They do not send you a disc with the drivers in it and just have you install the drivers? They send out a whole new system disc? That makes no sense!

Jun 1, 2001, 03:03 AM

Originally posted by Bodhi:
Wait a minute. They do not send you a disc with the drivers in it and just have you install the drivers? They send out a whole new system disc? That makes no sense!

If you do find the drivers/extensions, can you put them up on your website (i.e. mac.com) for download? If viewing the Tome file didn't work, you can just do a minimal install onto a partition or external HD. Then, you just replace the extensions.

CremerK · Jun 1, 2001, 05:22 PM

Yeah, it does suck pretty bad. On the plus side, there was a whole more stuff updated than just the nVidia drivers - I got a bunch of new stuff, including new ATI drivers. None of that stuff is available from Software Update yet.

BTW, I can not make Quake3 suck. I'm now running at 1600x1200 with every thing turned up as high as it can go and it's still smooth as silk. Too bad I spend most of my time in DiabloII, which sucks (graphically speaking) no matter how much I throw at it.

Love the card, but the driver update was a pain.

I'm not sure exactly how much stuff I would need to post for someone to get the card working. And couldn't you just leave off the " At Cookies"?

Jun 4, 2001, 10:12 PM

Originally posted by CremerK

BTW, I can not make Quake3 suck. I'm now running at 1600x1200 with every thing turned up as high as it can go and it's still smooth as silk. Too bad I spend most of my time in DiabloII, which sucks (graphically speaking) no matter how much I throw at it.
[/QB]

I too cannot believe the difference in performance over my GF2MX...Quake 3 rocks with EVERYTHING turned to max and at 1600x1200, and UT rocks under OpenGL at 1600x1200 with everything at high. Getting 35-50fps consistently with the single player unreal tournament mode. Awesome!

Now where is are promised FSAA??

Jun 4, 2001, 11:19 PM

Well, FedEx screwed up (again) and left he GF3 on my door without a signature. So, of course, someone robbed the package off my doorstep. Talked to Apple and they are sending me another.

Has anyone been able to extract/isolate the drivers so that one doesn't have to do the full MacOS install? If so, please post them online somewhere. Thanks

Jun 8, 2001, 10:54 AM

I installed my new new GeForce3 card and updated the software. Sure it's great for games but I also had to do some work. So I tried retouching some images in Photoshop 6.1 and evertime I used the rubberstamp tool my G4 733 locked up. Has any one else tried using photoshop with the new card yet?

erw · Jun 12, 2001, 02:51 AM

I have PS 6.0.1 and a GeForce3. I have had a few freezes when selecting tools, not always the rubberstamp tool. On my old system (a PM7200 and matroxII) this never happened.