[sanford]

Why is this card so hard to find? Is it a bad card? I need dual display support AND an ADC connector, and I don't want to pay $400 for the Apple GeForce 4 Ti upgrade kit. As far as I can tell, the 9000 Pro Mac Edition is the only retail third-party card with an ADC connector. It has ADC and DVI, with a DVI-to-VGA adapter plug.

The 8500 AGP Mac Edition seems to be available everywhere, but it is more expensive and lacks an ADC connector, so I would have to spend $150 for an Apple DVI-to-ADC adapter box on top of the cost of the card.

And, of course, I can't just buy the PC version of this card and flash it with the Mac ROM or something, because the PC version won't have the ADC connector.

I could try and buy a PCI video card, but I want Quartz Extreme support on both monitors (without the PCI hack), and why not have it as long as such an AGP product does exist?

Where or where is the 9000 Pro Mac Edition?

[spiky_dog]

i bought mine at computers4sure.com . the name sounds mildly sketchy, but they are affiliated with office depot and furthermore had the card in stock even as every other vendor i checked had it on backorder.

[andrewbw]

As of 11:30 a.m. Central time on 3/18...

MacConnection has it in stock.

Other World Computing has it in stock.

MacMall has it in stock, and lists 500+ units available

MacWarehouse has it in stock.

(all links are direct to the Radeon 9000 product pages)

Either you didn't look very hard, or a huge shipment just arrived. I checked four other online stores, and didn't find one that didn't have it in stock.

I bought mine about three weeks ago from MacConnection. I use it with a Dual 1GHz Quicksilver and a 20" cinema display. Great card, good price.

-A.

[sanford]

I'm sorry: my fault. I meant to imply that I can't find it in a brick-and-mortar retailer in Dallas, even though everyone -- including Apple -- carries the 8500 Mac Edition. I have found it online but was hoping to be able and just go buy some place locally. CompUSA doesn't even carry it. Nor does Apple, online or retail.

Is the 9000 Pro Mac Edition a brand new card? If so, maybe it just hasn't made it to the brick-and-mortar stores yet.

[andrewbw]

Whoops! I get it. I had a hunch you meant locally, but I felt like being snarky about linking to it online instead.

The 9000 is a new card, yes. While Apple has been shipping PowerMacs with basically the same card for a while, it only shipped as a retail product earlier this year. I believe the first units went out in January, but it didn't ship in volume until the end of February.

I've noticed that too � most stores that carry Mac peripherals have the 8500, but not the 9000. Part of the reason why I went mail order. Had it overnight!

-A.

[sanford]

Originally posted by andrewbw:
Whoops! I get it. I had a hunch you meant locally, but I felt like being snarky about linking to it online instead.

Hey thanks for the follow up. That makes sense that it is a new card in its retail version. Probably will turn up at CompUSA eventually, now that it is being delivered in volume.

If I had ordered via Amazon or a number of other places when I first posted about this, instead of looking around town, I would have it in my hands by now!

Did you have to install the ATI drivers from the included CD or did you just pop it in and go with the drivers built-in in OS 10.2.4?

[andrewbw]

Nope! No installation necessary. I shut down my Mac, took out the stock 4MX, plugged in the 9000, powered up, done. No problems whatsoever.

Here's the relevant text from ATI's web site, on the download page with the Radeon 9000 retail driver installer:

This driver is designed for use with Mac OS X version 10.1.3 to 10.2.2. This driver is NOT supported under earlier versions of Mac OS X. It is NOT intended for use with Mac OS X versions newer than 10.2.2.


-A.

[Corinthian]

If you need that card badly, I would say that the best bet would be online store. I have a painful case with my G4 tower when it needed a replacement Display Card. I waited for more than 3 weeks before they said that they have the stock, and they told me that they had to order that because it was rarely for customers to walk in and get a display card.

ATi stuff are quite nice, and I am far more than satisfied with my ATi 8500 w/ 64MB on my aging G4-tower and the 9000 mobility on my TiGige.

[sanford]

Yeah, good point. I would go for the 8500, except for the lack of ADC connector. I don't want to have spend $150 on the Apple DVI-to-ADC converter on top of buying the 8500.

[Eug]

Originally posted by Corinthian:
If you need that card badly, I would say that the best bet would be online store. I have a painful case with my G4 tower when it needed a replacement Display Card. I waited for more than 3 weeks before they said that they have the stock, and they told me that they had to order that because it was rarely for customers to walk in and get a display card.

ATi stuff are quite nice, and I am far more than satisfied with my ATi 8500 w/ 64MB on my aging G4-tower and the 9000 mobility on my TiGige.

My 9000 Mobility uses drivers named as 8500 drivers. I dunno if it makes a difference, but I can't but help thinking I'm not getting ideal performance from this GPU, esp. considering that synthetic benches showing the Geforce4 Go 440 doing much better than the 9000 (whereas on the PC side, the 9000 usually does better).

[lvee]

This driver is designed for use with Mac OS X version 10.1.3 to 10.2.2. This driver is NOT supported under earlier versions of Mac OS X. It is NOT intended for use with Mac OS X versions newer than 10.2.2.

Does this mean that the Radeon 9000 won't work with OS X 10.2.5 ????

[CatOne]

Originally posted by lvee:
Does this mean that the Radeon 9000 won't work with OS X 10.2.5 ????

Well the new PowerMacs SHIP with the Radeon 9000, so what do you think?