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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Desktops > well well, it's about time

well well, it's about time
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videian28
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Oct 21, 2004, 10:19 AM
 
well my dream mac is finally coming to fruition, my 6800 ultra has shipped.

here is the history of this "journey" (as far as I can remember lol)

ordered 6/11 or 6/13, system specs, were stock with bluetooth and no modem. I promptly ordered an additional 1.5gb ram which I had a week later (ebay and all)

when the 6800's arrived I called and upgraded to the 6800, shipping date stayed 7/30 (I think)

7/29 rolls along and they changed the shipping date to 8/24

somewhere in this time it gets moved back YET AGAIN, and I find out that they have stock machines at the local apple store, I cancel the online order and go pick up a stock machine....half way there

on 8/18 I order a 6800 ultra separately. ship date was .. 9/30

that then changed to 10/22

it shipped today, with the slowest mail they could do, ground from California, expected on the 27th


4 months

bad show apple, poorly done all the way around, at least you could have upgraded my shipping on this card


yet I buy anyway, as do all of you

sad isn't it?
     
awcopus
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Oct 21, 2004, 10:38 AM
 
My dual 2.5 G5, which I ordered on Wedneday, will be here tomorrow.

Congrats on finally getting your graphics card. Are you a video editor? Photoshop stud? CAD man? Just wondering what you'll be doing with the 30-incher after wiping away the initial flood of drool.
     
discstickers
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Oct 21, 2004, 02:37 PM
 
Originally posted by videian28:

bad show apple, poorly done all the way around, at least you could have upgraded my shipping on this card
I called an complained, and they upped it to overnite. Then when it shipped, it actually went out ground.

So I called and complained again and I got a $50 credit to the Apple Store, so it all works out, since I didn't pay for overnite anyway.
"It's not like Windows users don't have any power. I think a lot of people are happy with Windows, and that's an incredibly depressing thought." -Steve Jobs
     
memory-minus
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Oct 21, 2004, 02:40 PM
 
I got an upgrade to priority overnight without even asking... talk about your inconsistency.
     
videian28  (op)
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Oct 21, 2004, 02:57 PM
 
yes I had read about that, was hoping it would happen, I really should have called

no 30" screen here...I wish lol
     
awcopus
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Oct 21, 2004, 03:32 PM
 
Originally posted by videian28:
yes I had read about that, was hoping it would happen, I really should have called

no 30" screen here...I wish lol
So basically you got the graphics card primarily to have absolutely cutting edge graphics capabilities. That's cool. Is there a particular reason driving this acquisition, or are you just a fiend for the latest and greatest?

I had sort of figured that the people rushing to own this card were trying to run 30" monitors, but obviously there's a broader market.

I join you in wishing that I had one.

-Adam
     
videian28  (op)
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Oct 21, 2004, 03:35 PM
 
I wanted a computer that would not need an upgrade for a few years

I don't do anything out of the ordinary, a bit of photoshop, iMovie, gaming, some class work..

the 30" is waaay out there lol, I am very happy with my 20" (although I really like the look of the new ones, I might try to sell my old one for a new 20")
     
Mafia
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Oct 21, 2004, 05:14 PM
 
i went to the apple store in atlanta a few days ago and i played with the new monitors. i feel bad for my g5 having to display such sweet graphics onto a crappy monitor but the new monitor will be mine sooner or later....probably later
http://www.mafia-designs.com
     
UnixMac
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Oct 21, 2004, 06:41 PM
 
Make sure the disks that came with your PM are 10.3.5 version 1.3 or later... otherwise Kernel panic when you use them with that 6800 plugged in.

Mac Pro 3.0, ATI 5770 1GB VRAM, 10GB, 2xVelociraptor boot RAID, 4.5TB RAID0 storage, 30" & 20" Apple displays.
2 x Macbook Pro's 17" 3.06 4 GB RAM, 256GB Solid State drives
iMac 17" Core Duo 1GB RAM, & 2 iPhones 8GB, and a Nano in a pear tree!
Apple user since 1981
     
videian28  (op)
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Oct 22, 2004, 10:24 AM
 
hmm, I will check that out, is there not downloadable upgrade that I can apply now while waiting?

kind of a strange way to do things, doesn't it come with driver disks that need to be loaded first?
     
Turias
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Oct 22, 2004, 10:29 AM
 
Congrats, videian! Mine also just shipped!

Originally posted by awcopus:
So basically you got the graphics card primarily to have absolutely cutting edge graphics capabilities. That's cool. Is there a particular reason driving this acquisition, or are you just a fiend for the latest and greatest?

I had sort of figured that the people rushing to own this card were trying to run 30" monitors, but obviously there's a broader market.
Yeah, I am in the same boat. The 30" monitor is way out of my price range. My last machine was a G4/400 Yikes, so you can see that I don't upgrade very often. But, when I do, I like to get the top-of-the-line so that I can last a long time without upgrading again.

Plus, the extra cash now to upgrade to the 6800 seemed like a better idea then paying the money for the 9600, and spending even more money to upgrade it later.
     
UnixMac
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Oct 22, 2004, 10:38 AM
 
Originally posted by videian28:
hmm, I will check that out, is there not downloadable upgrade that I can apply now while waiting?

kind of a strange way to do things, doesn't it come with driver disks that need to be loaded first?
Exactly....

The problem is that the driver disk is not bootable... and if you need to boot into your OS X disk for say... a disk repair.. you can't with the version I got.
Mac Pro 3.0, ATI 5770 1GB VRAM, 10GB, 2xVelociraptor boot RAID, 4.5TB RAID0 storage, 30" & 20" Apple displays.
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UnixMac
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Oct 22, 2004, 10:42 AM
 
Originally posted by awcopus:
So basically you got the graphics card primarily to have absolutely cutting edge graphics capabilities. That's cool. Is there a particular reason driving this acquisition, or are you just a fiend for the latest and greatest?

I had sort of figured that the people rushing to own this card were trying to run 30" monitors, but obviously there's a broader market.

I join you in wishing that I had one.

-Adam
Apple (Steve) was kind stupid in how the marketed this card... they basically made it sound like a controller for the 30" display (which it is), but it's FAR, FAR more.. It's going to really be noticed when 10.4 comes out and core image is integrated into apps. The GPU in this card has 222 million transistors... the P4 EE has 178 million of which 139 million are the 2MB L2 cache. So basically this is a large precision FP processor that runs all graphics, text and video on your Mac. It has a full video encoder built in as well.
Mac Pro 3.0, ATI 5770 1GB VRAM, 10GB, 2xVelociraptor boot RAID, 4.5TB RAID0 storage, 30" & 20" Apple displays.
2 x Macbook Pro's 17" 3.06 4 GB RAM, 256GB Solid State drives
iMac 17" Core Duo 1GB RAM, & 2 iPhones 8GB, and a Nano in a pear tree!
Apple user since 1981
     
awcopus
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Oct 22, 2004, 10:45 AM
 
Originally posted by UnixMac:
Apple (Steve) was kind stupid in how the marketed this card... they basically made it sound like a controller for the 30" display (which it is), but it's FAR, FAR more.. It's going to really be noticed when 10.4 comes out and core image is integrated into apps. The GPU in this card has 222 million transistors... the P4 EE has 178 million of which 139 million are the 2MB L2 cache. So basically this is a large precision FP processor that runs all graphics, text and video on your Mac. It has a full video encoder built in as well.
Going to have to look into it. Thanks for putting it into perspective like that. I would hold off on getting a Radeon 9800 but I need the ADC to power my 23" display and I need the graphics power for Motion, which is a GPU/RAM hog.

Thanks again. -Adam
     
UnixMac
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Oct 22, 2004, 10:48 AM
 
Originally posted by awcopus:
Going to have to look into it. Thanks for putting it into perspective like that. I would hold off on getting a Radeon 9800 but I need the ADC to power my 23" display and I need the graphics power for Motion, which is a GPU/RAM hog.

Thanks again. -Adam
I'm not a Motion guy, but everyone I've talked to says that Motion screams on the 6800.

good luck.
Mac Pro 3.0, ATI 5770 1GB VRAM, 10GB, 2xVelociraptor boot RAID, 4.5TB RAID0 storage, 30" & 20" Apple displays.
2 x Macbook Pro's 17" 3.06 4 GB RAM, 256GB Solid State drives
iMac 17" Core Duo 1GB RAM, & 2 iPhones 8GB, and a Nano in a pear tree!
Apple user since 1981
     
videian28  (op)
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Oct 22, 2004, 10:49 AM
 
Exactly....

The problem is that the driver disk is not bootable... and if you need to boot into your OS X disk for say... a disk repair.. you can't with the version I got.
so what your telling me is that I can't sell my 9600xt card, I need to keep it on hand incase something goes wrong to swap out with the 6800?

well that kinda blows, the 9600 was supposed to go to ebay to offset the price of the 6800 =/

I think I am gonna take my chances

how about making an image of your boot drive on firewire drive as a backup just incase option, just until the updated repair disks are avaliable, or 10.4...whichever is first, I have lost all faith in Apple for actually delivering product =/
     
UnixMac
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Oct 22, 2004, 11:18 AM
 
Originally posted by videian28:
so what your telling me is that I can't sell my 9600xt card, I need to keep it on hand incase something goes wrong to swap out with the 6800?

well that kinda blows, the 9600 was supposed to go to ebay to offset the price of the 6800 =/

I think I am gonna take my chances

how about making an image of your boot drive on firewire drive as a backup just incase option, just until the updated repair disks are avaliable, or 10.4...whichever is first, I have lost all faith in Apple for actually delivering product =/
basically yes.... but I did... I got $140 for it. The way I see it, we ordered our computers with the 6800, therefore (ergo, what ever you want to say)... Apple needs to provide the CORRECT disks with our machine... they didn't ... they FORGOT that we asked for the 6800 and sent the machines with 10.3.4 (which is fine for the 9600). Anywho.. I have a call into Apple for a set of new disks, like those that come with the latest G5's. You should do the same... don't go burning images and messing around.. you may wish to sell this Mac one day, and the buyer will demand the correct disks.
Mac Pro 3.0, ATI 5770 1GB VRAM, 10GB, 2xVelociraptor boot RAID, 4.5TB RAID0 storage, 30" & 20" Apple displays.
2 x Macbook Pro's 17" 3.06 4 GB RAM, 256GB Solid State drives
iMac 17" Core Duo 1GB RAM, & 2 iPhones 8GB, and a Nano in a pear tree!
Apple user since 1981
     
Al G
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Oct 22, 2004, 03:06 PM
 
I would like to know why Apple will sell anyone a 6800 but not a Radeon 9600XT or 9800XT.

Yes, you can buy a retail 9800Pro or 256MB Special Edition but those don't have the quieter fan of the 9800XT.

And there is no retail 9600-class card available anywhere (um, except eBay from those who upgrade but that doesn't count ).

Sorry for the thread hijack.
     
   
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