[kingturd]

Ok.. let's talk about the GeForce3. I need some information about it and I think some of these questions (and hopefully answers) will interest a lot of the community.

1. 4x AGP vs. 2x AGP. Apple has made the comment that the GeForce3 requires a 4x AGP slot. I really hope this is not the case because my 500mhz MP G4 with a 2x AGP is more the capable of playing all the new games. I assume that the GeForce3 will still run on the slower slot, but I don't want to go drop that amount of money on a card I'm not sure will work. Does anyone know the performance hit (if any) a slower slot would have on the GeForce3?

2. $499? The Suggested Retail Price on the PC version of the card has dropped down to $399, this is $100 less on a card that NVIDIA claims is identical to it's opposite platform counter part. Well since NVIDIA is claiming that the cards on both ends are the same, is it possible to go pick up a $399 card from Electronics Boutique and have it work in my Mac? I know some Creative Geforce2 MX cards can do that, but they require the latest version of BIOS. NVIDIAs statements make it sound like the card is going to be the same no matter what, Mac users will just need the Mac version of the driver, which I really hope is the case. So is it possible for me to run a PC GeForce3 card on my Mac?

Feel free to respond to this post in any way shape or form, but actual answers are more appreciated than criticism of anything any of the posters say.

[Jsnuff1]

On your question on wether it will work in a 2x agp slot, im pretty sure it will, apple says it requires 4x because they want to sell the computer too, typical apple behavior.....on your other question search the game forums there are plenty of threads that discuss the bootlenecks of 2x and 4x systems

[pele]

Nope, unfortunately you can't just stick a PC Geforce3 into your Mac and expect it to work. There are endianness issues that prevent that. I have recently read about some people flashing the BIOS on the PC Geforce2MX cards with the Mac version to get them to work on Macs, but that sounds flaky at best.

[NeoMac]

Why doesn't Apple switch the "endian" (big? little?) so they are compatible with PCs? Or is it something that intertwined with the way the MacOS or drivers work that the change would be impossible?

Actually the geforce3 will be both mac and pc compatible. So just go and purchase one from leadtek and install it on your mac with no flashing. The card cost 299.00 and thats a steal.

[kingturd]

Are you sure that they will work on Mac as well as PC? 299 is definitly a steal and I will pick it up right away if it does work on Mac. How do you know that they're cross platform? I need more information like this because it makes me happy

[NeoMac]

I don't believe it. What is your proof that any GeFore 3 will work in Macs?????? hmmm?

[JLannoo]

Originally posted by Jsnuff1:
On your question on wether it will work in a 2x agp slot, im pretty sure it will, apple says it requires 4x because they want to sell the computer too, typical apple behavior.....on your other question search the game forums there are plenty of threads that discuss the bootlenecks of 2x and 4x systems

I agree the PC models are 2x/4x compatible...if its the same card it should work. unless they artificially limit it

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-JLannoo
TiVo Zealot

G4 Cube 450
448MB RAGE 128 Pro

Athlon ThunderBird 800
256MB GeForce 2 GTS

[This message has been edited by JLannoo (edited 05-04-2001).]

[applenut1]

Originally posted by Jsnuff1:
On your question on wether it will work in a 2x agp slot, im pretty sure it will, apple says it requires 4x because they want to sell the computer too, typical apple behavior.....on your other question search the game forums there are plenty of threads that discuss the bootlenecks of 2x and 4x systems

not really. Apple's AGP 2X implementation wasn't full featured or the "standard" implementation. It also didn't support write combing, fast writes, etc. all of which the geforce 3 extensively uses

[iPad]

applenut:
Write Combining is a function of the Uni-North 1.5 Mem/AGP controller, not AGP spec. Because write combining is transparent to the GPU, the card will still run properly, just not as fast. As for 2X/4X AGP, this is really not the bottleneck issue. Placing a 4X Geforce 2 Ultra inside 2X AGP slot will not have that much difference than if you were to put it inside a 4X slot. It will really be the system bus and some other things (write combining) that will be to the newer macs advantage. Although the Geforce 2 Ultra is NOT the Geforce 3, they are pretty similar in terms of processing power:

Geforce 3 = Geforce 2 Ultra with really nice nifty features (unfortuently, the DX8 features won't apply obviously, but OpenGL will be much smoother).

cpu101: The GPU itself is both mac and pc compatible, however, the card is NOT. You will still have to flash the ROM with Apple's provided nVidia ROM, and there will still be compatibility problems. The only exception would be cards that already have the mac ROM (such as Creative Geforce 2 MX based cards), but they are still troublesome (for example, you must reflash every restart, which becomes annoying).

It should work on AGP2x unless Apple found a way to convince nVidia to artificially limit the card compatibility (very unlikely).

But do you think there will be a Cube version of the GeForce3 ?

By the way, what is the size of the standard card ? The Cube is not that small and some video cards are not that big so the standard card may feet in a cube.

[kingturd]

iPad, what are you talking about "reflashing" the card every time you restart? I've never heard of anyone having to do this before. The newer Creative cards should work right off the bat just like an Apple card due to the new cross-compatible BIOS in them. Will there be a BIOS standard for the GeForce3 that is similar to the one Creative is using in terms of working on both systems? You would think this would be an advantage to the manufacturers because they would be able to get in the few extra sales just by using a different set of BIOS...