[moep]

Hi guys,

I'm considering a new setup for my office, it's fine for that... but I'm wondering how the 6800 Ultra will handle the uber-resolution of a new 23" Cinema Display in Games.
After all 1920 x 1200 is quite a lot, even for a high end card like the 6800U. Any hints on the framerates that i can expect at max details?

The Mac will be a 2 x 2.5 Ghz with a 6800 Ultra and 2GB RAM.

[videian28]

well I am running 2x2.5 2gb ram and 6800u at the same resoloution as a 20" cinema, it does very well, and should do better once blizzard and apple do some more optimizing....it should run a 23" cinema no problems

that being said, I would rather game on the 20" just for the extra framerate, any how you look at it, the 23" is a lot of pixels..

I remember hearing a report on this forum about WoW beta being tried out on a 30" cinema display with no problems, but I can't picture that, unless you turned a few things down (farclip being the most demanding)

We have a few people in our guild that run the 23" off the 9800xt and do just fine as well

It all depends on what things you turn up or down (I prefer everything maxed)

[gbafan]

Originally posted by moep:
Hi guys,

I'm considering a new setup for my office, it's fine for that... but I'm wondering how the 6800 Ultra will handle the uber-resolution of a new 23" Cinema Display in Games.
After all 1920 x 1200 is quite a lot, even for a high end card like the 6800U. Any hints on the framerates that i can expect at max details?

The Mac will be a 2 x 2.5 Ghz with a 6800 Ultra and 2GB RAM.

I played WoW at Macworld in SF a few weeks ago on a similar setup. 23" display; dual G5s with 6800s at 1920x1200 rez. I must say that while it looked really really good, the performance just wasn't there.

Several people watching me play also noticed that while it looked good framerates suffered due to the extremely high rez.

[Jansar]

I run the game on my 23" Cinema Display with my dual 1.25 GHz G4 with a Geforce4 Ti 4600 (128MB) in it and it still runs well. Therefore, the game will DEFINITELY run better with a way better graphics card. Hope that helps.

Just a suggestion...once you so set it up, run back and forth through Darnassus. Man, that's the coolest place EVER. And the background music is so dreamy.

[Rev-O]

Don't know about WoW, but a 6800 Ultra with a 30" display runs Barbie as Princess and the Pauper great.

Really.

Oh, how I wish I was kidding.

[Vash]

WoW runs perfectly on my 23" at full resolution with all shaders enabled. And this is on a dual 2ghz g5 4gb RAM with a Radeon 9800 Pro. The 6800 Ultra can only be better than the 9800 Pro.

[jamil5454]

The game runs fine on my iBook (latest gen 12").


What about the x800XT? Since Mac Nvidia drivers suck (relatively speaking), this card should perform better than the 6800U. If I only had $10,000 for a loaded DP G5...

[moep]

I checked the X800XT reviews, I might go for the ATI instead of Nvidia... just because of the drivers.

Any idea when/if the X800XT will be a BTO option in the Apple Stores?

[-Q-]

Originally posted by moep:
Any idea when/if the X800XT will be a BTO option in the Apple Stores?

I'd imagine sometime soon as the card seems to be in stock in the informal web search I did...

Of course, you could always order the G5 with the standard video card and buy yourself the x800. You can sell the stock card and hopefully recoup some of the money you spent.

[Frank Hansen]

Originally posted by videian28:
well I am running 2x2.5 2gb ram and 6800u at the same resoloution as a 20" cinema, it does very well, and should do better once blizzard and apple do some more optimizing....it should run a 23" cinema no problems

that being said, I would rather game on the 20" just for the extra framerate, any how you look at it, the 23" is a lot of pixels..

I remember hearing a report on this forum about WoW beta being tried out on a 30" cinema display with no problems, but I can't picture that, unless you turned a few things down (farclip being the most demanding)

We have a few people in our guild that run the 23" off the 9800xt and do just fine as well

It all depends on what things you turn up or down (I prefer everything maxed)

I have a question please bear in mind that I am new to the forums, I just bought a new Power mac G5 hear are the specks on it 2.5GHz PowerPC G5, 2GB MB DDR400 (PC3200)-4x512, 2X250GB Serial ATA-7200rpm, 8x Super Drive (DVD-R/CD-RW),
ATI Rad9600 XT x/128MB DDR "Note I'm replacing the graphics card with a ATI Radeon X800XT card" , Gig Ethernet PCI-x Card, 56k V.92 Modem, Bluetooth Module, Airport Extreme Card, Apple Keyboard & Mouse Mac OS X, and finally to view all this a APPLE CIN HD DISPLAY 30" FLAT PANEL. Hear is my question will I have any problems playing games on it, you mentioned something about some problems playing games on a 30" display and having to turn down some things. Keep in mind I did not buy this machine primarily for gaming it's for my work but a guy has to take a brake every now and then.
Any advice will be appreciated
I should be receiving it any day now I just got a confirmation E-mail from Apple

[cSurfr]

Originally posted by Vash:
WoW runs perfectly on my 23" at full resolution with all shaders enabled. And this is on a dual 2ghz g5 4gb RAM with a Radeon 9800 Pro. The 6800 Ultra can only be better than the 9800 Pro.

I'd have disagree with that. I've got a 1.8G5 and the 6800 Ultra and WoW is not my friend. All other games fly on this machine though. Once Blizzard and Apple stop blaming each other and it gets fixed, all the 6800 users should be back in business. I run the game @ 1680x1050 with everything turned up (or down) and it's still not a good experience. And, don't even think of turning the terrain distance up past 1/4 - 1/2 way or you'll be standing still.

cs

[Rev-O]

Originally posted by Frank Hansen:
I have a question please bear in mind that I am new to the forums, I just bought a new Power mac G5 hear are the specks on it 2.5GHz PowerPC G5, 2GB MB DDR400 (PC3200)-4x512, 2X250GB Serial ATA-7200rpm, 8x Super Drive (DVD-R/CD-RW),
ATI Rad9600 XT x/128MB DDR "Note I'm replacing the graphics card with a ATI Radeon X800XT card" , Gig Ethernet PCI-x Card, 56k V.92 Modem, Bluetooth Module, Airport Extreme Card, Apple Keyboard & Mouse Mac OS X, and finally to view all this a APPLE CIN HD DISPLAY 30" FLAT PANEL. Hear is my question will I have any problems playing games on it, you mentioned something about some problems playing games on a 30" display and having to turn down some things. Keep in mind I did not buy this machine primarily for gaming it's for my work but a guy has to take a brake every now and then.
Any advice will be appreciated
I should be receiving it any day now I just got a confirmation E-mail from Apple

It'll run Barbie's Mermaid Adventure, Barbie of Swan Lake, and the previously mentioned Barbie as Princess and the Pauper quite well.

Other than completely enjoying the many over repetitious adventures of Barbie with my daughter, the most graphically intensive game I've played was Kotor, and with everything maxed out it ran like a champ. Nwn is also very smooth, and RoN at 2560x1600 is a gem.

[rbarris]

Originally posted by cSurfr:
I'd have disagree with that. I've got a 1.8G5 and the 6800 Ultra and WoW is not my friend. All other games fly on this machine though. Once Blizzard and Apple stop blaming each other and it gets fixed, all the 6800 users should be back in business. I run the game @ 1680x1050 with everything turned up (or down) and it's still not a good experience. And, don't even think of turning the terrain distance up past 1/4 - 1/2 way or you'll be standing still.

cs

I'm not aware of any "blaming each other" going on. I'm the primary contact or liaison between Apple and Blizzard on these kinds of issues - our discussions about where API and driver code can be improved, or where WoW can be improved, have been friendly and productive and very non confrontational. We're certainly not sitting here waiting for Apple to make "everything better", we have our own improvements that we are working on (in some cases, taking better advantage of a facility that has been there all along, that we didn't leverage in the WoW engine yet).

Rob rbarris "at" blizzard.com

[rbarris]

Originally posted by cSurfr:
I'd have disagree with that. I've got a 1.8G5 and the 6800 Ultra and WoW is not my friend. All other games fly on this machine though. Once Blizzard and Apple stop blaming each other and it gets fixed, all the 6800 users should be back in business. I run the game @ 1680x1050 with everything turned up (or down) and it's still not a good experience. And, don't even think of turning the terrain distance up past 1/4 - 1/2 way or you'll be standing still.

cs

Wanted to add, it seems to be a common thing for people with single processor G5 towers as well as the iMac G5 - make sure your CPU performance setting has been put on Highest and not Automatic - one user in our tech support forums claims a near-doubling in frame rate after this adjustment on his iMac G5.


Rob rbarris "at" blizzard.com

[videian28]

thanks for the feedback Rob

I must say that my dual 2.5 with 6800 ultra is lacking as well

apparently 10.3.8 is due out soon and supposed to have much better nvidia driveres (accoring to think secret today)

hoping so

a question for you, or anyone else

Sound on my dual 2.5 is seriously lacking compared to the guy on a wintel machine that sits next to me, the sound expierence is much "deeper" on his machine, nice echo effects in caves and ambiance sounds MUCH better

any thoughts on this? he is running 2.1 sound (2 front speakers and subwoofer) the same as I am, there is just much more depth to it

[starman]

I installed WoW on my PC and my Mac.

PC - 2.53 GHz P4, ATI Radeon X800 Pro, 2GB RAM, Dell 2001 1600x1200
Mac - Dual 2.0 GHz G5, default video card, 2GB RAM, 23" CD 1920x1200

The PC blows the Mac away in terms of framerates but that could be because of the video card. I don't know what I have only because this is the first game I installed on the Mac since I got the OS X installer for Diablo II, and the video card is the weakest link on my Mac - I really don't care what's in there.

That said, it looks GORGEOUS on my PC. I'm hoping that I can tweak out the Mac enough to get the framerates running a bit better.

Mike

[rbarris]

Originally posted by videian28:
Sound on my dual 2.5 is seriously lacking compared to the guy on a wintel machine that sits next to me, the sound expierence is much "deeper" on his machine, nice echo effects in caves and ambiance sounds MUCH better

Reverb isn't yet implemented on the Mac client, this affects indoors in particular.

[starman]

Rob,
Tell everyone at work on making a Mac version.

Mike

[onryou]

Originally posted by videian28:
well I am running 2x2.5 2gb ram and 6800u at the same resoloution as a 20" cinema, it does very well, and should do better once blizzard and apple do some more optimizing....it should run a 23" cinema no problems

that being said, I would rather game on the 20" just for the extra framerate, any how you look at it, the 23" is a lot of pixels..

I remember hearing a report on this forum about WoW beta being tried out on a 30" cinema display with no problems, but I can't picture that, unless you turned a few things down (farclip being the most demanding)

We have a few people in our guild that run the 23" off the 9800xt and do just fine as well

It all depends on what things you turn up or down (I prefer everything maxed)

I went to a local Mac store here in Nashville. Dont know the complete setup but... 30 inch display with a dual proc g5 and at the highest resolution it ran pretty good. I did lose frame rate but it was playable. I did it windowed and full screen. really no change either way. I'm pretty sure it had a good video card and lots of ram, but I didnt pay a bit of attention to its specs, just that it works, and pretty good I might add. =D

Also, I played it highest reso, with EVERY graphic (video) setting at medium and it ran perfect no lag. Didnt even lag ONE BIT in Iron forge. And those of you who play know about IF.

Well, I'm out,
onryou

[a2daj]

Originally posted by rbarris:
Reverb isn't yet implemented on the Mac client, this affects indoors in particular.

I've noticed the sound level of WoW, even with the in game volume cranked up, is lower than other sound levels for other apps. I have to crank up my speakers to hear WoW, then turn down the speakers when running other apps. I can turn down the volume in the individual apps but the audio is already pretty low in the apps which are most affected (QuickTime Player and VLC as well as other games). I'll send a note to the WoW Mac email address later tonight.

[videian28]

Originally posted by rbarris:
Reverb isn't yet implemented on the Mac client, this affects indoors in particular.

thanks for the response, yes that is what I was refering to, good to hear that it will be going in..

and yes, muchas gracias to you and the Mac team over there at Blizzard!!

[videian28]

what is the wow mac email address?

I have a few other issues that I have noticed are different (in a bad way) from our wintel counterparts

[a2daj]

Originally posted by videian28:
what is the wow mac email address?

I have a few other issues that I have noticed are different (in a bad way) from our wintel counterparts

[email protected]

[Tobyo]

Originally posted by rbarris:
Reverb isn't yet implemented on the Mac client, this affects indoors in particular.

Rob - just want to say that my recently purchased Dual 1.8 G5 with it's 2Gig of ram and ATI X800 card runs World of Warcraft _excellently_ ... much to my girlfriends dismay. ;-)

*cough* Relationships aside, I can't thank Blizzard enough for their decision to make WoW for the Mac. :-)

Cheers,
Tobes.