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http://www.macnn.com/articles/01/08/14/ati.unveils/

ATI unveils new Radeon cards

updated 07:45 am EDT, Tue August 14, 2001

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ATI has unveiled its next generation of Radeon graphics cards, offering three new products based around a new chipset aimed at competing with NVidia's GeForce 3. The Radeon 8500 offers SmartShader and Truform rendering capabilities and includes support for the Microsoft DirectX 8.1 API. The 8500 will be priced at $399 and include 64 MB of VRAM. The Radeon 7500 is purported to deliver speed increases of 60 percent over the previous Radeon chipset, features 64 MB of VRAM and is priced at $199.

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Outsider
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2001

0

08/14, 08:05am | report spam | close Reply |
7500 not available

The 7500 is not available for Mac users. ATI has made it clear, they do not want Mac customers and forfeit all sales over to NVIDEA. At least that's the impression they are giving me and fellow Mac users on a budget. Just because we have Macs we shouldn't be gouged into buying the top end card and nothing else. The good news is that other companies will be making ATI chip cards now and maybe one will make a Mac version of the lower end card.

godzappa
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Jan 2001

0

08/14, 08:11am | report spam | close Reply |
$$

Well the top of the line card is still cheaper than the GeForce 3, and despite ATI having problems with Apple on both sides of the fence at times, I think they do need each other. I would certainly feel more comfortable knowing that when I get my next G4 Tower, that I have a _Choice_ of where my video card comes from.

tdominey
Forum Regular

Joined: Sep 2000

0

08/14, 08:15am | report spam | close Reply |
Even though...

...I prefer to use NVIDIA over ATI (simply because Apple is devoting more and more support to NVIDIA), Apple needs ATI to keep NVIDIA on their toes. Without competition, the quality of drivers and hardware would surely suffer.

Will C
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Jan 2001

0

08/14, 08:35am | report spam | close Reply |
Dumb Question

Do better video cards improve video in things like QuickTIme, iMovie, FCP etc?

Or are all the improvements really only noticeable in games and complex vector rendering?

(awaiting the flames for being dumb, and also perhaps an answer to my question)

TIA

godzappa
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Jan 2001

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08/14, 09:08am | report spam | close Reply |
Will

It does depend. For instance, having a GeForce 3 wont greatly improve performance for non-3D tasks like FCP and Quicktime. The card itself is rather powerful and has alot of memory, but when stacked against say a Radeon, and using Quicktime or any 2D app like Photoshop, the two will be much closer in comparison than say running Quake 3 or Doom 3 (which the GeForce 3 can take full advantage of).

The one card that usually plays into what video card is better, is the _Drivers_ if you get a great card and the drivers are terrible you're in trouble.

Myself, I use alot of 2D apps, from Photoshop to FCP and After Effects, so I look for performance in that area, even though I love Quaking as much as the next man, its not as important as getting my work done. And it seems at least as far as the Radeon / GeForce 2 comparisons go, it's Radeon all the way. It will be interesting to see how the Radeon 2 and GeForce 3 match up though...

RAMdrd
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2000

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08/14, 10:02am | report spam | close Reply |
Mac support...

I wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions based on what one doesn't see in a press release.

The 8500 is the only mention of Mac support, but that doesn't mean that the other cards won't support or be available for the Mac.

ATi is now Stevie's stepchild, but they don't seem to be taking it out on Mac users, just yet.

Choosing Nvidia over ATi because Stevie did is probably a mistake. ATi was slow in the past, but has done very well lately, and just made a mistake incurring the wrath of Jobs.

And he's making us pay the price.

I'll support the manufacturer of the best product.

TNproud2b
Banned

Joined: Sep 2000

0

08/14, 10:46am | report spam | close Reply |
ATI ?

If ATI is the answer, could we please have the problem back?

godzappa
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Jan 2001

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08/14, 11:08am | report spam | close Reply |
Ok Ok Ok

What has ATI ever done for us ey?!

Well they gave us a competitive video card

ok, so they gave us a competitive video card, but other than that, what has ATI ever done for us?

Well Truform is awfully impressive

Ok, apart from a competitive video card, and Truform, what has ATI ever done for us?!

I love the Radeon card in my cube Reg...

Apart from a competitive equivalent to the Pee Cee world, Truform, Radeon chipset, what has ATI ever done for us!?!

PCI Boards Reg, I 'ave a G4 400 PCI card, if it wernt for ATI I wouldn't 'ave been able to get a decent video card for it

Well lets see then, apart from a competitive equivalent to the Pee Cee world, Truform, Radeon chipset, and PCI video cards, what has ATI ever done for us!?!

Dan Szwarc
Senior User

Joined: Jan 2000

0

08/14, 11:52am | report spam | close Reply |
$399? Holy c*** Batman!

That's a lot of moolah for a video card.

- - e r i k - -
Posting Junkie

Joined: May 2001

0

08/14, 12:35pm | report spam | close Reply |
Brought peace?

Oh. Peace? Shut up!

DavidRavenMoon
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2001

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08/14, 12:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
Just nit picking

The correct capitalizations are ATi and nVidia ;-)

x user
Mac Elite

Joined: Dec 2000

0

08/14, 01:10pm | report spam | close Reply |
Radion

I looked on their site. And all they list for macs currently is Radion and Radion VE. So I guess they haven't updated yet. Whats the FireGL?

macmark
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2001

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08/14, 03:28pm | report spam | close Reply |
ATI Site...

I checked the FAQs on the ATI site and none of them list the Mac as a supported OS:

Radeon 8500 Supported OSs

Radeon 7500 Supported OSs

Fire GL 8800 Supported OSs

And the site also says that Alternate OSs like Linux are supported by 3rd party developers. (They don't say whether Mac is an Alternate OS or not...they don't even mention Mac anywhere in the FAQs)
Radeon 8500 Alternate OSs

I'd say that someone at ATI is peeved at Apple and they don't really give a damn about us anymore. If they don't feel this way then they need to have a SERIOUS talk with their web crew or whoever does the text for their site. I personally use a Radeon in both my work G3 and my home G4 and find them to be excellent cards. But I'm not happy at all with the lack of excitement ATI has for the Mac platform. I would like to see the same enthusiasm that nVidia seems to have for our platform coming from ATI.

At least nVidia says that the gForce 3 is Mac compatible on the opening page for the gForce in a press release at the bottom...
nVidia gForce 3

I guess only time will tell.

berserkintosh
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2003

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08/14, 03:40pm | report spam | close Reply |
hmmm haaa hmmm

yah as far as 2d goes ati smokes nvidia but its not a huge thing. as far as cards making a difference in quicktime...eh dont matter. it would come down to the drivers.

thx to these new cards theyll push the price of the radeon pci down way lo so i can upgrade from my orion or whatever. not bad.

im just pissed with ati becuase when they were the main game in mac town they took it for granted gave us a few cards and thats it. i used to go to thier site and see triple the amount for peecee users with audio and video plugs and cheaper ones etc, so now when they get thier nose bloodied they give us a few more cards? wtg ati. at least we now have a all in wonder radeon. jeebus!

and in the meantime whats nvidia doing? nothing unless apple pokes them. none of nvidias card makers are giving us any variety in cards or anything. its like none cares unless apple pokes them. am i missing something here? maybe we just dont matter to these big a*** companies.

i still prefer ati cuz i can always find some of thier cards cheap for the mac and there drivers seem to cover a wider gamut of support on the mac but eh. really dont like either company.

as for ati's new shading technology thats nnice but games have to build in support and implement it and what do most gamers have in thier peecee? nvidia. and nvidia has come out with thier own versions of these technologies so in the end it really comes down to nothing. wierd.

berserkintosh at yahoo.com

The pasta
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

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08/14, 03:45pm | report spam | close Reply |
Just the basics please

As a non-games user (Playstations are sort of better designed for it) my graphics useage is only stretched by the wierd effects in iTunes. I'm just grateful that my humble old iMac has a good graphics card and sound drivers from a company that has shown almost as much committment to Apple as old Steve.

a2daj
Mac Elite

Joined: Mar 2000

0

08/14, 06:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: Ok Ok Ok

Let's see, ATI was also responsible for the bulk of Apple's DVD work (The DVD API for the developers to use). They supported the RAVE 3d API during the years that Apple didn't (adding features and such...).

I believe the Radeon and Radeon VE will still be for sale for awhile, probably dropping the prices.

MacOS761
Senior User

Joined: Mar 2000

0

08/14, 06:48pm | report spam | close Reply |
one... two... um...

offering three new products

Thanks to macmark for filling us in on the third card a bit. Come on MacNN staff peoples, finish the story!

peepska
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2000

0

08/14, 06:51pm | report spam | close Reply |
give me my

I'm still using an Apple Display Card 8�24GC. It has incredible redraws. And I also have my Apple HPV Card with 4MB VRAM.

Drivers make the difference. The Voodoo 4/5s are excellent cards crippled by poor�now dead�drivers. All the cards on the market now (except the ATI Rage 128s and lower) are more than adequate for anything but 3D tasks.

seanyepez
Addicted to MacNN

Joined: Dec 1999

0

08/14, 07:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
Not cheap

The GeForce3 is $299 from online retailers now. That's $100 for 10% faster. That, combined with nVIDIA's release of Detonator 4 drivers for PC and the GeForce3 Ultra in the pipe, ATi's day of triumph was rained on.

kingturd
Forum Regular

Joined: Aug 2000

0

08/14, 08:40pm | report spam | close Reply |
You guys are serious?

First of all, ATi's new cards do support the MacOS, despite what some people say.

Now in case some of you haven't noticed, NVIDIA's offerings have been pretty poor for mac. A GeForce3 performs only a few fps better than a Radeon on a mac. NVIDIA's incredible framerates can only be seen on Windows because the card is designed to run great with DirectX. Now while the card also supports OpenGL, it does so very poorly. The mac drivers are sad and the updates don't seem to fix much. Mac users have also yet to see any of the features advertised for the GeForce3. NVIDIA, although a great video card manufacturer for Windows, has thrown the Mac community a bad apple.

Although we all dislike (or hate) how ATi rarely updates their mac drivers, you do have to admit (most people) that they work. I haven't had any problems with any of the ATi cards that I've owned, besides my current one being a poor competitor to current cards. ATi may not pump out the fps that NVIDIA does in Windows, but it's still a good card on the Mac side. This september I'll be placing my order for an 8500. At least I can have faith that ATi will ship me a product where all the features work out of the box, unlike NVIDIA.

OverclockedHomoSapien
Grizzled Veteran

Joined: Mar 2001

0

08/15, 03:16am | report spam | close Reply |
What about the 1st Radeon

Ok, so the original Radeon for the Mac is still waiting for the performance driver update that ATI alluded to. It still does not have the FSAA that ATI promised would be implemented soon after the card was available.

So now ATI releases a new Radeon....of course the old Radeon drivers will probably gather dust while ATI works on optimizing the 2nd generation Radeon drivers.

I'm sick of it. Even when ATI was Apple's sole supplier of video cards, they would not offer their high end chipsets for the Mac. Mac users always got a neutered version of what M$ users got, at a premium price, of course.

No thanks, ATI. I'd rather spend a bit more on an Nvidia card. At least Nvidia gives Mac users the best GPU they have. Nvidia Mac drivers still need some refinement, but at least Nvidia is trying. ATI just doesn't seem to care about the Mac market.

Mig Mallox
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

08/15, 05:04am | report spam | close Reply |
Don't trust them anymore

I don't really trust ATI anymore. They've stiffed us on features too often and it seems like their card offerings are just to throw us a bone. We never had the greatest ATI offering on the Mac (no 64MB Radeon w/4xAGP). What's attractive with nVidia is their unified drivers which means when FSAA and DVC is finally supported for a later card, it will work on the GeForce2 MX aswell. Also, nVidia can jack us around for a couple of years and still be treating us better than ATI. Compare the number of driver updates this year between the two. Shows who's serious about the Mac. At least nVidia touts their Mac support, ATI seems to try and hide it.

morrell
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2009

0

08/24, 07:35pm | report spam | close Reply |
Consider This

ATI was there for Apple when no one else was, unfortunately, only half way. ATI never offered a real counterpart to their best stuff. The PC side always receive more memory, better technology and more options. I think this was the first pathway to the ATI and Apple split. Jobs was demanding, he wanted the best. Maybe, he never got what he wanted and the press leak was the last straw.

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ATI unveils new Radeon cards

updated 07:45 am EDT, Tue August 14, 2001

7500 not available

$$

Even though...

Dumb Question

Will

Mac support...

ATI ?

Ok Ok Ok

$399? Holy c*** Batman!

Brought peace?

Just nit picking

Radion

ATI Site...

hmmm haaa hmmm

Just the basics please

re: Ok Ok Ok

one... two... um...

give me my

Not cheap

You guys are serious?

What about the 1st Radeon

Don't trust them anymore

Consider This

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ATI unveils new Radeon cards

updated 07:45 am EDT, Tue August 14, 2001

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7500 not available

$$

Even though...

Dumb Question

Will

Mac support...

ATI ?

Ok Ok Ok

$399? Holy c*** Batman!

Brought peace?

Just nit picking

Radion

ATI Site...

hmmm haaa hmmm

Just the basics please

re: Ok Ok Ok

one... two... um...

give me my

Not cheap

You guys are serious?

What about the 1st Radeon

Don't trust them anymore

Consider This

Login Here

Register for our weekly email newsletter:

Connect tools:

Subscribe

to our RSS

Follow us

on Twitter

Most Read

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