Apple to sell scaled-down version of Nvidia 6800 DDL

Nvidia's 6800 GT graphics card will soon be available from Apple's online store, providing an alternative option to customers seeking a new 30-inch HD Apple Cinema Display.

Apple Computer will begin selling a scaled down version of the high-end Nvidia 6800 Ultra DDL graphics card in order to better meet demand for the product, according to a MacNN report.

One of the Nividia 6800 GPUs are required to power Apple's new 2560x1600 pixel 30-inch HD Apple Cinema Display, which made its debut in July. But the graphics card company has been unable to produce stable versions of the 6800 Ultra card, delaying orders for Apple's 30-inch display by up to three months.

"Both products feature 256MB of GDDR3 memory and 16-pipe superscalar architecture; however, the Nvidia 6800 GT features a slightly lower bandwidth of 32GB/sec for delivery of 525 million verticies and 5.6 billion textured pixels per second. The Ultra version features 35.2GB/sec throughput for 600 million vertices and 6.4 billion textured pixels per second," the report says.

Like the 6800 Ultra, the 6800 GT will block the adjacent PCI slot, reducing the number of available PCI or PCI-X slots from three to two on the Power Mac G5.

A message to Apple customers says the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT DDL graphics card will be available for order in early November. The company had previously informed customers that it hoped to ship orders for the 6800 Ultra and 30-inch display "on or before October 25th" (today).

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23 Comments

benzene

said about 19 years ago

Does anyone else see the loss of a PCI slot as being as bad a thing as I do? I mean, if you had five or so and blocked one, big deal. But cutting three to two seems like a bad idea.

louzer

said about 19 years ago

Quote:

Originally posted by benzene
Does anyone else see the loss of a PCI slot as being as bad a thing as I do? I mean, if you had five or so and blocked one, big deal. But cutting three to two seems like a bad idea.

Well, its only a 'bad' thing if you need all three. Or you're one of those "I have three free slots, and if I install this card, I'll only have two. Two is less then three. So it must be a bad thing" people, regardless of the fact that you've never put a card in your computer ever.

My big question is how well (or how slowly or how differently) does these new cards run the 30" display?

discstickers

said about 19 years ago

Quote:

Originally posted by Louzer
Well, its only a 'bad' thing if you need all three. Or you're one of those "I have three free slots, and if I install this card, I'll only have two. Two is less then three. So it must be a bad thing" people, regardless of the fact that you've never put a card in your computer ever.

My big question is how well (or how slowly or how differently) does these new cards run the 30" display?

Probably the same in 2D, since they both have 256MB memory. The only difference will be in 3D performance, because of the reduced clock speeds.

adamrao

said about 19 years ago

Other than to provide supply, what is the real purpose of getting the 6800 GT? Now that the Radeon X800 is available for the Mac, why would you go with NVidia anyway? Is there a particular reason for it? Unless it's price... but if you're running a dual-processor PowerMac G5 with a 30" Cinema Display, I highly doubt that price is an obstacle.

The ATI card doesn't take up any extra space like the NVidia cards do, runs the 30" and ATI drivers are updated at the same pace as NVidia's with each Mac OS X update. I guess I just don't see the advantage to buying the NVidia card now.

With the obvious delays of the 6800 DDL, the GT is there to get them out the door and have people running their 30" displays before people start dropping their orders and such, but IMO, the ATI card is the way to go if you're going to be running one of those monsters. Beautiful monsters, that is.

placebo

said about 19 years ago

Quote:

Originally posted by adamrao
Other than to provide supply, what is the real purpose of getting the 6800 GT? Now that the Radeon X800 is available for the Mac, why would you go with NVidia anyway? Is there a particular reason for it? Unless it's price... but if you're running a dual-processor PowerMac G5 with a 30" Cinema Display, I highly doubt that price is an obstacle.

The ATI card doesn't take up any extra space like the NVidia cards do, runs the 30" and ATI drivers are updated at the same pace as NVidia's with each Mac OS X update. I guess I just don't see the advantage to buying the NVidia card now.

With the obvious delays of the 6800 DDL, the GT is there to get them out the door and have people running their 30" displays before people start dropping their orders and such, but IMO, the ATI card is the way to go if you're going to be running one of those monsters. Beautiful monsters, that is.

Because maybe many people (Graphic designers in particular) aren't into games, and don't want anything more than the minimum card to drive their displays? Also, the ATI won't allow for dual 30 inch displays; just one 30" and one ADC/Normal DVI display.

Although yes, the ATI card will most likely have a better price : performance ratio and free up another slot.