To promote my machines as "higher value" I tend to run them all as 3 or 4 output machines. Using a TH2G and 2nd output or two DH2G, it means I can consistently output four 1280x1024 or 1024x768 feeds. Part of doing this is based on cost to build a system. the x1900 wasn't an expensive upgrade on the old Tiger systems. Something comparable would be fine.

I have heard there is a new release on the horizon which is supposed to mean more advanced MAC Pro machines. We shall see.

Quote Originally Posted by samsc View Post
Got a new MacPro.
Boots up in tiger - but default BTO low end X2600 graphics card isnt supported except with minimal features.

Initial testing with x2600 works ok on a single monitor - but really overloaded with a triple head. Same deal as nvidia 7300.
nvidia 7300 has poor performance, doesnt like hidef files. Doesnt like triple heads. Overloads very easily.
There is almost a $3000 upgrade cost to get the Quatro FX 5600. Yes, it might be able to run 2 TH2G at 3840x1024 giving me six outputs. It's just insane that I would have to pay more for the damned video card than the base computer by itself. Then it brings about the fact that at a minimum of 3 layers per mix, 6 mixes means 18 layers which is way over 1 universe.

I'm perfectly happy with 12 layers split on 4 outputs using the x1900.

The x1900 worked fine. According to a quick look at the spec, the new Geforce 8800 will not perform quite as well as the x1900 did. Why would apple downgrade (oh yeah, I do own an iphone, I guess I shouldn't be surprised).
Being that a critical part of Catalyst performance an stability is the GPU, I will become quite angry if Apple doesn't have a better solution.


Quote Originally Posted by samsc View Post
Might boot up properly with x1900 card instead of x2600.
Might try testing with x1900 later
Even if we can get the x1900 to boot with Tiger on these new machines, what happens when x1900 cards aren't available anymore for MACs?