Graphics Card Options for Mac Pro Workstations

Here's a quick overview of the three graphics accelerator options for the Mac Pro workstations.

The machine ships by default with an NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 256MB RAM - not a particularly impressive graphics card, but more than enough for general design and print-based work that doesn't use the 3D capabilities of the card too heavily. The GeForce 7300 GT is has one single-link and one dual-link DVI ports, so it can drive up to one 30" LCD and one 23-24" LCD at full resolution. It can't drive two 30" LCDs at their full rated resolution. 3DS Max runs acceptably with the 7300 GT under either Direct3D or OpenGL acceleration, however in AutoCAD 2007, with hardware acceleration enabled there is an unacceptable level of graphical glitches in the screen redraw.

The next step up from the 7300 GT is the ATI Radeon X1900 XT with 512MB RAM. Whilst the X1900 has 512MB VRAM, it is still a gaming-optimised graphics accelerator as determined by Autodesk. With this card, even complex textured models in 3DS Max redraw quickly and smoothly. The screen redraw with AutoCAD is still problematic in areas with hardware acceleration turned on, however using software rendering it's still quite fast and redraws perfectly. The majority of other 3D applications that you are likely to encounter will also run quite well with this card. At around $400 more than the GeForce 7300 GT, it represents a good value-for-money upgrade providing a solid increase in graphics performance. This card also has two dual-link DVI ports, so it is fully capable of driving two 30" LCDs at their full native resolution.

The top level graphics card is the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500. The Quadro line of cards from NVIDIA are their professional-level, workstation spec graphics cards - optimised for engineering, scientific visualisation and complex 3D. The driver support for these cards is truly one step above the consumer level GeForce cards and the FX 4500 is fully supported and qualified for AutoCAD 2007 with full hardware acceleration enabled. There are no known problems with screen redraw in AutoCAD, nor with any other CAD or 3D applications. With an upgrade price of around $2500 over the GeForce 7300 GT, I strongly recommend this card only for machines that are going to be doing any kind of serious CAD work, especially with AutoCAD. This card also has two dual-link DVI ports, so can drive two 30" LCDs as well.

Other Apple Stuff

Previewed at WWDC last year, the iTVÊðtv is an 802.11n wireless access point with video streaming capabilities. Like an iPod for video, you can sync media to the ðtv, or stream it live. It's got a 40GB hard drive as a cache that can store up to 50 hours of video content using H.264 at 1.5Mbs with 128kbs Audio. It's got HDMI and Component video outputs along with analogue and digital optical outputs.

It's got a USB port reserved for service and diagnostics, so no externally attachable storage options, and it's got 802.11n and 10/100 Base-T networking. Unlike the Mac mini that it superficially resembles, the ðtv has a built-in power supply, not an external power brick.

Next up is the new AirPort Extreme Base Station. Having had a design makeover, it's no longer a sleek white dome, now it's the same form factor as the mini and the ðtv, a flat white box with rounded corners. This time round the Base Station has 802.11n (starting to see a pattern here?) and three dedicated LAN ethernet ports (up from one in the Extreme and none in the Express) and one WAN ethernet port. The USB port has been retained, however with increased capabilities - the previous generation unit could only use the USB port for connecting a printer and sharing it over the network, this one can also use the USB port to hook up an external hard drive. Using a USB hub, you can connect multiple printers and hard drives to the base station and share them to network clients via wired or wireless ethernet. As before, wireless security levels up to WPA2 are supported, as is RADIUS authentication.

Now, with these two new devices featuring 802.11n, there will shortly be an AirPort driver update released for all the Core 2 Duo hardware, as well as the Mac Pros unlock the full functionality of their wireless cards that, currently under Mac OS X, are restricted to 802.11g.

On the software/content side of things, the iTunes Music Store now has a whole lot more content - Paramount has been signed to deliver movies.

Conspicuous by their absence are new displays, with the built-in iSight webcams - Apple have EOL'd the iSight standalone webcams, so everyone expected there to be new displays, including one using the 24" panel in the top-end iMac. Also missing was an update to the iLife suite to bring it up to iLife '07

Oh, last, but not least, Apple have changed their name from Apple Computer to Apple Inc...

No Updates Recently?

I've not been updating this blog as frequently as I should recently. When I've been finding cool or interesting technology-related stuff, I've been submitting them to Technocrat, which is a lot like other tech news sites, like Slashdot, but a whole lot more grown-up =)

I recommend you check it out, the site isn't the prettiest one out there, and there's no (easy) way to search past stories, but the articles posted are generally a little better thought out and the comments (while a lot fewer in number) are also more on-topic...