IMACs and which GFX card?

[conrad gaunt]

Ok, I need a mchine to convert R3Ds, cheap, and since I have Linux and Windows machines already, I`d like to spread my eggs (software wise), and get a Mac. My laptop with an Nvidia Geforce 7200 Go series GFX card has become unstable (more so than before), and I can`t bear it any longer.
iMacs seems to be sporting more under the hood for £1220 (4gig ram, 500tb drive, 2.8mhz dual core 2, Leopard, 24inche 1920x1200 screen etc), than a Mac Book Pro, so now I need to choose a graphics card..

As I understand it: Apple=ATI, PC=NVidia

But is anyone using an iMac with an NVidia card? Any good? I prefer the sound of 512mb g-memory over the ATIs 256, but if ATI are more Red Alert (haven`t ever used it) stable, I`ll stick with the $84 cheaper ATI. Any advice out there? Or should I hold off buying because next week iMacs all get a quad core/extreme processor upgrade? Any advice appreciated

 

[ATF]

Hello,

I would hold off if you can at the moment. NVIDIA came out with a report that they were having some problems with a host of their chipsets having issues at the fab. I don't know which chips are affected, but we had a ton of issues with our recent NVIDIA based Macbook Pros.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/02/nvidia-says-significant-quantities-of-laptop-gpus-are-defectiv/

It wasn't until a driver update in 10.5.3 that it settled. It was a serious pain in the ass for over three months. I cannot believe they didn't release a patch to fix it.

At this point, I would hope the NVIDIA chipsets in the iMacs were not having the same problems.

One thing I should note is that it seems that the ATI drivers for the upcoming 3870 (which I've had on back order for almost two months.. grrrrr) has superior performance to the NVIDIA 8800GT in core applications.

Mind you the 8800GT is better for games, but the 3870 (and even the older ATI 2600 in some cases) had better performance for the applications I use the most (FCP Studio 2 and Adobe CS3). I have no way to benchmark the RED applications, though.

Any RED people want to chime in on their GPU findings?

These are cards for the Mac Pro machines, but I'm curious if the drivers for the iMacs are similar (ATI drivers being more optimized). The best benchmark I could find quickly was at Barefeats again. Scroll down to the bottom for a single core app benchmark.

http://barefeats.com/imp01.html

With Intel introducing their new quad core chips for laptops, it might make sense to wait a few weeks if you can as the iMacs use laptop parts for their CPUs (and various other parts).

It seems their is some "buzz" out there in rumor land about some updates coming soon. The Apple conference call mentioned some updates as well, but that should be no surprise to anyone.

Best!

ATF

 

[conrad gaunt]

The quad-core chips sound good, but I haven`t been seeing many quad-core chips around in laptops yet, and i need something soon, but i guess it makes sense to hang on a little longer, if i can.. I thought you could get some "extreme" edition CPU Imac`?

 

[conrad gaunt]

Well, I`ve done it, bought an iMac. Wish me luck.

specs=3.06ghz cpu,4gb ram, 500gb drive, ati 2600 hd pro 256mb gfx, 24inch screen, Shake 4.1 (permanent license),Quicktime Pro upgrade, extended warranty (3yrs, it`ll never make it!)
=
£2100 approx
+
student (technically) discount (lol!) = £1400 approx = right decision? seems better value than a Mac Book Pro to me, overall, and I definately need a Mac, shame about the quad core being absent