Difficulty Shopping For Graphics Cards, Can Anyone Help!

[Mike_Amiga]

I want to buy either an ATi Radeon 9000 Pro or an Nvidia Geforce MX Mac Edition in the UK, or if you know a company that will ship to the UK that would also be useful.

I'd like to be playing some relatively modern games, but with my current card that's unlikely.

I have looked at their respective Websites and got nowhere, I phoned a few UK suppliers they recommended on these sites. A typical response "Certainly sir, ah! you want it for a Mac, sorry can't help." or words to that effect.  

Apple will sell me one, but only in a new computer that I can't afford and don't want. I wonder are they hogging all these new cards for their new machines? :-D

Suspicious me.:roll:

Any alternatives reasonably close to the power of these graphics cards would be nice, but no totally outdated crap thanks.  8-)

[odin]

I know zilch about Mac stuff. Perhaps you would be better of in a Mac forum? =). Where's AmigaMac when you need him :-b.

[blobrana]

The ATi Radeon 9000 Pro is a lot better than the geforce mx....
STUPID ME BOUGHT A  geforce , and then Radeon  brought out their card that wiped mine on ALL the benchmark tests...Doh.

But most of it is really overkill, with image effects that you`ll never need ( but nice to have!), remember that an 8 mb card will run Quake 3d  in Frag-master mode (800x600 low textures) quite happily...

Anything over £100 is going to be good... :-D

[JoannaK]

@mike_amiga

Good news are that both Aone and Pegasos can use PC cards.-. So no need to hunt those Mac versions.  :-)

[odin]

Yes but I was under the impression he wanted to use it in a Mac. I mean....NVidia gfx card in an AOne?? Yah rite =).

[Kurt]

Okay for starters NEVER EVER BUY AN NVIDIA MX ANYTHING.
MX are JUNK!!!!!!! WASTE OF MONEY!!!!!
hope  you got that straight for less money than a Gforce 4MX board you can get a Gforce 3 board
which are at least two times faster than an MX board which is nothing but an updated Gforce2 core.

also Nothing by Nvidia will be supported on the Amiga.
A quote from VGR
 "nVidia told Amiga no, but in a few more words making it quite clear they had no
chance of getting any kind of support regardless of the monetary amount with which they would pour
into the the pockets of the nVidia board of directors, not even developers documentation on the chips."

ATI documentation for the 9000 series is just being released for nonwindows aplications. (IE linux, Amiga )

so right now your choices are Voodoo,Permedia2&3,Rage128,Radeon 7000 series & 8000 series.
also get the PC version.
Personaly I am using Radeon 7000s in my AmigaOnes

Hope this helps

Kurt

[KrasH]

I have a GeForce 4 Ti 4400 on my Athlon box, and it sure does do an impressive job. But in terms of quick cards, the ATI Radeons seem to be leading the way in terms of performance. A PC mag I read recently 3D Marked a P4 3.06Ghz and ATI Radeon 9700 (I think thats the number) and got a wopping 15000+. Now that's damn impressive.

[DethKnight]

How does a wildcatVP (card used in making Nemesis) stack up in benchmark to the radeon 9000 series

[Crumb]

you may reflash the bios of a peecee radeon... there's a pc program called Uniflash, I think that it also allows you to update the vga bios... Anyway, I guess that there will be programs from ATI to do that sort of stuff.

[Mike_Amiga]

Hello my ducklings, just checking you read the first bit of the thread, I want a card for my Mac.

I'm more of a retro Amigan I'm affraid, my next upgade miggy wise will be an A1200, when I can afford it and when I'm not looking for stupidly overpriced graphics cards for Mac which I've scrimped and saved for.

Pass the bong what-ever-your-or-name-is. :-P  :-D  ;-)

[Kurt]

oops! silly me, thats what I get for answering post while half asleep
yep If you are going to buy a card for your Mac
get a radeon. A 9000Pro version is a good choice for under two hundred dollars.
Get the PRO.  

Kurt

[AntonioX]

Hi Mike_Amiga

 As i just got my self a nice kick ass mac, I might be able to help have you tryed:

Micro Anvika www.microanvika.com i know they sell alot of mac things

Gordon Harwood  www.ghc.co.uk and yeah they are the same lot that used to sell amiga stuff, I got my mac from them.

Analogic www.analogic.co.uk and yes the same that do amiga stuff

computer warehouse www.cwonline.co.uk

hope this helps, if u need more help just ask I am always around.

Regards

Antonio

[AdMartin]

$200 for a Radeon 9000 Pro is a rip-off IMO, although I don't know much about prices for Mac-specific hardware. My sister got a Radeon 8500LE (250/275) 64MB (PC version) for her birthday a few weeks ago. It cost less than $100 and is better than the 9000 Pro. I live in Sweden and it should be possible to get the card cheaper in countries with lower sales tax than Sweden (25%).

/Martin

[Ilwrath]

Yeah... Speaking from performance wise, I'd skip both the 9000 Pro and GeForce4 MX.  Comparison between the GeForce 3 and the Radeon 8500.  Both are better cards than your above options for less money.  As stated above, do NOT (EVER) get an nVidia MX card.  They are way behind the times.  For high end cards, comparing the Radeon 9700 and GeForce 4 Ti series is appropriate (the 9700 wins).  But the Radeon 9000 and GeForce 4MX are both sorry excuses for video output.  Just goes to show, you can't judge a video card by what number it has, anymore.  (Sort of like the A1200 being more powerful than a A2000)

[Mike_Amiga]

@AntonioX

Thanks! So far I've found a ATI Radeon 8500 AGP MAC 64Mb DDR   for £ 249.95 on www.microanvika.co.uk.

Not the one that I want, but it's one of the only places that doesn't want me to buy a card inside a machine so far, I'll check the others though no point going off half cocked, as they say. 8-)

Thanks also to everyone else. ;-)

(UPDATED by Mike_Amiga 2003)

Now I've gone and bought it. Hope my credit card doesn't max out.