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Apple beat Alienware to 9700

post #1 of 36
4/19/04 at 5:13pm
Thread Starter 
I thought this was funny, because everybody makes fun of Apple for having such outdated/slow hardware, especially their graphics hardware.

Well, check it out, Apple beat Alienware to the Mobility Radeon 9700:

http://www.apple.com/powerbook/

Sad, isn't it? I understand that Alienware needs to do a lot of testing to make sure it all works what with the upgradable GPU modules and all, but the 9700 was virtually a drop-in replacement for the 9600, from what I gathered from articles. That is, system builders could pretty much just replace the 9600 chip with the 9700 chip.
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post #2 of 36
4/19/04 at 5:16pm
Wow, I like Apple & I NEVER thought that this would happen. Go figure. Hopefully this will motivate AW to pull their heads out & start shipping the 9700.

s
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post #3 of 36
4/19/04 at 5:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guspaz
I thought this was funny, because everybody makes fun of Apple for having such outdated/slow hardware, especially their graphics hardware.

Well, check it out, Apple beat Alienware to the Mobility Radeon 9700:

http://www.apple.com/powerbook/

Sad, isn't it? I understand that Alienware needs to do a lot of testing to make sure it all works what with the upgradable GPU modules and all, but the 9700 was virtually a drop-in replacement for the 9600, from what I gathered from articles. That is, system builders could pretty much just replace the 9600 chip with the 9700 chip.
Unbelievable,
Although, if I jump ship, I can assure you it won't be for Apple.

It might be kinda funny to call AW and tell them I am not going to wait any longer because now I can buy the Apple, just to hear the histerics on the other side.
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post #4 of 36
4/19/04 at 5:51pm
the 9700... is it even worth it to upgrade?

what games will it play flawlessly that the 9600 does not?

i
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post #5 of 36
4/19/04 at 6:01pm
well if u havent read the 100000 posts on it, the 9700 is 20-30% faster than the 9600, if u think thats worthy of an upgrade, go for it, most do, some dont
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post #6 of 36
4/19/04 at 6:08pm
Upgrading isn't always a matter of "Oh this will play such and such game flawlessly and that old thing can't". It's usually that people want to continually improve their gaming experience, and the best way to do that is to keep upgrading with the latest and greatest stuff. And to be prepared when that new game comes out that does require the best...

And it's usually not know exactly what games benefit most from the upgrade until A LOT of people have experimented and whatnot. But isn't that a subjective thing, too, sometimes?
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post #7 of 36
4/19/04 at 6:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tardkitten
Upgrading isn't always a matter of "Oh this will play such and such game flawlessly and that old thing can't". It's usually that people want to continually improve their gaming experience, and the best way to do that is to keep upgrading with the latest and greatest stuff. And to be prepared when that new game comes out that does require the best...

And it's usually not know exactly what games benefit most from the upgrade until A LOT of people have experimented and whatnot. But isn't that a subjective thing, too, sometimes?
thanks, just because over the wekeend i swapped my 9600xt out of my desktop and put ina 9800XT and did not see much of a difference when playing halo, ut2k3... farcry i saw a very minimal difference...

and when you say 20-30% faster...faster how? once games play at full speed how can it run 30% faster?

is it only to be prepared for newer games?

sorry for the noob questions but videocards are the only thing i donthave much experience with... ive been able to play eveyrthing at 1600x1200 with no chiopiness and at full speed on my 9600 and i coudl even play far cry with my 9600xt on ym desktop...

so i guess i just dont see the crze for getting the 9700, especially if it isnt as good as the 9800xt, which i see minimal performance upgrades with...

as far as gameplay, not benchmarks, whihc i havent done
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post #8 of 36
4/19/04 at 6:48pm
Isn't full speed relative? Because video games do not have a fixed FPS, it is best to have as high a FPS as one could possibly get, because even if a card can play a game at an acceptable FPS, it may drop to unacceptable speeds at times. So having a faster card will always improve the performance, even if a slower card can play the game at acceptable FPS most of the time.
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post #9 of 36
4/19/04 at 6:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by deltawalkerl
Isn't full speed relative? Because video games do not have a fixed FPS, it is best to have as high a FPS as one could possibly get, because even if a card can play a game at an acceptable FPS, it may drop to unacceptable speeds at times. So having a faster card will always improve the performance, even if a slower card can play the game at acceptable FPS most of the time.
i can see that, but with the 9600 the games i've played dont drop below an acceptbale fps...

more fps is great btu at a certain point the human eye cant tell the difference right?

i mean am i just not picky enough? or should i notice a sizeable difference ebtween the 9600xt and the 9800xt?
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post #10 of 36
4/19/04 at 6:54pm
Man

THIS IS SOME GRADE A FAG SHI T.

Hey Alienware...I got your time line right here

FOREVER AND A DAY

5700? Yeah right....We will never see it and if we do it will be dated. I so want to hear Alienware reply
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post #11 of 36
4/19/04 at 6:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamaster14
i can see that, but with the 9600 the games i've played dont drop below an acceptbale fps...

more fps is great btu at a certain point the human eye cant tell the difference right?

i mean am i just not picky enough? or should i notice a sizeable difference ebtween the 9600xt and the 9800xt?

Your killing me...


The faster the card the more eye candy you can have on
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post #12 of 36
4/19/04 at 6:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamaster14
i can see that, but with the 9600 the games i've played dont drop below an acceptbale fps...

more fps is great btu at a certain point the human eye cant tell the difference right?

i mean am i just not picky enough? or should i notice a sizeable difference ebtween the 9600xt and the 9800xt?
Seriously? Your card never drops below, say, 24fps? That's great for you. But usually, for a card like the MR9600, when you turn on some moderate AA and AF, the FPS will drop if there are too many things on screen at the same time.

EDIT: Whoops. Wrong quote. LOL
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post #13 of 36
4/19/04 at 7:07pm
Wtf????
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post #14 of 36
4/19/04 at 7:19pm
I was interested until I saw it only has 64mb of ram...

Now if it was 256mb card... I'd buy one with two gigs of ram and install Virtual PC.
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post #15 of 36
4/19/04 at 7:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ewolff
I was interested until I saw it only has 64mb of ram...

Now if it was 256mb card... I'd buy one with two gigs of ram and install Virtual PC.
If you read through, you'll see that you can get the 128MB version.

clip:
More Good News
The new 15-inch and 17-inch PowerBook G4 models sport the new ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR SDRAM. Featuring a number of cutting-edge graphics technologies, including programmable pixel and vertex shading for lighting, the Mobility Radeon 9700 dramatically enhances all aspects of your visual experience in every application. And, here’s the kicker: if you want still better video performance, you can configure your 1.5GHz PowerBook with up to 128MB of fast DDR SDRAM.

Still interested...? I love playing devils advocate...

s
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post #16 of 36
4/19/04 at 7:30pm
Considering the hassle of returning my Alienware and then ordering a new laptop for a card that will eventually be available for the Alienware is a bit pointless to me.

In my opinion, the powerbook is the only laptop that is anywhere near as sexy as an Alienware. Too bad its a mac...
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post #17 of 36
4/19/04 at 7:35pm
yea. wish i had the cash for both.

s
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post #18 of 36
4/19/04 at 7:48pm
Hmm ... perhaps I could convince a friend to buy the notebook then steal the 9700 across to my Jenny, and give him Jenny's leftovers? (used, dusty, 9600)
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post #19 of 36
4/19/04 at 7:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robo-Kai
Hmm ... perhaps I could convince a friend to buy the notebook then steal the 9700 across to my Jenny, and give him Jenny's leftovers? (used, dusty, 9600)
Clever R-K! Now, where to find a prat daft enough to fall it?

s
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post #20 of 36
4/19/04 at 7:56pm
You'd have to disect the video card module and hope that the Apple's card fits into the module. Good luck.
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