The Mac Pro overview, part 3: video card options
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Aug 23, 2006 at 7:29pm
On Monday we started started our multi-part review/look at the Mac Pro, which was announced on Aug. 7. Yesterday we looked at the hard drives and memory upgrades; today we’ll look at the Mac Pro’s video card options.
The Mac Pro’s standard display card is a GeForce 7300 GT. This is an entry-level card, designed by nVidia for “undemanding users of older games and basic multimedia,” as noted at Ars Technica. The GeForce 7300 GT has two DVI ports, one of which is “dual-link” and capable of driving a 30-inch Cinema Display, while the other can’t. Unfortunately, there’s nothing on the back to tell you which is which, so you’ll have to figure that out for yourself. Well, okay, I’ll tell you. If you’re facing the back of the Mac Pro, the video card port on the right is the one for connecting the really big diplays to.
Apple offers two build-to-order upgrade options: the ATI Radeon X1900XT (shown), and the nVidia Quadro FX 4500. Hard core gamers will want the former, while those working with 3D visualization tools and modeling will want the latter. I’ve found the standard issue card to work just fine for all my needs, but then I certainly quality as a casual gamer. Here are some reviews and comments I’ve collected for all three video card options for the Mac Pro:
Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT
Hexus.net: It’s best suited “to 1280×1024, or 1024×768, with modern games, depending on IQ settings and the game itself of course.
Trusted Reviews: An “absolutely amazing value for money and is still my choice card.” The reviewer rates it 7/10 overall, 7/10 in performance, 8/10 in features and 7/10 in value.
ATI Radeon X1900 XT
NeoSeeker: “The X1900XT combines high end power with a high end price tag. 48 pixel shaders, high clock speeds, and a very hungry 150W power draw come together in a package that ATI expects will retake the performance crown.”
VR Zone: “From a technical standpoint the X1900 card is very impressive and features some innovative performance enhancements. As we can see from the actual test results the new R580 performs well, with 3DMark and Doom 3 showing the biggest gains and with CoD2 showing an impressive performance lead over the 7800 GTX 512MB. What the X1900 XT lost in Fill Rate, was made up with Pixel and Vertex Shader Performance. ATI’s OpenGL performance has been getting better and better this past half year, both with driver updates and now the new R580 core yielding huge gains on what is traditionally NVIDIA’s main claim to fame. Overall, the X1900 results place it firmly in a strong performance position.”
nVidia Quadro FX 4500
PNY Technologies: “Featuring the industry’s broadest family of PCI Express products designed from the ground up with the needs of professional CAD, DCC, and Scientific Visualization applications and users in mind, NVIDIA Quadro FX ushers in a new era of unprecedented performance, programmability, precision, and quality.”
CG Society: “The Quadro FX series are generally aimed at scientific visualization, CAD/CAM, and digital content creation and undergo ISV certifications. Quadro FXs are themselves based off the consumer-oriented GeForce product line and have a number of additional features such as two-sided lighting, hardware clip and overlay planes not found in the GeForce products. The high-end product, such as the Quadro 4500, generally perform very well in CAD and DCC type applications and is reflected in synthetic and real SPEC benchmarks.”
The ATI Radeon X1900 XT is a $450 build-to-order option, while the Quadro FX 4500 is a $1,650 BTO feature. You can order a Radeon X1900 XT Graphics Upgrade Kit for your Mac Pro if you don’t take advantage of the BTO option, but it will cost you $499 and take 3-5 weeks to ship. Also note that Apple says that selecting the ATI Radeon X1900 XT or NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 may delay the shipment of your Mac Pro. and as noted at Ars Technica, “for reasons Apple hasn’t explained, you can’t mix-and-match ATI and nVidia cards in the Mac Pro.”
Tomorrow we’ll look at the Mac Pro’s speed benchmarks and overall performance.
Gregory Draus Says:
The ATI Radeon is a $350 build-to-order option, not $450, according to the Apple Store.
Posted on August 23, 2006
Terry Says:
The 7300 is ridiculous for a computer that costs this much. They should start with at least a 7600 series or even better 7900 series
Posted on August 23, 2006
Thomas Says:
Terry: I think you’re missing the point of this computer. It’s not meant to be a gaming machine that costs $2400. The two major things that Apples have been known for in the past, especially the pro tower line, have been for high-end video and photo editing. That in mind, it is a pro-level system targeted at that audience in which both activities receive only a small boost in performance from graphic cards. That audience probably doesn’t care much that it doesn’t have a gaming card in it. If they wanted to do games or 3D rendering, it targets a new audience and options are available for that audience. Keep in mind also that a similar-speed Dell costs more than the Apple while coming with a similar graphics card. So your ‘costs this much’ argument is rather moot. By your reasoning then, it is Dell that should include a 7900-level graphics card, not Apple.
Posted on August 23, 2006
Paulo Says:
What about people working with Motion or Motion 2? I have a 1st-gen Power Mac G5 with 1.6GHz PowerPC chip and 2GB of RAM, and Motion tends to run pretty slow when applying particular effects. Rendering also takes a good while. Yes, granted I am on a pretty old machine as far as the G5’s go (in fact mine’s the grandaddy of the G5 line), but it seems to me that a higher-end video card might appeal to the filmmaker and/or video-designer type since it doesn’t take as long to render. Also, I think Apple would like to branch out into the gaming market since the way they are building machines is certainly capable of producing a full-on gaming computer. Have you seen the price of video cards lately? They’re dirt cheap! 256MB cards with high-def support, tons of additional “technology” to enhance the gaming experience, all within reasonable ranges to the consumer. Heck, the ATI Radeon X1900 XT isn’t even $400 at the four major online computer parts dealers (CDW, TigerDirect, etc.). I’m all about Mac, I’ve had way too many bad experiences with PC, but what makes the video card that much harder to incorporate into the system? Is it because of the chipset? OS?
Posted on August 23, 2006
Paulo Says:
Greg, missed your comment about the cost. I rescind my comments about the pricing in my post. =)
Posted on August 23, 2006
Doug Says:
Why doesn’t Apple offer other workstation graphics cards? As an architecture student, I’d like to get a Quadro FX class card but don’t neccessarily want to spend $1650 for one. Why not offer the FX 1500 and/or 3500 as well? The 3500 would fit my needs at half the price!
Posted on August 23, 2006
random8r Says:
By making it all CTO options, Apple is essentially doing market research and seeing what people want mostly. Especially if these people register. The CTO can be registered internally with their database against a serial number, and then when the person sends in their Apple Care extended warranty, or simply indicates what they use their computer for when they first connect to the internet, Apple gets to see what “the graphic designer” wants.... pretty smart move.
Posted on August 24, 2006
Cold Fire Says:
I ordered mine with an ATI X1900XT Ship date is estimated as 9/26. Will be wirth the wait as I do game on my Mac alot (Can we sa World of Warcraft), the 7300 won’t cut it, and the Quadro was just WAY tooexpensive to consider.
I know most people don’t buy ac for games, especially the PowerMac / Mac Pro line but I guess I am the odd ball. I love gaming on a Mac.
Posted on August 29, 2006
William Heise Says:
I have an ATI x1900XT in my new Intel Mac Pro. I need a second vedeo card to run a 3rd & 4th displays. What options do I have now? Do I have to stick with the 3 video cards ofered by Apple? Will the NVidia 7300 work with the ATI x1900? Apple only will support these 3 video cards they have told me. But my question is will any other video cards work.
I do not play games. For that reason I probably should have stuck with the NVidia 7300 & purchased 2 of them. But as mentioned by some & in the past the standard video card in a PowerMac wasn’t good enough to run some of Apple’s program like Aperature.
My real question is, what is available that will work without too much extra work in my Intel Mac Pro?
Posted on September 24, 2006
Elger Says:
ATI & Nvidia don’t mix.
4 display’s == 2 x Nvidia 7300
the 2 wil run Aperture but don’t FLY
stick with the ATI, need real-estate? 2 x 30” will do the job perfectly.
Posted on September 25, 2006
Manolo PR Says:
Need speed, buy the x1900xtx or the other flavor the x1950, i also recommend the ATI FireGL for does hungry CAD softwares. i have the 2.66 Mac PRO it fly’s.
Posted on October 02, 2006
Groovywebdesign.com Says:
So, my mac pro will run 2 7300 cards correct? I’m looking to flank 2 17” on each side of an apple 23”. I can just go purchase another 7300 right?
Can I go with a better card for my main display… but it has to be nvidia? Does it have to be the same model, or just all cards nvidia?
Does anyone know what cards will work in a mac pro?
Posted on February 05, 2007
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
Scott Steinman Says:
IIRC, the OS achieves some 2-D graphics optimization though OpenGL. Would the ATI Radeon X1900 XT make a significant difference in overall speed of the OS?
Posted on August 23, 2006