NVIDIA Corporation, the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, today announced that its most advanced professional graphics solution, the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 graphics processing unit (GPU), is now available as an option in the new Apple Power Mac G5. The NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 graphics card drives up to two high resolution 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Displays and accelerates applications used in industries such as digital content creation, scientific research, and 3D visualization.
“The Power Mac is one of the premier platforms for those looking to design, develop and create some of the most eye-catching graphics and video,” said Dan Vivoli, executive vice president of marketing at NVIDIA in the press release. “In rolling out this advanced professional graphics board for the Power Mac G5, NVIDIA and Apple are bringing the most powerful NVIDIA workstation solution to an entirely new customer base.”
“The Power Mac G5 Quad is the most powerful system we’ve ever made,” said David Moody, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Mac Product Marketing in the press release. “The combination of quad-core processing and the fastest workstation class NVIDIA Quadro graphics gives our creative and scientific customers unprecedented performance.”
NVIDIA Quadro solutions, certified for the leading computer aided design, video, content creation and scientific visualizations applications, are widely considered by industry professionals as the benchmark for performance and quality.
Alias Maya, an integrated modeling, animation , visual effects , and rendering solution widely used in the film, video, game development, and design markets, is the first application to be fully certified for use on the Power Mac G5 with the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500. “Alias and NVIDIA work closely together to enable our software and hardware products compliment each other, enabling our customers to realize increased productivity in their work,” said Kevin Tureski, director of engineering for Maya at Alias in the press release. “Maya is a very demanding application with very demanding users. We were very pleased to be able to fully qualify the Power Mac G5 with the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 on the same day it was announced. This is an ideal platform for content creation and editing.”
The NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 GPU offers a number of features Power Mac G5 users have been looking for in a workstation-class platform. IEEE 32-bit floating point color precision and 512MB of dedicated graphics memory deliver exceptional image quality without compromising on performance. System bottlenecks are further eliminated using the latest PCI Express bus interface, which can transfer over 4GB data per second, and hardware accelerated pixel readback performance of more than 2.0GB per second. Output capabilities include support for two high resolution (dual-link) Apple Cinema HD Displays, and a feature new to Power Mac G5 users, quad buffered OpenGL stereo viewing capability for professional applications.
In addition to the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 GPU, targeted primarily at professional application users, Apple is offering Power Mac G5 customers the advanced NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT graphics card, designed to deliver blazing frame rates and outstanding image quality for a broad range of consumer applications. Standard Power Mac graphics options are based on the NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GPU. More information on NVIDIA graphics cards can be found at http://www.nvidia.com/
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple’s new Power Mac G5 Quad supercharges rendering – October 22, 2005
AnandTech: Apple new Power Mac G5’s biggest improvement is the move to PCI Express – October 21, 2005
Photos of new dual core Apple Power Mac G5 interior, ports, and more – October 19, 2005
First benchmark tests of Apple’s new Power Mac G5 dual-core machines – October 19, 2005
Apple introduces Power Mac G5 Quad and Power Mac G5 Dual – October 19, 2005
Yeah, but does it play Doom?
“Most excellent”
Sorry, I forgot the tag.
/obligatory
Yeah, but does it play Doom?
Duhhh!
Here is a chart with all of the details on this card on the NVIDIA site. On the left, there is a link to a PDF with more info.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_11761.html
It’s about time… Hopefully some CAD apps will be ported over, at least by way of our unix cousins… it would indeed be nice to get pro/e (etc) on board…
I’ll take two, please
Will it play X-box games?
Does it work for porn?
MW = shot, like in he shot off?
It might even work with the Mac version of Duke Nukem Forever in 2096.
And only $1650, which, contrary to apple’s habit, is not a ripoff.
“Apple is offering Power Mac G5 customers the advanced NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT graphics car”
If they’re offering the 7800, Why isn’t it available in the store? I placed an order with the default 6600 but if I could I would pick the 7800. hmm.
Why is there always a glaring omission in Apple’s offerings? Goddamnit, now every PC geek is going to point out that a $3300 computer only comes with a 6600 card there is no 7800 available. It should be at least a 6800 and the website should have the 7800.
For only $24,528.00, you get all this:
2.5GHz Quad-core PowerPC G5
16GB 533 DDR2 ECC SDRAM- 8x2GB
2x500GB Serial ATA – 7200rpm
QUADRO FX 4500 512MB SDRAM
Two Apple Cinema HD Displays (30″ flat panel)
Bluetooth Module + AirPort Extreme Card
Apple USB Modem
16x SuperDrive DL (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Fibre Channel PCI Express Card (w/ SFP-SFP cable)
Apple Wireless Keyboard & Mouse – U.S. English
Mac OS X – U.S. English
Mac OS X Server (Unlimited-Client)
Final Cut Express HD and Motion 2
That’s the Pixar mini deal. Where did I put my credit card?
“For only $24,528.00, you get all this:”
If you want the biggest & best from one source, it’ll cost you. One notably costly area is RAM, as Apple’s has always been notoriously expensive. I’d definitely shop third-party.
“Apple USB Modem”
That’d be like grandma driving a Ferrari to church. If you can afford this kind of Mac, you can afford a real Net connection.
“That’s the Pixar mini deal. Where did I put my credit card?”
How good would Renderman work on the Quad?
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Why does the report say:
“n addition to the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 GPU, targeted primarily at professional application users, Apple is offering Power Mac G5 customers the advanced NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT graphics card, …”
… but I can’t find it on Apple’s site?
John
Good points, flick. Actually, I was just mad shopping with little regard for practicalities. I get RAM from crucial.com. 16 GB of RAM is definitely worth shopping around. When those workstations hit a few exabytes of RAM and HD space, let’s call it Skynet and head for the hills.
Anybody know what is the best card I could get (NVIDIA or ATI) for the previous generation Powermac G5 D2.0ghz?
“seen” – as in have you seen it?
For only $24,528.00, you get all this:
One doesn’t need all that
2.5GHz Quad-core PowerPC G5 -need
16GB 533 DDR2 ECC SDRAM- 8x2GB – don’t need 2-4GB is all for most
2x500GB Serial ATA – 7200rpm – need only one that comes stock
QUADRO FX 4500 512MB SDRAM – if you need it for rendering, games don’t need it or can do with a 6800 GT just fine
Two Apple Cinema HD Displays (30″ flat panel) – 23″ will do or one 30″ is fine, two and you get neck strain looking back and forth
Bluetooth Module + AirPort Extreme Card – don’t really need either, bluethooth is insecure and for keyboards and mice a pain, eats batteries. Airport is not needed for a desktop machine, only laptops. Cable is more secure and easier.
Apple USB Modem – useful as backup in case broadband goes down, requires having a $10 dial up account on standby.
16x SuperDrive DL (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) – stock and needed
Fibre Channel PCI Express Card (w/ SFP-SFP cable) – where’s the X-Raid to go with this?
Apple Wireless Keyboard & Mouse – U.S. English – a waste, eats batteries, get the wired mouse and keyboard as you plug it into the monitor so one has plenty of cable, enough to sit on lap with feet on desk. Mouse needs a table top anyway.
Mac OS X – U.S. English -stock
Mac OS X Server (Unlimited-Client) – where’s the X-Server? Waste.
Final Cut Express HD and Motion 2 – if you need it get it
What’s missing
If your doing a lot of video your going to need a X-RAID, for large storage and speed = RAID 5, if small jobs you can get by with a SATA PCI card and a stack of external SATA drives in a Mini G for a RAID O a lot cheaper than a X-RAID.
So you have added things up wrong for what your going to do, especially all that RAM.
VIdeo is CPU intensive, sure you need some RAM, but you keep adding some until you reach the top performance of the CPU’s, it’s certainly NOT 16 GB.
Also 7,200 RPM 250 GB drives are pig slow for video, they make good storage/backup drives from a external RAID O, but not for a primary recording/rendering.