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nVidia Strikes Deal With Apple
Stefan MacGeek writes: "Nvidia, the manufacturer for 3D graphics chips has closed an OEM deal with Apple. Future Macs will use Nvidia graphics chips.
Nvidia has recently presented the GeForce 2 MX, their first chip suitable for use in Macs. It is not yet known if Nvidia will take over as Apple's main supplier of graphics chips from ATI. Source: The German computer news site Heise " Here's a link to the story itself, und wenn Sie Deutsch nicht können, continue your scavenger hunt at Babelfish. This sounds great for Macs and their users. One thing to keep in mind though: the article cautions that it's unclear whether nVidia chips will be installed as full-fledged video cards, or integrated as in previous Macintosh models. [Updated 8 July 3:00GMT by timothy] An alert Bethor points to this MacCentral story in which Nvidia denies the whole thing, claiming that such news is at least months in the future.
Just because North America was (invaded? re-settled?) by people who were kicked out of England because their religious views were too strict doesn't mean that everything here is pervaded by religion.
Assuming that that was indeed the intent (which seems likely) then it seems likely that they wanted that association, as in, this is the card/company to envy. After all, they've been doing some useful things here that 3dfx hasn't been able to match - And don't even talk to me about S3 or ATI, though S3 Savage4Max is actually a halfway decent chip, unlike anything ATI has to offer. S3 can also almost manage to write drivers properly.
In other words, nvidia is the big kid on the block, at least for the moment. They want to get that point across in as many ways as possible. They are definitely the company to beat at the moment.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Ok, as RadioHead ha already pointed out, MacWorld New York is a scant 10 days away, and all signs point to a "refresh" of at least the iMac and the ProDesktop (G4) "quadrents" (Apple marketing speak). Possibly also a speedbump in the powerbooks. There is a good chance that at least some of these new products will be "avaible immediately". I will leave you to the rumor sites to get more rumors.
But there is no chance that NVidia products will be in the new boxes for at least four months (that is assuming the they have been secretly working with Apple behind the scenes already). NVidea just this week announced that their new MX cards (the only ones that would make sense) are hardware compatible with Macs (has to do with the color space... Microsoft made the wrong decision all those years ago, and went proprietary), they still do not have final drivers.
What I hope that will be announced at the keynote on this subjects is that the Apple store will start offering third party graphics cards (read: not ATI) as Build-To-Order options on the G4. This might be only as additional cards, or might (fingers crossed) be as replacements to the primary card. A simmilar option on the iMac is unlikely, as it would require that Apple move the graphics chip off the motherboard and onto its own PSB. This costs money, and how many of you already complain about $950 for a nice computer including monitor?
Why do people have such adversity toward Apple? Apple is great alternative, and despite claims, they are computers -- not a rotten apple with a computer chip stuck in its side. When OSX comes out, and if they still use nVidia, IBM PC's will be underfire so long as consumers are OK to change over (which in many cases, they like their Windows). nVidia will help Apple rock.
IRS: Created at war-time, still at war with us.
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
Of course they're just babbling about games. As megalomaniacal as MS can get sometimes, even they know they couldn't really get away with becoming a full-fledged PC vendor too during the DOJ trial. Just wait until X-Box comes out. We'll see keyboard and mouse peripherals and non-game software following in no time.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
It is not unusual for companies to deny any type of partnership until both parties are ready for an announcement. I would suspect that nvidia and Apple and are having serious contract negotiations.
Everything in this post is false.
Naw...the iMacs (rev A and so on) used Rage II and Rage Pro. The new ones (350-400 MHz - the iMac, iMac DV and iMac DV SE) all have Rage 128 with 8 MB of RAM. Not replaceable.
Some people did but an 8MB Voodoo2 card in the mezzanine slot of the Rev A iMacs...but thats not an option in iMacs made after...what...November of '98? Or was it in the flavored iMacs of Jan '99...I forget.