What is ATI Macintosh equivalent for the "discontinued" GTX-285

Hi, After searching around, the closest I could find to this query was a discussion about the ATI 7050.

After placing an order for the Macintosh version of the

Evga NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 Mac 1024MB GDDR3 PCIe Graphics Card.

the MacMall alerted me that the product has been discontinued. Their call center operator from India wasn't sure if it was, in fact, discontinued or downgraded to backordered status. The MacMall no longer list the GTX 285 Mac, and Tiger Direct lists it as unavailable. The 285 Mac is still available from Other World Computing, but at a much higher price. NewEgg only lists the PC version.

Other vendors indicate that the manufacturer has discontinued this graphic card. The manufacturer's website still lists the product, so I'm unable to ascertain the true status - hence I turn to the experts here on this website.

If it turns out that the GTX 285-Mac has been discontinued, what is the Mac equivalent manufactured by ATI-Radeon?

Seems strange that Evga Nvidia would drop a graphics card at a time when Starcraft II is driving demand way up (if that's what's going on)

Many thanks for this impressive website and for all the hard work being accomplished here.
Cheers,
Adonsa

 

I would get a hold of EVGA. I'm sure the ONLY thing you would need to do is, get the PC version of the card, and flash the BIOS to the Mac ver. Hardware wise, there is no difference, normally its just the BIOS that needs changing.

 

Hi TheXev,
Thanks for replying.

This reply is resubmitted without links and without the names of VAR dealers.

I hope this is informative for other readers.

According to an email I received from Evga, The GeForce 285 (Mac) has been discontinued and there are no plans to develop any new video cards for the Mac.

I looked into flashing the IBM-PC version, there is an advisory on the Insanely Mac website that a chip swap is also necessary.

One of the big VAR dealers has a few 285's still on hand, at full retail price.

Most of the big VAR dealers have de-listed the product.

 

I hope you can get lucky and find something that works. Does any other Mac people know of any alternatives? Mac doesn't have a strong aftermarket...... cause Apple killed in in the 90's. :/

 

Hi TheXev,
I've been told that the ATI 4870 is the closest currently available video card to use in lieu of the GeForce 285, but the 4870 lacks the twin DVI jacks. I've also been told that the yet-to-be-released ATI 5770 and ATI 5870 will replace the GeForce 285. Then there are the high dollar models (over $1000) that are still around.

The only downside I can find about the GeForce 285 is that the drivers must be pre-installed on every bootup volume prior to removal of the ATI 2600, otherwise a kernal panic won't allow bootup. This tells me that bootup from the Apple Master Installer DVD will require swapping back to the ATI2600, otherwise the emergency bootup volumes will need to have the GeForce drivers installed.

From ratings on various websites, GeForce users seem to be quite happy with their 285's.

For the Mac Community, ATI needs to get off the dime and release the Mac versions of their 5770 and 5870 cards; or Apple engineers need to develop a specific Mac only video card. Total dependence on one third-party video card supplier seems precarious to the continuation of Mac's vast superiority over the pee cee!

Edit: Corrected Line 2 to read "DVI." Sorry for the error.