Last month Apple updated its entire desktop lineup, from the Mac mini to the Mac Pro. Next month, Mac Pro users will have even more to get excited about when NVIDIA starts selling its new Quadro FX 4800 graphics card for Mac. The new card is supposed to be designed specifically for the unique requirements of the Mac Pro desktop, which might help explain why it costs about $230 more than the previously released, not-for-Mac Quadro FX 4800.
The extra cash probably also helps pay for the extra dual-link DVI port the Mac processor comes with, for a total of two. All the other stats are the same for the Mac edition as for its predecessor, including 92 CUDA parallel processor cores with 1.5GB GDDR3 that put out a whopping 76.8GB/sec of memory bandwidth. In other words, this thing kicks.
Other features of the new card include a 3 pin min-din connector for use with stereo 3D glasses, and out-of-the-box Boot Camp support that will ensure you’re using native Quadro drivers in Windows for the best possible graphics performance on both platforms.
The Quadro FX 4800 will cost you more than a lot of laptops, though, so don’t get your heart set on it unless you’re the kind of person for whom graphics are very important (which, if you own a Mac Pro to begin with, you probably are). Also, if you have an older Mac Pro, check before buying, since the card will only be compatible with Mac Pros with device identifiers of 3,1 and 4,1 or higher, which are the last two major product refreshes. No word on whether it’ll be an upgrade option when you’re setting up your custom computer for purchase, but it will retail at the official Apple online store, along with NVIDIA’s other retail partners.
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