EVGA's GeForce GTX 285 Mac Edition: The Best for OS X?
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 17, 2009 7:00 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Power Consumption
Comparing power consumption under OS X echoes what we've seen under Windows, the GeForce GTX 285 uses less power than the Radeon HD 4870 at idle but more under load:
| Total System Power Consumption | Idle | Load (Mudbox 2009) |
| ATI Radeon HD 4870 (512MB) | 286W | 334W |
| EVGA GeForce GTX 285 Mac Edition (1GB) | 278W | 350W |
| NVIDIA GeForce GT120 (512MB) | 251W | 262W |
Both of these cards will consume much more power under load than the GT120, but you also get much more performance out of them. The extra ~30W at idle isn't terrible.
Final Words
To me, the biggest advantage of EVGA’s GeForce GTX 285 Mac Edition is its large 1GB frame buffer. Something you can’t currently get from any other video card Apple offers. Kudos to EVGA for not only putting out a complete product but also delivering the best video card offered on Apple’s website.
What I would like to see is this become a regular occurrence; whenever there’s a new PC GPU release I’d like to see EVGA or one of the other vendors provide quick turnaround on releasing a Mac edition. So long as there’s driver support, there’s no reason that it can’t happen.
The other thing I’d like to see is EVGA work to break down the ridiculous pricing on these things. A $100 price premium for two cables, different packaging and an EFI compliant ROM is ridiculous. Unfortunately that seems to be what the Apple user has to live with. EVGA’s pricing isn’t as bad as it could be (remember the $399 X1900 XT?) and from talking with EVGA, apparently they are also working to drive prices down. However if you take into account the fact that two PCIe power cables will cost you $60 and EVGA bundles them for free, the price premium ends up a more manageable $40.
Personally, I’d try your hands at converting a PC video card first but if you don’t want to deal with the hassle - EVGA’s GeForce GTX 285 Mac Edition is pretty much the best option you’ve got.
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bohhad - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Will installation instructions be standard on all hardware reviews? Being Anandtech readers, I'm sure most all of us have no clue how to even take the sides of our cases off. Or was this a 'special' feature for our equally 'special' Mac-using members?utdman53 - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Cost of a Mac pro configured with the two Xeon @ 2.93 is $6000.00 or more. What an absolute waste of money to match a core i7. If you want a computer that bad I'll build you one and myself one with that money.In life there are but kings and pawns, Apple clearly lives off the pawns.
archer75 - Wednesday, August 19, 2009 - link
I was looking at the price of the processors and ram and newegg and believe it or not it's cheaper from apple. We are talking about workstations here and as they go the mac pro is indeed priced well.ViRGE - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Bear in mind that you're looking at a workstation system. The price on any of those is astronomical, it's not just an Apple thing. The chipset costs a small fortune, the Xeon processors cost a small fortune, etc.Apple's is still more expensive yet, but not by whole orders of magnitude like it is when comparing it to a desktop system.
ipay - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
I'd say there are clever people and stupid people, and that Apple makes its money from the latter.thurston - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Why is the $100 price premium ridiculous? It seems to be in line with Mac pricing in general.JimmiG - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
"The first step to install the card is actually to install the drivers. If you fail to do so, you’ll be greeted with a kernel panic once you get the card installed and fire up the machine."That made me LOL after seeing those ads about how Macs don't need drivers and how they're so easy to use. At least a PC will load up Windows even without drivers. In fact, since Vista, it will even work at fairly high resolutions and in full 32-bit color. Just another example of how Apple's advertising is based on lies, exaggerations and misconceptions.
sprockkets - Tuesday, July 21, 2009 - link
But, but, I thought Macs just work and used "The World's Most Advanced operating system"!529th - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
The 4870 is also a working GPU for a Hackintosh. Also sold in the new Mac Pros. Apparently it is supported in Leopard 10.5.7 OS Xpsonice - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
Any chance of some core image tests of some kind? CI has traditionally been nvidia's very weak spot (ATI 2600 outperforming nvidia 8800 anyone?) and it's important for some apps.