"phase 5 digital products reduces prices on all shipping versions of G4 processor upgrades for PowerMacs and clones

Oberursel, January 9, 2000: German manufacturer phase 5 digtal products significantly lowers the MSR prices for all available versions of G4 processor upgrades for PowerMacs and compatibles with immediate effect. The new prices for these products are as follows:

Maccelerate!7400-350   (G4 350MHz, 1 MB Cache) for PCI PowerMacs US$ 499
Maccelerate!7400-400   (G4 400MHz, 1 MB Cache) for PCI PowerMacs US$ 649

G4 PowerBooster 350/366   (G4 350/366MHz, 1 MB Cache) for PowerMac G3 US$ 489
G4 PowerBooster 400  (G4 400MHz, 1 MB Cache) for PowerMac G3 US$ 639

Maccelerate!7400TA-360 (G4 360MHz, 1 MB Cache) for PM 4400, Starmax etc. US$ 479

Aptus G4-350 (G4 350MHz, 1 MB Cache) for Umax C series and compatibles US$ 499

All products come with a 12-month limited warranty.

Once again, phase 5 digital products provides breathtaking performance and power without the price. North American customers may order directly from phase 5 digital products from the website http://www.phase5.de and take advantage of these stunning G4 offers, protected by a 15-day money-back guarantee. "

I don't have much experience with their upgrades and there are only 2 reader ratings entries (of the 2,900+ total) in my Rate Your CPU Upgrade database. Powerlogix had a Expo G4/350 special price of $555 with free shipping. Since G4/altivec software will likely need revisions over time (for running two altivec applications simultaneously for instance), I'd want to buy from a company with good software expertise for future support. (Note: some G4 upgrade manufacturers may ship software developed by another company.)

The Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Reviews, and Mac Game/Video Card Performance searchable databases were updated with new entries early Saturday morning but there are more from this weekend I'm sure. I post new entries to the public databases several times a week.

A reader asked that I repost the link to the 3dfx screensavers (noted in the December 18th, 1999 news page). I've added the link to the FAQ's 3dfx video card topic area.

I've gotten several mails on iDisk tips that I'll be posting in tomorrow's news.

3Dfx Mac VSA-100 Card Q&A: [Note: 3dfx in early 2001 closed their doors, selling assets to Nvidia. The comments here were from Jan 8th, 2000.] Since I was unable to make the Macworld SF show, I sent my roving reporter Matthew Culmore a list of questions to discuss with 3dfx's Greg Hartman, director of their Apple Products Division. Below is a summary of comments and replies to my questions including great news on DVD and Quicktime support with their recently announced VSA-100 chip based Mac retail cards. [Note: The DVD Player support mentioned never happened. See the Video articles page for reviews and related articles on 3dfx's Mac Voodoo5 and Voodoo4 PCI cards, driver feedback, etc.]

Greg Hartman emphasized that they have an "entire dedicated team of Mac employees". He said they made the decision many months ago for a full blown commitment to the Mac. Their Mac team includes several ex-Apple employees as well as long-time Mac users.

The new VSA-100 silicon was designed to be completely Macintosh compatible. Full 1555 pixel support, 32-bit 3D, large texture support as well hardware anti-aliasing and a scaleable (multiple processor) design.

First Mac Silicon arrives Monday. Then they will be working "full bore" with spring availability of a complete Mac retail boxed product. Greg also stressed there will be a full Mac customer technical support team ready at launch (not shared PC personnel). After the first Mac retail product release, future plans are for concurrent Mac and PC product releases.

Matthew said an emulation demo was running in the 3dfx suite showing off the VSA-100's features like hardware anti-aliasing, motion blur and soft reflections. A split screen demo comparing the Rage128 to the VSA-100 showed dramatic image quality improvements in side-by-side comparison he said. Since anti-aliasing is totally done in hardware, it should be backward compatible with existing games.

3dfx commented the VSA-100 will 'reset the bar' in Mac graphics card performance, with much improved 2D and 3D that 'sets a new standard'. Native Quicktime and DVD support will round out a very complete total Mac graphics card solution.

The following are the questions I had sent to Matthew to ask of 3dfx.

1. Will there be several models? (1 chip, 2 chip, 4 chip SLI)

   Likely more than one SLI, 2 and 4 chip. No SKUs assigned yet.

2. Will pricing be the same as the PC versions?

   Undetermined until SKUs/models are finalized.

3. Any ideas on pricing at this time?

   Not at this time. Price/performance will be a breakthrough for the Mac however.

4. Will there be Quicktime drivers in the box?

   Absolutely Yes.

5. Any plans for a DVD player?

   Yes - we'll have full DVD support. It will be an in-house solution. [NOTE: There never was a DVD Player released.]

6. I understand that the full screen anti-aliasing feature will be backward compatible with existing games - is this true?

   Yes. This is a hardware-only solution, not software dependent so virtually all existing games will work out of the box.

7. PCI and AGP versions or only PCI initially?

   PCI may be first release item due to a larger installed base but the final product models will be announced at a later date.

8. When will the new cards be available at retail?

   Spring 2000.

(See the Video articles page for later reviews of the Voodoo4/5 cards.)

Pair the VSA-100 with a Creative Labs Soundblaster Live audio card's 4 speaker/surround sound and you've got a major shot in the arm for Mac consumer appeal. That benefits all of us as more sales = more hardware and software offerings in the future. 3dfx and Creative are two of the best known names in the PC world - their support of the Mac will not go unnoticed by other companies that may also jump on the Mac bandwagon. [As of early 2002, Creative's Mac SBlive has not had a driver update for OS 9, nor any sign of OS X drivers. See the Audio topics page, previous articles listing for owner reports.]

Jobs at MW Expo Photos: Reader Tim Smith sent photos for our 3rd page of Expo pictures. Included is a great photo of 'The Man with the Plan', Steve Jobs himself. Thanks Tim!

iDisk Problem Report: A reader sent a note about some issues he's seen with iDisk and wonders if this is a common problem:

"This may be just me, but....
iTools is neat, with one HUGE caveat. Once you have mounted the idrive, the Finder really slows down on a modem connection. Brutal. However, the intolerable bug is that if your isp disconnects (which happens), the finder doesn't recover gracefully. Hello 3 finger salute. I would be interested if I am the only person seeing this. It is repeatable, and happens with IE or Netscape. Your site is my homepage - keep up the outstanding work!
Mike Childers "

I welcome other reader reports on this issue (include your system details please). Thanks!

d For a blast from the past see what was on the front page news here one year ago.

Friday's News Summary

• Another page of MWSF 2000 Pictures incl. pix of the iSub, VST Tri-Media drive and comedian Sinbad.
• Mac Technician Jobs available
• Aurora Video Systems announces uncompressed video option for Igniter
• Supra 56e USB Modem - No Caller ID/Distinctive Ring
• Thinner Ckt Card on CPU Upgrade Cards Note
• More on Onstream Mac Drive Pricing:
• Pros/Cons on MacOS Apps under OS X
• Pioneer SCSI DVD Drive & Hacked CD/DVD Extension
• Mac Game Artists Wanted
• Possible iDisk Storage Demands
• Casady & Greene has released an 8.1 update to Spell Catcher 8.
• Other Net News

Thursday's News Summary

• Interesting OS X GUI comments in forums
• OS X and MacOS Apps - faster than OS 9?
• OS X Mac Model Support
• Comments on Creative Labs MW Booth
• More Toshiba DVD Drive Reports
• MWSF 2000 Picture Gallery incl. pix of VST 100GB FireRAID.
• PF Dual G4 page has photo and details on the card
• 3dfx press release on Mac retail VSA-100 cards
• Mac Onstream 30GB SCSI Drive
• CarrierZIF Wins MW Eddy
• OS X GUI Discussion
• Toshiba 6X DVD Drive Report
• Patched DVD Player/Pioneer DVD SCSI Drive Report
• Midiman Audio Card Report
• Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Reviews, and Mac Game/Video Card Performance searchable databases updated with new entries.

Wednesday's News Summary

• Sonnet PB 1400 G3 Upgrades
• 3Dfx (Retail) Mac Support
• Apple MacOS X Web Site
• XLR8 announces Interview 2.0, Cuts Prices
• OS X's Stunning Interface
• My comments on Keynote
• Keynote Summary
• Webstar 4.2 Adds Altivec Support
• Rainbow 6 Column Issue #3
• PowerForce Dual G4 Upgrades
• After Effects 4.1 Altivec Plugin Reports
• Nintendo 64 Emulator Feedback/3dfx Card Tips
• SoundJam MP 1.6 (still problematic here with G4 upgrades)
• USB 1.3.5 Performance Hit
• OS 9 on older Macs
• iMac DV Audio Delay Report
• RamDoubler 9 (Confirmed):
• HP8110 IDE CDR/ZIP Drive Problem
• Mac QuakeIII CD Key Problems Fixed?
• OWC CPU Upgrade Sale
• More on Lotus CC:Mail Y2K Issues
• Apple OT Update

Tuesday's News Summary

• After Effects 4.1 Altivec Plugin released
• Nintendo 64 Emulator
• Powerlogix page on MWSF Expo
• CarrierZIF 2.0 Announced
• Formac Exodus?
• $180 27GB Maxtor Drive
• Toshiba 6X DVD Report
• Quickmail Y2K Bug and Fix
• Lotus cc:Mail Mobile Y2K Bug
• Emailer/AOL Date Fix
• DVD Movies and VR128 TV Out
• New Sonnet L2 G3 Upgrades/PCI Video Card Report
• Mac vs PC Quake 3 TeamDM
• Latest topics in the G4 and 3Dfx Forums

For links to older news pages see the Archives page.

The recent features page has a lists reviews/articles you may have missed.

For a guide to finding answers to questions - see my Site Guide page.

Considering a CPU Upgrade? Check the CPU Upgrade Owner's Survey results and search for owner reports by Mac model and/or card brand. Readers post new entries daily and the database is updated several times a week. The current database has more than 2,800 reports and growing.

-Freq Asked Questions