Reviews & Daily News with a Difference!
= View Recent Site Features List = - Freq. Asked Questions (FAQ) - - Systems Features - - CPU Card Articles - - SCSI/Disk Articles - - Video Card Articles - - Audio Articles - - Game Related Articles - - Tips & Misc Articles - - L2 Cache Articles -	Need Help? Ask the Men in Mac! First 400MHz ZIF Upgrade Review for G3 Macs! World's first 400MHz G3 Upgrade Review Visit the G3-ZONE for G3 Specific info! Bring in the Noise! (Mac Audio) Complete Site Contents Send News items, Tips and Guest Reviews Advertise here! - Help support Accelerate Your Mac!
11/07/98 - Saturday's News:	Click for Current News Page
[Note - this news page was from 1998 - before Apple adopted AGP as a graphics chip/card standard, etc.] Positive Feedback on Standards: " Mike, I agree with your editorial about the AGP issue. We've been all too enthusiastic about accepting Apple 'standards' too often, and being forced into a corner later on. Unfortunately, people are all too eager to support Apple's mistakes simply because Apple needs to be infallible in their eyes. Apple needs to know how we feel about their hardware and software design, it's far too often that a decision made by forecasting does not represent what the consumer wants. It seems that after the decision is made, and people start reacting to the choice months later by reading about it in MacWorld or MacWeek, it's too far into the production process to change. Your site provides detailed and accurate information early on in an easily understood and accessible media. Sometimes it's not what we expected, and it's important that it's discussed openly what we're interested in using. After all, capitalism is the greatest democracy in a way. We 'vote' with our money, and the the best consumer is an informed consumer. Thank you for all the hard work that you've done! it's made your site my first visit everyday! -Adam Scinto -Academic Computing Technical Coordinator -Hofstra University " " Mike- Your editorial about the 64-bit PCI yesterday and your reply today are right on the mark. I completely agree with every word you said. I have been very upset with that development from Apple. I also work with PCs and see that an inexpensive TNT blows away even the most expensive cards for Macs. I wholeheartedly support you in the fact that we, the consumers of Apple products, need to be critical of Apple. Many Mac users think that Apple can do no wrong and blindly agree with whatever they do. Thank you very much for delivering an articulate, intelligent and accurate critique of one of Apple's hardware strategies! As always, your work is invaluable. Thank you. -Barron " In catching up with my mail I see Adaptec posted v1.02f3 of their 2940U2W (Ultra 2 SCSI card) firmware at: http://www.adaptec.com/support/overview/macintosh.html Amir Caspi writes in regards to yesterday's post on the talking moose: " Hi Mike... Yes, the Talking Moose has been back for a month or two now. Uli Kusterer is the one who adapted it, colorized it, etc... in fact, I had to help him debug it, because on Macs w/o the Appearance Manager, it would crash while opening the control panel. =) The "official" web site for the Moose is http://www.weblayout.com/witness/Moose.htm There's also a German version available. =) --- Amir " = [3:00 PM Update] = Today's Unreal Tips and Tricks page has performance notes on the generic Voodoo II drivers, last call for Map of the Week votes, new Mac Unreal servers, more on the botmatch bug and a new cool new sniper key binding. AGP vs 64-Bit PCI - it's a Standards Thing: Several people wrote with links to articles regarding AGP vs PCI based on the DA article. Here are the main points I was trying to make for those that didn't get it - performance is not the primary issue -industry standards and low cost/high performance choices are my concerns. My main point was one of standards - with the next Apple (sawtooth) said to have AGP the 64 bit PCI will likely be an orphan. Apple needs to make it easier for the legion of state-of-the-art graphics chip companies to support them - not harder. Want to bet there will never be another 64-Bit PCI video card other than the one Apple ships? Is it logical for companies to make a new hardware form factor card for one Mac model when they don't for the millions that take even std PCI Cards? It's another hurdle for companies to overcome to support the Mac. AGP cards are low cost and plentiful, a standard form factor. 64-Bit PCI cards are not. Unix boxes use them, but otherwise they are few and far between. Will having these slots suddenly appearing on one Mac model make the world suddenly start making Mac drivers and cards for it? Of course not. The difference in performance between the ATI Rage 128 in PCI std vs 64 bit format was very close, so performance is still likely to be limited by the chip, not the interface as I said (this came from the horse's mouth so to speak). AGP is not perfect, however it is the new standard. Apple needs take a look at the world standards. My Viper V550 AGP is faster by far in 2d and literally as fast in 3D (in a PII 300/AGP) as a PCI FireGL 4000 32MB $2495 card in a dual PII 450 NT box (and leaves any card I've seen on the Mac far in the dust in 2d and 3d). At $169 for a 16MB card with that caliber of 2d/3d performance that's value! It hurts me to see these $160 screamers never see the light of day on the Mac. platform. Look at what USB in the iMac did for Mac support of USB devices! What a refreshing change - imagine if they offered a low cost AGP model? Will there ever be any of the newer 2d/3d chips in 64-Bit PCI format (other than the unique OEM Rage128 that ships with the Pro)? Apple has to take action on standards (like AGP) or we will never see the state of the art in graphics hardware on the Mac. We always seem to be a generation or two behind. Apple could change that - it is their responsibility as the self appointed sole provider of Macs now. Instead they offer us very few choices in hardware designs, almost no upgrades (CPU and Video) and models that often don't follow industry standards. I for one want choices in hardware and new state of the art products at a very low price. With new models ignoring industry standards that will never happen. Thankfully I hear sawtooth will have AGP, but at what price and when is not known. Since Apple has made themselves the sole sources of our systems - *somebody* has to speak out when they do something that makes it harder for us to get choices from the marketplace. If you want more drooling, brainwashed PR that regurgitates the party line, there are plenty of sites out there with that drivel. I always have and always will fight for the end user, for choices and for lower cost higher performance options. If that upsets some people I'm sorry. With one source for systems Apple's designs affect the future of all of us. I'll continue to speak my mind, rather than just throw in the towel and give up on better industry support and choices for Mac owners.   On the heels of my article on workarounds for Retrospect and PowerForce/XLR8 G3 cards it appears that the Retrospect issue (and others) has gone public in a MacWeek article. The MacWeek article also speaks of other issues with data corruption but some of their comments are bizarre (like a register's contents being changed by just accessing it). The issues I've seen with G3 cards in general have been noted in the FAQ (question 31) and on several articles on the TIPs page. The MacWeek article did not mention the workarounds that I found to work with the XLR8 400MHz card and a PF 266MHz clone that are listed on my Retrospect and PowerForce/XLR8 G3 cardsRetrospect page. Dantz also told me that the XLR8 400MHz card If I were a new user and reading that article I'd be terrified, but as tens of thousands of G3 upgrade owners know, in general most owners have not reported these problems with the exception of Adaptec SCSI cards and wide drives and Retrospect backup software. However the Newer Tech cards with their onboard firmware fix seem to be the most compatible cards on the market, albeit at a higher price. Note: I have over 1000 mails in my inbox so before sending tech support related questions please check the Freq. Asked Questions, Site Contents, CPU Card reviews/articles, SCSI reviews articles, Graphics card reviews, Tips/Misc, Message Boards and Help pages before sending mail on product questions and support. For Apple G3 system info - see the G3-ZONE. News and guest reviews that don't require a reply are always welcome. I hope to catch up in the next few weeks. Thanks. Looking for past articles? Check the menu frame topics links (CPU Cards, SCSI, Graphics Cards, Systems) under the logo above or in the menu frame below or check the Recent Features page. Make a Difference: Be the Difference Randy Mita, Brad Lau and I came up with a new slogan and theme for Mac advocacy - "Make a Difference: Be the Difference". We're asking that all Mac owners take advantage of every opportunity to let others know the Mac advantage. It's a grass-roots approach that will surely help.