World of Apple

NVIDIA today released updated drivers for the GeForce GTX 285 graphics card. The GTX 285 is a graphics card currently available for the Mac Pro at $449.95 and offers significant advantages over the standard options available for the Mac Pro.

According to Mac Rumors updating to the latest drivers will gives users an up to 20% performance boost compared to the previous drivers.

Owners of the GeForce GTX 285 will also be required to update to the new drivers before updating to Mac OS X 10.5.8.

AppleInsider reports that Apple today announced plans to being shipping the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 for the Mac Pro next month.

The graphics card which will carry a price tag of $1800 features 192 parallel processor cores, 1.5GB of memory with 76.8 GB/sec of bandwidth.

With its sophisticated GPU architecture and industry leading features, the Quadro FX 4800 delivers a substantial boost in graphics performance and capabilities, allowing users to continue to push the boundaries of realism and performance in markets such as: architecture, content creation, science and medicine,” NVIDIA said.

The NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 will be available from the online Apple Store and select Apple resellers in May.

NVIDIA Graphics Update 2009 – 3.21MB

This update improves cursor movement when using the Apple Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adapter with the Mini DisplayPort enabled MacBook Air, MacBook and MacBook Pro.

It also improves playback of HD video running on systems with NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT or GeForce 9600M graphics

A forum post on InsanelyMac.com reveals that buried within configuration files is evidence that the new iMac and Mac mini models will use NVIDIA chipsets.

The configuration files which can be found on the version of Mac OS X pre-installed on the latest Mac notebooks indicate that the NVIDIA MCP79 chipset could be chosen for use in the new iMac and Mac mini that could be revealed at the upcoming Macworld Expo.

The text strings can be found under System -> Library -> IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext -> Contents -> PlugIns -> ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin.kext -> Contents -> Info.plist, and they refer to unreleased “MacMini3,1″ and “iMac9,1″ models.

The text strings from the configuration file read as follows:

Desc-Key
CFG_MCP79
Description
Mini-FL-2008
model
Macmini3,1

The NVIDIA MCP79 chipset is the same chip which is utilised in the current MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models.