by , 10:00 AM EST, February 6th, 2002
Yesterday, a press release hit the wire services in Apple's name announcing a new BTO option for Apple's PowerMac G4 product line, the GeForce4 Titanium. The only problem with this is that NVIDIA hadn't actually announced the GeForce4 Titanium meaning that Apple accidentally stole NVIDIA's thunder. You might remember a similar gaff that reportedly angered Apple's CEO when ATI ran a press release touting the (at that time) new Radeon video cards in an unannounced rev to Apple's PowerMac G4 line. After yesterday's press release hit, a retraction was issued recalling the press release, but it was re-released this morning (see our original story). The new press release includes the additional information that an upgrade kit will be available to customers who have already purchased a new PowerMac G4.
The GeForce4 Titanium is a 128 MB (DDR SDRAM) video card that is NVIDIA's new flagship product. The card supports dual monitors (one ADC connector, and one DVI connector), and is designed as a high-end gaming and 3D rendering video card. Additional specs are included in the PR quoted below. The Apple Store currently includes information on the new cards.
Apple® (Nasdaq: AAPL - news) today announced that the world's fastest graphics processor, NVIDIA's new GeForce4 Titanium, will be available in the world's fastest personal computer, the Pentium-crushing Power Mac(TM) G4, starting next month. Delivered on a AGP 4X card containing 128MB of double data rate (DDR) SDRAM, the GeForce4 Titanium processor renders incredibly lifelike content and special effects such as real-time character animation and amazing surface details never before seen on a personal computer."The Power Mac G4 with Mac OS X and NVIDIA's new GeForce4 Titanium combine to provide an incredible visual workstation," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Creative professionals and gamers alike are going to enjoy the amazing leap in 3D realism."
The GeForce4 Titanium delivers incredible performance, processing 87 million triangles per second and 4.9 billion textured pixels per second to perform over 1.23 trillion operations per second. The GeForce4 Titanium delivers another first -- the connection of two Apple flat-panel displays simultaneously in a single slot by providing both Apple Display Connector (ADC) and Digital Visual Interface (DVI) connectors (requires DVI to ADC adapter). The card provides both extended desktop as well as video mirroring, and it enables standard VGA devices to attach via the included DVI to VGA adapter.
Pricing & Availability
The NVIDIA GeForce4 Titanium graphics processor for the Power Mac G4 is available as a build-to-order option through The Apple Store®, with systems shipping next month. The GeForce4 Titanium option is an additional $250(US) with the dual 1-GHz and 933-MHz Power Mac G4 systems; and an additional $350(US) with the 800-MHz Power Mac G4.
Existing Power Mac G4 customers can add the NVIDIA GeForce4 Titanium card to their system via a standalone kit expected to be available this Spring for a suggested retail price of $399(US).
The Apple Store now includes the BTO GeForce4 Titanium option, but as of this writing, Apple's GeForce Web page does not have specifics on the new card.
There is currently a discussion on this announcement going on in the TMO forums.