New iMac Video card stealth upgrade: mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT?

Its funny but I went to the local apple store in Connecticut and they only had the 20 inch 2.4 GHZ imacs with 2MB of ram in it and not the boxed version(1mb) that a consumer would buy? Plus there were NO 2.0 GHZ 20 inch models on the floor. So it seems there is some trickery going on directed at the dumb consumer who does not know to look at the drop down "about this imac". I asked the store employee why there were no 2.0GHZ imacs on the floor, he said "nothing". Put the real deal on the floor and leave it up to the consumer to upgrade!!

"Apparently my 2.2Ghz MacbookPro w/ 128MB 8600GT, has 512MB, which I am positive is not true (it has 128MB, not 512)"

In windows your graphics card uses "TurboCache" which basically means it uses system memory as graphics memory. This is the same as how the GMA in a Macbook has 128MB memory when in reality it has none.

So too all extents and purposes you have a graphics card with 512MB of slower than normal graphics ram. OSX doesn't use this feature though. This would need a lot of driver development and probably some changes to how OSX handles graphics cards.

Even Apples System Profiler states that the "Device ID: 0x9583". This ID refers to the mobility 2600 xt.

Um, I was under the impression that I was getting the same driver error that made my X800 XT a simple X800 back in 04 after buying my new PC. I really, really doubt it's an XT.

#9 Adam

If you read the whole 21 pages of of the thread over at MacRumors (not likely, I know... I don't blame you), it seems to have been "confirmed" via several other methods other than Boot Camp.

But to be honest, I only skimmed the thread.

Don't trust what boot camp tells you

Apparently my 2.2Ghz MacbookPro w/ 128MB 8600GT, has 512MB, which I am positive is not true (it has 128MB, not 512)

@6: Reducing heat is hardly “aesthetics”.

There are usually sound reasons for shipping underclocked chips: drivers might not be stable yet, or the thing runs too hot and causes problems for the system as a whole, or there are stability problems.

I am on a G3 imac at the moment and waiting for leopard to come out to buy a new imac. Any thing would be an improvement over what I have now.

Not impressed, and not surprised.

They tried this same trick on the first Mac mini to reduce heat, and ended up flubbing DVI-D output for some people. Aesthetics over performance once again.

uh i remember them telling us that it WAS the HD 2600 XT on the keynote....