Mac graphics cards explained
The PC market is littered with companies that make graphics cards based on Nvidia Corp.'s popular graphics processing units, and it's a sore spot for many Mac gamers who would like speedier rendering in their 3D games, since their options are very limited.
One can buy a $400 graphics card from Apple that's only designed to work in 4x AGP slot-equipped Power Mac G4s. Based on the Nvidia GeForce4 Ti chip, the Apple card is grossly overpriced compared to its PC counterpart. ATI has a couple of choices, too -- the Radeon 9000 Pro Mac Edition, which is a mainstream card at best, and the older Radeon 8500 model. These aren't necessary bad choices if your Power Mac G4 is a couple of years old, but neither are "premium" alternatives.
There is no "premium" alternative. Mac-compatible retail boards based on Nvidia chips don't exist, and ATI is dragging its heels on getting a Radeon 9800-based Mac retail product out the door. One is coming, I'm sure, but when, I have no idea. Another way to get faster graphics in your Mac is to use a PC card that's been "flashed" with new EPROM software to support the Mac. Some people have made it work. Most folks don't want to go through the trouble.
Anyway, a reader asked me this morning why a Mac-centric company hasn't stepped up to the plate with an Nvidia graphics card. That got me thinking about the economics and logistics of Macintosh video card support, and I came up with a lengthy and detailed response that I think is pretty much on the money. This is focused on Nvidia because they're the dominant player in the market right now beside ATI, but you can substitute pretty much any brand name in there and you'll come up with the same response. Read on for details.
Companies who make Nvidia-based graphics cards buy the chips and license the board reference designs and drivers from Nvidia. Most of them use third-party card fabricators in Taiwan and other Pac-rim countries to do the actual manufacturing for them (Apple, for example). A few really big ones own their own manufacturing facilities.
Nothing is stopping any Mac vendor from licensing a board design from Nvidia and producing their own cards; conversely, nothing is stopping an existing Nvidia licensee from supporting the Mac market with a Mac-compatible product. I've talked with Nvidia about this; they've assured me that they'd be amenable to such an arrangement.
Nothing is stopping such activity from happening, except for the cost of manufacturing, limited consumer demand, Apple's use of proprietary technology like ADC for its monitors complicating the manufacturing process, the frightening pace of graphic chip development, the historic failures of companies that have produced consumer-focused graphics cards for the Mac, and various other issues that have pretty much scared everyone away from doing it.
Most PC card makers don't see the Mac market as large enough or robust enough to bother with, considering the only demand for add-on cards is in just one segment of Apple's product line -- the Power Mac G4. Virtually every other system that Apple sells uses integrated graphics hardware that isn't upgradeable. Another nail in the coffin is the weak demand for the Power Mac G4 for the last several quarters.
Pros and consumers alike are staying away from the Power Mac G4 in droves, and while different people will give you different answers as to why that's the case, I think it's because there is a real, tangible performance deficit in the Power Mac G4 design, "megahertz myth" not withstanding. Apple needs faster processors, faster motherboard designs, bells and whistles like USB 2.0, and it needs those things in a hurry.
Add to that the fact that every Power Mac ships from the factory with a graphics card pre-installed. That means that a potential vendor has to convince a consumer with a Power Mac G4 that their retail product is different enough from what the user already has to make them pay a premium. And the vendor has to have the infrastructure to support end-users with driver updates, staff on hand, and so on.
Retail graphics cards, even in the PC world, are a niche market. Nvidia's board partners and ATI will all tell you that the real money is selling to OEMs, system fabricators, and other folks who can do a volume business -- not to retail stores, although there is some money to be made there.
So the problem is that Mac retail graphics cards are a niche of a niche, and in the end, the cost/benefit analysis makes graphics card makers decide that the effort isn't worth it.