Windows computer users take for granted for the most part that you can upgrade your video card with ease. That is assuming you didn’t buy a factory built system that uses a small case or proprietary video card design. Mac users on the other hand are traditionally mostly limited to the video card that ships in their Mac system.

AMD announced a new ATI Radeon HD3870 video card that is optimized for use on the Mac, but retains its PC compatibility as well. The card is called the ATI Radeon HD 3870 for Mac & PC Edition. The card has a 256-bit memory interface and has 512MB of GDDR4 and 320 stream processors.

The card is aimed at the Mac Pro user and can support dual 30-inch Apple Cinema displays. ATI says that the card is optimized for the Mac, but doesn’t really go into details on exactly what optimizations are made. Visually it’s the stock HD 3870 with a blue heatsink rather than red. I’m betting the card is identical other than the color and simply ships with Mac optimized drivers.

AMD