Nvidia Custom-Made the 320M IGP for Apple
Apple gets the special treatment from Nvidia in the 320M IGP used in the new MacBook Pro 13-inch.
While we're still wondering why Apple would keep the latest Arrandale chips away from its 13-inch professional laptop, the company enlisted Nvidia to make a custom graphics part.
Nvidia told AppleInsider that the 320M integrated graphics part was made especially for Apple as a suitable replacement for the 9400M in the 13-inch MacBook Pro. While the 320M isn't as capable as the GT 330M in the bigger MacBook Pros and other PC laptops, the 320M is a notable improvement over the 9400M.
Apple boasts that the 320M is up to 80 percent faster than the 9400M in Doom 3, while in other games, such as Quake 4, the gains are just 30 percent. The 320M is supposedly based on the GT216 core, which gives it 48 shader cores. While the spec sheet does boast 256MB, it is shared with the main system memory.
Clearly, the 320M isn't really going to play Crysis with any satisfactory results, so the real achievement here is that the 320M is 40 percent more energy efficient over the previous IGP while also being faster.
What's interesting is that Apple's choice to stick with Core 2 Duo CPUs, and thus been able to keep Nvidia on-board for the chipset. Perhaps the conditions so happened to be that Apple would stick with Nvidia for its 13-inch MacBook Pro offering as long as it would get a custom IGP, even if it meant not taking the leap to Nehalem-based Core iCPUs.

Seriously Apple, make your tax actually worth something, not just the privilege to use your product...
Seriously Apple, make your tax actually worth something, not just the privilege to use your product...
I think Apple better lower the price from 1199 to 1099. That looks more reasonable.
I'm not defending Apple, i'm just sayn that Doom 3 was the crysis of it's time (and it still looks good today) plus it's opengl based so you can bench it on mac (you can't play crysis).
BTW the ilife suit is included with a macbook pro and its WAYYY better than anything microsoft has ever included in windows. Also, macs can play Crysis (an overly bloated inefficient mainly there for benchmarks game) just fine via bootcamp. Yes my macbook pro runs win7 90% of the time.
Macs still suck. Period.
They are bringing graphics cards at a hefty price with performance...they are basically drilling a hole in your pocket...
Considering they're boasting about having had Nvidia custom make the 320m for them, why wouldn't they just use the Optimus and have Nvidia custom-make a low-power low-cost IGP to tag along with the Intel HD?
... Actually matter to US. Apparently some things that matter to US don't matter to you. Be an informed person, and realize your concerns differ. As for being an informed consumer, Crysis isn't overly bloated/inefficient game. While the gameplay may be lacking, why don't you try actually looking into the technology behind CryEngine 2, hm? See how much that engine is rendering and at what accuracy. Hypocrite for not doing your own research.
u know i used to sit down with ppl like u and discuss for hours why apple is what it is ... and convince u all to c the light regarding the disadvantages of MACs .... i simply gave up, there are too many of you and i have a better chance of flipping the earths magnetic poles then to reason with apple fan boys......
thats when i chose to reduce my comments to "apple sucks" its much less technical for the simple minded ones .... now excuse me while i boot my fedora 13 and lol at OS X. good day
Wow. You sound completely informed.
Amen to that...I as well have tried for hours...Apple is all about profit. Forget the stuff about happy customer satisfaction. I don't see why they suddenly need to tell the world that they have a custom made 320M as of now...like everyone is suddenly going to start gaming.
I just wonder what he'll do with his AMAZING MAC when he's at the airport and realizes he left his charger at home and the battery runs out...
You guys know toms provided a link to avoid apple news right? The quantity of anti-apple comments almost leads me to believe apple trolling is a hobby of many toms readers.