AMD to Bump Out Nvidia for New MacBook Pros?
From the green team to the red team?
It's expected that the Apple MacBook Pro line will be refreshed today in conjunction with the launch of Intel's Light Peak technology. That might not be the only new bit of kit, however, as Cnet reports that AMD may be bumping out Nvidia as the graphics part of choice in the higher-end of the Apple notebook offerings.
While ATI Radeon graphics parts are commonly used in the iMac lineup, Nvidia rules the entire MacBook line with either IGPs or discrete graphics parts. The new refresh of the MacBook Pros could potentially give Nvidia the entire boot with Intel's latest Sandy Bridge processors and AMD providing the discrete graphics.
On the 13-inch model, Apple is said to be relying solely on the integrated graphics part that Intel developed inside Sandy Bridge. For the 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros, it's believed that they'll be Radeon parts that will also feature dynamic switching between the Intel HD graphics part and the discrete GPU part depending on performance and power needs.
Hopefully we'll know all later today.
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Apple gets a ridiculous amount of press coverage.
This news in particular really makes me yawn.
Congrats AMD I guess.
If the switch occurs, it's probably 'cause AMDs cards are cooler...
"AMD to Bump Out Nvidia for New MacBook Pros?"
I don't know, ok? You're the ones supposed to know. I wonder why most news articles on Tom's have to contain question marks.
Probably because they're not real news.
If the switch occurs, it's probably 'cause AMDs cards are cooler...
And, if the mobile AMD chips are similar to the desktop GPU chips, then less power hungry.
Apple gets a ridiculous amount of press coverage.
So true. But if I'm being honest I don't mind hearing about Apple's latest hardware revamps. Steve Job's health and/or Apple shares? I could care less.
If the switch occurs, it's probably 'cause AMDs cards are cooler...
Get a grip on physics. Temperature has nothing to do with it - that depends entirely on how Apple choose to cool them. What you mean to say is that they produce less heat.
Marcus, it sounds like you've been hanging out with Jane too much.
AMD has lower power consumption vs performance, apples are praised for their long lasting battery, so its a good move i guess. It should also sway software companies to implement hardware acceleration for AMD chips.
@blibba
I think what thomas meant, AMD cards are way 'cool' compared to nVidia. Not cool as in temperature.
@blibbaI think what thomas meant, AMD cards are way 'cool' compared to nVidia. Not cool as in temperature.
I meant a little bit of both.
its because everyone is Nvidia's pathetic low quality parts failing - they admitted to G84 and G86 part failures mostly in compaq's - THIS PROBLEM STILL EXISTS TODAY, IT STILL HAPPENS - mostly laptops, its to a point my workers see nvidia stickers on any laptop with problems and it more then likely is the issue (cold boot issues/reboot issues/stability issues/random/intermittent faults etc) - notice how Compaq/HP most of there units are now using ATI/AMD video rather then nvidia?
These issues happen in new units and old - its not just the G84/G86 its ever since the 7 series all the way to the latest, brand new laptops (we have seen ASUS, Samsung and more with faults) - its a joke.
DONT BUY NVIDIA
"AMD to Bump Out Nvidia for New MacBook Pros?"
I don't know, ok? You're the ones supposed to know. I wonder why most news articles on Tom's have to contain question marks.
Probably because they're not real news.
Markus has a pretty good record for predicting this sort of thing, and a question mark at the end of the sentence usually does mean just what you said.
Congratulations for stating the obvious ... you may want to consider a career in politics ... or policy.
so this is what was all about when Apple approach AMD last year, not the cpu but the gpu...
All I'll say is display port. I have yet to see Nvidia use display port on any of their cards.
wasn't Apple suppose to be using Llano in their new products at some point too? If so that could have something to do with it. Possible Crossfire with on board APU in the future?
They always go back & forth between nVidia & ATI...Seeing which one will give them the cheapest & hopefully the best quality for Apple's money...Although the later,being the best quality is not always supported...Money & the least that apple have to spend will always be their top priority...
I personally have used both,but I do own up to buying more nVidia graphic cards & the like...
Intel's cpu will not be enough for mobile gamers though,so the 13 inch will only be for the university type...The others though,I doubt will be of any use for gamers anyway...So if you game you will have to go to pc based mobiles instead...
All I'll say is display port. I have yet to see Nvidia use display port on any of their cards. wasn't Apple suppose to be using Llano in their new products at some point too? If so that could have something to do with it. Possible Crossfire with on board APU in the future?
All "current gen" (last gen in a few hours) MacBooks use Nvidia graphics and have Mini DisplayPorts.
I wonder how close Intel's HD3000 gets to Nvidia's 320m.
The 320m is extremely powerful for an integrated chip.
If the switch occurs, it's probably 'cause AMDs cards are cooler...
lol. I see what you did there.
The AMD cards that I have used are super hot & good at that time for gaming,except the saphire brand...
My MacBook gets so hot that I can cook my dinner on it...
I hope Apple sort this out...
only apple could make intel and amd get along...they're taking over the world
is the mobile SB have the bug too ?
don't keven know enough abotu macs to be sure if this is a nonissue... but i need cuda on my pc because of photoshop and autocad (a quadro card) and i knwo alot of peopel i know use thier macbook pro like for photoshop primarily , again i don't know if cuda works for mac but if it does it seems this will hurt thier uses of the machine in that it will be lengthening thier rendering time
Eh, Apple doesn't make good decisions anyway.
Too bad for MacBook Pros I guess, it will not be able to "Play Crysis 2 in 3D w/ PhysX On".
Apple gets a ridiculous amount of press coverage.This news in particular really makes me yawn.Congrats AMD I guess.
They do but I would rather have more articles to choose from rather than less you know? Besides everyone who wrote comments must've looked at the article. =)
Apple gets a ridiculous amount of press coverage.This news in particular really makes me yawn.Congrats AMD I guess.
I tend to agree with that statement; the part about Apple getting too much press coverage and the yawning. Apple just doesn't sell enough product to actually make it news worthy. If this were a Macintosh website or something, I could maybe see where this is news, but this is really more a loss for nVidia, than a gain for AMD. Most of the units in the price range that average people will be willing to spend money on are going to include Intel graphics. More than likely, if they spend more, it's going to be to replace the {supposedly leaked} 320 GB 5400 RPM hard drive with an overpriced SSD, upgrade to more RAM, and/or get a bigger screen. Doubt they'll pay much more for a discrete graphics card no matter who's making it... because Mac is pants for gaming. The first question on almost any comment section relating to graphics is "Yeah, but does it run Crysis"... so, if the answer is no or , barely, if you run bootcamp/parallels in order to alt-boot Windows just to run it, and after doing all that, it runs like dookie... then does it really matter what video card is in there?
Mid priced Intel CPU + High end AMD GPU = A great combination.
is the mobile SB have the bug too ?
Not likely, because you most of the time don't use more than 2 ports in a laptop. 1 harddrive and one optical. :-)
Are people really going to use this for gaming?
The only way that makes sense is to bootcamp into Windows, and then, why did you buy a Mac?
Not likely, because you most of the time don't use more than 2 ports in a laptop. 1 harddrive and one optical. :-)
that means the bug is still there rite ? i won't put my lovely money on a product that come with bug , unless it is technically fixed , i wonder how about u guys ......