MacBook Pro Getting AMD Radeon Vega Graphics in November

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Apple quietly announced today that its MacBook Pro, which was not updated on stage at its Brooklyn event, will be getting a graphics bump. That comes courtesy of AMD's Radeon Vega Mobile discrete graphics.

The new update will come "next month," only on the most expensive model: a 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar that starts at $2,799 before configuration options. It will be "configurable to Radeon Pro Vega 16 with 4GB of HBM2 memory or Radeon Pro Vega 20 with 4GB of HBM2 memory," rather than the Radeon Pro 560X that it comes with now. That HBM2 memory means it will take up less space in a laptop than traditional GPUs. The chip is built on a 14nm process. Apple suggests this will deliver up to 60 percent faster graphics performance.

If the other options remain the same, the new machine will be paired with Intel's 8th Generation Core i7 or Core i9 processors. Exact pricing isn't currently available.

We previously gave the 15-incher an editor's choice award for its strong performance, great display and long battery life. 

Andrew E. Freedman

Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and Mastodon @FreedmanAE.mastodon.social.

15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Gilles_2
    and how powerful are these Vega 16-20 compared to gtx 1060 and so?
    Reply
  • ionel.roza
    The gtx1060 isn’t part of the macbook offering, only the intel uhd igpu and radeon 560X
    Reply
  • MusicHaven
    1000 USD price tag please!!! It's hell about time!
    Reply
  • Gilles_2
    For $2700 you have to compare with competitors which offer GTX 1060 for way less
    Reply
  • ionel.roza
    Sure, compare the in same category, size, weight, materials, etc. and not super heavy gaming laptops at 4kgs or desktops. Compare apples with apples. I’m not saying the price is low or right, just asking for a fair comparison and leave out the apple hate, this beeing the first in any discussion. Just because it’s apple, it’s all about apple ripping us off, and all that stuff.
    Reply
  • redgarl
    People tend to forget it is a Macbook Pro, prices having nothing to do with AMD here. It is not like Asus making laptop.
    Reply
  • victormtzc
    Macbook is like Iphone, they have less tech inside but Apple claims the software is what make the difference. I really think Windows 10 is superior in many ways to MAC OS X.

    Way I think is better Windows 10 is because it is very stable and I can run any software in the world. MAC OS X you can run everything but with a virtual machine which is no that cool to do it.

    Regards
    Reply
  • ionel.roza
    What do you mean, less tech inside? From what i'm seeing in iphones they have one of the best CPUs in their market, the SD845 is at the low end of this category, while only the Exynos and the Kirin CPUs come close to the A12 CPUs. Is it because RAM on iphones? How come an older iphone is faster than a high end android phone or at the same pace from this year. On macs, you have by default nvme drives and those "Retina" resolutions, which no other laptop have at a lower price, unless you go head to head or close at that price. For materials, they went with aluminium, this time recycled 100% aluminium, see the iphones from this year, a lot more materials are from recycled sources. Personally, I'll always go with a Thinkpad, i've used them in the past and no matter the price and HW the overall product is top notch. From what i've seen with this keynote and the one from September, people just like to hate the company, with no regards to what it is, what's in it etc. Yes, the macs are expensive, and you can't upgrade them after you buy them, but coupled with the SW it delivers a great package. You have to understand, without the SW optimizations that will take full advantage of your resources, the HW is meaningless.
    Reply
  • chickenballs
    will be interesting to see how good this new macbook will be compared to some of the compact laptops with gtx 1060 6gb but one thing is for sure itll cost at least twice as much...
    Reply
  • apone
    I'm curious, how would this benefit Mac users who do graphic design? Since Adobe programs utilize nVidia GPU horsepower by harnessing CUDA during intensive tasks such as image rendering and video encoding...
    Reply