Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

manic

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 29, 2006
103
0
As you may know, Intels CEO has recently went on record that merom will launch in august. Perhaps a little late for it to be announced at the wwdc, but given apples preferential treatment, the macbook line should be updated soon after (late september, perhaps?).

Meroms can be snapped onto existing motherboards, therefore although harware increment is insignificant, performance gain is not.

Meroms have 4mb L2 cache (2ghz upwards), will cost the same as yonahs do presently, and offer other advancements such as 64-bit computing (yonahs only 32-bit).

Benchmarks floating around the net suggest theyll be 25% faster and consume the same wattage as yonahs of same speed (in ghz). Its turning out to be a nifty little chip and it seems to be consensus around the forum that those that can wait, wait. at least until late june, when official benchmarks will be out and the picture will be clearer.

NOW, concerning the Santa Rosa chipset that will replace Napa come Q2 2007. Thats also supposed to boast some pretty impressive gains. FSB will be bumped from 667 to 800, it will feature wifi spec "n" AND a much improved integrated graphics - 400mhz with 8 pipelines and support of shader model 4, as opposed to the current 250mhz, 4 pipes and sm2 support.

Nonetheless, i find that Q2 2007 is too far away to wait for, as, by then, well probably have quad cores meroms (or its successor) on the horizon.

Turns out this intel world isnt too shabby after all!
 

manic

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 29, 2006
103
0
I meant apple can update its line without significant engineering rework. I wasnt implying end users could do it.
 

JazzMan10

macrumors newbie
May 29, 2006
13
0
Thanks for this post. I hate that i am put in this situation of cutting it so close buying my laptop. I need a laptop for college and i am going to be switching from PC to mac. This laptop is probably going to have to last me 4 years so i really want to wait for the new 64bits. I will be pretty pissed if i am forced to buy it the first week in sept then 2 weeks later the new ones come out.

EDIT: I almost forgot. Won't intel give developers the chips a month before they are out? So doesnt that means a MacBook Pro update at WWDC is possible with units not shipping for a week or two?
 

manic

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 29, 2006
103
0
JazzMan10 said:
EDIT: I almost forgot. Won't intel give developers the chips a month before they are out? So doesnt that means a MacBook Pro update at WWDC is possible with units not shipping for a week or two?

Its is possible. Im also new to mac, so I dont know how jobs likes to do his show. He can concentrate and announce the new macpro, updated MBs and MBPs and Imac at the same show, (and even, perhaps, the new video ipod) or spread them around the year.

Im skeptical that he will hold on with yonah, though. apples machines are supposed to be premium items and i dont see dell coming out with budget merom equipped laptops while macbooks keep the outdated yonahs.

Good for you. hold on for merom and skip santa rosa. it will be sweet, but its too far away.
 

smartalic34

macrumors 6502a
May 16, 2006
976
60
USA
is merom going to provide a speed bump significant enough to be noticed by the average user? is a, let's say, 2.16/2.33 ghz merom MBP going to be that much faster than a 2.0 ghz yonah MBP?
 

Jedi128

macrumors 6502
Jul 7, 2005
274
0
New York, NY
First of all...
fowler. said:
next tuesday?

That was really funny...

I must say that I am also in a simialr boat as I want to buy a new laptop for college and prefferably do it before Aug. 28 (first day of class). I have a iBook right now but I want an intel that will last, and Merom (64bit!) sounds like the ticket. I am hoping Apple finds a way to get one out the door in mid Aug. I suppose I could take by iBook for the first couple weeks of class, but I really dont want to do that.
 

manic

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 29, 2006
103
0
dude, quad core imacs are at least a year away, and thats being optimistic! it could well be by the end of 2007, early 2008. not worth the wait in my opinion.

Meroms will provide (reports suggest) a significant speed bump core per clock of about 25% more. its nowhere near as significant as the g4 to intel jump, though.
 

emotion

macrumors 68040
Mar 29, 2004
3,186
3
Manchester, UK
I think they'll stick to the current design with meroms for the mbp in september. I think a redesigned mbp (and I mean the case too, I think currect design is an interim) will arrive next year with the 800MHz bus etc.
 

macgeek2005

macrumors 65816
Jan 31, 2006
1,098
0
manic said:
dude, quad core imacs are at least a year away, and thats being optimistic! it could well be by the end of 2007, early 2008. not worth the wait in my opinion.

Meroms will provide (reports suggest) a significant speed bump core per clock of about 25% more. its nowhere near as significant as the g4 to intel jump, though.

It's worth the wait since I have a Dual G4 tower which is serving all my needs perfectly, I have no need to buy anything now, and a Quad Core iMac will be awesome.
 

Demon Hunter

macrumors 68020
Mar 30, 2004
2,284
39
manic said:
dude, quad core imacs are at least a year away, and thats being optimistic! it could well be by the end of 2007, early 2008. not worth the wait in my opinion.

Meroms will provide (reports suggest) a significant speed bump core per clock of about 25% more. its nowhere near as significant as the g4 to intel jump, though.

Yes, so at the same clock (2.0 GHz), Merom will be 25% faster! Much better than the gains from 2.0 GHz to 2.16 GHz Yonah.

emotion said:
I think a redesigned mbp (and I mean the case too, I think currect design is an interim) will arrive next year with the 800MHz bus etc.

I can't help but laugh, when people say that. Jobs is on record as saying the aluminum is perfect. Likewise, the Mac Pro's aluminum will also be perfect. It's definitely the Apple theme now.
 

azzurri000

macrumors 6502
Nov 9, 2005
307
0
JazzMan10 said:
I will be pretty pissed if i am forced to buy it the first week in sept then 2 weeks later the new ones come out.

Yeah, same here. I will also be pissed if I have to miss out on the usual summer student discount to wait for the new revision.
 

andiwm2003

macrumors 601
Mar 29, 2004
4,382
454
Boston, MA
dferrara said:
.........................I can't help but laugh, when people say that. Jobs is on record as saying the aluminum is perfect. Likewise, the Mac Pro's aluminum will also be perfect. It's definitely the Apple theme now.


well steve said a lot and changed his opinion afterwards.

intel chips
flash based mp3 players
ipod videos
video downloads
3GHz;)


if there is another good design and if he thinks it helps freshing up the macbook pro sales he will switch to a new design. maybe thay keep the aluminium and still redesign the macbook pros.

i'm looking forward to a change although i like the current aluminium very much. but new designs of apple stuff are almost always good.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.