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Possible AMD/ATI Graphics Cards in 2011 MBPs?

R

rekhyt

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 20, 2008
1,127
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Part of the old MR guard.
Do you think Apple would start adopting ATI's graphics cards in the 2011 MacBook Pros?

I've heard about the new releases of the AMD Radeon graphics cards but I'm not sure if those are only the desktop chipsets.
 
could be dude.. since the iMac is already using ATI and the faulty nvidia. it is about time for MBP to use ATI.
 
Here's something to fuel the speculation with: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3976/amd-quietly-reveals-next-radeon-series-launches-next-week

Radeon HD6000 generation is launching next week. Interesting coincidence one could say. The news story doesn't specify if it's the mobile or desktop cards, but one can always have high hopes. The 330 isn't exactly high-end in this day and age. At least won't be for long.

Not forgetting this old bit:
http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/08/30/new.snow.leopard.build.holds.amd.radeon.6000/

About Snow Leopard 10.6.5. having driver references to the HD 6000 series.

Taking this:

http://cyberneo.info/amd-radeon-hd-6000-and-nvidia-gt430-scheduled-to-present-along-on-october-19/

Into account saying that HD6700 and GT430 are going to be presented on October 19th, I'd be pretty comfortable in saying that the new MBP released on the 20th will house one of the two. Here's hoping for HD6700 that should be a more powerful card and AMD's performance/watt is superior these days to NVIDIA's.
 
omenatarhuri said:
*snip*
Click to expand...

ATI usually releases desktop chips first and after few months, the mobile chips appear (desktop 58xx were released on September 23rd and mobile variants came in early January IIRC). GT430 was already released on 11th of October and ATI 68xx will be released on 22nd of October according to Fudzilla. Also, Barts (based on Juniper which is currently used in high-end iMac and Mac Pro) is too hot for MBP if Apple wants to keep the same battery life. Of course Barts could be heavily underclocked but then it would suck. I haven't heard any news about ATI 65xx, 66xx or 67xx so hard to say when mobile chips will come.

Hopefully Apple will use AMD/ATI in next gen MBPs but I doubt that will happen on Wednesday.
 
rekhyt said:
It'd be quite a good idea, actually. The MacBook Pro could then be classified as a gaming computer if they get the i7 up to 3.0 ghz and a good ATI mobility Radeon.
Click to expand...

The MBP would never be a gaming computer, if they switched to ATI they would just put a mid-range card at best in there just like they are doing with nVidia. Sure it will play some games at medium to high settings but anything very intensive it won't work. All i'm saying is if you ever want a gaming laptop, don't look at a macbook pro because you would get very bad gaming performance compared to everything else you could get with other computers.
 
dallas112678 said:
The MBP would never be a gaming computer, if they switched to ATI they would just put a mid-range card at best in there just like they are doing with nVidia. Sure it will play some games at medium to high settings but anything very intensive it won't work. All i'm saying is if you ever want a gaming laptop, don't look at a macbook pro because you would get very bad gaming performance compared to everything else you could get with other computers.
Click to expand...

I think MacBook Pro might have a chance, actually. I never thought that Apple would adopt the Core i series when they came out. I don't expect the MBP to be a high-class gaming computer but I think using ATI would be a good idea though.

Hellhammer said:
ATI usually releases desktop chips first and after few months, the mobile chips appear (desktop 58xx were released on September 23rd and mobile variants came in early January IIRC). GT430 was already released on 11th of October and ATI 68xx will be released on 22nd of October according to Fudzilla. Also, Barts (based on Juniper which is currently used in high-end iMac and Mac Pro) is too hot for MBP if Apple wants to keep the same battery life. Of course Barts could be heavily underclocked but then it would suck. I haven't heard any news about ATI 65xx, 66xx or 67xx so hard to say when mobile chips will come.

Hopefully Apple will use AMD/ATI in next gen MBPs but I doubt that will happen on Wednesday.
Click to expand...

2011 MBPs then? :)

omenatarhuri said:
Here's something to fuel the speculation with: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3976/amd-quietly-reveals-next-radeon-series-launches-next-week

Radeon HD6000 generation is launching next week. Interesting coincidence one could say. The news story doesn't specify if it's the mobile or desktop cards, but one can always have high hopes. The 330 isn't exactly high-end in this day and age. At least won't be for long.

Not forgetting this old bit:
http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/08/30/new.snow.leopard.build.holds.amd.radeon.6000/

About Snow Leopard 10.6.5. having driver references to the HD 6000 series.

Taking this:

http://cyberneo.info/amd-radeon-hd-6000-and-nvidia-gt430-scheduled-to-present-along-on-october-19/

Into account saying that HD6700 and GT430 are going to be presented on October 19th, I'd be pretty comfortable in saying that the new MBP released on the 20th will house one of the two. Here's hoping for HD6700 that should be a more powerful card and AMD's performance/watt is superior these days to NVIDIA's.
Click to expand...

Excellent research on your part. :) I don't think it will be released in October, but it might come into the 2011 Macbook Pros perhaps. Apple's been eyeing AMD/ATI for a while. I think that be more cost-effective, so they might be able to get a better card for less, which would mean there's better graphical performance.
 
The GPU upgrade will definitely be good eitherway.
The reason to go Nvidia would be drivers and the better GPGPU capabilities.
The pro of AMD is that their architecture is simply better in Performance per Watt. I hope we will get some HD 6650 in the next MBP. Don't hope for anything like a HD 6700 it will never happen.
 
dusk007 said:
The GPU upgrade will definitely be good eitherway.
The reason to go Nvidia would be drivers and the better GPGPU capabilities.
The pro of AMD is that their architecture is simply better in Performance per Watt. I hope we will get some HD 6650 in the next MBP. Don't hope for anything like a HD 6700 it will never happen.
Click to expand...

The nVidia 320M isn't a very powerful graphics card though. How would the mobile version of HD 6700 compare to the current 320M?
 
rekhyt said:
The nVidia 320M isn't a very powerful graphics card though. How would the mobile version of HD 6700 compare to the current 320M?
Click to expand...

I'm sure it blow it out of the water in terms of performance and power consumption. Unless AMD produces a really efficient mobile GPU, it won't find it's way to the MBP. Apple is all about battery life it seems.
 
jagger27 said:
I'm sure it blow it out of the water in terms of performance and power consumption. Unless AMD produces a really efficient mobile GPU, it won't find it's way to the MBP. Apple is all about battery life it seems.
Click to expand...

no it's not. If that's the case, Apple would have went for the ATI 5730. Faster and less power than the 330m.

The ATi 6850 and ATI 6870 is out already for the desktops. Can't be long till those mobile GPU's will show up. Should be in time for Sandy Bridge.
 
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