nVidia GF 4 Series or ATI 6 Mobility Series for 2011 Summer MBPs?

rekhyt · Nov 16, 2010

Apple seems to be going pretty aggressively on the hardware front nowadays since the establishment of their unibody design of the MacBook Pro in 2008 (Not sure about the year, but I think I got it correct.)

(I'm referring Macbook Pro to the 15" and 17" editions and not the 13" counterpart.)

Since then:

2008: Breakthrough Unibody design with upgraded Core 2 Duo processors compared to previous generations, 2 graphics card capability
2009 Spec Bump(?): Better specs. Advertised as better specs than the previous generator.
2010: i5 and i7 series introduced for the MacBook Pro. nVidia 3M series introduced. Graphics card is 2 times better than before, according to GPU Benchmark.
2011: ?

Correct me if I have any facts wrong. Haven't been really interested in the hardware side of Apple laptops until recently.

Do you think Apple will up the game again by introducing the new GeForce 4 M series or the ATI 6 Mobility series for the MacBook Pros (Mid/High), along with the other possible new technology introduced then? (Lightpeak, etc.)

Erasmus · Nov 16, 2010

Which hemisphere do you live in? ie. when you say Summer MBPs, do you mean Jan-Feb, or Jul-Aug?

Other than that, I really don't want to speculate. I know what I WANT, and think what I WANT is easily do-able (basically HP Envy 15" with some Apple magic) but expect to be disappointed.

FWIW, I'm hoping for AMD 6 series, optimally the 5830 replacement. Expecting a 330M.

aimbdd · Nov 16, 2010

meh, if its a 330m again i guess ill be waiting another couple months.

Hazel · Nov 16, 2010

330m is no where close 2x faster than the previous 9600m. Even Apple claimed it was 30%, as I recall.

maratus · Nov 16, 2010

The biggest thing I miss in current 15" (& obviously 17") is IPS screen.

Hellhammer · Nov 16, 2010

nVIdia GF 5xxM series should be out before new MBPs

Erasmus · Nov 16, 2010

Hellhammer said:
nVIdia GF 5xxM series should be out before new MBPs

Link & Specs?

DesmoPilot · Nov 16, 2010

Erasmus said:
Link & Specs?

By summer if nVidia doesn't have Mobile 500 series out, they're doing something very wrong. GTX 580 was recently released with (from what I understand) more 500 series following it.

Erasmus · Nov 16, 2010

DesmoPilot said:
By summer if nVidia doesn't have Mobile 500 series out, they're doing something very wrong. GTX 580 was recently released with (from what I understand) more 500 series following it.

Can we make a universal agreement to stop using seasons? Winter starts next month for me. Summer is 7 months away. I still don't know if we're talking about the Jan-Feb MBP refresh, or the Jul-Aug MBP refresh!

Might I suggest "Early 2011" and "Late 2011" as universally consistent replacements.

weenerdog · Nov 16, 2010

Erasmus said:
Can we make a universal agreement to stop using seasons? Winter starts next month for me. Summer is 7 months away. I still don't know if we're talking about the Jan-Feb MBP refresh, or the Jul-Aug MBP refresh!

Might I suggest "Early 2011" and "Late 2011" as universally consistent replacements.

I concur!!

cmzwirner · Nov 16, 2010

I have a really bad feeling about the next generation MBP's.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3876/intels-core-2011-mobile-roadmap-revealed-sandy-bridge-part-ii

If you read this article, it gives you a preview on the cores to come. The lowest clock for this socket sized is a 2.5ghz with a TDP of 35. That is only about 10 TDP higher than the core2duo. While that CPU clock may be great, With this comes integrated graphics that supposedly outperforms todays integrated graphics by a long shot. So i seriously doubt that the new 13" MBP's are going to come with a high end discrete graphics solution.

For the higher end MBP's, i feel like we will be seeing AT MOST a 435m. I really dont know the ATI equivalent.. But i feel like we are going to get screwed over.

Personally.. Id really like to see the superdrive removed, and id like to see a nice discrete GPU, and a bigger battery put in there. They can easily make the macbook pro a true pro model. For people who need an optical drive, and dont know what a graphics card is, there is the macbook. Put the freaking macbook into an aluminum unibody. Thats all most pro owners care about anyways.

aimbdd · Nov 16, 2010

cmzwirner said:
I have a really bad feeling about the next generation MBP's.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3876/intels-core-2011-mobile-roadmap-revealed-sandy-bridge-part-ii

If you read this article, it gives you a preview on the cores to come. The lowest clock for this socket sized is a 2.5ghz with a TDP of 35. That is only about 10 TDP higher than the core2duo. While that CPU clock may be great, With this comes integrated graphics that supposedly outperforms todays integrated graphics by a long shot. So i seriously doubt that the new 13" MBP's are going to come with a high end discrete graphics solution.

For the higher end MBP's, i feel like we will be seeing AT MOST a 435m. I really dont know the ATI equivalent.. But i feel like we are going to get screwed over.

Personally.. Id really like to see the superdrive removed, and id like to see a nice discrete GPU, and a bigger battery put in there. They can easily make the macbook pro a true pro model. For people who need an optical drive, and dont know what a graphics card is, there is the macbook. Put the freaking macbook into an aluminum unibody. Thats all most pro owners care about anyways.

I agree. I think they will put a semi decent gpu in there though. They have been making this push toward gaming, releasing software updates for it and everything.

Hellhammer · Nov 17, 2010

Erasmus said:
Link & Specs?

There is no specs for the mobility cards, yet. See the pic for desktop specs

Erasmus · Nov 17, 2010

It's always so inspiring when a GPU manufacturer makes it impossible to find TDP information about their products...

mark28 · Nov 17, 2010

DesmoPilot said:
By summer if nVidia doesn't have Mobile 500 series out, they're doing something very wrong. GTX 580 was recently released with (from what I understand) more 500 series following it.

The GTX 580 is more like a GTX 485/495, rather than a new chip.

ATI is 6000 series is very attractive for laptops as they are even more efficient than the 5000 series.

mark28 · Nov 17, 2010

rekhyt said:
Apple seems to be going pretty aggressively on the hardware front nowadays since the establishment of their unibody design of the MacBook Pro in 2008 (Not sure about the year, but I think I got it correct.)

(I'm referring Macbook Pro to the 15" and 17" editions and not the 13" counterpart.)

Since then:

2008: Breakthrough Unibody design with upgraded Core 2 Duo processors compared to previous generations, 2 graphics card capability

2009 Spec Bump(?): Better specs. Advertised as better specs than the previous generator.

2010: i5 and i7 series introduced for the MacBook Pro. nVidia 3M series introduced. Graphics card is 2 times better than before, according to GPU Benchmark.

2011: ?

Correct me if I have any facts wrong. Haven't been really interested in the hardware side of Apple laptops until recently.

Do you think Apple will up the game again by introducing the new GeForce 4 M series or the ATI 6 Mobility series for the MacBook Pros (Mid/High), along with the other possible new technology introduced then? (Lightpeak, etc.)

Whatever GPU Apple will be using, it won't be a high end GPU. Probably a 425M like in the new Sony F.

dusk007 · Nov 17, 2010

It is most likely a 420M or 425M or the 500M counter part. 500M series is no different it is almost a re branding.
Same applies to most of the HD 6000 series as it seems but still it would be a better choice for all those who want more performance for the heat generated.
The only thing really important imo is that there needs to be more VRAM by default. 1GB is standard everywhere and new game engines assume they can use as much. 256 and 512 is very not future proof and truly limits in the choice of details enabled. With specific setting it doesn't matter but with enough VRAM you can get the most out of GPU and Engine unlike now.

rekhyt · Nov 21, 2010

mark28 said:
Whatever GPU Apple will be using, it won't be a high end GPU. Probably a 425M like in the new Sony F.

One can hope that they might up the video RAM from the base 256 to 512MB to become the base, and 1GB for the high end cards.

It's surprising and ironic how iPhones are now considered to be the "best-of-the-best" phones in the market and that it has the best software and hardware (Retina screens, 2 cameras, aluminium finish, ...), and how Windows users/people against Apple used to say that Macs were a "premium product" and the hardware was a failure, while in the mobile world, it is the complete opposite.

I think Apple has been making a push to become a powerful laptop (That could be used for gaming, video creation, ..., as well as productivity uses.)

Introduction of dual graphic cards in 2008(?)
Hardware series matched other Windows laptops. (Transitioned to the Intel i series instead of staying with Core 2 Duo series.)
Collaboration with Valve to push Steam towards the Mac platform. (Ironically, Apple is creating the App Store on the Mac, which I assume also has a games section. Or perhaps Apple would integrate/link Steam into the games section.)

dusk007 said:
It is most likely a 420M or 425M or the 500M counter part. 500M series is no different it is almost a re branding.
Same applies to most of the HD 6000 series as it seems but still it would be a better choice for all those who want more performance for the heat generated.
The only thing really important imo is that there needs to be more VRAM by default. 1GB is standard everywhere and new game engines assume they can use as much. 256 and 512 is very not future proof and truly limits in the choice of details enabled. With specific setting it doesn't matter but with enough VRAM you can get the most out of GPU and Engine unlike now.

So would the ATI HD series generate more heat compared to the nVidia cards in return for better performance? ... I thought it was the entire opposite - I thought nVidia cards performed better than ATi's.

A possibility would be that they would remove the DVD drive so that they could allow for more heat-dispersing systems to allow for a better processor and a better graphics card.

mark28 said:
The GTX 580 is more like a GTX 485/495, rather than a new chip.

ATI is 6000 series is very attractive for laptops as they are even more efficient than the 5000 series.

Ahh... ... Would it be likely for Apple to use the 6000 series then, if they were to use AMD as the provider of the graphics chipset?

aimbdd said:
I agree. I think they will put a semi decent gpu in there though. They have been making this push toward gaming, releasing software updates for it and everything.

Agreed.

cmzwirner said:
I have a really bad feeling about the next generation MBP's.

Hellhammer · Nov 21, 2010

rekhyt said:
Introduction of dual graphic cards in 2008(?)

Apple did that to increase the battery life. Also, that's what you get with nVidia chipsets since 9400M integrates both bridges in it (so it would anyway have 9400M in it even though you wouldn't able to use it as GPU). Other companies have done that as well

Hardware series matched other Windows laptops. (Transitioned to the Intel i series instead of staying with Core 2 Duo series.)

Where is the option for Clarksfield then? Apple provides decent specs but charges premium for that. You still have a lot less option with MBPs than you have with PCs. What Apple should do is update Macs when new CPUs and GPUs come, not right before new stuff comes.

rekhyt · Nov 22, 2010

Hellhammer said:
Apple did that to increase the battery life. Also, that's what you get with nVidia chipsets since 9400M integrates both bridges in it (so it would anyway have 9400M in it even though you wouldn't able to use it as GPU). Other companies have done that as well

Where is the option for Clarksfield then? Apple provides decent specs but charges premium for that. You still have a lot less option with MBPs than you have with PCs. What Apple should do is update Macs when new CPUs and GPUs come, not right before new stuff comes.

Much much better than keeping the Core 2 Duos. That would have been a serious embarrassment for Apple as well as reinforcing the "opposition"'s argument regarding the specs.

I think their timing is perfect if they plan to release LightPeak on the new MacBook Pros in June.

I do hope and agree with you that the better i7 processor should be more affordable in the future.

CaoCao · Nov 24, 2010

rekhyt said:
Much much better than keeping the Core 2 Duos. That would have been a serious embarrassment for Apple as well as reinforcing the "opposition"'s argument regarding the specs.

I think their timing is perfect if they plan to release LightPeak on the new MacBook Pros in June.

I do hope and agree with you that the better i7 processor should be more affordable in the future.

Actually I'd expect LightPeak to come with Ivy Bridge unless an engineer has one Hell of an epiphany

rekhyt · Nov 25, 2010

CaoCao said:
Actually I'd expect LightPeak to come with Ivy Bridge unless an engineer has one Hell of an epiphany

Ahh Never heard of Ivy Bridge before until now. According to the Wikipedia entry, it apparently has it's own graphics chipset within the CPU chip itself, if I interpret it correctly.

Is it likely for Ivy Bridge to come out during the possible June revision of the MacBook Pros, since it said that it might be "released as early as the second half of 2011"?

I'm planning to buy a new MacBook Pro and sell my current one, because the processor and graphics chipset is really limiting. Looking at the CPU roadmaps, it seems like Haswell is due to come out in 2012/2013.

Would it be worth waiting for Haswell?

cili0 · Nov 25, 2010

Nobody is worried about the rumors posted on 9to5 according to which the next update will be not before April '11? if true the timeframe between updates would be stretched to a whole year.

nVidia GF 4 Series or ATI 6 Mobility Series for 2011 Summer MBPs?

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68030

macrumors 6502a

macrumors member

macrumors 6502a

Moderator emeritus

macrumors 68030

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68030

macrumors member

macrumors newbie

macrumors 6502a

Moderator emeritus

macrumors 68030

macrumors 68000

macrumors 68000

macrumors 68040

macrumors 65816

Moderator emeritus

macrumors 65816

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 65816

macrumors member

Our Staff