NVIDIA Powered MacBooks on October 14th?

[MacRumors]

TUAW believes that the upcoming MacBooks will indeed be powered by NVIDIA chipsets and will be delivered on October 14th.

A source tells us that Nvidia is showing off new MacBooks to their employees, and word is going around that the new versions will be released as soon as October 14th.

Apple was first rumored in July to be incorporating alternative chipsets in future laptops. While Apple would still be using Intel CPUs to power their laptops, the support chips (including graphics) were said to be supplied by a company other than Intel. NVIDIA topped some lists as the most likely supplier. A subsequent report pointed specifically to the use of the MCP7A-U chipset in future MacBooks. This NVIDIA chipset was briefly detailed by Expreview:

“MCP7A-U is the top class chipset in the MCP7A family. Though it could be named as GeForce 9XXX, it will be come the first mainstream uATX mobo with DDR3-1333 support. Sources inform us the MCP7A-U will be the “fastest mGPU”, but who knows.”

Such a move would address user complaints about the use of Intel's slower integrated graphics chipsets in current MacBooks. The move would also prepare Apple's laptops for the release of Mac OS X Snow Leopard which will allow applications to utilize the more powerful graphics processing units.

MacRumors has also heard similar whispers which lead us to believe these reports could be true.




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[richthomas]

dedicated NVIDIA graphics chips would be the bomb on a Macbook. just leave integrated for the Air.

[robpow]

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woohoo can't wait!

[SFStateStudent]

I'm hoppin' on that bus...

[PCMacUser]

It's possible that the graphics would be the nVidia equivalent to Intel's integrated set, rather than a beasty dedicated solution.

[bittin]

Hope that Rumor is true

[zarusoba]

That kicks arse! (US: ass)

[parkeyb]

Hmm, i just don't understand why there have been no more pictures leaked if these laptops are actually that close to release... I'm dying for more tidbits.

[richthomas]

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Originally Posted by PCMacUser

It's possible that the graphics would be the nVidia equivalent to Intel's integrated set, rather than a beasty dedicated solution.

so no dedicated graphics chip? But the photo has a pic of seperate chip?

[daneoni]

Yus! and the rumor actually makes sense since Snow Leopard will indeed tap into GPU power.

[osc4r]

Big chance that it will be the new chipset, complete with NVIDIA's 9300 GFX and boasting DDR3 memory.

Quite obvious as you start to see them already in other laptops!

[PCMacUser]

Originally Posted by richthomas

[size=1]
so no dedicated graphics chip? But the photo has a pic of seperate chip?

I'm not sure which photo you mean. There was a photo of an nVidia chipset with 'nVidia' written on it in one of the linked articles, but that was the chipset, not a dedicated graphics chip.

[Pixellated]

*Gets bank card ready*

[viccles]

*Gets cards ready as well* Oh, the 14th can't come soon enough!

[iBunny]

I could only see this as good. Especially with the MacBook Pro's. If The MBP includes a dedicated GPU, coupled with a Integrated GPU in the Chipset... it could mean Hybrid SLI.

This would be phenomenal gaming for the MBP compared to current and previous Mac Laptops.

[emotion]

Bring on the OpenCL and CUDA support.

Hopefully battery life won't suffer too badly.

[Marx55]

What is needed is a smaller and lighter (400 - 500 g) subnotebook. With true Firewire and Ethernet ports. Even the MacBook Air is too large and heavy for us (besides lacking the essential Firewire connectivity).

[MacinJosh]

Originally Posted by richthomas

dedicated NVIDIA graphics chips would be the bomb on a Macbook. just leave integrated for the Air.

MCP7A-U *is* integrated from what I understand.

Joshua.

[OriginalMacRat]

Originally Posted by Marx55

With true Firewire

Which Firewire is the "true" one?

[macbooker15]

Originally Posted by Marx55

What is needed is a smaller and lighter (400 - 500 g) subnotebook. With true Firewire and Ethernet ports. Even the MacBook Air is too large and heavy for us (besides lacking the essential Firewire connectivity).

Do u say the exact same thing once a thread?

Ontopic: YAY!

[peterdevries]

I have a current MBP, and although I don't think all of NVidia's chipsets are faulty; the way they handled the faulty MBP chipsets is worrying me..

Am I the only one?

[maxlew]

What is needed is a smaller and lighter (400 - 500 g) subnotebook. With true Firewire and Ethernet ports. Even the MacBook Air is too large and heavy for us (besides lacking the essential Firewire connectivity).

I highly doubt anything like that will happen any time soon. The main uses for firewire these days are video cameras and a few hard drives. Although subnotebooks are always lacking on the hard drive space, USB is just as good, because your not supposed to be doing anything super hard drive intensive, or even anything intensive on a subnotebook.

[DARKJ3DI]

Finally! The x3100 is too slow and makes too much heat to run anything. My MacBook gets hot (about 60ºC) while running the screensaver...

[tominated]

this'd be soooo awesome. hopefully they'll still be cheaper than the iMac cos i need a new mac (faulty logic board) and I want gfx. I'll prolly get this and a nice shiny 22" lcd

[itickings]

Originally Posted by MacinJosh

MCP7A-U *is* integrated from what I understand.

Joshua.

That's my understanding as well.

But integrated doesn't have to mean junk. While the dedicated solutions are beefier, I'd take the integrated one anyway if it is beefy enough and provides advantages over the dedicated one (like economy/power consumption).