Will Macbook ever get dedicated GPU?

[jonomo]

I bought 2 ibooks last year for my wife and myself... my wife wants to upgrade to the macbook... but i'm thinking of waiting a bit... any chance the macbook could get a dedicated GPU and step away from this dedicated crap?

My macbook needs are not as urgent as my wifes....

Has anyone heard any rumorz?

 

[celebrian23]

it won't. then it would be a small mbp w/o backlight

 

[LastLine]

Wouldn't worry about waiting - the integrated in the Macbooks are far from crap in my experience of use with them

 

[jonomo]

I'd even be happy with a 13 inch macbook pro... maybe they'll release one at WDC... its the size that matterz to me.. 15 inches is just WAY too big for what i need.. :S...

lets hope and pray... ~~~

 

[Moe]

Nope. Integrated video is here to stay in the Mini and MacBook, but it will get better next year with the Santa Rosa platform.

I'm happy with it in both.

 

[jonomo]

Wouldn't worry about waiting - the integrated in the Macbooks are far from crap in my experience of use with them

yeah.. it aint CRAP.. i'm sure it suites its role just fine.. but i work at a game company and I need to run some games from time to time... and i dn't wanna carry around the work notebook (IBM Thinkpad) around with me... i'd just rather just carry around a mac... do some work from it time to time.. and play from time to time... and use it for personal use as well...

 

[gloss]

Then I would recommend getting a MBP.

Things should be a little better when the GMA3000 is released, assuming Apple goes with it.

 

[Sun Baked]

Simply...

MacBook + GPU = MacBook Pro

It is their entry level machine, at least until Apple makes a EDU model.

Look at the Intel 965 chipset, the next MacBook can be quite a bit better once Apple makes that transition -- if they do.

 

[QCassidy352]

I don't think so. Integrated will never compete with dedicated, and will never be the right choice for gamers, but it's made leaps and bounds from where it was. The GMA950 is like a low-mid range card of several years ago, and the GMA965 should be like a mid range card of maybe 2 years ago or something. So even games will be fine on next gen integrated as long as they aren't cutting edge games...

 

[gloss]

As I said, the GMA9000 looks to be pretty competitive.

 

[63dot]

I bought 2 ibooks last year for my wife and myself... my wife wants to upgrade to the macbook... but i'm thinking of waiting a bit... any chance the macbook could get a dedicated GPU and step away from this dedicated crap?

My macbook needs are not as urgent as my wifes....

Has anyone heard any rumorz?

one of the genius bar guys at an apple store in silicon valley said basically two things:

1) there is no excuse for no dedicated graphics card (bad move on sj's part)

but,

2) the dual intel processor almost makes up for the fact the graphics are integrated so most casual photoshop/illustrator/indesign users will not really care of the slight slowdown in tasks

and

ONLY GAMERS WILL WANT TO GO MACBOOK PRO

 

[BAspecialCake]

It's really not a noticeable slowdown in the graphics department...

The resolution isn't demanding, and if unless your using GRAPHICS intensive games or apps it's not an issue. The issue comes when people try to make the macbook something it isn't. It's not targeted to gamers or HEAVY video editing users.

 

[Abstract]

2) the dual intel processor almost makes up for the fact the graphics are integrated so most casual photoshop/illustrator/indesign users will not really care of the slight slowdown in tasks

I'm not even sure whether having a dedicated gpu would help with Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign. I'm quite sure it wouldn't have any effect on the first 2 (PS and Illustrator), but not too sure about InDesign because I don't really know what it is.

 

[63dot]

I'm not even sure whether having a dedicated gpu would help with Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign. I'm quite sure it wouldn't have any effect on the first 2 (PS and Illustrator), but not too sure about InDesign because I don't really know what it is.

i don't know those apps very well...took a class but it was way over my head...but maybe go live, flash, or some other apps may be helped by a dedicated graphics card

anyway, it would be nice to eventually see a dedicated graphics card on this model one day

 

[Abstract]

Here's what I think.....

I think that while some of the people who complain about not having a dedicated graphics card have a need for one, the large majority of people who complain about not having a dedicated GPU would only see the benefit of having one on some rare occasions. For these people, if I placed the innards of a MB into a MBP casing and gave it to you and several others, I'm under the impression that most of you would never notice a lag in performance for what you do.

Start up a new, graphics heavy game though, and that's one of several areas where you will notice the effect of not having a graphics card. Same with anything involving 3D graphics.

If you need a laptop with a graphics card, it's not like you don't have an option. Get a MBP. If price is an issue, then save up, because nothing is free. Same can be said for car performance, TV performance, stereo performance --- you pay more to get something that's hopefully better. The entire, "I want the performance of a MacBook Pro in the cheaper MacBook!!" is getting tiring, especially when the reason the GPU isn't in a MB is simple economics.

The only people who get to complain are people who want a laptop the size of the 13.3" MB, but the power of a MBP. That's a complaint about size, so I guess that's ok.

 

[swingerofbirch]

I've never used a laptop above 12" and I can't imagine wanting to (well, I would like a MacBook which is technically 13")...I saw a 15" MacBook Pro the other day and it's a gorgeous machine, but when I saw the guy I said something like wow, that's the 17" MBP. The screen looked so expansive to me. 12" iBook compared to 15" MBP is a big difference in size, more than a difference in 3" from my perception. When I upgrade I'll get a MacBook. If they were to make a low cost education version like they did with the iMac and then possibly make that version identifiable by using integrated graphics and putting a dedicated chip on the MacBook, well that would just be awesome.

It's not as simple as saying if you want a GPU in your MacBook, get a MacBook Pro, because economically better things cost more money. It also has to do with options. I would PAY MORE on top of the base price for a MacBook with a GPU, but don't want to pay for a 15" screen and all the other goodies on the MBP. It's just really wanting more BTO options like Dell offers.

As an aside (I don't know if it's worthy of a new thread), my grandmother was wanting to get an iMac. She went to her town's university book store and they are selling the $899 iMac to anyone who's a student (including her for her Learning in Retirement program). It's perfect for her. I had to make a hard sell to get her to go Mac because she's used a Dell, and I don't think it would have been a sell at all without the sub $1,000 iMac.

 

[exabytes18]

Integrated graphics are bogus. I'm serious. They have severe issues with rendering OpenGL stuff sometimes. Is it that tall of an order to get some decent graphics with some cheap graphics card. My 3 year old laptop has an excellent graphics card and it can.... play games at high resolution with tolerable framerates. Let's go here, the MacBook doesn't need an nVidia 7950 or anything, just something (anything) better than those awful integrated graphics.