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sandy bridge next macbook pro refresh
- Thread starter silversx
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They might do a minor refresh later this year with a small speed bump, but they almost definitely will not switch to the new architecture. That will probably happen middle of next year.
I'm going to throw a guess at the new Geforce 425m. That seems to be the most likely.
If those leaked ATI 6870 benchmarks are real and they ship in November 2010, Nvidia doesn't deserve a place in any computer. The new 6000 series is ridiculously fast.
If the mobile GPU's ship early 2011, I'd be really stupid of Apple not to put one of these monsters in the laptops. The Mac Pro and iMac have ATI, except the laptops. So the 15 inch and 17 inch will get a Sandy Bridge with a dedicated GPU with hopefully an ATI card. Else it's going to be a Fermi 4xxm GPU.
The 17 inch has more room for cooling and because the 17 inch are not used to move around much, I think we could see a Quad core Sandy Bridge for the 17 inch models and only a Dual Core for the 15 inch. ( These Quad cores run at similiar clock speed as the Dual cores so they should be 2 times faster than the Dual core. And a 17 inch can sacrifice battery life since it's less of a portable machine in comparison to the 13 and 15 inch models )
But if there would be a 2010 update, I guess Apple could do a minor CPU bump with the core i7 2.8 ghz and perhaps a GTX 4xxm ( they are not easy on battery life though from what I saw ).
Maybe for the 13 inch, you can get a speed bump to 2.8 ghz and perhaps an integrated 420m. ( would be funny if they are just as fast as the 330m
)
I don't think the problem is so much that the current unibody design is bad, but it's always good to have a refreshed look. You don't need a radical change.
If Apple were to include a lot of updates in the MBP, such as Sandy Bridge, USB3/light peak, IPS panels, and AMD GPUs, then some people would want an enhanced design, if for nothing more than to show off that they have the latest and greatest. And, if 16:9 panels were to come into play, a slightly modified form factor may be needed.
People keep talking about the amount of expense/time put into the current unibody, but these people forget two things. First, most of the issues with changing the current design relate to the new manufacturing process, something that wouldn't have to be abandoned for a refined unibody look. You could still have an all-aluminum structure manufactured in the same way. Just look at the switch from removable to enclosed battery which was a change in the design made shortly after the initial release. If minor modifications to the manufacturing were such a big deal, I don't think we would have seen that shift.
Second, Apple routinely updates the look of its products simply to sell to people who may have held off on a new purchase but didn't because their product would otherwise look old. Hell, the Nano has gone through, what, six designs in as many years?
Who knows when Apple will do a radical redesign, but I could see some minor refinements to the MBP next year if the internals change enough to warrant a "relaunch" of the line. I mean the iPhone still looks and functions like an iPhone, but the latest model is different enough to offer a more-modern look that distinguishes it from past versions. I could see Apple doing the same for the MBP.
If Apple were to include a lot of updates in the MBP, such as Sandy Bridge, USB3/light peak, IPS panels, and AMD GPUs, then some people would want an enhanced design, if for nothing more than to show off that they have the latest and greatest. And, if 16:9 panels were to come into play, a slightly modified form factor may be needed.
People keep talking about the amount of expense/time put into the current unibody, but these people forget two things. First, most of the issues with changing the current design relate to the new manufacturing process, something that wouldn't have to be abandoned for a refined unibody look. You could still have an all-aluminum structure manufactured in the same way. Just look at the switch from removable to enclosed battery which was a change in the design made shortly after the initial release. If minor modifications to the manufacturing were such a big deal, I don't think we would have seen that shift.
Second, Apple routinely updates the look of its products simply to sell to people who may have held off on a new purchase but didn't because their product would otherwise look old. Hell, the Nano has gone through, what, six designs in as many years?
Who knows when Apple will do a radical redesign, but I could see some minor refinements to the MBP next year if the internals change enough to warrant a "relaunch" of the line. I mean the iPhone still looks and functions like an iPhone, but the latest model is different enough to offer a more-modern look that distinguishes it from past versions. I could see Apple doing the same for the MBP.
MBPs were updated on April and it usually takes 8-9 months for Apple to update them so Jan-Feb seems possible and SB should be available by then
If those leaked ATI 6870 benchmarks are real and they ship in November 2010, Nvidia doesn't deserve a place in any computer. The new 6000 series is ridiculously fast.
If the mobile GPU's ship early 2011, I'd be really stupid of Apple not to put one of these monsters in the laptops. The Mac Pro and iMac have ATI, except the laptops. So the 15 inch and 17 inch will get a Sandy Bridge with a dedicated GPU with hopefully an ATI card. Else it's going to be a Fermi 4xxm GPU.
The 17 inch has more room for cooling and because the 17 inch are not used to move around much, I think we could see a Quad core Sandy Bridge for the 17 inch models and only a Dual Core for the 15 inch. ( These Quad cores run at similiar clock speed as the Dual cores so they should be 2 times faster than the Dual core. And a 17 inch can sacrifice battery life since it's less of a portable machine in comparison to the 13 and 15 inch models )
But if there would be a 2010 update, I guess Apple could do a minor CPU bump with the core i7 2.8 ghz and perhaps a GTX 4xxm ( they are not easy on battery life though from what I saw ).
Maybe for the 13 inch, you can get a speed bump to 2.8 ghz and perhaps an integrated 420m. ( would be funny if they are just as fast as the 330m
+1. Can't waitttttt, maybe I can.
There will definitely be a speed bump before Apple decides to switch to the new CPUs. I would look for it late this year and expect them to use the same GPUs (with added vram). Same with the 13" plastic and aluminum models along with the mac mini - expect another core 2 speed bump while retaining the integrated GPU (Intel is going to discontinue core 2 mobile CPUs in q4, and all speeds are kinda the same price to OEMs right now anyways).
When they do switch, there really is no guarantee they will stick with Intel and use sandy bridge. AMD has some new architecture too with a GPU in the CPU die similar to Intel. They're calling it Llano and it's scheduled for mid 2011. I'll take an integrated AMD GPU (aka ATI) over Intel any day, although anandtech tested a pre-release iteration of sandy bridge and the graphics tests were about on par with what Apple currently uses in the 13"/mac-mini so it wouldn't be a step down. Except the rumor is it will not support Open CL so I doubt Apple would want to use that.
BTW, AMD's Llano won't be able to match the performance of sandy bridge from a CPU stand point, but the graphics are said to be on par with an ATI 5650 (source - http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=991). Anandtech says the sandy bridge graphics are about on par with a low-end 5450. If they were indeed testing the 12 EU component, ATI/AMD will have twice the performance
When they do switch, there really is no guarantee they will stick with Intel and use sandy bridge. AMD has some new architecture too with a GPU in the CPU die similar to Intel. They're calling it Llano and it's scheduled for mid 2011. I'll take an integrated AMD GPU (aka ATI) over Intel any day, although anandtech tested a pre-release iteration of sandy bridge and the graphics tests were about on par with what Apple currently uses in the 13"/mac-mini so it wouldn't be a step down. Except the rumor is it will not support Open CL so I doubt Apple would want to use that.
BTW, AMD's Llano won't be able to match the performance of sandy bridge from a CPU stand point, but the graphics are said to be on par with an ATI 5650 (source - http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=991). Anandtech says the sandy bridge graphics are about on par with a low-end 5450. If they were indeed testing the 12 EU component, ATI/AMD will have twice the performance
By the time AMD will be making anything 32nm Intel will be producing 22nm. Read yesterday's news on Anandtech etc. And they will probably improve the IGP even further.
Apple never does updates on November or December, so it will be early next year. Mobile C2Ds are being EOLed in Q1 2011 so there is no way Apple could "update" 13" with them and use them for the next 7-9 months
There is less guarantee that Apple will use AMD. Apple has never used AMD and there was only ONE rumor about AMD so it's quite far-fetched.
Fusion will be released early next year so I wouldn't be surprised if it was already in production
??Question??
I remember seeing something a while ago that said the 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo chips used in the current MBP's are being discontinued in the 4th Quarter of this year. If that's true (and I'm pretty sure it is) then how long can Apple continue producing new 13"s without updating? Surely there will be an update at the end of this year?
Edit: This pic shows the timeline. Looks like the 2.4ghz (P8600) is supposed to be dicontinued in Q3 and the 2.66ghz (P8800) in Q4
I remember seeing something a while ago that said the 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo chips used in the current MBP's are being discontinued in the 4th Quarter of this year. If that's true (and I'm pretty sure it is) then how long can Apple continue producing new 13"s without updating? Surely there will be an update at the end of this year?
Edit: This pic shows the timeline. Looks like the 2.4ghz (P8600) is supposed to be dicontinued in Q3 and the 2.66ghz (P8800) in Q4
Really depends on what you want - the two systems are incomparable! For $600 I'm pretty sure you could build something that would crush the macbook pro performance wise (even the next gen), simply because you can put a half-decent desktop graphics chip in it (e.g. nvidia GTX 460 for about £120). These will trounce the nvidia GT330 in the macbook pro!
If portability/compactness is important, then you might not want the larger box anyway, and the macbook pro is a reasonable choice. If performance is most important, build the PC (it'll be an awful lot cheaper!)
EDIT: Sorry, GTX 460 might be a bit out of price range - was thinking £600 rather than $600. Even so, a mbp would cost twice that, so reasoning above still stands IMO
Maybe the next Macbooks will be based on ARM CPUs with an iOS X operating system
Seriously, you never know. Apple has their own thing going now printing money with iphones, ipads, ipod touches.... With the initial exception of core duos, they've been behind in adopting the pc industry standards for whatever reason, yet by no means behind in sales. Can't walk around a college campus without seeing the apple logo on the back of somebody's laptop.
Seriously, you never know. Apple has their own thing going now printing money with iphones, ipads, ipod touches.... With the initial exception of core duos, they've been behind in adopting the pc industry standards for whatever reason, yet by no means behind in sales. Can't walk around a college campus without seeing the apple logo on the back of somebody's laptop.