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15/17-Inch MacBook Pro Specs: AMD GPU, Quad Core i7

phobic99 said:
It's weak in comparison to what other manufacturers are doing with their refreshes currently. Of course it's more powerful than a card from 2007 (duh). As far as an improvement over yesterday's models, well the 6490 is an improvement over the nVidia 330... barely (and I mean barely as in "not really significant at all).

How many machines do you see launching in 2011 with a 256MB GPU? I know it's traditional for Apple to not put the latest and greatest tech in their machines but usually they try to stay competitive.
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Apple don't tend to look at what other laptops manufacturers are doing, didn't you get the memo?
 
papierbox said:
i would never build a fast disk, becouse of the noise. and if you want it, you can upgrade. so there is no problem.
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You're wrong. There's absolutely no difference between 5400 and 7200 rpm noisewise. My previous Early 2008 MBP has a 5400 rpm drive and my new one has a 7200 rpm. You can't tell which one has the faster disc. Nowadays the HDD is the main bottleneck in computer's speed. Even going from 5400 to 7200 rpm is noticeable, although the difference is not huge, of course.
 
davie18 said:
7200rpm is an optional upgrade on current MBPs so probably will be on these too.

But what about the 16gb SSD thing?
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I believe Apple wants it to be a hidden feature. Let's wait for the site to come back up :D (IE: fast boot, but you still feel the hard drive is there - this 16GB SSD could be used as a cache much like the Seagate Momentus XT does with its inbuilt 4GB Flash memory)
 
maflynn said:
You'll not see blueray on a Mac, not when they have a vested interest in selling streaming content
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I have to agree with Apple on this one... Blue Ray sounds cool, but it tech that will be gone in 5 years. Even PC Magazine wrote about it yesterday saying that the days of optical drives is numbered.

Everything is going wireless. To the Cloud! :p Hate that slogan! LOL!
 
Very cool that there are quads across the board for the 15/17". It would be nicer however if Apple's software actually took advantage of more than one or two cores.
 
dinjin201 said:
I believe Apple wants it to be a hidden feature. Let's wait for the site to come back up :D (IE: fast boot, but you still feel the hard drive is there - this 16GB SSD could be used as a cache much like the Seagate Momentus XT does with its inbuilt 4GB Flash memory)
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if so hopefully it would impede user upgrades of the harddisk.
 
Pulling for the 16GB SSD boot drive. I may be delusional but still holding out hope.

Also hope for a BTO option to replace the optical drive with a SSD

Fingers crossed
 
wow

These specs are bad arse!! I mean yea the 16gb ssd thing appears not to be available but who knows that could be in the high end 17 or maybe an option on all of them (50 or 100 bucks would make sense....
 
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jmpnop said:
1. 1440x900 res. screen by default - Seriously needs a bump.
2. 256MB dedicated graphics memory - Are you serious?
3. 5400RPM HDD - 7200RPM should've been there but it'd make more noise. So, okay.
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1) I agree, it needs a bump considering the 14" Dell XPS IMHO have a far better display...

2) 256MB is pretty weak, not doing the "Dell" compare but most decent laptops now come with 512MB-1GB standard, I've even seen the newer Falcon NW and Alienware stocked with 2GB and 4GB cards either nVidia 5XXM GTs or AMD 6XXX.

3) Actually it makes sense, it's quieter. For most pros they wont hesitate at either upgrading to SSD or putting a Seagate Momentus XT in... A 5,400rpm drive doesn't phase me much.
 
slomap said:
Theyt just try to use tried, tested components - remember the nVidia recall ? I don't think they want to risk that happening again. But fully agree that there's little sense in putting discrete graphics that's not much more powerful than IGP. Up to now the Open CL hardware support from nVidia could've been the reason, but with switch to AMD...
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Both of these were released January 4, 2011, not sure how tried and true that is, and if you think that is, then there are like 10 better AMD's released the same day they could have used.
 
Why so many negatives on this!?!?!?!

This community is now officially SICK...

This is by far THE GREATEST Mac related news in loooooong time!

Awesome ****! :)
 
Maybe the 16 GB thing is already in all of them, but is not user assessable... It will just be a feature they have, and the only way to do it is to add the 16GB chip on the board. I still think all of them will have it.
 
Macmel said:
You're wrong. There's absolutely no difference between 5400 and 7200 rpm noisewise. My previous Early 2008 MBP has a 5400 rpm drive and my new one has a 7200 rpm. You can't tell which one has the faster disc. Nowadays the HDD is the main bottleneck in computer's speed. Even going from 5400 to 7200 rpm is noticeable, although the difference is not huge, of course.
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You're wrong too. I upgraded my non-unibody from the stock 5400RPM to a 7200RPM and now the fans can't be heard until 3000RPM. It is much louder. All drives vary, but common sense tells you that the faster it spins the more noise it gives off. I returned the WD 7.2k for a Seagate 7.2k and it's quieter than the WD, but still louder than the stock Fujitsu 5.4k.

Most people are not bothered by such subtle sound differences, but people like me and a few others on here notice it quite boldly.
 
YES YES YES!!! Now, as soon as the summer iPod deals start, this is the model I will be buying :D and I couldn't be happier :D :D

Get well soon, steve :apple: (and happy birthday)
 
If there's an option to get the 17" without the Superdrive, but with an SSD, I might actually buy it. I wanted to get a 27" iMac, but that machine would be very, very tempting.
 
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