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Apple Dropping NVIDIA for Future Macs?

I don't see Apple using Larrabee before next years Mac Pro. It's not going to be introduced in the next iMac or Mac Mini. No way.
 
Intel has been working very hard on a better Video card and should be ready by end of year or 2010 as far as spec's it's just as good or better as what we have now. You won't be disappointed and thats as far as I can go with this info.
 
guzhogi said:
I was going to bring up ATI/AMD if no one did. My only concern is that since AMD & Intel are rivals, not sure how that would affect the Apple/Intel relationship. NVidia, AFAIK, only does graphics cards & motherboard chipsets, not procs.
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Can't it be said that Nvidia with their CUDA thing or whatever and the upcomign Grand Central Dispatch mean that Nvidia is competing with Intel as well? I don't think Intel would get mad because Apple is using competitor's chips in their computers. Apple doesn't ship their computers with Intel SSDs either.
 
Tallest Skil said:
Let's see here...

If they wanted to drop nVidia, THEY WOULD HAVE DONE IT AFTER THE FAULTS OF THE 8600M GT. NOT THREE REVISIONS LATER AFTER HAVING INCLUDED EVEN MORE NVIDIA CHIPS IN THEIR COMPUTERS. :D:rolleyes:

SemiAccurate?! No. NO. CanNeverBeTrustedAgain is more appropriate. :p
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The reason they probably didn't drop them right away was that Apple initially believed Nvidia, that the problem only affected a very limited number of laptops.

But now, the installed base of hundreds of thousands of macbook pros with the 8600m have been aging, and Apple is probably getting a huge and growing wave of users who are having the problem (since it reportedly takes some time to develop in most cases).

Apple would not have known just how extensive this problem was until time passed and tens of thousands of macbook pros showed up with the problem.

Therefore, it makes perfect sense that Apple would have not decided until now to drop Nvidia.
 
Master Chief said:
I don't see Apple using Larrabee before next years Mac Pro. It's not going to be introduced in the next iMac or Mac Mini. No way.
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I updated my post after I found an Ars article that suggests Intel will launch Larrabee earlier and with a mobile GPU component. The computers that will benefit the most from this are the underpowered machines such as the Mini - with Grand Central and OpenCL, their machines will be screamers. Mac Pros have exchangeable GPUs, so Apple only needs to add a BTO option for the PCIe card for the Mac Pro.

The greatest thing about Larrabee is the software pipeline. You can upgrade to DirectX 11 or 12 or support OpenCL or Shader Model 6.0 through a software update. You can also delegate OS processes such as Spotlight to one of those cores when you're not in a graphics-intensive app.
 
Intel IGA is only going to get better as time goes on. Maybe never quite as good as nVidia or ATI, but they may be giving Apple a sweet deal on the chips to help lower the costs of the computers.
 
Spanky Deluxe said:
Since Apple is unlikely to replace their low end machines with inferior graphics capabilities, its far more likely that when Core i7 laptop parts become available Apple will simply hold the low end MacBooks, iMacs and Mac Minis and keep them using Core 2 Duo chips - just with (possible) speed boosts.

My guess is that the MacBook Pro and iMac lines will get dedicated graphics cards across the board come i7 (although with a low end chip at the bottom end of course) while the MacBook, Mac Mini and MacBook Air remain largely as they are but with possibly faster processors. Who knows, maybe Intel will give them some custom Core 2 Duo parts to keep those lines going a little longer.
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I agree. Just like with the special speed bump + faster bus on the 2008 iMacs, maybe we may see another speed bump + faster bus for 2010 Apple Penryns?

Saladinos said:
The only way Apple would go back to Intel is if Larrabee kicked ass.

It's scheduled for a release in H1 2010, so inclusion in the Mac line is possible. However, nobody's sure what form factors will be available - it's possible (likely even) that there won't be a portable version at launch (probably coming in Q3 or Q4 2010).

EDIT: Actually, it's earlier than that. Intel now says "2009/2010" and gave details at a mobility conference, indicating that LB may launch with a portable GPU component. See: http://arstechnica.com/hardware/new...oorestown-new-atoms-larrabee-in-late-2009.ars
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I've read somewhere that a variant of Larrabee will replace the integrated GPUs for low-end Sandy Bridge CPUs (or something like that).
 
gkarris said:
Intel IGA is only going to get better as time goes on. Maybe never quite as good as nVidia or ATI, but they may be giving Apple a sweet deal on the chips to help lower the costs of the computers.
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or maintain their profit margins
 
robeddie said:
Apple would not have known just how extensive this problem was until time passed and tens of thousands of macbook pros showed up with the problem.

Therefore, it makes perfect sense that Apple would have not decided until now to drop Nvidia.
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I do agree with you, but nVidia knew very early on how extensive the problem was. They set aside 200 million dollars to deal with potential recalls!

The current crop of chips aren't affected by a defect; the 9xxx, 1xx, and 2xx series' are fine, and we'd have seen something by now if there was such a defect as the 8xxx family. This makes me doubt Apple's dropping nVidia for any reason associated with the 8600M failures.

Not to say they wouldn't for this licensing nonsense, but with three newer families of chips that work fine, the defect as the reason just doesn't seem right.

gzfelix said:
Cell ... I know this is not even possible. But I would like to see Cell in Macs.
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Cell is Power-based. We can all agree they won't go back there... :p
 
yetanotherdave said:
There will be absolutely no macbook/pro updates at wwdc 09. There can't be, there's nothing new to update. :p :D
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we already had WWDC 09 and at least the better part of them were updated. I think the white macbook and the 17 inch were not. however there's always WWDC '10 which will be a year after the last update.
 
^^^ The X4500 series is tons better...

bruinsrme said:
or maintain their profit margins
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Yes, but to maintain their sales momentum, especially with the release of Windows 7 (which is a great system, btw), Apple will have to further drop prices.

The only way to do this and still maintain their profit margins is to use cheaper chips.
 
I don't care if Apple drops NVIDIA as long as it picks up ATI. But Intel? Noooooo! If Apple really does drop NVIDIA for INTEL, then I may have to drop Apple.
 
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