Apple Releases New MacBooks

[Eidorian]

For all of those claiming that the MacBook is lame, the graphics suck and that Apple is losing sales by using the GMA950 (which of course Dell, HP, and all of the others in the same price range still happen to use too), you should have read the press release this morning. Doesn't seem like the real world numbers are hurting one bit...

I already know it's a great selling machine. I'm not a professional either. I just want a dedicated graphics option in the MacBook. I give anything with integrated graphics a hard time since it's eating system RAM for poor to subpar performance. I just feel sorry for anyone trying to play even the most basic of 3D games that are out right now on integrated graphics.

Apple has ramped up the Macbook to and even MORE expensive CPU. The benefits are rather pointless of it as well. (I'm talking seconds in iMovie.) The money spent on the CPU could have been better spent on a low end dedicated graphic solution that would have been cheaper then the processor upgrade and given Apple more money in the end!

The GMA950 runs Core Image and Exposé with occasional sluggishness that I don't see on my Radeon 7500 or 9800 machines that are years older in the CPU, bus, and RAM departments.

 

[Kaiser Phoenix]

I think the MASSES just look at like processor speeds. Some people just buy a computer coz they think the processor is faster = better. Thats MASSES.

The MASSES dont know about graphics cards or what not. They dont benchmark or anything, they just want something that works and works well.

The macbook in my opinion with these updates are amazing. It is a very good computer.

I KNOW its not good for gaming, but not everyone is looking for gaming and you should just get a console (360, PS3 etc) to play or get a windows machine.

The MASSES love the macbook.

 

[shigzeo]

I already know it's a great selling machine. I'm not a professional either. I just want a dedicated graphics option in the MacBook. I give anything with integrated graphics a hard time since it's eating system RAM for poor to subpar performance. I just feel sorry for anyone trying to play even the most basic of 3D games that are out right now on integrated graphics.

Apple has ramped up the Macbook to and even MORE expensive CPU. The benefits are rather pointless of it as well. (I'm talking seconds in iMovie.) The money spent on the CPU could have been better spent on a low end dedicated graphic solution that would have been cheaper then the processor upgrade and given Apple more money in the end!

The GMA950 runs Core Image and Exposé with occasional sluggishness that I don't see on my Radeon 7500 or 9800 machines that are years older in the CPU, bus, and RAM departments.

cannot say that i am excited or not excited about this update. i am in the market for macbook pro - it had better be SR etc. however, this is such a good point as everyone mentions - just plop a few extra dollar video card in and either eat the cost and sell the machine same price or don't worry about 2.16ghz machine which will for most people not be used for anything that needs even 1.83 or 1.6 or even 1ghz.

i bought ibook 12 1ghz some years ago as my first apple and loved that at the same time pc laptops were all spec and i felt cheated but after using the thing, there was nothing i relished that was not in the thing already. of course, it did have a better graphix card than the current macbook... hence my reply

 

[Eidorian]

I KNOW its not good for gaming, but not everyone is looking for gaming and you should just get a console (360, PS3 etc) to play or get a windows machine.

I'm getting rather tired of seeing this "get a console talk". My iMac is a Windows machine.

Not to mention Aspyr has gotten a good chunk of my money as well.

cannot say that i am excited or not excited about this update. i am in the market for macbook pro - it had better be SR etc. however, this is such a good point as everyone mentions - just plop a few extra dollar video card in and either eat the cost and sell the machine same price or don't worry about 2.16ghz machine which will for most people not be used for anything that needs even 1.83 or 1.6 or even 1ghz

Not that Apple has a problem essentially forcing its users to get a MacBook Pro to do anything involving 3D, even my wallet can't handle such a purchasing with my academic discount.

It's kinda sad that the video card is the breaking point for most people and forces them to get a MacBook Pro. You can throw in the bigger screen and FireWire 800 if you want too.

 

[Chef Medeski]

I KNOW its not good for gaming, but not everyone is looking for gaming and you should just get a console (360, PS3 etc) to play or get a windows machine.

The MASSES love the macbook.

Anyone who is really buying a MAC base LAPTOP to play GAMES really needs to reconsider... a lot of things. Like Laptops are terrible for gaming. And a mac just makes it harder. Especially a "base" laptop. So why continues the pain. Honestly it doesnt make sense.

 

[2tallyAwesome]

Seriously....GET A CONSOLE.

 

[Eidorian]

Seriously....GET A CONSOLE.

Poor Mac user is poor. I can afford my iMac for 2 years and that's about it. It runs Company of Heroes and Joint Operations just great!

 

[masse]

I KNOW its not good for gaming, but not everyone is looking for gaming and you should just get a console (360, PS3 etc) to play or get a windows machine.

The MASSES love the macbook.

No we don't. We buy xbox 360 only to have it collecting dust.

 

[2tallyAwesome]

Seriously though...the reality is that it's not made for gaming.

The only people who have a problem with this, is gamers.

Oh well.

It seems as if people want EVERYTHING, but to pay nothing.

"Omg guys, I SO want a gaming machine with a dvd burner, super fast processor, screen that's brighter than the sun, that doesn't get hot, and you can't hear the fan. It all has to run OSX, and I don't want to pay more than $1000!"

Well damn so do I! - But life is about choices, and one of those choices is whether you want a gaming machine, or a mac. If you want both, then you gotta pay for it....Sorry.

 

[Eidorian]

Seriously though...the reality is that it's not made for gaming.

The only people who have a problem with this, is gamers.

Oh well.

It seems as if people want EVERYTHING, but to pay nothing.

"Omg guys, I SO want a gaming machine with a dvd burner, super fast processor, screen that's brighter than the sun, that doesn't get hot, and you can't hear the fan. It all has to run OSX, and I don't want to pay more than $1000!"

Well damn so do I! - But life is about choices, and one of those choices is whether you want a gaming machine, or a mac. If you want both, then you gotta pay for it....Sorry.

I never said that it was a gaming machine. Try pushing WoW, Lego Star Wars, and/or Sims 2 on the GMA 950 and you're lucky to break into 20 fps on all low settings.

I never said Doom 3 or Quake IV did I? I'm sticking to casual gaming and Sims 2 is about as casual as I can get. (Getting older by the minute too. June 2005 for OS X?) Without multi-threaded OpenGL in OS X the GMA950 has nothing to stand on. Even then the CPU is making up for it. The processor was fast enough as it is for the price point...and they make it faster. What?

 

[polevault139]

I don't think the GMA950 is as bad as everyone says it is. I have never had any problems with Exposé or any other 3D games. They have all run fine. WoW even plays fine. I don't really see why everyone thinks the GMA950 is so terrible. I'm not saying that its good but it certainly isnt terrible.

 

[sid21177]

I don't really see your point at all, you NEED 1GB RAM to run more than about 2-3 applications at once on the MB.

I don't see the big deal about a DVD Burner nowdays, it's not easy to burn a DVD to watch on a TV using one without buying expensive Dual Layer disks or having a lot of technical know-how, also they are too small for sensible data backup especially when you can get a 300GB USB Hard Drive for $100 you might as well use that.

If you want to burn your girlfriend a CD, you can do that with the base model, so I don't see why it's a big deal.

I could buy the RAM myself if I needed more.

Also, disk media are cheaper & more persistent storage compared to an HDD, and DVD has the higher capacity in that regard,

r u now going to suggest a NAS for data security ??

by your logic - no-one needs a DVD burner, so why offer it in the higher end models ??, better to sell them cheaper, or with more RAM - right ??

the idea is to minimize the amount of $$ spent - for the max benefit

 

[Eidorian]

I don't think the GMA950 is as bad as everyone says it is. I have never had any problems with Exposé or any other 3D games. They have all run fine. WoW even plays fine. I don't really see why everyone thinks the GMA950 is so terrible. I'm not saying that its good but it certainly isnt terrible.

Frames rate per second, version, and settings for WoW or it didn't happen.

The biggest improvement seems to come from multi-threaded OpenGL on GMA 950 based systems.

You'll notice a beach ball grind with Exposé and Dashboard if you don't have enough RAM or non-matched pairs. I really need more RAM in my Mac mini at work. 1.25 GB just isn't enough for 5 apps open.

Unlike my previous Power Mac G4...

This is my issue with this GMA950 deal. I am on an iBook G4 1.33Ghz with Radeon 9200 32 MB and I have No problems in expose or dashboard. So im gonna buy this 3 year newer laptop to replace this and it be slower in graphics? I am at a loss.

If you have enough applications open and are trying to hit the video subsystem you'll notice this on the GMA 950. It doesn't happen on my Radeon 7500 or GeForce 2 MX machines and they only support Quartz Extreme. Oy...

 

[iBunny]

You'll notice a beach ball grind with Exposé and Dashboard if you don't have enough RAM or non-matched pairs.

This is my issue with this GMA950 deal. I am on an iBook G4 1.33Ghz with Radeon 9200 32 MB and I have No problems in expose or dashboard. So im gonna buy this 3 year newer laptop to replace this and it be slower in graphics? I am at a loss.

 

[AvalonX]

Why the new MacBook is just FINE! and I bought it today

We buy Macs for the Operating System - OS X. The hardware being top notch is icing on the cake. Sometimes we don't get the best of the best hardware, but whatever hardware apple puts is going to be pretty darn good of not great.

I went and got the new updated Macbook today; the MB062 for $1299 at the apple store in San Diego. It runs great, looks great, works great and best of all its got the Mac OS X that I WANTED!!!

The GMA 950 graphics card works just fine and dandy for me. And as many others have said on this thread, we get a MacBook not the play the latest and greatest of games. What nut would want to do that on a laptop anyway. LOL I've got the latest and greatest consoles for that in my living room.

 

[mjg59]

I don't have any direct information but I was assuming Apple and Intel's relationship is close enough that they would never allow something like drivers to hold back some sort of product update. Apple does a lot of research and development of their own so I would think they would be a little closer to Intel's development team then Linux vendors.

Right now I get the impression that Intel view the Linux and Apple markets as approximately equally important, and so Apple don't get any real favours (Intel sell to the server market as well as the desktop market, and so their Linux sales are probably pretty equal to their Apple sales). However, Intel have internal Linux driver development and don't (as far as I know) have any internal Apple driver development. Apple guys get the docs and hardware at around the same time as the Linux ones, but they're starting from further back because Intel have already produced a certain amount of Linux code by that stage.

 

[Stella]

Seriously....GET A CONSOLE.

Some games aren't available on console, some games just aren't suited to consoles. IMO, they tend to be the best games out there...
...and most of those games will never be available on the Mac.. this is one of the few places windows is better than Macs.


"Get a console" is always the the answer.

"Get a Windows PC for gaming", just maybe!!

 

[kukito]

overreaction

I think there's been a bit of an overreaction to this minimal bump. Apple makes some valid points about the memory/FSB and the wireless. Apple could very well be having driver problems with the X3100. The Linux open source drivers are OK but nothing to write home about. If you're a PC user who's thinking of switching to Mac this just won't cut it. Lenovo has SR ThinkPads available for the same price as the MB with discrete nVidia graphics (good for Linux). Robson is optional. The X3100 is cheaper. The 2 GB limit for RAM on the MB is not acceptable, especially if you wish to use virtualization to run Vista. If I needed a laptop right now I'd buy a ThinkPad. But I don't so I'll wait for the Leopard MBs in the fall. I want to switch back to Mac. It was my first computer back in 1986. I used to be a Mac evangelist, now known as fanboys. But if they don't offer me the hardware that I want and that everyone else has, like Conroe and Kentsfield, then it's really pointless. The iPhone on the other hand...

 

[koobcamuk]

Seriously....GET A CONSOLE.

with you on that one!

 

[ppnkg]

I don't understand why people complain that the mb with the intel graphics card is useless for playing 3d games. Why on earth would you ever want to play a 3d game on a computer with a 13' screen?

 

[Fukui]

Really,if they were gonna keep the same GFX as the old one, they should have dropped the price to $999. Its the least they could of done....

 

[localoid]

This is my issue with this GMA950 deal. I am on an iBook G4 1.33Ghz with Radeon 9200 32 MB and I have No problems in expose or dashboard. So im gonna buy this 3 year newer laptop to replace this and it be slower in graphics? I am at a loss.

Maybe you should take a look at the Xbench benchmarks comparing both machines. The Core 2 Duo 2GHz Macbooks typically score about 2-times higher on the Quartz Graphics test and about 3-times higher for OpenGL graphics test vs. the scores for a 1.33Ghz iBook.

 

[flopticalcube]

Really,if they were gonna keep the same GFX as the old one, they should have dropped the price to $999. Its the least they could of done....

No, the least they could have done is absolutely nothing. As it is they bumped up the CPU by 8%, doubled the RAM and gave a bigger harddrive for the same money. This is a typical speed bump/spec update. Given how well the MacBooks are selling, its a wonder they did anything at all.

 

[wizard]

While I'm bummed about no SR or maybe even a 15" model like some people were speculating last night, this is exactly what I needed. A little speed bump to the line so it didn't feel like I was buying a six month old laptop.

That is the whole point you are buying six month old technology if you go with this update. In a nut shell this update is CRAP as they completely ignored the one area of the MB that most needed the attention. That is the GPU and Santa Rosa was one of at least three solutions for that problem.

As far as Value goes you can't even justify the purchase based on perceived value as the competition simply wipes Apple out. This would have been a very good update six months ago or at the beginning of the year, now it is just a sad joke and an indication that Apple has regressed back to the G4 days of useless marginal and uninspired updates.

I'm making the Mac switch in the very near future. Can't wait to join the club.

I'm so disgusted by this delivery that I'm thinking about a generic laptop and a fresh install of Linux. Yeah Linux lags in some ways, but at least I can run on reasonably priced state of the art hardware.

When the Intel hardware came out I truly thought that Apple had abandoned its old ways. But this is worst than the days of the constant G4 updates that went no where. Why you may ask; simple the hardware is out there to actually update the MB where it needed it the most. Not just Santa Rosa either as Nvidia and AMD have offerings also.

Dave

 

[ivanlo2]

Re:

So when can we expect the next update? More importantly what do you think will be inlucded in the update for the MB/P.

Personally, I think we'll see the MB/P both be updated by December at the latest with Penryn(and yes SR), Leopard, and the new ATI 2400(possibly XT) HD graphics card. The Penryn will bring with it significant processor speed, it'll also consume less power and be smaller thanks to the 45nm process. The ATI vid card will be a Pro only revision of course. The MacBook will finally get the GMA X3100 integrated vid processor. Then everyone will be happy. Right? Montevina will be out first half of 2008 but it's pretty much the SR to Penryn so I don't think we'll see any updates after that for a while. What do you guys think? I think that we'll also see the same updates to the Mac mini about the same time. Of course iPhones and iPods will be out within the next few months. I'm guessing new iPods in June for the WWDC.