Apple Shifting to Intel Graphics for Future MacBooks and 13-Inch MacBook Pros?

[Yebubbleman]

That's possible. Regarding the MBP 13-inch, I agree with you wholeheartedly. It is my favorite form-factor, and while I'm not a huge gamer, I do play sometimes - and I'd like to have the option to play something other than "Bejeweled" with reasonable frame rates and at least some eye-candy turned on. I'd gladly sacrifice the internal optical drive for a GPU manufactured by a company that knows and cares about graphics performance - even in their low-end offerings.

The optical drive, believe it or not, is actually still useful for things, even on a laptop. Apple's optical drives suck as they always break, but still. There are some creative professionals that still need to burn demo reels on DVDs and whatnot. However, they could put the MacBook Air style SSD blades in and completely kill the 2.5" Hard Drive bay in the 13" giving them room for the discrete GPU (and maybe some left over for the battery). It's not like SSD isn't a more preferable substitute to a Hard Drive anyway. That's the only way I can see the 13" MacBook Pro surviving without being seen by both the press and the majority of its target market audience as ridiculous.

1. Get rid of the Superdrive.
2. Put epic ATI card in its place.
3. ?????
4. Profit

Get rid of the hard drive instead of the superdrive; you can use the blade SSDs in their place, and those who still need the superdrive on their 13" MacBook PRO(!) won't be screwed, that should still easily afford enough MLB room for a GPU on that machine as the MLB of the 15" is not that much larger.

 

[Azathoth]

x2 on this.

I personally think Apple needs to just design its own processor and call it a day.

Yeah, and write all it's own applications to run on this custom silicon. Uhhuh, 'cos 32nm stuff is just so easy...
And the fact that there is competition (AMD/Intel, nVidia/AMD) is a good thing for consumers.

 

[miata]

The optical drive, believe it or not, is actually still useful for things, even on a laptop. Apple's optical drives suck as they always break, but still. There are some creative professionals that still need to burn demo reels on DVDs and whatnot. However, they could put the MacBook Air style SSD blades in and completely kill the 2.5" Hard Drive bay in the 13" giving them room for the discrete GPU (and maybe some left over for the battery). It's not like SSD isn't a more preferable substitute to a Hard Drive anyway. That's the only way I can see the 13" MacBook Pro surviving without being seen by both the press and the majority of its target market audience as ridiculous.



Get rid of the hard drive instead of the superdrive; you can use the blade SSDs in their place, and those who still need the superdrive on their 13" MacBook PRO(!) won't be screwed, that should still easily afford enough MLB room for a GPU on that machine as the MLB of the 15" is not that much larger.

The problem with deleting the HDD bay is that the storage capacity of the MBPs would be really limited or really expensive with SSD only.

 

[pinchez]

Definitely get rid of the superdrive (should have gone a while ago)

Would it be possible to fit 2 x 2.5" Bays (HD + SSD) and ATI/Nvidia Video card if there were no Superdrive in a 13" MBP?

Obviously the HD and SSD combination could be an option on the store, but a small fast SSD for the OS and a 500GB 2.5" HD for everything else would be great. Just wish they would ditch the damn optical drive, i really dont think it as a place in a modern computer just like the floppy didn't.

We could also do with a an extra 2 USB ports and an eSata

 

[435713]

We could also do with a an extra 2 USB ports and an eSata

Has there ever been given a reason as to why they dont use e-sata?

 

[pr5owner]

Has there ever been given a reason as to why they dont use e-sata?

its not magical nor is it beautiful crafted with revolutionary technology

although it is fast, apple doesnt do fast

 

[pinchez]

Has there ever been given a reason as to why they dont use e-sata?

It's crude but effective and really easy to add and most external Drives are now coming with USB + eSata as standered.

But you know Apple they don't like to give us too much all in one go

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Definitely get rid of the superdrive (should have gone a while ago)

Would it be possible to fit 2 x 2.5" Bays (HD + SSD) and ATI/Nvidia Video card if there were no Superdrive in a 13" MBP?

Obviously the HD and SSD combination could be an option on the store, but a small fast SSD for the OS and a 500GB 2.5" HD for everything else would be great. Just wish they would ditch the damn optical drive, i really dont think it as a place in a modern computer just like the floppy didn't.

Space-wise, yes, it would be possible.

 

[435713]

its not magical nor is it beautiful crafted with revolutionary technology

although it is fast, apple doesnt do fast

LOL ah yes it is not magical for got about that.

It's crude but effective and really easy to add and most external Drives are now coming with USB + eSata as standered.

But you know Apple they don't like to give us too much all in one go

All true.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Definitely get rid of the superdrive (should have gone a while ago)

Would it be possible to fit 2 x 2.5" Bays (HD + SSD) and ATI/Nvidia Video card if there were no Superdrive in a 13" MBP?

Obviously the HD and SSD combination could be an option on the store, but a small fast SSD for the OS and a 500GB 2.5" HD for everything else would be great. Just wish they would ditch the damn optical drive, i really dont think it as a place in a modern computer just like the floppy didn't.

We could also do with a an extra 2 USB ports and an eSata

(a) They could just as easily ditch the HDD bay in favor of space-saving blade SSDs.

(b) You can't install things like Final Cut Studio (let alone Express) or StarCraft II via download in any sort of timely manner at all. Even if I install Final Cut Studio and attempt to burn demos with DVD Studio Pro, an internal optical drive is preferable to an external one, especially one made by Apple costing as much as their MacBook Air superdrive does. Given that, this is why you are premature in your condemning of the optical drive in the same way that the floppy drive is. As soon as software and movies are all delivered that way AND we have the bandwidth to make things like that bearable, then sure. Otherwise, you have quite a bit to wait on that. Why don't you just get a MacBook Air in the meantime, as that sounds like something that better fits your anti-ODD needs.

 

[devilcm3]

(a) They could just as easily ditch the HDD bay in favor of space-saving blade SSDs.

(b) You can't install things like Final Cut Studio (let alone Express) or StarCraft II via download in any sort of timely manner at all. Even if I install Final Cut Studio and attempt to burn demos with DVD Studio Pro, an internal optical drive is preferable to an external one, especially one made by Apple costing as much as their MacBook Air superdrive does. Given that, this is why you are premature in your condemning of the optical drive in the same way that the floppy drive is. As soon as software and movies are all delivered that way AND we have the bandwidth to make things like that bearable, then sure. Otherwise, you have quite a bit to wait on that. Why don't you just get a MacBook Air in the meantime, as that sounds like something that better fits your anti-ODD needs.

external ODD can perform as fast as internal ODD
while external HDD can(NOT) perform as fast as internal HDD using the current MBP's USB2.0 interface

of its about cost of external ODD , you can always get a 3rd party ODD that works with OSX such as ASUS'

with the announcement of Mac App Store , it is more likely that apple will ditch the ODD because we won't need another medium other than internet to install app .

Blade SSD's cost even more than the conventional 2,5" SSD , and doesn't have that much space as conventional HDD does .

 

[Yebubbleman]

external ODD can perform as fast as internal ODD
while external HDD can(NOT) perform as fast as internal HDD using the current MBP's USB2.0 interface

of its about cost of external ODD , you can always get a 3rd party ODD that works with OSX such as ASUS'

with the announcement of Mac App Store , it is more likely that apple will ditch the ODD because we won't need another medium other than internet to install app .

Blade SSD's cost even more than the conventional 2,5" SSD , and doesn't have that much space as conventional HDD does .

The Mac App Store forbids trials, betas, demos, and anything that requires root access (i.e. your password to do anything), given this reason, among many others, it won't replace traditional installation methods. To blindly assume that it'll be the end all be all puts way too much faith into Apple, and let's face it, not every thing they do is a smash hit.

With two Blade SSD sticks you can have 12GB more than the current Apple-supplied maximum hard drive size. On 13" computers, who really needs more than 512MB of space anyway? Were Apple to utilize those in the 13" and sacrifice the HDD bay, that'd give them room for a discrete GPU. If you wanted more, as is the case with a lot of features, you should be able to step up to the 15" MacBook Pro which should have both.

Currently, we don't have enough Internet bandwidth to justify killing the optical drive, especially on "Pro" machines, when it is far faster to install things like Final Cut or StarCraft II via DVD. Installing said programs takes an hour via DVD, and a day via the Internet today. Apple doesn't even have its high-end pro apps in the store yet, so what does that tell you? Plus the Mac App Store has such a piss-poor selection of apps currently. Sure, it might grow, but how much? Will we see the Microsoft or Adobe apps there?

Hate to burst your bubble guys, the optical drive isn't going anywhere for at least another couple years; more on the higher-end machines.

 

[devilcm3]

The Mac App Store forbids trials, betas, demos, and anything that requires root access (i.e. your password to do anything), given this reason, among many others, it won't replace traditional installation methods. To blindly assume that it'll be the end all be all puts way too much faith into Apple, and let's face it, not every thing they do is a smash hit.

With two Blade SSD sticks you can have 12GB more than the current Apple-supplied maximum hard drive size. On 13" computers, who really needs more than 512MB of space anyway? Were Apple to utilize those in the 13" and sacrifice the HDD bay, that'd give them room for a discrete GPU. If you wanted more, as is the case with a lot of features, you should be able to step up to the 15" MacBook Pro which should have both.

Currently, we don't have enough Internet bandwidth to justify killing the optical drive, especially on "Pro" machines, when it is far faster to install things like Final Cut or StarCraft II via DVD. Installing said programs takes an hour via DVD, and a day via the Internet today. Apple doesn't even have its high-end pro apps in the store yet, so what does that tell you? Plus the Mac App Store has such a piss-poor selection of apps currently. Sure, it might grow, but how much? Will we see the Microsoft or Adobe apps there?

Hate to burst your bubble guys, the optical drive isn't going anywhere for at least another couple years; more on the higher-end machines.

i need at least 1TB storage on my laptop , just in case .
and 512GB Blade SSDs would cost you another $500
where 500GB harddisk can be found as low as $50

HDD's don't really consume that much space compare to ODD , even if you replace it with Blade SSD's which IMO does really significantly reduce the space consumption compare to HDD.

Would just want to sacrifice the space for an ODD that you only use couple times a month just to install Final Cut or Starcraft II .
or you want better performance to run Final Cut or Starcraft II but with running the installer from external DVD ROM or Internet

the time wasted for installing an application does not justify the performance increase you can get from ditching the internal ODD

Opticals are good , just that its time that we start to consider it as an alternative

 

[Yebubbleman]

i need at least 1TB storage on my laptop , just in case .
and 512GB Blade SSDs would cost you another $500
where 500GB harddisk can be found as low as $50

HDD's don't really consume that much space compare to ODD , even if you replace it with Blade SSD's which IMO does really significantly reduce the space consumption compare to HDD.

Would just want to sacrifice the space for an ODD that you only use couple times a month just to install Final Cut or Starcraft II .
or you want better performance to run Final Cut or Starcraft II but with running the installer from external DVD ROM or Internet

the time wasted for installing an application does not justify the performance increase you can get from ditching the internal ODD

Opticals are good , just that its time that we start to consider it as an alternative

...not if I also need to burn things on the fly, such as demos, back-ups of smaller things that are not the entire size of my hard drive, like TV show seasons. Not if I want to watch a DVD in a hotel room with my girlfriend. I, too, would like 1TB on my laptop; though I really don't need that on a 13" MacBook Pro (which is the only "Pro" laptop where you couldn't have an optical drive, a hard drive, and a discrete GPU in the same place), and my guess is that most customers don't either. External DVD drives and downloading from the Internet are both very inconvenient alternatives to having a drive inside the machine. When that isn't the case, then AND ONLY THEN will it be time for the ODD to be an alternative. In the meantime, if it means that, in order to have better performance, I need to step up to the 15" MacBook Pro, I'll gladly do that. Even so, with Intel graphics coming back to the low-end, I'd wager that the 13" Pro isn't long for this iWorld.

 

[devilcm3]

15" price is pretty steep , and the performance is not much different either .
same graphics , only small CPU performance difference which doesn't seem to give any advantage on graphics intensive applications .
well , some prefer performance in smalll form factor .
i think that the superdrive is pretty slim enough for you to slip it onto a laptop bag alongside with the magsafe charger

 

[Yebubbleman]

15" price is pretty steep , and the performance is not much different either .

same graphics , only small CPU performance difference which doesn't seem to give any advantage on graphics intensive applications .

You clearly aren't familiar with Apple's MacBook Pro line then. The 15" model is a HUGE step up, in terms of performance. You get a discrete GPU (GT 330M) which is FASTER than the 320M, you get a Core i5 (if not a Core i7) which is FASTER than the Core 2 Duo.

well , some prefer performance in smalll form factor .
i think that the superdrive is pretty slim enough for you to slip it onto a laptop bag alongside with the magsafe charger

You also don't seem to understand one key thing that makes the 13" MacBook Pro (and the white MacBook as well, for that matter) very alluring as a laptop. A ten (realistically seven) hour battery life. With that, I have the added convenience of not having to take my MagSafe with me; it can live at home. Similarly, having to carry around a DVD drive, let alone having to remember to bring it along as an accessory should I decide to spontaneously use it that day is also inconvenient.

I don't want a MacBook Air, man. If I'm to be paying for a "Pro" computer, then expecting a tool that may only be used by PROfessionals, isn't unreasonable. Again, just because you could do without one, doesn't mean that everyone shares that sentiment.