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Apple Switching Back to NVIDIA for Next-Generation MacBook Pro Graphics Chips?

Naimfan said:
I don't care who the graphics vendor is - all I care about is a laptop that can do what I need it to. And the current 13" with integrated Intel HD3000 graphics is just fine. Note that I don't do anything graphics intensive, but the overwhelming majority of people don't either.

If nVidia graphics chips run cooler/with less power draw, Apple switching back to them supports the idea that Apple is looking to thin the next MBP.

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Apple "crawling back?"

:rolleyes:

Do you REALLY believe that corporations like Apple and nVidia think that way? Especially when Apple could quite literally write a check and buy nVidia.

Really? I know you're smarter than that.
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I beg to differ. I think you're the smaller statistic when it comes to not using your machine to its fullest potential. You'd be surprised at how much of a difference graphics switching makes in performance.
 
vader.jpg
 
besweeeet said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

NVIDIA GPUs are faster and more power efficient. What's not to like? And the grammar errors from the source are kinda weird...
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It's funny you should say that, as the exact opposite is true. Right now, AMD chips are slightly more powerful and much more efficient.
 
Doesn't really matter much. They switch between the two vendors often. All I want is the next 13" MBP to have a discrete lowend-midrange GPU with a 1440x900 display.
 
Naimfan said:
Apple "crawling back?"

:rolleyes:

Do you REALLY believe that corporations like Apple and nVidia think that way? Especially when Apple could quite literally write a check and buy nVidia.
Click to expand...

notjustjay said:
Yeah. All this colorful language ("crawling back", "never again", etc.) may be appropriate for personal relationships and politics but in business, you use whatever makes the most business sense.

Frankly I don't care who makes what as long as it works well.
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The language is colorful and this is coming from Charlie. It might just be the usual exclusivity until the next major update.

Then again Steve could have said no more nVidia after that happened the last time...
 
so.. licensing problems are over?

Apple should just buy AMD and be done with it, they'd have ways to design and build ARM processors and ATI graphs.. sadly if they bought they(AMD) would also loose the license from intel to make desktop/notebook processors :mad:
 
besweeeet said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

NVIDIA GPUs are faster and more power efficient. What's not to like? And the grammar errors from the source are kinda weird...
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Nvidia typically does have the fastest single GPU, but they are not more power efficient. I expect AMD will further tighten their grip on that title with the 28nm cards as their architecture will be even more efficient than their current one while Nvidia has a big push for GPGPU to cater to the simulation/modeling people.

This announcement also surprises me because I'm pretty sure AMD will have their 28nm cards ready to go before Nvidia does. Although I do suppose it's doubtful that either will have mobile cards ready to go for Ivy Bridge launch. Still, it wouldn't make sense to switch to Nvidia for their mobile line unless the new 28nm cards are out. They are on par with the current MBP offerings. Given notebooks are Apple's biggest Mac business, I don't think framing this announcement in a mobile-only viewpoint is a bad way to look at it.
 
Doctor Q said:
For such a large company Apple can seem surprisingly light on its feet when it comes to changing suppliers.
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For a desktop machine, changing the graphics card supplier should be as simple as ordering from a different supplier and plugging their cards into your computers. For discrete graphics in a laptop, it shouldn't be much more difficult. Obviously the size must fit, and the card mustn't use too much power and produce too much heat, but apart from that the change should be easy.
 
chrmjenkins said:
Not a bad guess, but those cards are rebrands (not a new architecture or process). There's no real performance advantage over the current AMD crop in those cards. Would only make sense if they made a real good $ offer to Apple rather than a promise of performance.
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Eidorian said:
I hope you do realized that those "600M" chips are based on GF11x and not a new architecture...
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I just threw them in there as placeholders.
 
Ugh.

This is bad. I don't like nVidia especially 9400m issue. Apple never issued a software update for this screen flickering thing and probably never will.

I do like ATI over nVidia.
 
"Never again?" Apple never said this. So, this rumor monger is telling a BLATANT LIE, in order to try and claim Apple is a hypocrite?

And we're supposed to give this guy some credibility?

For decades these *******s have been making up stories about Steve Jobs, now that he's dead, I guess they'll just make them up about Apple. (and of course, there's the requisite "Now that's Steve's dead, Apple can finally change this policy" ... which is, of course, a lie as well.)

Steve cared about functionality, and price, and manufacturability and reliability.

He cared about performance to the extent that it let Apple do great things, but he couldn't care less about the %5 performance improvements of one vendor over another like fans tend to.

Tired of these lies... everyone who spreads them loses credibility.
 
I definitely hope they stick to AMD /*ATi.

I have a MBP with nVidia and I couldn't be more frustrated with it. A friend does have a MBP with ATi and I cry every time I see it because I wish it was mine. It doesn't heat as much as nVidia, games run faster.

Also, my history with nVidia has not been so great:
- three fried cards in the past 5 years
- underperforming
- way too much heat to dissipate, a real pain in the butt to have a jet plane in your room
 
I look forward to the return of Nvidia. Always been an Nvidia fan because of the gaming performance (which yes, always has out-done ATI, even by small margins). Even if they're just a rebrand, they're still better than whats in the machines now.

Everyone will hate me for this, as a graphics chip, the 8600 was a great chip. I had one in my old dell machine and it never let me down.
 
AMD are cheap sub quality in comparison to nvidia
this is widely regarded in gaming communities, no reason to dislike this move
 
I do not think the 13 incher will have nVidia graphics, maybe someone can prove me wrong, but they're stuck with Intel, unless Apple removed the ODD.
The rest is fairly reasonable guess, but why would they go from AMD back to nVidia, when AMD is currently extremely reliable. I haven't seen anyone report overheat or '8600m' incident. Mine runs extremely well. But I guess it's good I have the current gen then :eek:
My old laptop and desktop, which used nvidia graphics have both failed at least once, laptop failed twice (changed the GPU, which is, the 8600m gt, surprise). I am currently using my AMD/ATI for the first iteration both desktop and laptop, it poses no problem so far and I hope it stays this way.
 
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NVidia can shut shop as far as I am concerned - crappy overheating pile of undocumented, unstable crap is what nVidia has been spewing since some time - 8600M, 9400M etc.

With ATI chips I can run open source OS on the Macs - with Nvidia not so much - that's another reason for NVidia to die^W gracefully run out of business.

And besides most of what people need will be provided by Intel graphics in Ivy Bridge. So there, NVidia. (Oh and stay away from making underperforming Tegra crap as well while you are at it. PowerVR is beating the crap out of you there.)
 
I love my 2010 MBP with Nvidia.
I also convinced my wife to o buy the 2010 one before 2011 came out because of Nvida.
Core 2 Duo is plenty fast for me....I'll take that Plus Nvidia
 
markieg said:
AMD are cheap sub quality in comparison to nvidia
this is widely regarded in gaming communities, no reason to dislike this move
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Unsubstantiated fanboy tripe. You remember the last time AMD/ATI had to recall cards and offer a replacement program for bad solder bumps? How about a new architecture that was extremely difficult to fab and had performance issues?
 
mabaker said:
NVIDIA's Cuda + i7 = heaven.

NVIDIA is still supporting their CUDA drivers for Mac OS X, you have to download them separately, tho. Valid even for the m9400.
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BS. Apple is committed solely to OpenCL, just like AMD. CUDA is not part of Apple's future and Nvidia knows it. Nvidia's implementation of OpenCL on the GPGPU and CPU lags seriously behind Apple and AMD.

This report is bunk.
 
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