I hope so. This could very well be my last Mac as I expect to make a full transition to iPad within the next 3 - 5 years.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple's Mac Lineups to See Significant Graphics Upgrades as New GPU Launches Loom
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I hope so. This could very well be my last Mac as I expect to make a full transition to iPad within the next 3 - 5 years.
chrmjenkins
macrumors 603
Could be. AMD does have an unspecified custom design win coming to fruition this wall. Everyone has been focused on their console APUs, but there's no reason there couldn't be an Apple win in there too.
The focus of AMD and Nvidia are talking about their desktop GPUs, but the mobile GPUs will launch right around them too. It's all the same dies, they just bin them differently. Sure, the boards and connector interfaces are extremely different from desktop parts, but the GPU die is what matters.
applesith
macrumors 68030
Yeah but who knows when Apple with actually add them to their lineup. Skylake chips for 13" MB & MBP have been available for a while and no update. It's the waiting game that never ends.
Marzzz
macrumors 6502
I usually upgrade when there is a major form factor change. My current MBPr is from June 2012, so this one will be at four years.
Winni
macrumors 68040
Don't worry. The next article with a similar headline will be released only a few months later. I think it has become completely uninteresting that computer technology is becoming faster every few weeks - that's just the normal evolution in the technology sector. What's more newsworthy or shocking is how few USEFUL software developments are being done with that ever-increasing computing power. Only games seem to truly take advantage of the hardware evolution, but most of the other stuff that's coming out are just gimmicks, but not things that make the technology really smarter or at least more user friendly - a lot is just cosmetics and changed graphics design. From a usability perspective, the software platforms haven't evolved that much since the 1990s, and despite all that increased power, today's machines don't even feel faster than the equipment we were using twenty years ago.
iriejedi
macrumors 6502a
My 2008 Mac Pro has a Do Not Resuscitate order on it from the wife (and a blessing to update after over 8 years - great lady)... nickle and dime repairs adding up.... just need it to hold on.... common Apple - update the Mac Pro... even with the silly form factor and cost... I can't bring myself to buy a 2013 era machine...
koyoot
macrumors 603
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=38148706&postcount=29 One.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=38148709&postcount=30 Two.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=38147252&postcount=1126 Three.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=38147272&postcount=1129 Four.
If you want to speak about something you better know anything about what you are speaking. Only thing that lets Nvidia GPUs keep up with AMD is proprietary software: CUDA, Iray, GameWorks.
I genuinely suggest for people on this forum educating themselves about GPUs, by reading posts of this guy. He posts on many forums, under the same nick.
Prior to my 2010 MBP, I upgraded every 3 years on average. For my Mac Minis I upgraded every 6 years ending in 2012. Since then not one upgrade, Apple is not making pro or top level machines anymore. The last one IIRC was the 2011 17 inch MBP and the 2012 Mini. I am waiting for this years WWDC and if we don't see pro hardware, then i'll have to go elsewhere. Not sure where, but elsewhere. I am sure Apple does not care.
Since Apple outsourced Swift, I think they are moving to become only a phone and tablet maker. I think they will move their development tools to linux or windows and stop making real computer completely. That seems to be the trend. Remember they moved all their data center hardware to linux and greatly reduced mac os x server. While that makes some sense, since OS X was never a server OS. it is still troublesome.
so you are saying that amd is better almost in every way than nvidia?
HumpYourWayUp
macrumors regular
"Apple's Mac Lineups to See Significant Graphics Upgrades as New GPU Launches Loom"
THE ANSWER IS NO!
Remember the 2013 MacPro with the crappy D300, D500 and D700?
Remember the even crappier M370x in the 2015 Macbook Pro??? Let us not forget: With the M370x they actually put in a two year old ATI GPU instead of using the fast and efficient Nvidia M970 (which most competitors did use with laptops costing half as much)!
Also WHY CRAPPY ATI??? Go to the forum section of this site and read the disaster called bootcamp driver support for ATI graphics card... Compare that to Nvidia - you can actually download updated Nvidia driver for bootcamp on their website (or even drivers for Mac OS when you use an old tower Mac Pro with for example a new 980Ti).
You know - I really like Apple Laptops - but the GPU's always were sub-par.... especially the ATI GPU's
THE ANSWER IS NO!
Remember the 2013 MacPro with the crappy D300, D500 and D700?
Remember the even crappier M370x in the 2015 Macbook Pro??? Let us not forget: With the M370x they actually put in a two year old ATI GPU instead of using the fast and efficient Nvidia M970 (which most competitors did use with laptops costing half as much)!
Also WHY CRAPPY ATI??? Go to the forum section of this site and read the disaster called bootcamp driver support for ATI graphics card... Compare that to Nvidia - you can actually download updated Nvidia driver for bootcamp on their website (or even drivers for Mac OS when you use an old tower Mac Pro with for example a new 980Ti).
You know - I really like Apple Laptops - but the GPU's always were sub-par.... especially the ATI GPU's
Chupa Chupa
macrumors G5
The next MBP needs to be truly great or I'm going to consider it abandonware. A $2500 ask for not the most up-to-date everything is a crime.
koyoot
macrumors 603
Think about it. Nvidia mindshare lets people believe that 4 TFLOPs GPU from Nvidia is faster than any 4 TFLOPs GPU from any other vendor, because it uses CUDA.
But that is BS! It is software which makes the difference here. Currently CUDA can be ported to any other architecture thanks to Boltzmann Initiative, so imagine this: you have GTX 980 and Fury Nano both with similar thermal envelope. Both with similar amount of VRAM. But Nano has 6.9 TFLOPs of compute power at 850 Mhz, and GTX 980 has 4.2 TFLOPs of compute power. Which one will be faster?
If you want sheer compute power - buy AMD. If you want CUDA, Efficiency, Gameworks - buy Nvidia. That is all.
PlainviewX
macrumors 6502a
And Apple will pick the bottom end ones and over price them.
Chupa Chupa
macrumors G5
I think everyone ignores it b/c Apple screwed the pooch on it and made it not worth looking at for most. It's an ultra-niche machine now. I always bought the MP until the "new" one. I'm really depressed how Apple has not walked away, but sprinted, from it's traditional customers/fans in not making at least one decent, somewhat user upgradable, headless Mac. Laptops are also a disaster of mediocrity, but I can more easily deal with that since my MBP was never my go-to computer for video or photo editing.
Spanky Deluxe
macrumors 603
AMD has struggled to keep up with performance / watt. Their solutions tend to be cheaper but run hot and suck power. Chances are, an nVidia desktop chip wouldn't be much worse heat wise than an AMD mobile one in an iMac. AMD's products are weaker in design right now and have been for a few years. Not necessarily in performance and cost but in performance per watt.
Chupa Chupa
macrumors G5
You forgot to add, and over hype the performance of them.
You are right. Apple has never used top end GPUs why would they start now. This is a far fetched dream that will never happen.
koyoot
macrumors 603
Did you even bothered to read the posts? Did you even bothered to educate yourself on most recent benchmarks on both DX11 and DX12?
You know why Maxwell is so efficient? I know the answers to this questions. Do you?
TallManNY
macrumors 601
Not often, but yes. Recently I've had some old home movies converted from VHS to DVD by a service where you send off the VHS tapes and they send back DVDs. I've then taken the files off the DVDs and put them on my computer (which in turn backed them up to my backup). Great fun to look at some stuff from nearly 20 years ago.
I've also installed programs from DVDs. One as recently as a month or so ago. Strangely the DVD version of some programs are cheaper than the download version.
A couple of the new Tesla P100s in a Mac Pro would be amazing, although I've got no idea how I'd be able to afford one!
Yeah, unfortunately -- THIS, THIS, THIS.
I've been a Mac user and advocate since around 2001, but I've *never* seen a Mac built in the era of OS X that truly had a "first class/top tier" graphics chipset or card available in it.
I became convinced that Apple did this on purpose, out of some stubborn but misguided belief of Mr. Jobs that he was doing customers a favor that way. (You know, like his belief that a one button mouse made the computer easier to use and was all anyone needed?) After all, the less capable graphics cards did put out less heat, tended to have less noisy cooling fans attached to them, and drew less power.
But in 2016, I just don't get why Apple is still known for sub-par graphics performance while at the same time, being recognized as the preferred computer choice for creative/artistic types?
Back when the G4 Cube came out, people were upset that graphics card options were limited because Apple felt the small case size was more important than providing room for full length graphics cards that performed better. And we're still seeing the same line of thought today. At the very least, the Mac Pro should have an option to attach an external enclosure that houses a pair of "crossfired" PCIe graphics cards, linked via Thunderbolt, for those wanting/needing more graphics performance. (Heck ... that same option could work for a Macbook Pro or iMac to drive external displays.) Ideally, they'd at LEAST put the best, fastest mobile GPU possible in each laptop as one possible configuration option.
I've been a Mac user and advocate since around 2001, but I've *never* seen a Mac built in the era of OS X that truly had a "first class/top tier" graphics chipset or card available in it.
I became convinced that Apple did this on purpose, out of some stubborn but misguided belief of Mr. Jobs that he was doing customers a favor that way. (You know, like his belief that a one button mouse made the computer easier to use and was all anyone needed?) After all, the less capable graphics cards did put out less heat, tended to have less noisy cooling fans attached to them, and drew less power.
But in 2016, I just don't get why Apple is still known for sub-par graphics performance while at the same time, being recognized as the preferred computer choice for creative/artistic types?
Back when the G4 Cube came out, people were upset that graphics card options were limited because Apple felt the small case size was more important than providing room for full length graphics cards that performed better. And we're still seeing the same line of thought today. At the very least, the Mac Pro should have an option to attach an external enclosure that houses a pair of "crossfired" PCIe graphics cards, linked via Thunderbolt, for those wanting/needing more graphics performance. (Heck ... that same option could work for a Macbook Pro or iMac to drive external displays.) Ideally, they'd at LEAST put the best, fastest mobile GPU possible in each laptop as one possible configuration option.
I'm still running a 2008 Macbook on my drum kit. Its running superior drummer 2 with all those samples flawlessly. I spent about 120 on it a year back and maxed out the ram and threw in a ssd. Its been flying since then. on my 3rd battery. Ive got a 2009 iMac with an sdd as well. I would love for them to kick the bucket so I could tell me wife we have to upgrade.
chrmjenkins
macrumors 603
Apple uses GPUs with appropriate TDP for their design form factors. They use the best mobile GPUs out there for the retina iMac. The fact that the performance per watt increase is pervasive throughout the lineup means Macs are due for big performance boosts assuming they at least keep the same TDP of their previous product iterations.
Recently Nvidia made efforts to put their desktop 980 into laptops. If that trend continues, Apple should have a few more high end options for the iMac while keeping mobile factor GPUs.
you compare last gen gtx 980 vs new fury nano i think. we should compare the 1080 vs fury nano right?