Apple's Mac Lineups to See Significant Graphics Upgrades as New GPU Launches Loom

[koyoot]

Ah correct. I was looking at numbers for the 13-inch macbook pro.
I'll change my point - which I think is still worth making, the fact that the video card in my 5-year old laptop beats the card on the current 13-inch model is pretty ***** pathetic anyway.

May I know in what measure HD6100 is slower than HD6750M? So far every test shows that HD6100 is faster than HD6750M.

 

[Digital Skunk]

Define Workstation! Not the machine you work on. Following the standards the Mac Pro is a Workstation, the iMac not.
One detail: RAM. ECC for Workstations, non ECC for the others.

Well, even by the film industry's standard, the MacPro wouldn't be a workstation. Not with those paltry specs.

I think the definition is a bit . . . . fluid to say the least.

 

[6836838]

Apples drivers are worst than some open sourced Linux GPU drivers. That is a reality however we are actually seeing some effort by Apple to improve things. Metal for one is getting the ball rolling. In the end Apple has a lot of work to do to over come the stigma of its drivers.

In any event comparing gaming performance is senseless because Apple has never failed caused on that segment until the Rrival of Metal. Even with metal it appears to be a forward looking thing only.

Asking games developers to also support Metal is not the way forward I think. There are already cross-platform API's (OpenGL etc) which Apple could equally have well supported.

 

[Palliser]

Can't wait for these GPU's + 5400rpm hard drives coming sometime in 2020. Tesla will have delivered all their Model 3 cars before we see any updates.

 

[iMcLovin]

Finally some interesting news. A new top of the line retina iMac with superfast GPU would be awesome replacement for my current 27"RiMac

 

[Mattww]

The mass market is really integrated GPUs and mobile versions of dedicated chips these days so I expect most progress there.

I do however hope we might get at least 1 more new desktop single GPU upgrade option for the old Mac Pro models with PCI-E slots from someone.

Something with around at least 2x the performance of my current 7950 would be ideal. It just needs to keep within the power budget of the two 6 pin connectors, have a boot screen/OS X EFI to give at least basic video without needing a download of drivers and not cost as much as iPad/entry level MacBook.....

Hopefully then 1440p with high to Max settings in OS X games should remain possible for the next few years (yes I know Windows performance will likely be better still but it isn't of interest personally as I don't use it or plan to).

 

[cult hero]

Doesn't matter for me as long as Apple stubbornly won't be putting those into at least one version of a 13" MacBook Pro.

I wonder if the power savings will get them to do so? 13" + dedicated GPU is the machine I want. I've been running a 15" rMBP and I don't have any problems with it per se, but I've traditionally liked the smaller footprint better.

However, I use the dedicated GPU purely for gaming in Bootcamp so I can't imagine I'm a huge demographic. I just don't want to maintain a separate computer anymore for a hobby I participate in rather infrequently.

 

[DevNull0]

How often do people upgrade their Macs?
I haven't since 2011 and 2014 (besides upping the RAM in the iMac)...

Should I be upgrading?

I used to upgrade every 3 years or so, and between a desktop and notebook I averaged a new mac every 18 months from 1999 to 2012. I'm currently using a 2011 MBP and 2012 Mac Mini. I think they are absolutely better than anything currently available from Apple. It's not just not worth the upgrade cost, the older ones are just plain better.

Unless Apple starts producing decent computers again, I'm going to use these until they break and switch to windows.
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It means that relative power of previous gen. GPUs can be achieved on much lower power consumption.

I think you're right. Personally I prefer my computer to be a more powerful GPU at the same power consumption and same sized battery. Because cutting power consumption just means they trim the battery and make the computer smaller. And Apple falls ever farther behind.

 

[the8thark]

The only problem with mine is that it has an HD instead of an SSD. The HD is the bottleneck. If I got it upgraded to an SSD I'd probably try to stick with it. But a big SSD will cost a few hundred dollars and the installation will either cost more or will be something I do myself. Doing it myself would come with some risks as I'm not experienced in this stuff.

If you wait long enough I suspect the Macs will be voice controlled not too long. There is really no reason Siri isn't supported on Macs that I can think of. And if Apple threw in that always on chip from the iPhone 6s you could control your Mac with "Hey Siri". Though I know some folks would disable that feature for privacy reasons.

Exactly. You don't notice it too much if a HDD is all you've known. But once you've experienced the SSD, you realise it's the bottleneck to progress. My next iMac will have at least a fusion drive in it, if not a full SSD, if the 1TB SSD prices are resonable by then.

Voice activated Macs would be an awesome thing, for so many reasons. It'd have to be optional for secruity reasons. But a lot of folks would really use the heck out of that option.

 

[Glassed Silver]

Everyone ignores the Mac Pro, including, apparently, Apple.

Needs no attention.

Phil himself said "Can't innovate anymore my ass" 2 years ago. Did you not listen?

Jesus....


On a more serious note however, especially that one sentence is such a ridiculous memory considering the Mac Pro from today is the same as from 2 years ago.

Always remember that when you have any hopes that Apple is in some way interested in catering to pros and prosumers.
They are not, don't be fooled.

This plus the Skylake chips from Intel is probably what Apple is waiting for to release a new Mac Pro.

That sounds like the ever undecided Apple customer who's holding a purchase for months, because the new device must be right around the corner.
Maybe it's just a service from Apple, they are waiting FOR US so when they release something new, we really know it'll be the latest and hottest **** for years to come! /s

[...]
Apple hasn't been able to get early access to any new CPU/GPU for years now, I don't see this changing this year.
[...]

Hmm, I think you spelt "hasn't cared to get" wrong...
You only care about getting latest technology in your products early when you try to cater to a demanding crowd.
Today's Apple customers don't really seem to look past PR talk.
The ones who still do aren't as welcome, as they don't help Apple's margins as much.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[class77]

I hope the Macs go back to Nvida GPUs.

That's the reason I didn't get an iMac this year. I'm waiting for an Nvidia, but this fall is about as long as I can wait!

 

[Internet Enzyme]

That would be fantastic if the 13inch Macbook Pro got a dedicated GPU. That's my one major complaint I have with my 2015 Macbook Pro.

 

[SteveW928]

How often do people upgrade their Macs?
I haven't since 2011 and 2014 (besides upping the RAM in the iMac)...

Should I be upgrading?

Yea, that's a great question. There hasn't been all that much of a reason to upgrade, or I guess, for that matter, for Apple to release updates. Not a whole lot has changed, aside from GPU, so I guess this is good news.

Where I'm most concerned about Apple aside from mobile, though is in software, not hardware. I'd like to see a new Mac Pro when appropriate, and certainly GPU updates. But, the software is where real focus needs to be put. I'm not sure that's going to happen, as I think Apple's focused on mobile now, roughly in parallel with the sales pie graphs.
(Unless things change, it's probably more a matter of at what point we former-apple-faithful will have to switch to Windows, Unix, or ?)

 

[hiddenmarkov]

Or, god forbid, use Windows. The horror.

basically. In my experience with windows its not always the OS's fault. Slap on lots of applications, some have issues, watch system suffer. Some need to read patch notes on their apps in windows. See the bug fixes. when apps have bugs like memory leaks, system takes a hit. M$ can't fix code that makes leaks. that's purely the developer not clearing up memory use in the application.

Not everyone makes a mac client. If bug infested windows apps is never ported over its an unfair match up. No crap windows seems worse...1000's of users are running crap code a mac will not have. its going to look better.

Or reboot the system once in while. Clear start after. Life can move on with your system rebooting a few minutes worst case every couple days. Even OS X needs this I find. Anything slammed with lots of applications and a GUI will need its smoke/air breaks from time to time .

My only system OS' not needing somewhat frequent reboots are my Linux ones. But they tend to run 1 thing only...and are CLI so no overhead for input into the system beyond a blink cursor to enter text. changes made, log out, and services run in their happy little place unattended. Access is by SSH even...its my MBP that does the "work" of putting a text screen up to work with. Linux servers just sees "do this command" stuff passed over a wire so to speak.

 

[Roykor]

I doubt they're going to adopt good gaming graphics cards anyway, that's just not what they aim for.

hmm..iMacs are really pointed to the main stream user. Main stream users like to game. I game on my iMac (bootcamp to windows of course).
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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.

Good point. Thats why so many creative content creators left Apple for the productivity
[doublepost=1460071613][/doublepost]

I have no idea what he is saying but Apple has made the right technical choice to go with AMD because their hardware designs align with the directions Apple has taken with their operating system and support software. Look into some of AMDs papers on heterogeneous computing and you will better understand.

By the way making the right technical choice doesn't mean that a GPU is perfect. What it means is that the positives out weigh the negatives.

Beyond all of that there seems to be two camps that are against AMD in Macs. One is the NVidia fan boy crowd which has no value in the discussion. The other is the frequent posts from CUDA users. CUDA is a dying technology for a number of reasons. For one it is proprietary which is fairly stupid especially considering the areas where CUDA gets used. The second issue is that discreet GPU cards are quickly becoming a thing of the past. As the industry moves to 14nm and smaller chip geometries GPUs integrated into the CPU does become far better compute resources. The problem here though is that NVidia doesn't have a GPU solution with an X86 compatible core. The rise of the APU means that the vast majority of compute code will be written for non CUDA supporting hardware. It should be noted that Intel's GPUs do amazingly well as compute resources already for certain code bases. That will only improve as Intel learns to do GPUs better. The same can be said for AMD as having the GPU onboard the same chip as the CPU actually makes for a compute platform that is viable for a wider array of uses. So anybody arguing about CUDA needs to start considering the future where NVidia GPUs will be rare. CUDA based apps will be even rarer as the incentive to use proprietary software like CUDA evaporates.

You can argue if Cuda is dying or not. Fact: Lot of content creating tools using CUDA. It will be there for the next months, it will be there for the next couple of years. There for, it would be nice to at least to have a choice so i can configure a Mac to MY needs. You know.. Macs.. like those who we, the creative people used. Its okay that Apple doesn't have this user base in there visor anymore. Its all about iPhones and iPads. But, it makes it a bit harder to keep myself on the Mac side to be honest. Planning a nice PC for the next update of my hardware. Creating a monster PC for less than 3k euro that kicks every macs ass. Not that i really want to. I have to

 

[Blue Sun]

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.

I have read the opposite, actually. AMD are in the box seat when it comes to architecture now, software is another matter.

 

[Glideslope]

Congrats Global Foundries !!! Keep pushing the QC. You're getting there Fab 8.

 

[647156]

Needs no attention.

Phil himself said "Can't innovate anymore my ass" 2 years ago. Did you not listen?

I know, next they will come up with one where the entire graphics processor can be removed and replaced with an upgraded one every few years without needing to buy an entire new machine, such will be the revolutionary design of it - what about if you could even have more than one graphics card and even two processors if you need them, that would be utterly magical...

Maybe they could even offer a gold "Mac Pro Edition by Hermes" version of it for $100,000, it might look something like this:

 

[steve333]

I assume this upgrade doesn't apply to the Mac Mini the red headed stepchild?

 

[michial]

How often do people upgrade their Macs?
I haven't since 2011 and 2014 (besides upping the RAM in the iMac)...

Should I be upgrading?

I have a 2012 mbp non retina and it works like a charm. No need to update unless "want" vs "need" is at play. I finally updated my iPad 2 last week for a new 9.7 and let my 3 year old have my iPad 2 for Netflix. The 5 year old iPad still works for the basics. Im not going to update my map until I need to. Then that will last several years.

 

[blackcrayon]

It should be noted that this tech is showing up first in high performance components and eventually will get filtered into machines like the Mac Pro. One day the amount of RAM in a machine will be based on the processor chips you select as there will be no external memory buses.

I can't help but think when that day comes, storage may then be approaching the speed of today's RAM (but available by the terabyte)

 

[Phoenixx]

These GPUs are not even destined for the 15" MBP...This article is referring to desktop GPUs (only suitable for something like an iMac or Mac Pro). But I would not disagree that having a dedicated GPU in my 13" MBP wouldn't be sweet...At least HDMI 2.0 please!

Not to forget that Apple have the habit of putting mobile GPUs into the iMac, or no discrete GPU at all.

 

[mlody]

No matter how good video card Apple puts into new computers, the desktops most likely will be ruined by 5400 or 7200 RPM HDDs or gimped Fusion drives in their default configurations.

 

[pat500000]

I HEAR MAC PRO SCREAMING, "OH YEAAAH!"

And for you Imac-ers...well...don't be surprised when the GPU burns up and the computer is solder up.
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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...

what if this nMP is worst than your current one? I hear flat line.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

^ I'd rather have a Mac Pro than an iMac, but it's just too expensive. I wish the Mac Pro had a cheaper configuration available, but I know it's marketed toward different people than the iMacs are.