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Are we expecting a Fall update?

Y

Yixian

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 2, 2007
1,483
135
Europe
What's the general consensus on whether or not there'll be a fall update to the MBP line?

There's word that ATI 5000 series drivers for the Mac are in the works and I'm basically holding out for a decent GPU to appear in the MBP before I upgrade. The current offerings are probably the worst in years.

There's also that 2.8hhz Core i7 chip expected to show up in portables.

Any chance the two could come together in a refresh this sept-oct?
 
based on previous updates schedules we are looking at mid to late November at the the very earliest and more realistically just before the December Christmas rush or in the early new year.
This is assuming an update to components rather than a major step forward.

I wouldn't be holding my breath for a GPU upadate since this has been a major area of struggle for Apple. They are tied pretty heavily to Nvidia both in design and in legal agreements for the MBP line. While ATI make nice graphics cards they will have to match the power consumption, unibody real-estate and on the fly switching of the Nvidia cards.

Just my thoughts.
 
Drawtl said:
I wouldn't be holding my breath for a GPU upadate since this has been a major area of struggle for Apple. They are tied pretty heavily to Nvidia both in design and in legal agreements for the MBP line. While ATI make nice graphics cards they will have to match the power consumption, unibody real-estate and on the fly switching of the Nvidia cards.
Click to expand...

The 5000 series beats Nvidia in all of these areas, although not sure about the on-the-fly switching. It seems to be nothing but politics that keeps Apple with Nvidia now.

That wouldn't necessarily be such a problem but the last refresh brought really incomprehensibly underpowered GPUs. I mean really, outdated chips that cost Apple only a couple of bucks when we're paying thousands for a high end portable.

Just can't buy a MacBook Pro until that changes, everything else is cutting edge and that just let's the side down.

Ok so November-December? That'd be ok.
 
Am I lost or something? From what I've seen this last update has to be one of the best updates for the MVP line - minus the 13". Great cpu's with probably one of the best gpu upgrades the mbp line has had. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the 330 beat out the difference the 9600 had when it came to the mbp?
 
drewyboy said:
Am I lost or something? From what I've seen this last update has to be one of the best updates for the MVP line - minus the 13". Great cpu's with probably one of the best gpu upgrades the mbp line has had. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the 330 beat out the difference the 9600 had when it came to the mbp?
Click to expand...

Yes agreed, it's more a case of I want the most powerful GPU there is in my Mac. And that is the ATI so people get all annoyed when they use the Nvidia's, even the Alienware M11X uses the 335M from Nvidia and PLENTY of people seem to be more then happy with it, so we have the 330m which it's younger brother.
The Nvidia's we have can perform better with better drivers as Gabe Newell stated himself, the drivers are crap basically.

Now I wanted the ATI GPU's too but when I saw the 330M being used AND Apples own GPU switching technology I was happy enough.

Anyway we won't get any updates IMO, if we do then it will only be CPU updates.
 
apolloa said:
Yes agreed, it's more a case of I want the most powerful GPU there is in my Mac. And that is the ATI so people get all annoyed when they use the Nvidia's, even the Alienware M11X uses the 335M from Nvidia and PLENTY of people seem to be more then happy with it, so we have the 330m which it's younger brother.
The Nvidia's we have can perform better with better drivers as Gabe Newell stated himself, the drivers are crap basically.

Now I wanted the ATI GPU's too but when I saw the 330M being used AND Apples own GPU switching technology I was happy enough.

Anyway we won't get any updates IMO, if we do then it will only be CPU updates.
Click to expand...

I also dont understand all the fuss about the GPU of the current 15/17", granted, its probably not the most powerful out there but it certainly doesnt suck as some posters would want you to believe!
I upgraded from a 15" MBP SR and I am very pleased with this beast!
 
Apple is never going to risk battery life and design to fit in the most powerful graphics card EVER.

They've built a reputation on amazing design, sleekness, and battery life. They just won't give that up in the name of performance.
 
No, sir, we are not.

We are expecting iPod Touch updates, perhaps an iPod Touch Nano, Apple TV, etc.
 
drewyboy said:
Am I lost or something? From what I've seen this last update has to be one of the best updates for the MVP line - minus the 13". Great cpu's with probably one of the best gpu upgrades the mbp line has had. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the 330 beat out the difference the 9600 had when it came to the mbp?
Click to expand...

Well of course it has the newest stuff and fastest stuff. It's the newest model.

But it has some of the worst quality. Crap screens, hard crashing, widespread case manufacturing issues, terrible WiFi reception (par for the MBP course by now unfortunately), less than advertised battery, crappy management of gfx switching, the list goes on.

I'm highly disappointed, myself. I'll just save the cash and get a MacBook next time.
 
chris2k5 said:
Apple is never going to risk battery life and design to fit in the most powerful graphics card EVER.

They've built a reputation on amazing design, sleekness, and battery life. They just won't give that up in the name of performance.
Click to expand...

I don't think any of us were asking for "the most powerful graphics card ever", but it was clear that for whatever political reasons behind the scenes Apple chose to stick with Nvidia and therefore missed out on ATIs faster, more power, smaller and less energy draining 5XXX series.

I know there's a lot of complaints about the CPUs used and wifi signal, casing issues etc. but I feel like in all areas other than the GPU I get my moneys worth.

But at the end of the day it's the GPU that bottlenecks most things I do, MacBook pros from 5 years ago are more than powerful enough to deal with everything else, so I'm waiting on that. And no I won't buy a PC. So the wait continues..

Then again my current unibody is on it's last legs after a series of unfortunate bangs so maybe I'll just make the plunge anyway before the resale value of this thing drops to absolute zero :/
 
apolloa said:
Yes agreed, it's more a case of I want the most powerful GPU there is in my Mac. And that is the ATI so people get all annoyed when they use the Nvidia's, even the Alienware M11X uses the 335M from Nvidia and PLENTY of people seem to be more then happy with it, so we have the 330m which it's younger brother.
The Nvidia's we have can perform better with better drivers as Gabe Newell stated himself, the drivers are crap basically.

Now I wanted the ATI GPU's too but when I saw the 330M being used AND Apples own GPU switching technology I was happy enough.

Anyway we won't get any updates IMO, if we do then it will only be CPU updates.
Click to expand...

We all saw how that GPU switching technology works out, activiting the 330M for the most silliest application.

So Nvidia doesn't score points wiht it. ATI also can switching graphics like in the new Envy of HP, but it has to be chosen by the user ( which isn't bad since you can make sure the correct GPU is used to your needs )

ATI uses less power, heat and it's faster all at the same time.

There could be a new MBP update replacing the 2.66 i7 with the new 2.8 i7.

The macbook Air gets an upgrade for sure. Sources say it's going to be a 11 inch OLED with the core i7 low voltage CPU, based on what Apple is buying at the moment.
 
mark28 said:
We all saw how that GPU switching technology works out, activiting the 330M for the most silliest application.

So Nvidia doesn't score points wiht it. ATI also can switching graphics like in the new Envy of HP, but it has to be chosen by the user ( which isn't bad since you can make sure the correct GPU is used to your needs )

ATI uses less power, heat and it's faster all at the same time.

There could be a new MBP update replacing the 2.66 i7 with the new 2.8 i7.

The macbook Air gets an upgrade for sure. Sources say it's going to be a 11 inch OLED with the core i7 low voltage CPU, based on what Apple is buying at the moment.
Click to expand...

the air better be getting an update, seems too overpriced even for an apple product
It's thin but still
 
Most tech websites think it will just be a silent update with an update option to get the higher speed i7 - which of course will be way overpriced IMO.

I got the base i5 so no big updates that would affect me until at least mid 2011.
 
I wouldn't expect anything more than a slight processor upgrade.
 
It's funny, pretty much everything other than the GPU is already cutting edge and doesn't need updating, especially the processor.

It seems that Apple are targeting MacBook Pros as CERN data analysers or something?
 
Yixian said:
It's funny, pretty much everything other than the GPU is already cutting edge and doesn't need updating, especially the processor.

It seems that Apple are targeting MacBook Pros as CERN data analysers or something?
Click to expand...

Lol yeah, what we really need is some features, like perhaps USB3.0 and Blu-ray. Slight processor bump = useless update. Not going to happen anytime soon though
 
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