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CES 2010: Intel Officially Announces Core i7, i5, and i3 Chips Suitable for Apple Notebooks
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Speaking only for me.. it's because I'm a hardcore gamer. Before the Intel switch Apples were impossible for me to use because I couldn't game on them. Now I can so I switched to Apple (early 08).
That said, there is a whole other host of issues for that small minority of gamers like me who switched in the fact that we pay a 1,000 dollar Apple tax for semi-outdated hardware every time Apple releases something. But this world ain't perfect
If you need the machine to work, you obviously buy now. I've been waiting for the next update, since historically it should be close, but I almost had to buy a few weeks ago. Luckily the problem my mbp had was free fix even though I don't have Applecare. If it hadn't been fixable or was expensive to fix I would have bought then because I was forced to by the situation.
I would advise against this. Apple's event is on the 27th. They may announce updated laptops at that time. If you buy now, your return period will have expired by the 27th.
I'd hold out a few more weeks if you possibly can.
If you are a fanboi it is the actual second coming. If you are any normal person, it is a marginal speed bump. It might be a battery life bump too. To answer the poor folks who need a computer now but wonder if they should wait, nope. Sorry, this will likely take 2-3 months to arrive in an actual MacBookPro, maybe more.
The bigger issue right now is OS stability. I would buy a Mac I can run 10.4.11 on if I want to, as well as 10.5.8 (not 10.6).
One big advantage to 10.4.11 is pretty much any person running an environment of software and settings can migrate seamlessly to much faster Intel hardware if it runs 10.4.11. Then when 10.6.5 becomes stable, you can DECIDE whether to upgrade.
One of the things Apple does which is pretty hard on users is to simply suggest they adopt every software update. I think they should suggest that for developers and bleeding edge adopters, but should warn luddites, grandmas and late adopters to stay old and stable for a while.
Maybe MacRumors needs to do a how-to for making a partition and OS install and switch lesson so folks can switch to reliable when needed and to "new and cool" when feeling brave.
Rocketman
10.4.11 would be a dream to run on the current hardware. 10.5.8 is the best I can do for now but even that's is getting hard.
I agree completely. I really miss the stability of Tiger and Panther. I thought Apple was going to focus on that for Snow Leopard, but apparently I was wrong.
Yeah I observed that to snow leopard is less stable than leopard but I prefer to be on the bleeding edge software wise.
I agree completely. I really miss the stability of Tiger and Panther. I thought Apple was going to focus on that for Snow Leopard, but apparently I was wrong.
Huh? I have zero issues with any of the three OS'. I'm enjoying SL and want to continue to see what apps Apple and 3rd party companies can create with Grand Central.
I wouldn't run Tiger on anything at this point and I'm hard pressed to say I'd rather run 10.5 over 10.6 since I feel 10.6 is a bit faster. I also believe that Apple has a better grasp of our computer future than we do so I think 10.6 was built for a reason. Even though there are things that they clearly missed with 10.6.
Snow Leopard crashes more then Leopard, which crashed more then Tiger or Panther (of course, this is based on my personal experience). Snow Leopard is without a question stable enough to use, but I remember a time when only Microsoft Word used to crash. The damn beach-balls are also getting annoying.
I am certain Apple places "shiny" ahead of "useful". That doesn't mean users have to.
I was most productive under 9.2.2 on a TiPBG4. A bit less productive on a faster TiPBG4 under 10.4.11, but bandwidth constrained for anything video or data injest oriented.
The MBP15 under 10.5.8 is seamless on videos and crashy on Flash and also has random shut downs.
The MBP17 under 10.6.2 is also very fast and pretty, but has a variety of annoyances some of which are slated to be addressed by 10.6.3, but not all. That's a lot to pay for "living with known issues".
The older ones simply run. At some point, that matters.
Rocketman
Actually, according to the specs in wikipedia, some of the i5/i7 chips have a turbo mode, which lets them operate at much higher clock speeds, therefore matching current Core 2 Duo frequencies.
For example, Core i7-620M which I'd particularly like to se on the new high end MBP is rated at 2.66, but has a turbo mode that goes to 3.33. In conjunction with the 32 nm design and the two threads per core (vs 1 thread per core in C2D) my guess is that this would give quite adequate performance gains. I'm not sure Apple would choose that particular processor, since it 35W, as opposed to other versions with energy requirements of 25W.
Sorry if this has already been asked:
So are all of these processors notebook processors, or just i5?
Secondly, since Apple is already using i5 and i7 in the new iMacs, what is different with these processors? Are the i5, i7 chips 42nm in the iMacs?
Thanks for any explanation.
Cheers,
BIGandTASTY
So are all of these processors notebook processors, or just i5?
Secondly, since Apple is already using i5 and i7 in the new iMacs, what is different with these processors? Are the i5, i7 chips 42nm in the iMacs?
Thanks for any explanation.
Cheers,
BIGandTASTY
This makes the most sense. Thanks for the response
This makes the most sense. I do want a computer and definitely need one after today. But with the apple event only weeks away, seems like a bad idea for me to not wait at least until then to see if anything new is released.
I think the real question I am getting at is for us not extremely advanced computer people, will this be a noticeable change? Not sure I understand how this will advance the current macbook pros other than its faster. Also, didnt the new backbook pro just come out this past June/July?
This makes the most sense. I do want a computer and definitely need one after today. But with the apple event only weeks away, seems like a bad idea for me to not wait at least until then to see if anything new is released.
I think the real question I am getting at is for us not extremely advanced computer people, will this be a noticeable change? Not sure I understand how this will advance the current macbook pros other than its faster. Also, didnt the new backbook pro just come out this past June/July?
The CPU speed will be a minor change, unless you encode video or similar heavy CPU tasks - in which case it will be noticeable but not dramatically faster.
Another reason to wait, however, is that configurations may change, and prices. The new model may have some new feature that you want, or it may drop some feature that you need. Some people hear about the new model, and immediately buy the *old* - often at refurb prices.
Macbook Pro gets an update like every 6 months. Majority of them will just be speed bumps. This new update is an evolution of the platfrom from Core2Duo to i3/5/7 that's more faster in most areas especially with memory controller built on the CPU, altho it is less than 15% faster in most area, encoding have shown to be around 30-40% faster. So it may not actually be any faster in general usage at all, but you should wait either way to see what comes out. It's better to be safe than sorry, waiting doesn't do you any harm.
Every OS release from Apple is going to be buggy until its .5 updates. People will be saying the same thing about Snow Leopard 10.6.11 when 10.8.2 comes out, how SL was stable and much better.
Look at the seed notes for 10.6.3, huge bug fixes there for all kind of crashes. It should be much more impressive than both .1/.2 combined.
They have 7200rpm hd as an option already, they always had them. Are you referring to MBP 13"? You can always buy 7200rpm separately and install it yourself, it's much cheaper and better this way.
It loolks like the HP Envy 15 had a $500 price drop. It's now starting at $1,299 for the Core i5-520M processor and the Radeon HD 5830.
I'd gladly give up the optical drive for such a juicy GPU.
I'd gladly give up the optical drive for such a juicy GPU.
That's a killer price for those specs and the laptop does look nice. I just don't know about HP Envy that well. Not a lot of people are happy with HP's QA and their customer support is awful!
+1, totally agree. I can just send in the laptop to Dell without even informing them in advance, and overnight I'll have a new one. They are usually pretty damn good with warranty.
