Gaming MacBook Rumored coming 2016

[venom600]

Apple has never made a "gaming" anything (the atrocity that was the Pippen doesn't count). The only time I ever recall them mentioning gaming in relation to their new machines (beyond benchmarks) was when they were first to market with the ATI Rage 128 in the PowerMac G3 blue and white. The problem is systemic; you can replace all of the components you want but the core support for them doesn't exist in hardware or software.

We don't even get maximum performance out of the GPUs they put in now because of thermal throttling due to overly anorexic designs and inadequate power supplies on the notebooks. Add to that woeful OpenGL support (remember when they were all about Open GL? We'll see how long Metal is kept up) and it's exactly like the Oculus Rift guys said... Apple hasn't been about performance in years. Everything they do is merely adequate and is usually overpriced... unless it's iOS related.

Since Thunderbolt 3 natively supports external GPUs, I bet we'll see solutions coming out once that takes off, but a dedicated gaming notebook? Not likely at all.

 

[Huntn]

I've seen heat issues with PC gaming laptops, huge game-stopping issues involving thermal paste. You may also have experienced it on gaming consoles. It's possible Apple does not want to go down that path. My 2011 MBP has been an adequate PC gaming and a wonderful dual OS platform. I'm repeating myself, but I'm weighing a MBA vs MBP for the next laptop recognizing the games I want to play on a computer will be limited if I go with the former.

 

[JoelTheSuperior]

Whilst I definitely think a MacBook redesign is due in 2016, I think it's actually very likely that Apple will kill off the dGPU entirely.

Think about it - the Intel Iris Pro chips are more than capable enough to satisfy around 90% of users and the reality is they have much lower power consumption, much lower heat production and are less likely to die horribly 2011 MacBook Pro style.

I honestly don't believe Apple are all that interested in gamers, as much as I wish they were (though I completely understand why they aren't).

 

[MH01]

If it happens, you will get something like the razer, a wannabe gaming laptop. Real gaming laptops are bulky, look at the MSI, ASUS , Alienware etc units, you need lots of cooling and high end GPUs.

I don't see apple ever doing a gaming laptop though, thier idea of gaming is iPhone games, and a console is those games ported to an Apple TV . They will not produce hardware so we can run our Pc games and they don't get a cut.

Also what rumor ?

 

[DesertSurfer]

I wonder if it would be possible to run two iris pro processors in an sli/crossfire sort of arrangement?

 

[MH01]

I wonder if it would be possible to run two iris pro processors in an sli/crossfire sort of arrangement?

I doubt anyone will have laptops that support 2xCPU .

If your after an SLI config, I'm not sure there are too many options, even Alienware has stopped making the Alienware 18, which was a SLI beast.

The future will probably be an external Enclosure running a full desktop GPU, for hardcore gaming laptops.

 

[DesertSurfer]

I doubt anyone will have laptops that support 2xCPU .

If your after an SLI config, I'm not sure there are too many options, even Alienware has stopped making the Alienware 18, which was a SLI beast.

The future will probably be an external Enclosure running a full desktop GPU, for hardcore gaming laptops.

I'm sure you are right. I was just wondering if such a thing might be possible, for more gpu power with little power consumption. I am interested in the concept of a gaming laptop from Apple, but don't expect to see one beyond the current level represented in the top 15" MacBook Pro, if that continues to be available. I'm not looking for a gaming laptop for myself, I have two GTX 770's in my gaming PC.

 

[MH01]

I'm sure you are right. I was just wondering if such a thing might be possible, for more gpu power with little power consumption. I am interested in the concept of a gaming laptop from Apple, but don't expect to see one beyond the current level represented in the top 15" MacBook Pro, if that continues to be available. I'm not looking for a gaming laptop for myself, I have two GTX 770's in my gaming PC.

I'd love to see apple create one. To be honest I'd like to see them bring back the 17 mbp with a dedicated GPU capable of gaming. That would make many people really happy.

 

[matt3526]

I love my MBP. I love the portability of a powerhouse that I can run simulations on, code on etc. I also love that I can play games on it like GTA 5 maxed out whenever I like. As much as I dislike windows, I like casual gaming more. I'm not a fanboy and so I don't have an allegiance to any particular brand either Therefore if apple ever decides to drop the dGPU, I'll switch to a windows laptop in a heartbeat.

 

[Huntn]

Whilst I definitely think a MacBook redesign is due in 2016, I think it's actually very likely that Apple will kill off the dGPU entirely.

Think about it - the Intel Iris Pro chips are more than capable enough to satisfy around 90% of users and the reality is they have much lower power consumption, much lower heat production and are less likely to die horribly 2011 MacBook Pro style.

I honestly don't believe Apple are all that interested in gamers, as much as I wish they were (though I completely understand why they aren't).

My 2011 MBP did not die a horrible death until 2015 and Apple fixed it for free. If they drop the dGPU (I assume that means dedicated), that will give me more things to think about. My 2GB 1GB VRAM card on my 2011 has filled the bill (for me) until recently with some of the newest games I play on my PC.

 

[venom600]

My 2011 MBP did not die a horrible death until 2015 and Apple fixed it for free. If they drop the dGPU (I assume that means dedicated), that will give me more things to think about. My 2GB VRAM card on my 2011 has filled the bill (for me) until recently with some of the newest games I play on my PC.

Your card has one gig, not two. When I had my 17" Macbook Pro earlier this year I was shocked at how well modern games played on it in Windows.

 

[Huntn]

Your card has one gig, not two. When I had my 17" Macbook Pro earlier this year I was shocked at how well modern games played on it in Windows.

My error, don't know why I got that in my head...post corrected. I'm considering a new MBP. What is the most demanding game you play on your MBR?

 

[\-V-/]

This will never happen ... ever. They have a mid-range GPU in something that costs nearly 3 grand after tax. Apple doesn't give a crap less about gaming on their laptops.

 

[venom600]

My error, don't know why I got that in my head...post corrected. I'm considering a new MBP. What is the most demanding game you play on your MBR?

Civilization, but that's a mostly CPU based game. I have a PS4 and Xbox One that I play shooters and racing games on.

 

[UltimaKilo]

Already stated but I'm repeating: there is no rumor because it's not going to happen. The real rumor is that Kaby Lake may be the killer of dGPUs in the Apple notebook line. If not, it definitely will happen by Cannonlake.

 

[antonis]

Already stated but I'm repeating: there is no rumor because it's not going to happen. The real rumor is that Kaby Lake may be the killer of dGPUs in the Apple notebook line. If not, it definitely will happen by Cannonlake.

Why's that ? Is it rumored that these iGPUs will get a significant performance boost or is there some other reason ?

 

[koyoot]

Well, If the tempo is to be sustained by the growth of performance of iGPUs with each generation, Cannonlake Iris Pro should have AMD Radeon R9 290 level of performance.

Katy Lake is rumored to be both new architecture, and more GPU cores in one step. So Cannonlake will increase the performance of Kaby Lake. What we know now is for sure KBL will have 2x128 MB of EDRAM. I will not be staggered if it will mean more bandwidth in it, up to 100 GB/s.

 

[Huntn]

Thinking back on the PPC days, at least we are running on Intel. Not that PPC was bad, it just was not as vibrant and Intel allowed Bootcamp.

 

[saturnotaku]

Your card has one gig, not two. When I had my 17" Macbook Pro earlier this year I was shocked at how well modern games played on it in Windows.

At the time of its release, the 2011 MBP with the Radeon 6750/6770M GPU was, IMO, a hidden gem of a gaming notebook. NVIDIA Optimus was not as mature back then, and I had lots of problems with it on other Windows-based systems. The fact that I could install Windows on a Mac and have the discreet GPU available straight away was a huge selling point. I didn't care about the significantly reduced battery life as I rarely booted Windows without the AC adapter connected.

I'm not the type of PC gamer who needs 1080p/60 fps and max details. However, it finally got to the point where even 720p/30 fps at low/medium settings was becoming problematic. And with AMD relegating the 6000M series of GPUs to legacy status, meaning far fewer driver updates, it was time to move on. My MBP is now solely a productivity machine, and I game on a Zotac Zbox, which is a small form factor PC similar to the Alienware Alpha.

 

[vault]

OS X is far too limiting for the core gaming market that influences the scene. These are the people who like to tweak the hell out of their OS, minimise latencies, play with different drivers, controllers. Have you ever been to the mouse threads on overclock.net? It's bordering on religion. There are oddities like ps/2 keyboards performing better than USB or mouses from 10 years ago having superior sensors, not to mention a strong dislike for anything wireless. Apple - the company that puts form over function - will never, ever want to deal with these people.

144Hz monitors with Gsync/Async, SLI/Crossfire, Xinput, ... but also things like near-instant driver crash recovery (that would make OS X kernel panic) or the ability to easily kill any misbehaving fullscreen application... Meanwhile on a Mac you have to jump through the hoops to turn off mouse acceleration (and you're still left with ~30ms "native" input lag).

 

[\-V-/]

OS X is far too limiting for the core gaming market that influences the scene. These are the people who like to tweak the hell out of their OS, minimise latencies, play with different drivers, controllers. Have you ever been to the mouse threads on overclock.net? It's bordering on religion. There are oddities like ps/2 keyboards performing better than USB or mouses from 10 years ago having superior sensors, not to mention a strong dislike for anything wireless. Apple - the company that puts form over function - will never, ever want to deal with these people.

144Hz monitors with Gsync/Async, SLI/Crossfire, Xinput, ... but also things like near-instant driver crash recovery (that would make OS X kernel panic) or the ability to easily kill any misbehaving fullscreen application... Meanwhile on a Mac you have to jump through the hoops to turn off mouse acceleration (and you're still left with ~30ms "native" input lag).

Not sure what any of that has to do with anything.

 

[venom600]

Not sure what any of that has to do with anything.

You're not sure what OS X not supporting features that serious gamers care about has to do with Apple not building a gaming notebook? Really?

 

[Dirtyharry50]

Apple does not make and is not going to make gaming computers. It does make some systems you can play games on but it does not make gaming rigs period. Why does this thread exist and why do people even waste time discussing what is not going to happen?

It's a simple matter of are you okay with what is available or not? If not, get what is okay and problem solved but going back and forth about the obvious doesn't seem like a very productive discussion really. The hardware and software is what it is. The available performance levels and expected system longevity from a gaming perspective are what they are. What exactly is there to discuss really?

 

[2crazy]

I doubt that Apple will do this. They seemed to be more focused on mobile gaming.

 

[DesertSurfer]

Apple does not make and is not going to make gaming computers. It does make some systems you can play games on but it does not make gaming rigs period. Why does this thread exist and why do people even waste time discussing what is not going to happen?

It's a simple matter of are you okay with what is available or not? If not, get what is okay and problem solved but going back and forth about the obvious doesn't seem like a very productive discussion really. The hardware and software is what it is. The available performance levels and expected system longevity from a gaming perspective are what they are. What exactly is there to discuss really?

Tautological philosophy aside (it is what it is, they are what they are, a chair is a chair), there's no reason to think that Apple will never do anything other than what they are doing now. There is a long history of not supporting gaming on Macs, although you could say that the existence of Bootcamp is Apple's big concession to gaming, but that doesn't mean nothing can change. I agree that a gaming laptop from Apple is very unlikely in 2016, but that doesn't mean it could never happen. But it never will happen if people don't express their desires, so I find the thread interesting and not pointless. Those who find it pointless don't have to read it.