I am more interested in the practical benefits. If one wants to put say three displays on a new late 2013 Mac-Mini, what physical connection must be used given on-board graphics?
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Intel Shares Details on New 'Iris' Integrated Graphics for Haswell Chips
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That would really depend on what Apple plans on providing for you to plug in without resorting to TB daisy chaining. Current rMBP has 2x TB (displayports) and 1x HDMI. I believe the current Mini with HD4000 has one TB port and one HDMI. You could daisy chain 2x thunderbolt displays with the provided single TB port and plug a 3rd monitor via HDMI.
Simple - Apple is not going to have a mini that is a compelling option compared to the iMac and MBP WITH DISCRETE GPU!! THAT is why the mini is destined to have the HD5000
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I'm actually a little underwhelmed.
I was hoping for 2x performance (or more) on the Air.
Well...
I was hoping for 2x performance (or more) on the Air.
Well...
I'm all in if Apple offers the 13" rMBP with a BTO option for 16GB of RAM. It will be almost the perfect machine. Almost as light as a MB Air and as powerful as a MBP with an amazing display.
Please Apple! Iris and 16GB of RAM. If I have those two things I'm buying. I don't want 8GB of (soldered) RAM in a laptop I'll be using for (hopefully) the next four years.
You do realize that the mini tracks the internals of the MBP 13" ( before that the Macbook but once it disappeared the MBP 13") ?
It is extremely likely it will have same characteristics as a MBP.
The mini is capped by cost containment ( has to hit the price point ) and related to that coasting off the volume pricing benefits it gets by riding in the wake of the most popular Mac ( the MBP 13" ). That's what Apple is doing. Driving margins; not primarily blocking for the iMac and MBP.
The Mac Mini and iMac are gapped by the iMac having both dGPU and desktop Intel CPU configuration standard. The mini is limited to mirroring the MBP 13" internals ( mobile CPU and no dGPU ).
Intel's Iris Pro ( HD5300 ) isn't going to fit the TDP or cost design criteria of the Mac Mini.
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Depends upon which Thunderbolt controller it gets. If it gets the ones shipping a little later this year that a Display Port 1.2 bypass mode could connect two DP 1.2 monitors to the TB port on a DP daisy chain.
It is basically going to be two Display Port outputs to the external screens. Given the Intel graphics support DP 1.2 it doesn't need to be Thunderbolt. TB can just be side stepped if the primary objective is just two displays.
I'm betting on:
MBA -> HD5000.
13" MBP -> HD5200 (It is NOT an ultra-book, and uses 35W CPUs, original and retina). Probably stay dual core.
Base 15" MBP -> HD5200.
Higher Spec 15" MBP -> HD5200 + separate discrete GPU, better than 650M; which itself is still far better than the HD5200.
MBA -> HD5000.
13" MBP -> HD5200 (It is NOT an ultra-book, and uses 35W CPUs, original and retina). Probably stay dual core.
Base 15" MBP -> HD5200.
Higher Spec 15" MBP -> HD5200 + separate discrete GPU, better than 650M; which itself is still far better than the HD5200.
I should have specified the MBP WITH Discrete graphics. Similar to the Mac Mini, the 13" is not going to get the ultimate integrated GPU, even if it could, so as not to eat into the higher margin 15" MBP. So you are looking at the HD5100 in the mini and 13" MBP, which is better than I thought it would be when this stuff was first thrown out there a couple months ago.
Ummm... planned obsolescence refers to designing a product to wear out in a certain time frame, like 1000hr light globes. Are you suggesting Intel/Apple are designing products to break in 12months.
Which wouldn't be good given the world wide push at the moment to enforce consumer law, which in many countries says a product should last as long as in could reasonable be expected to last. Also sucks for your resale and by extension retail.
Maybe you mean what has been dubbed "Social Obsolescence" or "FOMO"?
Edit to add:
What's happening the Platform Hub for Haswell?
Is it still going to seem far to large for what it's doing. Sucking up space that could be used for dedicatedGPU in the 13inch machines?
It is a suggestion that future software will render fixed hardware pragmatically obsolete. That is a bit of a stretch.
However, for the subset of users that are primarily chasing software that is trying to "retire" their older hardware is some semblence of truth. It is wishy washy though because it is actually the software ( which Apple didn't write ) that is participating the process. But it is Apple's fault.
Here I was thinking that even the Mac ultrabooks had a dedicated GPU alongside the intel in chip offering.
I'm quietly surprised that I'd need to go as high as a 15" MacPro to get a dedicated GPU.
As for some of the comments here, this only really matters for those units. For other laptops (the 15" and above), they will use the lower powered Intel GPU until more grunt is required and then they switch on the NVIDIA GPU.
I'm quietly surprised that I'd need to go as high as a 15" MacPro to get a dedicated GPU.
As for some of the comments here, this only really matters for those units. For other laptops (the 15" and above), they will use the lower powered Intel GPU until more grunt is required and then they switch on the NVIDIA GPU.
Not even sure about that. Macbook Air is likely to get a GT2 which is HD4200-4500
It's a power consumption issue. The NVIDIA gpu uses more power than the intel offering. You know that crazy video card setups can go as high as 3KW power draw? That's as much power as a kettle uses.
So 80% slower, but also significantly less battery usage.
Since the 13" MBP uses a 35w dual-core CPU, and since the 5200 requires a quad-core 47w CPU, it is very unlikely the 13" MBP will get the 5200.
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Why? The 5000 uses a 15w CPU, and current MBAs use a 17w CPU, so the 5000 is perfectly suited for the MBA. Yes it does cost more, so at the least I'd expect Apple to offer some MBAs with it. Perhaps it will be an upgrade option. Then again, Apple does tend to select the higher end components in its machines so it wouldn't surprise me to see all MBAs with the 5000.
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Know Apple gimping us with less powered GPUs for cheaper production, I'm guessing only HD5000 for the MBAs, HD5100 Iris for the 13" rMBP and the HD5200 Iris Pro for the 15". The Iris Pro on the 15 won't matter much of an upgrade since the 15 inchers will come with discrete graphics anyway but it will definitely help driving the high res screens and lesser switching providing better power efficiency. Thus the 13" retinas will finally be deserving of carring the name Pro (MBP not Iris Pro, yes its confusing) and set it further apart from the Airs. But I am loving your speculation of the Iris for the Airs. That would definitely be my next purchase if that happens.
Edit: Sorry mate. I'm not sure the MBA can handle the Iris. To quote the article:
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Yeah I meant to say the 5000. I fixed my post. I'd be tempted in an Iris Air too, but only if it includes a Retina screen, otherwise I'm staying away.
The current mini already has the same integrated graphics as the MBP. So does your argument hold true based on Apple's current products?
The 15" MBP (and iMac) have discrete graphics anyway.
Plus, the 5000 is only going to be in the lowest TDP chips (the ones that will be used in the Air), which once again, aren't the chips used in the Mac Mini.
There won't be any quad-core chips using the HD5000 gpu. So you're basically saying that there will not be a quad-core Haswell mac mini.