Intel Unveils Full Lineup of Skylake Processors for Notebooks and Desktops, Early 2016 Likely for Most Macs

[nutjob]

I feel like Intel needs some serious competition in the computer market; they're getting slower and slower between releases.

Good luck with that. This is what you get when you have a monopolized market. No-one is going to give them serious competition in x86 so you'll be getting less and less improvements.

As with most monopolies they won't so much see competition as become irrelevant as new technology replaces them. Both Microsoft and Intel are seeing this with the rise of phones and other mobile devices.

 

[antonis]

Think it's time for Apple to start making their own chips again. The G3/G4/G5 chips (among others) were outstanding performers compared to the competition.

When did they make their own chips ? G3/G4 where made by Motorolla, G5 from IBM. And after that, Intel.
Regardless, I also miss the powerPC era.

 

[nutjob]

But Apple needs Intel. AMD's CPUs have fallen behind the curve and have trouble catching up, and ARM CPUs are a far cry from delivering the necessary power for actual Pro devices.

ARM CPUs are already more powerful than Intel when you consider power usage. Intel has trained everyone to think better single threaded performance means better overall performance, because that's what they do best. Unfortunately that strategy inherently uses more power. They may have a point now with legacy software but that's changing.

It's only a matter of time before Apple moves to ARM in their laptops.

 

[randian]

Eventually, they'll recode all of the apps to ARM. Before then, they can't move from Intel.

Which takes all of a minute to flip a switch on the compiler, plus compile time. No big deal assuming marginally competent programmers.

 

[majkom]

I'm buting iMac in late 2016. I wonder if Fusion Drive is going to be standard by then..

Nope.. Why? Because as Jony Ive would say: "f.ck you, thats why"

 

[iKrivetko]

No mention of the Xeon?

 

[iPhysicist]

Just give us the Retina MacBook Air, and we'll be happy campers!

You already have it with the new rMB. How hard is it to accept the inevitable?

 

[Mike MA]

Man, those are just sipping power! Here's to longer battery life!

Unless Apple will not reinvest in slimmer devices yet again.

 

[76ShovelHead]

But Apple needs Intel. AMD's CPUs have fallen behind the curve and have trouble catching up, and ARM CPUs are a far cry from delivering the necessary power for actual Pro devices.

I would actually love to see Apple purchase AMD and throw a couple billion at their R&D teams, would be nice to finally see them catch up to Intel and/or surpass the competition like they did over a decade ago.

 

[apolloa]

I'm kinda tempted to see what the iMac is like with these processors. The low end 27" model could be very nice. Otherwise the laptop could be cool so long as they keep the discrete graphics cards.

 

[Steve121178]

It's only a matter of time before Apple moves to ARM in their laptops.

No it's not.

 

[diddl14]

But Apple needs Intel. AMD's CPUs have fallen behind the curve and have trouble catching up, and ARM CPUs are a far cry from delivering the necessary power for actual Pro devices.

The rumored A9 performance is on par (single core) or even faster (multi core) than the entry level Intel Core m3-6Y30 for the Retina MacBook. (http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/2650111).

Expected A9 performance:

 

[maflynn]

Think it's time for Apple to start making their own chips again. The G3/G4/G5 chips (among others) were outstanding performers compared to the competition.

We know how well that worked for apple in the past

I would be one of many leaving the platform if they did that.

 

[Edgar Spayce]

I really regret replacing my old Macbook Air with a new Retina Macbook Pro.

First because the new Macbook Retina is a complete failure so much it's way more crazily underpowered and overpriced than any other product Apple has released.

And second, because the last rMBPs performances are so ridiculous and crappy, you can't do anything "pro" on it, there's almost no point in having one, a Macbook Air vastly does it.

So I hope for a rMBA which will replace my current useless rMBP, alongside an actual PC mini-tower that can do stuff.

 

[TechGuy567]

I am curious to see whether Apple will reintroduce the 17" MacBook Pro now that Intel's processors have the muscle to drive a 17" high-res screen without diminishing the user experience and without overly taxing battery life. Sure, you can cram just as many pixels onto a 15" screen, but not everyone in this world likes to spend their day reading "the small print." While I understood Apple's decision to axe the 17" upon introduction of retina displays to the MacBook Pro series and the power efficiency improvements in Mavericks, I now see plenty of headroom for Apple to reintroduce the 17" if they see a sufficient market for such a product. Yet knowing Tim Cook's apparent focus on ROI rather than customer satisfaction (Yosemite is full of bugs, yet they force us to upgrade to by only releasing patches for Yosemite to some serious security flaws) I guess I shouldn't hold my breath for a refresh of my 17" machine.

 

[xmichaelp]

Think it's time for Apple to start making their own chips again. The G3/G4/G5 chips (among others) were outstanding performers compared to the competition.

No they weren't, that's why they switched to Intel. Also, Apple didn't make those.

 

[EnesM]

Not sure how it's related to the Imac been released later ? Article mostly talks about the mobile Skylake chips for the Macbook lineup. Unless there is something I missed ?

Acer released their iMac clone with Skylake today, which makes iMac release in October highly probable.

 

[maflynn]

ARM CPUs are already more powerful than Intel when you consider power usage

Are you saying they'll out perform an intel CPU and iGPU, running multiple apps like Lightroom, PS, and autocad?

 

[xmichaelp]

Waiting for the Space Gray Skylake 14"/15"/16" MBP.

Waiting for products you just made up.

 

[Candlelight]

Just give us a 13" MBP with quad core chips… please...

 

[xmichaelp]

You already have it with the new rMB. How hard is it to accept the inevitable?

Not sure. Some people just reeeeally want an updated screen on that old outdated MBA design. I think they're in denial that the Air will be dead in not too long.

 

[robeddie]

I'm buting iMac in late 2016. I wonder if Fusion Drive is going to be standard by then..

Why would they?!? Real SDD's, which are better and MUCH faster are already becoming standard now. A fusion drive in any computer in late 2016 would be as lame as Apple bringing back the DVD drive in late 2016.

 

[xmichaelp]

The rumored A9 performance is on par (single core) or even faster (multi core) than the entry level Intel Core m3-6Y30 for the Retina MacBook. (http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/2650111).

Expected A9 performance:

Geekbench isn't some end all be all. I hope you don't really think those ARM chips which cost like 30 bucks can really rival a 300 dollar x86 Core M...

 

[Janichsan]

The rumored A9 performance is on par (single core) or even faster (multi core) than the entry level Intel Core m3-6Y30 for the Retina MacBook. (http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/2650111).

Expected A9 performance:

I'm not talking about Apple's toy computer line, but the Pro models. You know, those that you use to do the things that require actual calculating performance, not just updating your Facebook status and writing on your novel at Starbucks…

 

[zhenya]

I really regret replacing my old Macbook Air with a new Retina Macbook Pro.

First because the new Macbook Retina is a complete failure so much it's way more crazily underpowered and overpriced than any other product Apple has released.

And second, because the last rMBPs performances are so ridiculous and crappy, you can't do anything "pro" on it, there's almost no point in having one, a Macbook Air vastly does it.

So I hope for a rMBA which will replace my current useless rMBP, alongside an actual PC mini-tower that can do stuff.

The retina Macbook Pro IS the rMBA. It's what you get when you add the retina screen and the requisite battery to keep the minimum 10 hour life.

And I have no idea what you mean by 'ridiculous and crappy performances'. Both models of Pro laptops are considerably more powerful than the vast majority of laptops on the market, and on the PC side of things, if you want something more powerful, you will generally end up with a 4-7lb laptop. The world has been doing 'pro' level work on laptops less powerful than these for decades, so who knows what you are on about...