Intel Update: MacBook Airs Get Penryn, MacBooks and Pros Get Montevina Benefits

[840quadra]

Perhaps this news was on the list of items that Steve mentioned he wouldn't have time to cover? Either way, those looking into a new Air have a bit more to tease them. I would love one of those systems, however the limitations of disk burning on the road are a bit of a stop for me. I don't like external drives ever since I had to support Toshiba Librettos back in the day!

Is there an online petition urging Apple to add firewire back to the next Macbooks?

How many threads are you going to ask this question? If you want one, create it and post the link in your signature (if you think Apple will really notice anyway).

 

[christiemp]

I am the only person waiting feverishly outside the Apple Store. I am such a weinie.

haha I'd be there too, not in NJ, in WI, but I have class at 10AM today So I have to wait until tomorrow...because my store is like 45 minutes away.

 

[bushwakko]

2.8ghz

How much hotter (louder) is the 2.8ghz gonna be? Is it going to cut the battery time a lot, is it a 35W or 25W unit? Thanks

 

[dlewis23]

I would not expext Nahalem to arive befor late 2009 into Macs...

I would expect Nahalem in a Mac Pro this year or in January 09. And in the rest of the line around July of 2009.

You can already buy a 6 core Nehalem processor right now. its just a bit expensive http://www.pcsforeveryone.com/Product/Intel/BX80582X7460

 

[maddog9]

to update or not?

I need a new laptop, and I was thinking of buying this update but it seems if I can squeeze 6-9 months out of this one it might be worth the wait!

 

[ageha]

I would expect Nahalem in a Mac Pro this year or in January 09. And in the rest of the line around July of 2009.

You can already buy a 6 core Nehalem processor right now. its just a bit expensive http://www.pcsforeveryone.com/Product/Intel/BX80582X7460

Right, you can preorder it now.

 

[nep61]

I can only hope that Safari is snappier with this configuration !!

Yes, Safari seems snappier !!

 

[MrCrowbar]

Does anyone know if those Nvidia chips would speed up h.264 encoding from FCP or Compressor? Or is it a strictly CPU task?

Right now, compressing video is CPU-only. Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6) is supposed to change that so that the graphics chips will be used to help out.

If you only need to re-encode stuff for iPod/iPhone, I recommend VisualHub. It's super fast (about 3 times faster than Quicktime Pro), there's a working queue for batch encoding, there's plenty of settings and the single pass quality is gorgeous.

 

[Hattig]

How much hotter (louder) is the 2.8ghz gonna be? Is it going to cut the battery time a lot, is it a 35W or 25W unit? Thanks

Surely the 2.8 GHz chipset are cherry picked to run at this speed whilst not consuming more power. So I expect it wouldn't affect battery life. Especially if the speed step is working correctly, as much of the time it will be idling along at 1GHz or thereabouts...

 

[dlewis23]

Right, you can preorder it now.

No you can actually buy it now http://www.compsource.com/ttechnote.asp?part_no=BX80582X7460&vid=211&src=F

I didn't notice that other place was pre order.

 

[michelepri]

Thanks!

Right now, compressing video is CPU-only. Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6) is supposed to change that so that the graphics chips will be used to help out.

If you only need to re-encode stuff for iPod/iPhone, I recommend VisualHub. It's super fast (about 3 times faster than Quicktime Pro), there's a working queue for batch encoding, there's plenty of settings and the single pass quality is gorgeous.

 

[pgifford]

I'll be replacing my Penryn MBP once Nehalem based MBP's are released. Hopefully Apple will once again sell a matte version

I think I'm in that boat too.

 

[twoodcc]

nice to know about the processors in the new laptops, cuz i was wondering about them. glad the air is getting updated though.

 

[Compile 'em all]

Does anyone know if those Nvidia chips would speed up h.264 encoding from FCP or Compressor? Or is it a strictly CPU task?

until snow leopard is here, that is a cpu task.

 

[michelepri]

When's snow leopard going to be here?

 

[xVeinx]

I would expect the faster bus, memory to add about 5% minimum performance. It should have the most effect on applications like photoshop, etc. that use lots of memory for filters and such.

Early benchmarks of Nehalem ES (bloomfield enthusiast platform) are suggesting that the cores make larger gains in multi-threading, but that the single-threaded performance will be similar to penryn, within 5% or so. This could obviously jump, but the Mac Pro typically uses the Xeon processors, so it should be about the same. I don't expect that Nehalem anything will be released until Snow Leopard, which should be able to take advantage of the core due to it's increased multi-threading capabilities. The new processors might not be as big a "jump" in performance otherwise...

 

[Saladinos]

Agreed. Although, wan't Penryn meant to offer a 'significant' jump on previous gen too?

,

Penryn was largely a shrink. It had some more instructions and some circuitry changes, but the improvements were largely due to the 45nm shrink. Nehalem is a "whole new architecture", meaning that any performance gains come solely from circuitry changes, because it'll use the same 45nm process as Penryn. After a year, Nehalem too will be shrunk down to 32nm with a few new instructions, and that will provide more speed and power savings.

It's the "tick-tock" model. From a microarchitecture perspective, Penryn is a "tock" and Nehalem is a "tick". From a transistor size perspective, Penryn is a "tick" and Nehalem is a "tock"

The MacBook Air should probably get a battery boost from the new design, though. Either that, or it'll run cooler. Consolidating the GPU and chipset in to one IC is great for lots of things (power efficiency, speed).

It also raises the possibility of the MBA becoming even thinner or getting a bigger battery at the next revision, as it cuts on cables (well, copper PCB tracks). Those take up a considerable amount of size for electronics at the PCB level (look at a PCB. See how many capacitors and wires it's got? Takes a lot of room, right?). I'd love to see a thinner MBA. Something you could lose in a stack of paper. Fantastic.

 

[david6545]

I hope Apple provides an upgrade path for the current struggling Macbook air users:

I hope this new chip, that consumes 17W instead of the current 20W will finally fix the heating problem that many Macbook Air users are struggling with, like mine. We first had several months of core shutdown and in August apple finally tried to fix it with a patc, but that just slowed the system down more quickly to avoid the core shutdown. But this makes the Macbook Air useless for video playback/iChat Video.

I can simulate the issue in the following way:

a) room temperature is warm (to be specific more then 76 Fahrenheit/26 Celsius)
b) I use iChat Video and after xx minutes.
c) Kernel_task (NOT PANIC) jumps in (this is process that Apple added in the specific Macbook Air System update) After a few minutes it takes over 100 to 150% of the cpu and then cutting my iChat Video. I can't do anything. Before this update my system was having core shutdowns.
d) I went already 3x times to Apple Store Genius and they told me several times (also with his super visor) that Apple knows about this issue and that Apple is working on a fix.
This was about 2 weeks ago.

Great! Apple charge a premium price for a product that doesn't work properly and requires countless stress-filled hours trying to work out what's wrong and getting it resolved.

 

[The Tall One]

Two things

If I wasn't an atheist I would ask for two things from the Lord, two things which are vitally important:

1) Please put the nehalem processor in the macpro soon
2) Sarah Palin cannot ever be given the chance to be president

 

[macluke]

I was thinking to choose the SSD 128 GB BTO for the MBP 15,4". What do you think about this choice? do you think that the SSD drive it's now ready to use or the 320 GB HDD 7200 rpm it's a better choice?

 

[lazyrighteye]

I need a new laptop, and I was thinking of buying this update but it seems if I can squeeze 6-9 months out of this one it might be worth the wait!

Ah yes... One of the more common post-keynote questions.
My ¢2: don't be like my grandfather. He waited and waited and waited and died. LOVED the man, but he never really enjoyed life (to the fullest) as he always waited to do things because he knew there was always something better around the corner.

I used to be that way, to a degree. And then one day, I just stopped. I started living more in the moment.
So, if what was announced meets your needs today, purchase. Use. Enjoy. Don't look back. Life is short.
If not, wait. Keep enjoying your current Mac (assuming ii still meets your needs). Don't be tempted by the shiny new offerings (it can be sooo easy) just because they are shiny. And keep in mind that whenever you do decide to make the plunge, there will still be something better, faster & cheaper "just around the corner."

I'm sure this post was of little help.
You're welcome.

 

[Terrador]

This whole refresh is just upsetting. Mainly the prices, but the prices I wouldn't mind so much if the actual product was updated significantly aside from the graphics. No processor upgrade, no ram upgrade, bezel still huge (and uglier, but thats IMO), battery life worse than 4 years ago...

The education discount was cut in half.
Nice cheapshot, Apple. Don't give us that bullcrap about "how much students love you" at the keynote and then cut their legs out from underneath them.

I bought the last gen MacBook Pro yesterday. It'll serve me well and not hurt my wallet as much.

 

[Joe The Dragon]

I would guess it comes down to this: NVIDIA seems to be making a strong push for chipsets with integrated graphics cores. Apple more and more deemphasize the importance of CPU and (notice lower clock rates in new models?) in favor of doing more tasks on GPU cores. That's what that OpenCL for Snow Leopard is made for.

And that should also be the business model NVIDIA want to establish (see: CUDA). Cause their position in the market has never seemed more in danger than nowadays: ATI will be "fusing" CPU and GPU, Intel wants to get in the gaming GPU business next year. Meanwhile, NVIDIA are at a serious disadvantage compared to their rivals: They don't have a competitive x86 core in-house, unlike ATI (AMD), Intel, and - dare I say it? - even S3 (VIA). NVIDIA really have (had) to make an effort in these days, and the Apple notebooks are an important design win for them.

Intel video drivers suck. Ati as on board video with side port ram.

Apple can't go back to intel video now as it will look real bad of them.

 

[scottintosh]

If I wasn't an atheist I would ask for two things from the Lord, two things which are vitally important:

1) Please put the nehalem processor in the macpro soon
2) Sarah Palin cannot ever be given the chance to be president

I agree with both points, especially the second one!!

 

[Joshindc]

New MB or Old MB PRO??

I don't understand how apple would sell a refurb macbook pro with a 2.5 ghz processor and 512 mb of discrete video ram for only 1499 and a new macbook with 2.4 ghz and no discrete video card for 1599? How does there pricing system work? Also, it seems the refurbished last gen macbook pro is a better or as equally good machine as the current low end macbook pro.