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The GPU can do that, no need for CPU. The CPU is just there to tell the GPU what to crunch assuming no FLAGS were thrown regarding a particular DRM-protected data.

Thunderbolt is just the transmission protocol, there is no actual decode or encode besides what is hard wired at the ports.

Hmm, maybe we are thinking of two different things. How is this going to maintain a protected path? How would Apple keep us from grabbing the stream as it is being sent to the GPU (to be shown on the screen)? That is the part I am thinking of, that is what HDCP/DPCP is supposed to prevent. If we are sending data down the PCIe side then how is it being protected from snooping?
 
This is HUGE, ginormous news. If Lion, or even later released of Snow Leopard, has this kind of support, ti would revitalize the Mac gaming scene. Even 3D artists would have more options, especially when you consider how well the high end consumer cards stack up against their FireGL competition.

Now all they need is complete 6900 series support-- yeah, I'm lookin' at you, 6990. ;-)

Not likely since Steve Jobs isn't smart enough to do that. Heck, he still believes that glossy displays are a cool idea.
I almost gave up on the MacPro until Steve forced me into a 'NON-GLARE' NEC PA271, and all I can say is wow! Even with the pithy GT120 card-less piece of crap offering by Apple, the screen looks fantastic.
 
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That is exactly what I'm thinking! Seriously there is no need for that many GPUs in the Pro and IMac requires a custom card. So where would all of these cards go - XMac is my guess.

Or it could simply be a sign of a unified driver from AMD. That would make sense as it is a smarter approach than the highly targeted drivers of the past.
I don't see why Apple would want to start supporting older 5000 cards for said machine? *shrug*


How is it silly ? We're talking about a GPU. Even at 1280x800, the Intel GPU sucks, why would it be silly to want to run games on high settings
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4205/the-macbook-pro-review-13-and-15-inch-2011-brings-sandy-bridge/8

It outperforms the 320M under OS X. It certainly doesn't "suck" as much as you make it out to be.
 
IMO both issues are insurmountable. Battery Life would be 15 mins. Sorry man, but no way in HELL could a desktop card (even a small GTX 560) fit in a MBP case...even WITHOUT HEATSINK+FAN. :eek:


Lol, I totally agree. I was arguing against what I thought was you saying that macbook pro's could support non-mobile video cards. I misread your abbreviation MP as MBP. ;)
 
I wonder if support is really there or just the ability to identify the cards.

It's possible, though I can't imagine why Apple would do it. Apart from offering marginally more friendly errors ("Oh, I see you have a new AMD Radeon HD 6970. Sorry, we don't support that") - which of course you couldn't see anyway since the screen probably wouldn't work.. ;)

The only need for device identifiers that I can see is for devices which are supported, or are soon to be.
 
Interestingly, the broad range of cards apparently fully supported under Mac OS X 10.6.7 is leading to speculation that Apple may be looking to support more off-the-shelf GPU options as opposed to the Mac-specific cards that have been used to date.

Wrong! With Steve taking his leave this can only mean one thing: restart of the clone-program! :eek:

;)
 
Awesome news, I recomend the ATI 5870. It can be found for only $200 and it more than holds it's own against the latest and greatest from Nvidia and ATI. It's only 6 percent slower than a 6950. The 6950 on the other hand can be flashed to a 6970 quite easily but it costs abot $260.

mmm, is that $200 5870 the one that is mac compatible? The only mac compatible version I found was almost $500. I'm not interested in trying to flash a pc card.
 
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That is exactly what I'm thinking! Seriously there is no need for that many GPUs in the Pro and IMac requires a custom card. So where would all of these cards go - XMac is my guess.

Or it could simply be a sign of a unified driver from AMD. That would make sense as it is a smarter approach than the highly targeted drivers of the past.
I don't see why Apple would want to start supporting older 5000 cards for said machine? *shrug*


How is it silly ? We're talking about a GPU. Even at 1280x800, the Intel GPU sucks, why would it be silly to want to run games on high settings
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4205/the-macbook-pro-review-13-and-15-inch-2011-brings-sandy-bridge/8

It outperforms the 320M under OS X. It certainly doesn't "suck" as much as you make it out to be.

Don't fall for anandtechs crap. Those tests where designed to make Intels GPU look good. The minute you do anything demanding the GPU falls flat on it's face. By this I mean turn on all the latest features to get the best on screen results.

For many other reasons I don't consider anandtech to be a credible web site. It has become an extension of Intels marketing team. A lot of people don't want to hear that but there is a trend in the articles that indicate that they have become a fan site and have lost the ability to report objectively.
 
Upgrade Video Card for MacPro Early 2009?

I currently have the nVidia GT 120. The only upgrade option I've found for my Early 2009 Mac Pro is the ATI Radeon 5870. Are there other options available now?
 
Uhh, ok? You linked to a video where the HD 3000 is going against an unreleased APU from AMD. May as well have posted a comparison to the GMA 950 to the 6990. :rolleyes:

I never said there was nothing better than the Intel 3000, I said it doesn't suck as bad as he makes it out to be(or AMD's unreleased propaganda, or you).

With only a couple months difference in release date, Sandy Bridge is a bad purchase.
 
I wonder if this may imply the coming of that unicorn rider we all know and love, the 'headless mac" (aka xMac).

Removable drives, no screen, more powerful than an iMac, 1499.99.

Dream on. Just like unicorns, such a Mac will never exist unless it's hacked together frankenstein mess (aka Hackintosh).

The best you can hope for is a price drop on the Mac Pro, and I see that as being unlikely. Apple overall has been moving away from the "enthusiast" computer market, sadly. In fact, I think their hands-off nature of dealing with the Hackintosh community is their way of giving us a bone since they won't fill that market area and we're a small percentage of the market.
 
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Don't fall for anandtechs crap. Those tests where designed to make Intels GPU look good. The minute you do anything demanding the GPU falls flat on it's face. By this I mean turn on all the latest features to get the best on screen results.

For many other reasons I don't consider anandtech to be a credible web site. It has become an extension of Intels marketing team. A lot of people don't want to hear that but there is a trend in the articles that indicate that they have become a fan site and have lost the ability to report objectively.
Lol, OK BRO. They were designed to make the Intel GPU look good? That's pretty hilarious. Then you post a video of you comparing the 320M and Intel 3000 under OS X playing Starcraft 2 and tell me your results that prove those benchmarks wrong.


With only a couple months difference in release date, Sandy Bridge is a bad purchase.
Yeah, because we all know how lovely AMD's desktop processors have been. :rolleyes: Let alone their mobile processors. The only thing they have going for them is their price. If you want a better processor, buy Sandy Bridge. If you want a better GPU, buy Llano. Or just buy a Sandy Bridge machine with a discrete GPU that take a crap all over both the Llano and Intel's IGP. Stop with your unreleased AMD propaganda.
 
Hmm, maybe we are thinking of two different things. How is this going to maintain a protected path? How would Apple keep us from grabbing the stream as it is being sent to the GPU (to be shown on the screen)? That is the part I am thinking of, that is what HDCP/DPCP is supposed to prevent. If we are sending data down the PCIe side then how is it being protected from snooping?

I've always found this obsession the industry has with "protected path" incredibly hilarious, because NO ONE in the piracy scene actually rips media from the video driver stream in any way, shape or form.

Ripping is typically done directly from the media; the actual h.264 or MPEG video is decrypted from the disc and saved without even "playing" it the traditional way. It's always been that way since the days of DVDs; no serious pirate back then ripped from component or S-video jacks either.

Why the media industry is so incredibly obsessed with protecting a path nobody actually rips from is beyond my understanding. It's like stationing an armed guard at your back door when all the robberies have happened through the front. In fact, I've never seen consumer equipment that can "record" a DVI stream.
 
Yeah, because we all know how lovely AMD's desktop processors have been. :rolleyes: Let alone their mobile processors. The only thing they have going for them is their price. If you want a better processor, buy Sandy Bridge. If you want a better GPU, buy Llano. Stop with your unreleased AMD propaganda.

AMD Fusion is a better CPU because it does true OpenCL in the GPU, not like Intel's alpha OpenCL which runs on the CPU side.

Fusion is DirectX 11 class. Intel is DirectX 10.1 class.
 
Could somebody give an overview of the price and performance range of this list of cards? Just numbers is kind of opaque.
 
How is it silly ? We're talking about a GPU. Even at 1280x800, the Intel GPU sucks, why would it be silly to want to run games on high settings ?

A high end card like the 6970 is designed to run games at max setting across multiple Full HD displays, using it on a single tiny laptop display would only use a small percentage of its power with no visual improvement over a 5770 card.
 
All of those 5xxx cards were already supported!!! I have had 5870s running natively for a long time, and so have the other 5xxx cards.

If apple is planning on supporting off the shelf graphics cards it would only be beneficial for hacking sheds not real macs. The only Mac where a user can upgrade the gpu is the Mac pro, which is really only sold to businesses, which don't really need to upgrade the graphics, especially since the Mac pro comes with 5870s now
 
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6970 iMac... wouldn't that be something...
 
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