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MacBook Pro's NVIDIA Chipsets Can Support Dual GPU and 8GB RAM

Wild-Bill said:
Yes he did.
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And where is your source?

The quote isn't as bad as people make it out to be...if he was talking about the computers at the time he was right. The true "alleged" quote is NOT people will never need MORE than 640k, it was:

640K ought to be enough for anybody.
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HOWEVER, it has NEVER been sourced our quoted and is only hearsay. That doesn't mean it wasn't said but it means there is no PROOF he said. Gates also came out and denied the RUMOR.

from Wikipedia:
Often attributed to Gates in 1981. Gates considered the IBM PC's 640kB program memory a significant breakthrough over 8-bit systems that were typically limited to 64kB, but he has denied making this remark.[4] Also see the 1989 and 1993 remarks above.

I've said some stupid things and some wrong things, but not that. No one involved in computers would ever say that a certain amount of memory is enough for all time... I keep bumping into that silly quotation attributed to me that says 640K of memory is enough. There's never a citation; the quotation just floats like a rumor, repeated again and again.

* Bloomberg Business News (19 January 1996); also WIRED (16 January 1997)
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Shadow said:
640K should be enough for anyone...

EDIT: After reading the thread, I think you're all getting worked up about nothing. IIRC, using GeForce Boost on 2 unequal GPUs (like the 9400M and the 9600M) causes the faster GPU to work at the speed of the slower one, meaning basically all you have is 2 * 9400M. From the benchmarks I've seen, the 9600M is roughly twice as fast as a 9400M anyway, so all you'd be doing is increasing the heat and decreasing the battery life. Prove me wrong...
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I tend to agree with your comment. What is interesting for me is that this seems to confirm the possibility of using one GPU for graphics tasks, and the other one for OpenCL/CUDA operations.
 
MowingDevil said:
And where is your source?

The quote isn't as bad as people make it out to be...if he was talking about the computers at the time he was right. The true "alleged" quote is NOT people will never need MORE than 640k, it was:



[....]

from Wikipedia:
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I think the context of that supposed quote was actually in regards to a specific software product, not the entire computer industry. Again, a great example of media and detractors forcing things out of context to make their position look better.

image.php
 
MowingDevil said:
And where is your source?

The quote isn't as bad as people make it out to be...if he was talking about the computers at the time he was right. The true "alleged" quote is NOT people will never need MORE than 640k, it was:



HOWEVER, it has NEVER been sourced our quoted and is only hearsay. That doesn't mean it wasn't said but it means there is no PROOF he said. Gates also came out and denied the RUMOR.

from Wikipedia:
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that's problem with rumors and quotes - they get twisted and repeated long enough to become factual - and then you spend more time and energy defending the point that you never said it, than you would; if you said it in the first place.

oh but wait, what board am I on..... the one where every rumor and quote is a fact in 90% of peoples eyes. :p

There was a quote from an author (and unfortunately, I can't find the source anymore):

"Fact or fiction - what's the difference? it is the audience that makes the determination."

there is also another saying....

"Wait just long enough, and fiction will become fact"....
 
I wonder how an update would affect MBP owners. Hybrid SLI is not a feature of the current MBP, just as 802.11n wasn't a feature of the MB/MBPs when Apple started supporting the protocol. The result, as we remember, was that owners of then-current MB/MBPs had to pay for the driver to enable the "draft-n" spec on their machine.

Apple avoiding having to charge iPhone owners for updates by doing subscription accounting. I assume adding hybrid SLI would cause a similar situation as the 802.11n one. So anyone know if Apple accounts for computer hardware on a subscription basis now, or would they charge for the driver?
 
jabbawok said:
No No NO NO !!!!!!!!!!
Vents in the bottom of a laptop are the dumbest idea ever. Apple laptops are the only ones without this MAJOR design flaw. It's just plane retarded designing a portable computer that has to be used on a clean flat hard surface not to overheat. again No NO no NO no. never. :mad::mad::mad:
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Well, then we need to do something about the heat buildup on my current macbook (over on the left side of the keyboard on the bottom - probably about the location of the harddrive and CPU). I feel the heat on the bottom and coming up though the keyboard.

If I put it on my cool pad, the bottom is much cooler (as there is air circulating under it), there is no heat coming through my keyboard, and my fan does not kick on as often. the most I use my laptop for is 1/2 hr to 2 hrs. I cannot image how hot the little bugger would get if I used it for longer periods without the cool pad. unfortunately heat is not just an Apple thing. I have read other articles and blogs about the heat generated since the switch to duo core, PC's too.... Just I find that apple has smaller vents in odd places and makes me wonder if the heat could be disbursed better.

Atleast my LCD, on my macbook, does not get has hot as my Dell Laptop did. That LCD eventually cracked after 2 1/2 years and I read other blogs where people had the same problem and attributed it to how hot they got.

When I used to build my own PC's, the best desktop case I ever had:

2 fans on the front behind a removable, washable dust filter that blew inward, they were located right in front of the hard drive bays.

2 fans on the back that blew outward

1 fan on the power supply (standard anyway).

1 fan on the side door that blew inward

1 fan on top that blew outward (after all heat rises).

I never had a heat issue with that machine.... the only reason I do not have that case anymore is because I switched to mac's and I do not build my own machines anymore (that and I prefer portability of laptops - I am trying to get away from being tied to a desk, except when I need a big monitor or a real keyboard for long sessions of typing/programming).
 
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I see a lot have replied about the battery life being a issue in regards to all this news, but perhaps we will see all this come true in our new iMacs at WWDC.
 
I think it is arguably more important that gpu boost is implemented for bootcamp. Think catia, solidedge, games.
 
Umbongo said:
It most definatly is and I see no incentive for Apple to develop the ability for the Macbook Pro to use both cards together. Apple don't care about 3D performance, if they did we'd see better drivers and cards on the Mac Pro where people actually use it. Gamers are the ones who benefit from SLI and when it comes down to it SLI isn't going to sell Macbook Pros.
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I dunno. They are openly pushing OpenCL as one of the reasons that Snow Leopard will be cool. I think Apple would love to be able to tout their laptops as graphics screamers, with multi graphics card support. And I think they will, when Snow Leopard rolls out. I just don't think they'll do anything to enable it in the interim.

Gamers aren't the only ones who benefit from SLI, they're just the most vocal. I think there are a lot of "pro" users that would love the SLI support. In another 12 months, this feature may well be selling MacBook Pros. Just not now.
 
How about the MPB overheating !!!!

All so impressive but my MBP heats so bad i cant risk it on my laps.
Is there any improvements over this?
btw, is there any tips to improve on my current MBP. d heat is :eek:

Im a lil' bit of confused right now
 
dernhelm said:
I dunno. They are openly pushing OpenCL as one of the reasons that Snow Leopard will be cool. I think Apple would love to be able to tout their laptops as graphics screamers, with multi graphics card support. And I think they will, when Snow Leopard rolls out. I just don't think they'll do anything to enable it in the interim.

Gamers aren't the only ones who benefit from SLI, they're just the most vocal. I think there are a lot of "pro" users that would love the SLI support. In another 12 months, this feature may well be selling MacBook Pros. Just not now.
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I guess I just don't see how it will ever be viable from a business perspective for Apple/Nvidia to develop the software/drivers needed for the 9400M to enhance the 9600M GT in the Macbook Pros. With the technical issue of heat, the fact they try to cut costs where they can, the low number of applications that would benefit and the fact that they probably aren't being run on notebooks, lack of care towards current cards and drivers it just doesn't seem likely to me. It's never going to be something that sells systems.

Although you are right in that it isn't just gamers who benefit, their are many reasons why SLI isn't worth bothering with for Pro applications so the market isn't there and that means lack of effort from Nvidia and software developers. First of all you have single cards beating two slower cards nearly all the time meaning it only makes sense to go SLI on the highest end of Quadro cards. Then you have the issue of SLI only supporting a single display output. Although Nvidia announced yesterday that this is now going to change, it's still sometihng that has been off putting in the past.
 
SLI requirements

To use the integrated chip in conjunction with a discrete chip there are a few chipsets currently supported for the 9300/9400 MGPU's. These integrated chips are basically an 8400GS, and can work with 8400 and 8500 discrete cards to increase performance (compared to the discrete card alone). This would still be a huge downgrade compared to the 9600.

Faster chips, like the old 8600 or new 9500 or 9600 chips are not supported. It would not provide enough of a boost to matter, and with the 9600 which is much, much faster it might even slow it down. Works great with slower cards so you get great bang for your buck when you throw a $40 card into a tower with "free" integrated and get the performance of a $60 card because you can still use the mgpu that came with your machine. But that is really the market where that part of the SLI is important. Saving power is good everywhere, but is really important for mobile platforms like what these are.

9600 SLI with 9400... non starter folks, and the "huge boost" is true... compared to a slow chip alone, 2 slow chips are much better. But not even close to a great chip like the 9600.
 
Strigoi said:
8 GB ram support - Great!
Dual GPU support - Woah!

Now let's all sit and wait untill we can really use those features...

Apple is making too much stuff. Where are the good old days that things like that are included right away? Where are the keynote HALLELUJAH Demo's? Now we all have to wait until Jan. PRAY for those new features to come and eventually BUY Snow Leopard in order to get the max performance out of our products...
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And by that time Apple will release the quad core Macbooks which will smoke the current dual cores...

so much for being an early adopter.
 
Diatribe said:
What do you mean? It is already in Apple's entire laptop line. I think this is pretty common.
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The MacBooks don't have both GPUs, so it won't help them.

Right now it would only benefit MacBook Pros. And then what happens when we move to Neehlam, will we still be using NVIDIA chipsets?

arn
 
ageha said:
GeForce Boost is pretty useless if the GPUs are as unequal as the 9400 and the 9600.
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true. I read that somewhere else as well..the slower GPU will slow down the whole system. So OpenCL seems the logical advantage of the new systems
 
4gb So-dimms

Josso said:
Please let it be true - that you can use up to 8GB RAM.

That would definitely be a killer-reason for me, to switch to Mac. :D
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Well 4GB SO-DIMMS are now available from Crucial Memory. They are 1066Mhz DDR3 so should work in either the Macbook or the PRO. We may be able to use the upper 4GB of addressable memory in the second module, if Apple has bothered to write in the support for it. We know thats already been done for the Mac Pro (desktop).

http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT51264BC1067

Give it a try anyone ?
 
I'm so interested in this hybrid functionality I've spent my evening installing *guh* Vista...

So far I'm stuck installing service packs, but something very interesting I found out:

Boot Camp now supports x64 Windows Vista! (I couldn't get it to go from my Leopard disc before, but these new MBP discs have different drivers)

The initial NVIDIA drivers have some very interesting settings. You can scale performance up and down whilst a preview of a 3D model shows you how it's affecting rendering... Very cool :)
 
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