MacBook Pros with Thunderbolt, ATI/AMD Graphics?

[Aaron from KY]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_6 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E200 Safari/6533.18.5)

So, if the new MBPs won't be introduced until 1pm bc of Intel's event, what time can we expect it to be in stores????

Maybe friday on display walk in Thursday late afternoon and ask for it? Best Buy probably not for a few weeks? Who knows?

 

[ColeHarris]

Nooooooo!!!!! I need CUDA cores!

+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1
NO! Now I can't run octane!

 

[AppleGoat]

Apple would have to lie completely to make the Intel IGP fare better than the Nvidia 9400m. The 320m will blow away the Intel IGP. Sadly, Apple will probably rotate through and update its Mac lineup faster than usual to not make its 13" Pros look like garbage.

I really believe Tue Intel IGP will end up with more of the same when Intel's IGPs were used in the past. It is a terribly inferior graphics non-solution. I beleieve everyone would be better off with C2D and 320m over crapzilla's IGP.

Intel is great at CPUs but makes disgusting IGPs. It sucks Intel has played dirty to force Nvidia out of the GPU Chooser business.

I see problems in any Mac stuck depending on an Intel IGP and poorly written drivers and OpenGL shortcomings to Windows counterparts. I expect many disappointed when Tue truth comes out. I wouldn't put it past Apple making a less capable graphics driver set for Nvidia GPUs in the next OS X update so lies can make Intel's junk seem acceptable. Prepare to be lied to and crapped on when Intel is providing the graphics. Oh and worst.of all you will not be able to depending it when you need it most.

Some will try to flame but deep down everyone knows it's true. Apple absolutely needed a discrete GPU in the 13" MBP. It is not a PRO MB without a discrete GPU no matter what Tue label says!

I don't reckon the Intel IGP to be as much a set back as you claim, for the reason that the CPU and GPU share the same die. Assuredly, these Sandy Bridge Macbooks will be a step up from the previous generation. I do hope what you say is true, since I have the 2010 13" model.

 

[gmikesell]

I went to my local Apple store tonight and they only had:

1 MBP 17" ($2750) with i7, Hi-res anti-glare screen
1 MBP 15" ($1799) base model
1 MBP 15" ($2550) with i7, Hi-res anti-glare screen

I went ahead and bought the one for $2550 just to make sure I got one I liked, in case I was disappointed with the refresh. I'm already looking forward to a trip back to the store again tomorrow afternoon! I just hope they have some models on hand with the hi-res anti-glare screens. I absolutely LOVE it! If they don't, I might just go ahead and stick with this one and hope I can get some kind of "previous year model discount".

 

[kalsta]

Firewire also seems like a similarly awkward name, but I guess it worked.

Seriously? I always thought Firewire was the coolest sounding name. Thunderbolt… meh.

 

[chrmjenkins]

Any source for this? I'd like to read up on it a bit more.
Regardless any 6500 or 6700 still outperforms a 525M.

I'm going to reluctantly refer you to notebookcheck.net . Not many 6xxx notebooks on the market so not a lot of benchmarks to show you.

 

[ozred]

I want to see these suckers benchmarked before I even consider opening my wallet. I'm very skeptical of Intel's cards.

Very wise indeed!

 

[aiqw9182]

I'm going to reluctantly refer you to notebookcheck.net . Not many 6xxx notebooks on the market so not a lot of benchmarks to show you.

I was actually asking for a source that describes the differences between AMD's and NVIDIA's TDP ratings.

 

[cmaier]

Seriously? I always thought Firewire was the coolest sounding name. Thunderbolt… meh.

I always liked "Lightning Data Transport" (LDT), the original name of Hypertransport.

 

[jamesryanbell]

I guess this is good news.

BUT, I want benchmarks the moment they start getting to people's homes.

THEN, I'll decide. haha.

 

[StefSSU]

Apple would have to lie completely to make the Intel IGP fare better than the Nvidia 9400m. The 320m will blow away the Intel IGP. Sadly, Apple will probably rotate through and update its Mac lineup faster than usual to not make its 13" Pros look like garbage.

I really believe Tue Intel IGP will end up with more of the same when Intel's IGPs were used in the past. It is a terribly inferior graphics non-solution. I beleieve everyone would be better off with C2D and 320m over crapzilla's IGP.

Intel is great at CPUs but makes disgusting IGPs. It sucks Intel has played dirty to force Nvidia out of the GPU Chooser business.

I see problems in any Mac stuck depending on an Intel IGP and poorly written drivers and OpenGL shortcomings to Windows counterparts. I expect many disappointed when Tue truth comes out. I wouldn't put it past Apple making a less capable graphics driver set for Nvidia GPUs in the next OS X update so lies can make Intel's junk seem acceptable. Prepare to be lied to and crapped on when Intel is providing the graphics. Oh and worst of all you will not be able to depending it when you need it most.

Some will try to flame but deep down everyone knows it's true. Apple absolutely needed a discrete GPU in the 13" MBP. It is not a PRO MB without a discrete GPU no matter what Tue label says!

Wow. What a conspiracy theory you've come up with there. As has already been pointed out:

- 2010 refresh = No! MBP 13 still using C2D so they may use 320m!! This is terrible!
- 2011 refresh = No! MBP 13 using Intel IGP so they may use significantly faster CPU!! This is terrible!

Apple were reluctant to use Arrandale in their 13' MBP as they were forced to use a graphics solution that was noticeably inferior to nVidia's. Now that Intel's IGP graphics are more comparable, they are updating to Sandy Bridge. What's so hard to understand about that?

On topic, personally Thunderbolt seems like an odd name to me. Light Peak seemed good enough, and already is fairly well known in more tech-oriented circles.

I mean just look at the following:
Firewire - One word, two syllables. Thunderbolt cable - two words, four syllables.

 

[sv-mbpxs]

well they caught my attention

Ive been reading all these rumors the last couple of weeks and managed to convince myself that there was no good reason for me to upgrade, BUT if this is true ill be getting a 15er, especially since mine evolved into this over the last few days

 

[Mr. Gates]

Ive been reading all these rumors the last couple of weeks and managed to convince myself that there was no good reason for me to upgrade, BUT if this is true ill be getting a 15er, especially since mine evolved into this over the last few days

That sucks.

Sorry.

But the whole "Mac 's don't have problems" thing really needs to die.

You can see first hand. .....When it sucks .........It's big time $#iTTy

 

[StefSSU]

Hmmm. How will this affect photoshop performance? Will the new ones be much faster because of the processor? Is the newer intel crap really only affect gamers?

Overall, the new 13' model should perform considerably better. Arrandale alone was a big upgrade in the CPU department, we're going forward 2 generations in CPU's with this refresh (well, one tick and one tock). Intel's graphics are pretty comparable now. And yes, it'll probably only be gamers who notice any difference, Photoshop would likely see next to no impact in performance - difference in GPU acceleration for PS is hardly noticeable when you upgrade cards on the desktop end.

But remember, it's still a mobile integrated graphics solution. They suck at just about anything except power.

 

[sv-mbpxs]

That sucks.

Sorry.

But the whole "Mac 's don't have problems" thing really needs to die.

You can see first hand. .....When it sucks .........It's big time $#iTTy

Its all good, apples got my back

 

[DickKnowsBest]

Wow. What a conspiracy theory you've come up with there. As has already been pointed out:

- 2010 refresh = No! MBP 13 still using C2D so they may use 320m!! This is terrible!
- 2011 refresh = No! MBP 13 using Intel IGP so they may use significantly faster CPU!! This is terrible!

Apple were reluctant to use Arrandale in their 13' MBP as they were forced to use a graphics solution that was noticeably inferior to nVidia's. Now that Intel's IGP graphics are more comparable, they are updating to Sandy Bridge. What's so hard to understand about that?

On topic, personally Thunderbolt seems like an odd name to me. Light Peak seemed good enough, and already is fairly well known in more tech-oriented circles.

I mean just look at the following:
Firewire - One word, two syllables. Thunderbolt cable - two words, four syllables.

I'm not too sure about that.
Firewire would be 1 word, four syllables. Fi-re-wi-re, or if you have a kiwi accent you'd probably pronounce it as fi-ya-wi-ya. Just like we say plaaant and fush n chups.
Thunderbolt would be 1 word 3 syllables thun-der-bolt.

 

[MacQuest]

"THUNDERBOLT". It ALL makes sense now...

[crossposted response of mine from another thread here on MR]:

- Lightning McQueen's "BOLT" in PIXAR's 2006 movie "CARS".

- Steve Jobs bought and was CEO of PIXAR until it was sold to Disney.

- Steve Jobs has been the largest shareholder of Disney stock since that acquisition.

- Disney's 2008 movie "BOLT" is about a fast dog.

- Steve Jobs has long been known to have been inspired by Walt Disney.


It's the famous 6 degrees of Steve Jobs... and by 6, I mean 5.

Apple is buying Disney to give PIXAR back to Steve Jobs and have everything come full circle. [Intel's just one of many pawns in Steve's game of life].

"All your base are belong to SJ!!!"


Happy Birthday Steve!

 

[thedarkhorse]

so much for CS5 for video and utilizing CUDA cores. Let's hope this new final cut pro takes advantage of ati gpu's to do something similar adobe had done with their mercury engine that uses nvidia CUDA. I'm so sick of transcoding DSLR footage to prores just to get decent editing in final cut, not to mention wrapping xdcam/p2 footage - tapeless was supposed to be easier.

 

[TerrorOFdeath]

Apple would have to lie completely to make the Intel IGP fare better than the Nvidia 9400m. The 320m will blow away the Intel IGP. Sadly, Apple will probably rotate through and update its Mac lineup faster than usual to not make its 13" Pros look like garbage.

I really believe Tue Intel IGP will end up with more of the same when Intel's IGPs were used in the past. It is a terribly inferior graphics non-solution. I beleieve everyone would be better off with C2D and 320m over crapzilla's IGP.

Intel is great at CPUs but makes disgusting IGPs. It sucks Intel has played dirty to force Nvidia out of the GPU Chooser business.

I see problems in any Mac stuck depending on an Intel IGP and poorly written drivers and OpenGL shortcomings to Windows counterparts. I expect many disappointed when Tue truth comes out. I wouldn't put it past Apple making a less capable graphics driver set for Nvidia GPUs in the next OS X update so lies can make Intel's junk seem acceptable. Prepare to be lied to and crapped on when Intel is providing the graphics. Oh and worst of all you will not be able to depending it when you need it most.

Some will try to flame but deep down everyone knows it's true. Apple absolutely needed a discrete GPU in the 13" MBP. It is not a PRO MB without a discrete GPU no matter what Tue label says!

This really would be a huge Step-back. I was so happy when they got away from Intels IGP to the 9400M. What an inspiring move from apple. And now...

Not only will they just take a step back with the Intel IGP but even worse!
If they use the mobile Series 6 from AMD.. those are just new labled GPUS form Series 5.

For Example the HD6550M had just been renamed from the HD5650M
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6550M.41143.0.html

This makes me just wanna cry.
And it would be the most F***ed up present for SJ ever ...with the possibility of his last :_(

Tod

 

[wippler]

I have a theory whats going to happen with MBPs..

they are retiring the white macbook and are relabelling the 13'' MBP with no dedicated graphics card as Macbook, that can only explain the lower res screen and IGP (may be they will sell it for 899 or 949.. little lesser than lowend air)

MBP will only contain 15 and 17 inchers with updated specs..

 

[Bakerman]

learn OpenCL? Its a little bit more clunky than CUDA but it's a pretty good standard IMO. Also, If you are doing CUDA work just SSH into a desktop with a card worth using for CUDA... It's really not hard to SSH...

Except the OpenCL support on ATI cards on Mac is really poor. Lots of things lacking, and buggy, compared to the nvidia cards. Apple stopped paying attention to OpenCL more than a year ago (yeah, I know, it sucks).

 

[monstermac77]

USB is a good name, has a nice flow to it, USB key, USB cable, mini-USB... can you imagine asking someone if they have a Thunderbolt key, cable, mini-thunderbolt?

Just replace "Thunderbolt" with "TB". I prefer Light Peak as well, but I don't think words really have that much of an inherent flow to them. I think it's all about repeating them and hearing them that makes them flow. Just say "Thunderbolt" a thousand times out loud tonight and by the morning it'll "flow" better than USB!

 

[Sinsear]

I grew up an nvidia fan but AMD/ATI has won me over with their cheaper and energy efficient GPUs yet nearly all can keep up with nvidia's top cards. Glad to hear it apple, I was thinking they'd head this route... Now let's see a 6830!! lol

Yes, it is cheaper and more energy efficient in terms of absolute values, but in terms of relative price to performance and watts consumed to performance, Nvidia blows AMD GPUs out of the water (the GF110 vs the 69xx). And by "keep up with Nvidia's top cards", what you really mean is that the highest end card is about 20-35% slower on all benchmarks compared to Nvidia's top card. If that's "keeping up" in your book, then by all means, keep drinking the koolaid.

 

[aznguyen316]

http://iphone.appleinsider.com/arti...y_after_intel_thunderbolt_event_thursday.html

Unveiling after intels light peak.

 

[vipergts2207]

Not only will they just take a step back with the Intel IGP but even worse!
If they use the mobile Series 6 from AMD.. those are just new labled GPUS form Series 5.

For Example the HD6550M had just been renamed from the HD5650M
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6550M.41143.0.html

Well Apple can only use what's on the market and AMD's 6000M is their newest series. Or Apple can use the nvidia 500M series, but those are just rebadged 400M's. Take your pick.