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theitsage

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Aug 28, 2005
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Upgraded my Mac Pro tower to 10.12.1 and found these kext files updated. After a bit digging, there are references of PCI2PCIBridge and AppleDisplay.

AMDRadeon4100.kext has support for Polaris 10 and Polaris 11 GPUs so this is most likely an indicator of new Apple Display with eGPU integration comes Thursday.

AMDRadeonX4100.kext, AppleBacklightExpert.kext, Audio AUUC.kext, IOGraphicsFamily.kext, IONDRVSupport.kext, IOPCIFamily.kext, System.kext were signed off at 4:19am last Wednesday - right about when the invites for the 27th event went out.

Screen Shot 2016-10-24 at 16.21.28.png


It's already possible to build eGPUs with Polaris cards.

egpu-radeon-rx-470-akitio-thunder2-1264x843.jpg 14380154_544078889120836_3057622602243566098_o.jpg
 
May I ask what CPUs are listed in the latest build of Sierra? Not that I'm thinking Apple have been working on an in-house chip which'll spank Intel.

Ergh, okay, I'm thinking it. Please, kill my stupid optimism. I beg you to give me proof that there's nothing unorthodox to expect from the next refresh. At least that way I won't be so disappointed.
 
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Interesting.

Is that AMDRadeonX4100.kext different from what would be expected for the Polaris dGPUs we're expecting to see in the MacBook Pro?
 
Absolutely. I've been tracking Polaris development in macOS since Sierra beta 2. The other kexts in 10.12.1 are recent changes.
 
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Upgraded my Mac Pro tower to 10.12.1 and found these kext files updated. After a bit digging, there are references of PCI2PCIBridge and AppleDisplay.

AMDRadeon4100.kext has support for Polaris 10 and Polaris 11 GPUs so this is most likely an indicator of new Apple Display with eGPU integration comes Thursday.

AMDRadeonX4100.kext, AppleBacklightExpert.kext, Audio AUUC.kext, IOGraphicsFamily.kext, IONDRVSupport.kext, IOPCIFamily.kext, System.kext were signed off at 4:19am last Wednesday - right about when the invites for the 27th event went out.

View attachment 667673

It's already possible to build eGPUs with Polaris cards.

View attachment 667674 View attachment 667675

This is awesome. Hopefully it means something really really cool is coming.
 
AMDRadeonX4100.kext has official support for Polaris 11 which is an RX 460. Therefore, the GPU inside this new Apple Display likely won't be the more powerful RX 470/480.

The RX 460 is good enough to drive a 5k screen and stay cool doing it. My hope is the eGPU community would have more resources to develop better DIY solutions.
 
I believe they'll leave the eGPU business to others, doesn't seem like their game.
They're not concerned with GPU power for lower end laptops, they'll make you buy the 15" rMBP for that.
Desktops will already have RX400 muscle, so no need for another similar GPU.
 
I think the idea of a high resolution display that 'takes care of itself' is great. I'm not sure the integrated GPU will be good for bragging rights, but the ability for a 13" MacBook Air owner to hook the computer up to even dual 27" 5k displays is pretty cool—especially if it comes with no performance penalty.

I'm seeing it as an extension of the custom Apple chip they used in their 5k iMacs. The early 5k displays were struggling with all kinds of issues, as we all remember, where there were mostly two separate panels in one display that needed to sync up. Apple built a custom, clean solution and now they're going one step further.

I wouldn't be surprised if it comes with only a very small price penalty. If Apple feels it's the right way to go to make a certain 'solution' they have in mind happen, they sometimes incorporate pretty high tech in products without increasing the price much at all.
 
I believe they'll leave the eGPU business to others, doesn't seem like their game.
They're not concerned with GPU power for lower end laptops, they'll make you buy the 15" rMBP for that.
- Somewhat agree. Apple's game, though, above all else, is making money. And a 5K display with eGPU would allow them to sell such a display to a much wider selection of customers than one with no GPU.

A conventional 5K display would be limited to Mac Pro, iMac 27", and MacBook Pro with dGPU for the foreseeable future.
An eGPU variant would be usable also with 21.5" iMacs, MacBook Airs, MacBooks, and 13" MacBook Pros when those are updated with Thunderbolt 3.
 
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A 5K display with eGPU integration is long term game. Apple could expand connectivity to iOS devices.
 
Yeah I don't ever bet we'll see an eGPU from Apple. Building one into the monitor makes a certain sense, but plug-and-play stuff for more power doesn't. if you're going to buy a GPU, Apple wants you to buy the higher-end SKU, they don't particularly care about aftermarket items and certainly don't care about games and the like where people are keenly interested in the potential for eGPUs.
 
Integrating the GPU inside the monitor not only makes it become out of date sooner, it also makes it cost more and draw more power.
Technically you could even power it from USB-C, with PD enabled ports. But including a GPU would render that almost impossible.
And next year you have people crying that the GPU is already outdated. Remember how long TBD lasted?
Apple tends to have long product cycles. However, those long cycles are without updated hardware so I guess that wouldn't be out of the question either.
It would go well with my rMBP 13 though :)
[doublepost=1477519787][/doublepost]And doing a custom TCON is not the same as integrating a GPU :)
I'd be happy if they use a 4K panel, even if it's not that much "retina".
All current machines would handle it.
Or both, 27" 5K and 24" 4K, that would solve it.
But I'm not even sure there will be any.
[doublepost=1477519824][/doublepost]The Magic Toolbar that just leaked ahead of "Hello again" look sweet though.
[doublepost=1477522039][/doublepost]Funny enough, you don't see a lot of 5K panels around yet.
 
Integrating the GPU inside the monitor not only makes it become out of date sooner, it also makes it cost more and draw more power.
Technically you could even power it from USB-C, with PD enabled ports. But including a GPU would render that almost impossible.

I think we're looking at it from lightly different angles. Unfortunately, a very large part of Apples target user group don't know what a GPU is. I'll even go as far as saying MOST Apply users wouldn't understand why they couldn't buy a newly released high resolution display and connect it to their MacBook to use when they are editing photos.

I'm not going to do the research now, but it's possible that some flavours of MacBook/MacBook Air graphics cards can support 5k natively, but with what kind of performance?

I'm looking at the GPU as a 'comparability measure' that they'll mention on stage as innovative and explain how it every Mac to use a 'pro display'. Not as a high end feature to turn a MacBook into a gaming device.

I would personally love to have a chip in my displays that would take care of GUI rendering in pro apps, but it's important that this chip would work in tandem with on board graphics on a MacBook Pro, (or Mac Pro) for instance.

In fact, it's a necessity: when you connect an entry level MacBook, you might want the diGPU to step in and be the main accelerator (assuming it's more powerful than integrated graphics), while on a Mac Pro you want the dual gfx cards to do the heavy lifting. In the case of the Mac Pro though, I'd still like the diGPU to do some work (like GUI rendering) to allow the on board graphics to focus on compute/rendering.

If you'd hook the highest end MacBook Pro up to this display and start a game, I'd guess the graphics would run 100% on the MacBook Pro card.
 
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Well, the LG Ultrafine 4K here goes for 749€. No 5K in the accessories page though.
They changed the font along with the new MBP.
Here they must have made a mistake during the translation. I believe the 15" model has a 460 inside but in the description they mention a 450, which doesn't exist. Unless it's an Apple exclusive. But not, it's also mentioned that it's a 460. A bit of a let down but maybe for the 10 hours battery life.
The DCI-P3 panel goes in line with what I predicted, great. The Magic Toolbar looks good too. New SSDs are awesome, faster. And TB3 shines. Great machine, guess I'll really have to sell mine and get one, maybe the space grey this time around.
Amazing machines indeed, it was the MacBook anniversary anyway, they had to have something good.

But no nMP announcement, guess it won't be a Late 2016 nMP.
And with the LG monitors, I guess TBD is really dead. Too bad, I really wanted one, updated of course.
Just used the configurator to check the prices (and they're higher) and realized you can select Radeon Pro 450, 455 and 460. New models? Let's hope they're the lower power ones.
 
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Well, the LG Ultrafine 4K here goes for 749€. No 5K in the accessories page though.
They changed the font along with the new MBP.
Here they must have made a mistake during the translation. I believe the 15" model has a 460 inside but in the description they mention a 450, which doesn't exist. Unless it's an Apple exclusive. But not, it's also mentioned that it's a 460. A bit of a let down but maybe for the 10 hours battery life.
The DCI-P3 panel goes in line with what I predicted, great. The Magic Toolbar looks good too. New SSDs are awesome, faster. And TB3 shines. Great machine, guess I'll really have to sell mine and get one, maybe the space grey this time around.
Amazing machines indeed, it was the MacBook anniversary anyway, they had to have something good.

But no nMP announcement, guess it won't be a Late 2016 nMP.
And with the LG monitors, I guess TBD is really dead. Too bad, I really wanted one, updated of course.
Just used the configurator to check the prices (and they're higher) and realized you can select Radeon Pro 450, 455 and 460. New models? Let's hope they're the lower power ones.
All of the GPUs used are Apple-exclusive. The "RX 460m" doesn't exist yet, only the desktop version - The MacBook Pros use the "Pro 460" at the higher end, but there is the 450 and 455 below that, both have 2GB of RAM.

Here is more information on the Radeon Pro series: http://creators.radeon.com/radeon-pro/
 
Well, the LG Ultrafine 4K here goes for 749€. No 5K in the accessories page though.
They changed the font along with the new MBP.
Here they must have made a mistake during the translation. I believe the 15" model has a 460 inside but in the description they mention a 450, which doesn't exist. Unless it's an Apple exclusive. But not, it's also mentioned that it's a 460.
- The 15" can be configured with either a 450, a 455, or a 460 Radeon Pro.

The 5K UltraFine is here: http://www.apple.com/us-hed/shop/product/HKN62LL/A/lg-ultrafine-5k-display?fnode=8a
 
Thanx for the link, they're sort of weak but I guess power draw was more important.
JT, I found it right after writing it, it goes for 1399€ here.
Don't like the looks of it much but hey seem good, DCI-P3, TB3.
 
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