It's likely just part of a normal cycle. One's up, then makes a few blunders, and someone else (ATI in this case), is ready to fill in.
It will switch back again at some point, unless ATI blunders to the point of "Out of Business Forever". 
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NVIDIA Exiting Chipset Business Pending Resolution of Licensing Dispute With Intel
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It will switch back again at some point, unless ATI blunders to the point of "Out of Business Forever". you know, it is a little scary that neither Newegg nor EVGA lists even a PC version of GTX285 as "In STock"
If there are truly no more GT200 cores coming, watch for a dwindling supply followed by some serious price gouging for genuine Mac ones, with the near impossibility of flashing them.
If anyone is thinking about getting one, now would be the time.
If there are truly no more GT200 cores coming, watch for a dwindling supply followed by some serious price gouging for genuine Mac ones, with the near impossibility of flashing them.
If anyone is thinking about getting one, now would be the time.
That is very scary. You aren't seen price drops either. Whatever is in stock is just disappearing.
What? Last I checked, Intel's graphics solutions were hot garbage. This Macbook with the Intel GMA950 graphics, is one of the major reasons I am planning on switching back to Windows. Intel graphics solutions have always been terrible. I don't know why there is so much excitement for Arrandale. I am dreading the day that CPU sees the light of day. Core i7 = great. Arrandale = 1/2 CPU cores with crippled graphics.
nVidia is doing some damage control but it doesn't seem that they've really added anything new.
Products for front side bus on Intel and the MCP61 for AMD will continue but there isn't a future.
Products for front side bus on Intel and the MCP61 for AMD will continue but there isn't a future.
Why in the heck would Apple bother with such a thing? Intel has reduced (is reducing) the PCH to nothing more than hosting USB, SATA, GigE and optionally some PCIe lanes. The only historical weak spots with Intel's chipsets were their graphics. In fact, since Intel is just tweaking it's long line of ICH chips to make the PCH, the likelihood Apple's engineers to make a better PCH than Intel in the next year or two is zero.
Intel is having NO problems selling their chipsets. In fact about a year a go they had to restart filling orders for the ICH6 chipset.
The chipset plant is closed to fully ramped.
What the heck was using ICH6 last year?
Intel is struggling to phase out G31 and ICH7 right now.
Maybe not for the iMac, but for the Macbooks, lets them bundle in their own trackpad drivers, battery and charging controllers, all the sorts of bits that set Macbooks apart from others. Gives them control over delivering features they want to.
when I had to re-write the stepper jobs from scratch I said the same freaking thing. Talk about dusting off an old reticle.
ICH6 ran without any issues, loved that chip. IC7 A and B were the biggest thorn in my side, Many sleepless nights updating and tweaking the IC7 jobs in the middle of the night.
I miss those sleepless nights, on call 24x7 for weeks on end and sleeping with my pager.
AMD is ATI as well. And so you've just pronounced BOTH major producers of high-end graphics chips to be dead and cheered about it. I guess you've no idea how awful Intels' graphics chips are. If both did die off with no one taking over them, graphics would be set back about 6 years in development.
I don't how you guys are forming your reactions, nVidia wouldn't be out of the picture at all.
This doesn't affect nVidia's discrete graphics. This wouldn't even affect nVidia's integrated graphics. All this affects is nVidia's chipset department and their development of north bridges and south bridges, which aren't very prevalent anyway.
This doesn't affect nVidia's discrete graphics. This wouldn't even affect nVidia's integrated graphics. All this affects is nVidia's chipset department and their development of north bridges and south bridges, which aren't very prevalent anyway.
There's no way Apple would by nVidia, either.
Also, I saw one poster deriding Microsoft for messing up on the GPU design on the Xbox 360. ATI did the GPU design on that one. It was more the cooling element at fault (I imagine designed jointly) anyway.
Lots of misinformation around here, I've noticed.
Also, I saw one poster deriding Microsoft for messing up on the GPU design on the Xbox 360. ATI did the GPU design on that one. It was more the cooling element at fault (I imagine designed jointly) anyway.
Lots of misinformation around here, I've noticed.
I hope the lasting effect of this is not to put third party OEMs off of releasing aftermarket Mac cards. We were actually starting to accumulate a more decent selection than we were used to seeing.
It may be due to defective parts, but the reception or early termination may still convince them that releasing the product is a bad idea...let's hope it doesn't!
It may be due to defective parts, but the reception or early termination may still convince them that releasing the product is a bad idea...let's hope it doesn't!
Apple writes the drivers for the GPU's they use. SO if you want to blame someone for OS X-GPU-drivers, blame Apple.
Those drivers are written by Apple, not NVIDIA...
AMD is not going to go under if that's what worries you. And even if they are not doing that well at the moment, their GPU's still spank Intel's GPU's. Intels offerings are only suitable for the very low-end products.
Apple re-invents end-user products, it does not re-invent semiconductors.
I can just imagine how high the prices would be on GPUs if Apple bought nvidia. I don't think numbers go that high.
Well where does this leave Apple and consumers this late month for product upgrades: iMac, MB/MBP, or MacMini ??
Is there going to be an expected delay since a shake-up of cpu's??
Is there going to be an expected delay since a shake-up of cpu's??
Well where does this leave Apple and consumers this late month for product upgrades: iMac, MB/MBP, or MacMini ??
Is there going to be an expected delay since a shake-up of cpu's??
This leaves us exactly where we are now. Integrated poo:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/08/nvidia-halting-chipset-development-after-all/#continued
"On Intel platforms, the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M/ION brands have enjoyed significant sales, as well as critical success. Customers including Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Acer, ASUS and others are continuing to incorporate GeForce 9400M and ION products in their current designs. There are many customers that have plans to use ION or GeForce 9400M chipsets for upcoming designs, as well.
Go ahead and get it, this doesn't affect their discrete graphics cards (like the GTX 285), which is arguably the most important part of their business. To put it more simply, this news only affects parts that are in the motherboard itself, not expansion cards that go into the PCI-Express slots on the motherboard.
nVIDIA is supposed to release a new card sometime soon that will likely be superior to the 2XX series, but odds are they'll take their sweet time bringing it to the Mac so I'd just go for what's there now. It'll easily keep you gaming for some time. Heck, my PC's 8800GT is still fast enough to play anything I throw at it. (Much faster than the MacBook Pro's 9600M. But then, desktops with discrete cards will almost always trounce a laptop's card unless the desktop is much much older than the laptop. That's not a Mac and PC thing, that's just a desktop and laptop thing.)
Does anyone see this happening before xmas, because I would really like a 13'' MacBook Pro, without the use of awful intel graphics like in my current White MacBook, I want the 9400M, gonna have to buy it earlier than anticipated.
The level of ignorance in this thread rivals YouTube comments. This development has absolutely no effect whatsoever on discrete graphics cards. That said, I'd buy a PC 4870 with a gig of Ram and flash the BIOS with a Mac BIOS and save yourself 200$.
No. This decision does not mean that Apple will suddenly have to drop 9400m from their products. NVIDIA will keep on selling their current products and the product in their pipeline. They will not invest in new products, however. I could see Apple offering 9400m for a quite a while, and mayne upgrade to it's predecessor in the future. After that it's anyones guess. MAybe Intel finally has a GPU worth a damn by then. Or maybe Apple will move to discrete GPU's.
To recap: this decision has no bearing on 9400m.
Yep, yep, yep.
I remember envying PC users who had 8800 GTX anad 8800 Ultra cards.
Would the day ever come when I would have a card as powerful as the 8800 Ultra?
Well, now I do and I am extremely happy with it.
The HD 5870 should be a great card for Macs.
But I'd love to have a GTX 380 with the rumored 1.5GB of vram.
.