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NVIDIA Exits Chipset Business for Good? Apple to Continue to Use Old NVIDIA Chipsets

clarification

Gemütlichkeit said:
Huh? What makes you say that?
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http://www.tomshardware.com/news/macbook-pro-radeon-mcp-gpu,11781.html


NintendoFan said:
.....No they would just go back to using Intel chipsets.
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Not for the higher end Macs, which more than likely they'll use a combination of the Sandy Bridge processors with AMD discrete graphics card. Apologies if I wasn't clearer in my earlier comment. I don't have a crystal ball in front of me of course, but it's a decent guess based off of the information that has been publicly released over these past several months, along with Apple's general MO.
 
djrod said:
I think they're dropping the HD, and replacing it with the Air's SSD and a 330M
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I think that would be far to expensive right now. The optical drive is on its way out. And getting rid of it would be the best/cheapest option to get a nice discrete gpu in the 13.
 
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O noes
 
Why does the MCP89 Intel chipset limit the choice of CPU to Core 2 Duo?
Could the MBPs get discrete GPU across the board?
What are the reasons not to use MCP89 chipset with discrete NVidia/AMD GPU, and Sandy Bridge?

The 15 & 17" MBP will be Sandy Bridge in the next rev, so why can't 13"?
 
Wait, so all the pc laptops using intel's integrated graphics are CLOSED to GPU? So much restrictions on PCs. ;)
 
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AMD has been making great strides with CPU design also. Their Bobcat based Fusion chip is extremely impressive for such a little chip. It ought to give both the ATOM and the ULV line ups at Intel a challenge.

Granted this hardware comes in 2011 along with Bulldozer and Llano. It does highlight the fact that AMD has put an extreme amount of effort into making reasonably competitive hardware.

Even then people get way to wrapped up in CPU performance these days. Yes OT can be important for some apps and does impact machine responsiveness but in the overall equation the CPU is a fractional part of the overall result. MBA highlights this as the machines would appear to be rather pathetic based on CPU clock rate.
 
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In the end I think this highlights the fact that NVidia has seen the writing on the wall with respect to low end GPUs or chipsets. It really is a dead end as in a generation we will not have anything other than die integrated GPUs in low end machines. Depending upon how aggressive Intel is we might even see a transition with Sandy Bridge. It is all about pricing and performance.

As a side note has anyone noticed this new forum software sucks when accessed from an iPhone?
 
Consultant said:
Wait, so all the pc laptops using intel's integrated graphics are CLOSED to GPU? So much restrictions on PCs. ;)
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Only closed to other integrated graphics chips. Discrete chips are allowed, but they take up more space and burn more power. Intel may be shooting themselves in the foot though. The low end may move to AMD as this lowers the bar to their entry. They just need to surpass Intel's older chips to get in the game.
 
djrod said:
I think they're dropping the HD, and replacing it with the Air's SSD and a 330M
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^ that.

Apple is trying to make SSD's more mainstream by making it the only storage option in MBA's. That way they hope it doesn't have to take long before they can do the same for their MB's and MBP's, so they'll get even more room for bigger batteries and discrete graphics.

I mean the symptoms are obvious, Apple is focussing more on graphics than it ever has; With Radeon HD6xxx support already partially built-into OS X 10.6.6 betas, we might see full support in the GM.

It won't be long before you'll choose Apple over any other brand for performance, and that would be a turnaround after years of walking just a little step behind or being on parr at best. (The Mac Pro sometimes being the only exception.)
 
Not All NVIDIA Stories End Badly....

I bought a MBP in July 07. In just over 2 years the NVIDIA graphics card failed. Since it was part of the "bad batch" flap Apple replaced it for free and now I am the proud owner of a MBP with a GeForce 8600M GT GPU, and I got a new motherboard "for free". :D
 
Assuming that Apple does run with AMD as a replacement for the Nvidia discrete graphics cards, I wonder which AMD chipsets they will use in the next iMac and MBP refresh? Any guesses?
 
My idea:
Apple removes superdrive from MacBook Pro (external drive available) and saving 40% of internal space give the possibility to use dedicated gfx card on MBP 13" as well like 330M.

If Apple removes SuperDrive from MBP i will buy one for sure even i have this generation now. I will seel mine and buy new one. Optical drives are crap, they take a lot of spaces, they broke easily and especially i haven't used one in 2-3 years and very little in last 5-6 years. So i can live without it and exchanging this huge space with better gfx card (even if the 320M is impressive for a small notebook) and more battery.

Just imho.
 
re: AMD CPUs

I think that's a bit harsh of a generalization. AMD doesn't really put out the most innovative/cutting edge CPUs on the high-end. But they build competent, competitively-priced alternatives to the more mainstream Intel offerings.

When you're talking about a Macbook as opposed to a Macbook Pro? I think that's exactly the area where an AMD processor could shine. They tend to be lower-priced and usually have an offering or two that's equivalent in performance to the lower-end to mid-range Intel CPUs at any given point in time.

Biggest issue I had with AMD CPUs (and doesn't mean new offerings would continue to have this issue) is traditionally, they built them with less overheating protection than Intel has. If a CPU fan dies on an Intel chip, the chip throttles down to a very slow processor speed, so it doesn't burn up. Most AMD CPU's I've seen just get extremely hot, until a temp. sensor on the motherboard sees the problem and powers everything off (or alternately, the processor self-destructs).


ValSalva said:
I should have specified that AMD CPUs have been second rate. ATI was purchased by AMD. ATI's GPU's have been excellent lately after waning for a bit in 2007 and 2008.
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MeAngry said:
^ that.

Apple is trying to make SSD's more mainstream by making it the only storage option in MBA's. That way they hope it doesn't have to take long before they can do the same for their MB's and MBP's, so they'll get even more room for bigger batteries and discrete graphics.

I mean the symptoms are obvious, Apple is focussing more on graphics than it ever has; With Radeon HD6xxx support already partially built-into OS X 10.6.6 betas, we might see full support in the GM.

It won't be long before you'll choose Apple over any other brand for performance, and that would be a turnaround after years of walking just a little step behind or being on parr at best. (The Mac Pro sometimes being the only exception.)
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also it makes the computer faster and the harddrive doesnt crash as much.
 
t0mat0 said:
Why does the MCP89 Intel chipset limit the choice of CPU to Core 2 Duo?
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MCP89 only works with FSB based CPUs, which means Penryn Core 2 Duos are the last generation CPU they work with. FSB is the bus that the CPU talks to the chipset with. Simply put, MCP89 won't talk/fit with current Arrandale CPUs much less Sandy Bridge.

wizard said:
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AMD has been making great strides with CPU design also. Their Bobcat based Fusion chip is extremely impressive for such a little chip. It ought to give both the ATOM and the ULV line ups at Intel a challenge.

Granted this hardware comes in 2011 along with Bulldozer and Llano. It does highlight the fact that AMD has put an extreme amount of effort into making reasonably competitive hardware.

Even then people get way to wrapped up in CPU performance these days. Yes OT can be important for some apps and does impact machine responsiveness but in the overall equation the CPU is a fractional part of the overall result. MBA highlights this as the machines would appear to be rather pathetic based on CPU clock rate.
Click to expand...
The MBA's surprisingly good performance mainly derives from the use of flash memory for storage. I think we are assuming as a given that all new Apple laptops will use flash memory, at which point the performance determining components return back to the CPU and GPU.

Bobcat is much faster than Atom, but is slower than current ULV Penryn Core 2 Duos much less Sandy Bridge. Bobcat's GPU is also slower than the 320M. So going Bobcat for the MacBook Air will be a downgrade both CPU and GPU-wise from the current Core 2 Duo + 320M combo. If Apple doesn't want to go Sandy Bridge, they might as well stay with their current hardware than go Bobcat.
 
baryon said:
Not sure what a "chipset" is, did nVidia do anything other than chipsets? I thought they only made GPUs.
nVidia sucks anyway, all of their GPUs keep failing, all you hear is how faulty their new batches are and how everyone has to return their computers. My 9600M failed a long time ago, so I'm stuck with the crappy 9400M.
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And you think Intel GPU rock, oh please now those are a lame duck. Nvidia does a lot of things GPU is only part of the picture.

Video card can fail but that does not make nvidia card bad. I personally like ATI but tend to use what ever is best for my buck at the time I am ready to purchase.
 
move along nothing to see :rolleyes:

This is old news and to generate the "Oh My god Apple Sucks" and "Apple uses old out-dated technology" type hype. Especially at Christmas when people are last minute shopping for a laptop for someone...

Come on, lets get real. Apple will make the best choice that ensure reliability and innovation as they have in the past and continue to do. Also, of all the marketing (especially internet marketing) classes I been too... Desktops are very obsolete unless you need mass storage and heavy CPU power (most people don't). Laptops are becoming passe. the future will be true mobile technology (cloud, smart phones, tablets/slates like the ipad). And this is just the beginning. They will not be lame and limited like the old Compaq ipaq days. Although they were innovative for their time; their downfall was compatibility with documents. most desktop/laptop documents at the time were too large to be downloaded to the ipaq.

Also, if you think apple uses old technology. I suggest you really read the specs of some of the low priced desktops/towers and laptops being offered by Dell, HP, and others.
 
if i see another mbp with core 2 duo, i will ****ing die. apple has already been lightyears behind on their laptop peformance so its time to step it up and get newest piece of tech
 
DTphonehome said:
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Well that's just how technology is. The chipset is perfectly good so why ever update it?
/s
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Because you want to add support for something like Lightpeak or USB3... Because you want to support a new generation of CPUs.. lots of reasons.
 
Thats horrible, time to move on to ATI's gpus, using old Nvidia chipsets is a bad idea, Apple is already behind in terms of hardware, I mean they still use Core 2 Duo's, using older Nvidia chips isn't going to make Macs better..

Intel GPU's suck, Intel has never done very well in the GPU market, ATI & Nvidia have always been the leaders, so I really hope Apple doesn't decide to adopt intel chipsets because that just means more horrible performance on new Macs..
 
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