NVIDIA/Intel Settlement Could Boost MacBook and MacBook Air Processor Speeds

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

Integrated graphics are still a joke today, even the NVIDIA 9400M and 320M. Is it so hard for Apple to put dedicated graphics in all their machines? If they did it years ago with the iBook, why not now? If they want to differentiate their product lines, then why not do exactly what they did between the iBook and PowerBook, which was to give the lower tier machine a lower tier dedicated graphics card?

By the way, your system did not come stock with 8GB of RAM.

You would probably appreciate the Toshiba "Qosmio X505-Q898, w/ 18.4 in Full HD 1080p Notebook PQX33U-05G025, Intel Core i7-740QM, 6GB DDR3, 500GB SATA HDD, 64GB SSD, BD Combo, GeForce GTX460M". Of course, you would think with a weight of 10.1 pounds, the battery life would be ... ? "Up to 3.75 hours" (more like 1.5 hours when using its horsepower).

It isn't "hard" to put really fast mobile CPU and graphics in a laptop. It is just hard to do it with a weight and battery life that allows it to actually be portable. Apple has done an excellent job of doing just that over the last three years.

 

[MacRacer]

I have a Dell that has a NVIDIA chipset in it that has a pending lawsuit against it. I wonder how many they have going on right now? I was offered a replacement from Dell, so I finally took them up on it. I got sick of them working on my computers every couple of months. I will never own another Dell again. I built my last one and it is for sure the way to go.

Same here with Dell, a Inspirion e1505 (custom built and over 2100 in price), motherboard replaced three times and I have a sound issue that Dell can't figure out while it has it. The graphics chip in my MacBook Pro (early 2008) 15" (spec in red below) has a public class action against Nvidia and I received an e-mail from the people who are suing Nvidia over it. Several manufacture computers where listed, Dell, Apple, Sony, HP, and more. I didn't want to participate in it only because I never had an issue with the graphics in my MBP. I guess I got myself a good graphics chip without the issue. .

 

[MacRacer]

You would probably appreciate the Toshiba "Qosmio X505-Q898, w/ 18.4 in Full HD 1080p Notebook PQX33U-05G025, Intel Core i7-740QM, 6GB DDR3, 500GB SATA HDD, 64GB SSD, BD Combo, GeForce GTX460M". Of course, you would think with a weight of 10.1 pounds, the battery life would be ... ? "Up to 3.75 hours" (more like 1.5 hours when using its horsepower).

It isn't "hard" to put really fast mobile CPU and graphics in a laptop. It is just hard to do it with a weight and battery life that allows it to actually be portable. Apple has done an excellent job of doing just that over the last three years.

But you forgot about heat issues. You can put the latest processor and graphics chip into a computer and bam, you have heat. With Apple computers lacking more ventilation, its hard to design how air will flow through a laptop, like Apple. There is one way in and two ways out basically. I standard desktop should be around the 100 F inside the case itself and should not go over 102. its like the body temp. 102 is sick to use. Same with a computer. I don't know about how hot the inside a laptop case should be but I think the same rule should apply. I looked at specs for the processor in my mac a 175F is the safe limit. I push 200 F under a load like video editing or gaming.

 

[AidenShaw]

Couldn't find a bigger, heavier system?

You would probably appreciate the Toshiba "Qosmio X505-Q898, w/ 18.4 in Full HD 1080p Notebook PQX33U-05G025, Intel Core i7-740QM, 6GB DDR3, 500GB SATA HDD, 64GB SSD, BD Combo, GeForce GTX460M". Of course, you would think with a weight of 10.1 pounds....

Or how about the 14" Dell Latitude E6400 with 256 MiB Nvidia Quadro NVS 160M - at 1.95 kg it's lighter than either the plastic 13" MacBook (2.13 kg) or the 13" MacBook Pro (2.04 kg).

 

[lilo777]

You would probably appreciate the Toshiba "Qosmio X505-Q898, w/ 18.4 in Full HD 1080p Notebook PQX33U-05G025, Intel Core i7-740QM, 6GB DDR3, 500GB SATA HDD, 64GB SSD, BD Combo, GeForce GTX460M". Of course, you would think with a weight of 10.1 pounds, the battery life would be ... ? "Up to 3.75 hours" (more like 1.5 hours when using its horsepower).

It isn't "hard" to put really fast mobile CPU and graphics in a laptop. It is just hard to do it with a weight and battery life that allows it to actually be portable. Apple has done an excellent job of doing just that over the last three years.

It is not really that hard to use LV or ULV CPU with underpowered (and then under-clocked) GPU to get good battery life either. Plenty of laptops have this. It's all a matter of design compromises and usage scenarios. The difference between Apple and Toshiba (companies) is not that Toshiba can not design a notebook with decent battery life, it's that whilst Toshiba offers laptops for different users (including desktop replacement laptops), Apple only offers laptops optimized for college students.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Best news ever!

 

[Chase R]

Or how about the 14" Dell Latitude E6400 with 256 MiB Nvidia Quadro NVS 160M - at 1.95 kg it's lighter than either the plastic 13" MacBook (2.13 kg) or the 13" MacBook Pro (2.04 kg).

This:

Versus This:

Lol.

Battery life?

You can keep your 1990s looking laptop. I mean just look at the size of the trackpad! No wonder why every PC user carries a mouse around with them. Most folks around here don't realize that there is more than just "Tech Specs" involved with a computer. That's why Apple is so successful.

 

[AidenShaw]

Battery life?

You shouldn't have mentioned that:

"Up to 19 hours of battery life..." http://www.dell.com/us/en/enterpris...aspx?refid=laptop_latitude_e6400&s=biz&cs=555​

You can keep your 1990s looking laptop.

You can keep your 1950s looking tacky white plastic laptop - I'll take the black magnesium alloy any day.

 

[Chase R]

You shouldn't have mentioned that:

"Up to 19 hours of battery life..." http://www.dell.com/us/en/enterpris...aspx?refid=laptop_latitude_e6400&s=biz&cs=555​

Ya with an optional 9 cell battery and bulky battery "slice."

No thanks. Like I said. The trackpad on that thing alone would be enough for me to not buy it. Tech specs only go so far.

 

[AidenShaw]

Ya with an optional 9 cell battery and bulky battery "slice."

Some Apple fans find the idea of "choice" confusing.

Dell gives you a choice of battery life vs. weight options. (Plus, all the Dell batteries are quickly replaceable, so if 19 hours isn't enough you could bring along some spares.)

Anyway, the point was that jnpy!$4g3cwk brought up a huge 18" 10+ lb laptop as an example of a system with discrete graphics - I pointed out a laptop lighter than the 13" Apples with a Quadro.

 

[macintoshtoffy]

You can keep your 1990s looking laptop. I mean just look at the size of the trackpad! No wonder why every PC user carries a mouse around with them. Most folks around here don't realize that there is more than just "Tech Specs" involved with a computer. That's why Apple is so successful.

True, I only have to look at my fathers Dell Inspiron 1318 laptop as to why so many end users who have PC laptops carry around an external mouse - the touch pads are so microscopic I'm surprised that vendors haven't just given up altogether and got rid of them given how uselessly small they are. If there was one reason to purchase a Mac it would be for the big touch pad; personally I prefer using a touch pad on my laptop and my iMac.

It is not really that hard to use LV or ULV CPU with underpowered (and then under-clocked) GPU to get good battery life either. Plenty of laptops have this. It's all a matter of design compromises and usage scenarios. The difference between Apple and Toshiba (companies) is not that Toshiba can not design a notebook with decent battery life, it's that whilst Toshiba offers laptops for different users (including desktop replacement laptops), Apple only offers laptops optimized for college students.

Which is a load of **** - if you want more grunt than what the MacBook Pro has then go and purchase a Mac Pro or an iMac. A notebook is portable, a desktop isn't hence there are compromises. Jesus H Christ I wish some people would use their head when it comes to understanding the balance between weight, performance and battery life. Screaming and yelling to the roof tops and spamming the forums like this simply won't make it so. Simply because you really want something and proceed then by screaming and having a temper tantrum about it won't some how make the laws of physics any different.

 

[patrobic]

Ati all the way!!!

Wouldn't it be great if Apple adopted the AMD/ATI video chips??
Great performance, That would be AWESOME!!!!

 

[AidenShaw]

Wouldn't it be great if Apple adopted the AMD/ATI video chips??
Great performance, That would be AWESOME!!!!

I wouldn't wish ATI drivers on anyone.

The only recent purchases of systems with ATI graphics cards included a separate NVIDIA card for each system - and the ATI cards were sent to the toxic waste dump.

YMMV, but I won't use an ATI GPU if I have any practical alternative.

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

I wouldn't wish ATI drivers on anyone.

The only recent purchases of systems with ATI graphics cards included a separate NVIDIA card for each system - and the ATI cards were sent to the toxic waste dump.

YMMV, but I won't use an ATI GPU if I have any practical alternative.

Really that bad? I admit that I don't have an ATI GPU in the house, but, I have used them in the past without particular notice. It is too bad if the product is declining because of drivers -- on paper, the ATI GPU's often use less power at comparable performance, making them attractive. Gee, some of you folks out there must be driver geeks -- offer your services to AMD!

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

It is not really that hard to use LV or ULV CPU with underpowered (and then under-clocked) GPU to get good battery life either. Plenty of laptops have this. It's all a matter of design compromises and usage scenarios. The difference between Apple and Toshiba (companies) is not that Toshiba can not design a notebook with decent battery life, it's that whilst Toshiba offers laptops for different users (including desktop replacement laptops), Apple only offers laptops optimized for college students.

Why college students?

 

[macintoshtoffy]

I wouldn't wish ATI drivers on anyone.

The only recent purchases of systems with ATI graphics cards included a separate NVIDIA card for each system - and the ATI cards were sent to the toxic waste dump.

YMMV, but I won't use an ATI GPU if I have any practical alternative.

That maybe true (more or less) for the Windows world but how does it even relate to the Mac world where Apple controls 90% of the graphics stack including OpenGL?

I've used the ATI video drivers on Windows 7 x64 and they suck no more or less than the nVidia drivers to be perfectly frank. The end of the day though the problems you're talking about are endemic to the third party hardware industry where within a year all products and their drivers prior to the latest release are ignored. In the Mac world though you don't see the same sorts of issues; if there is an OpenGL upgrade then all hardware accross the board gain the improvements, the hardware generally speaking I find on Mac OS X is a lot less problematic, it isn't perfect (nothing is) but I find it less troublesome than the Windows world.