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Following reports from late last year indicating that Apple would be switching back to NVIDIA for graphics chips in its next MacBook Pro update, SemiAccurate now reports that NVIDIA's issues with GPU production are apparently leading Apple to rely more heavily on Intel's integrated graphics.

Apple has reportedly been ordering beefed-up integrated graphics from Intel on its Ivy Bridge platform, a development the report claims would be pointless if the chipsets were to be paired with discrete graphics chips from NVIDIA.
Apple upped their SKUs from parts bearing awful Intel GPUs to variants with more of those awful shaders. Since those Ivy Bridge CPUs are going in to laptops that have a GPU, upping the shader count from 6 to 16 should be a waste, they will never be turned on.

If they are going to be turned on, that would mean that the discrete GPU in those machines is either going to be much higher spec'd, or it won't be there.
With NVIDIA struggling to produce even lower-end Kepler graphics chips, the report suggests that the latter option is more likely and expects that Apple may be bumping integrated-only graphics into the mid-range of its notebook lines. Integrated-only graphics have typically been reserved for Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro form factor, which lacks the space necessary to also house a dedicated graphics chip.
Our analysis indicates that the lower end MacBooks will simply do without a GPU, the higher end parts will remain unchanged, and the middle ground will have some models with and some without a GPU instead of almost all with a discrete Nvidia GPU. Those without will make a much larger portion of the mix than they would have at this time last month, if there were any at all.
One other factor that may also be at play is rumors of a significant redesign of the MacBook Pro to yield a form factor more in line with that of the popular MacBook Air. A slimming down of the chassis may see Apple seeking to reduce size and power consumption in certain areas, requirements that may result in the company bringing lower-powered CPU and graphics options to its mid-range machines than might have otherwise been seen.

Article Link: NVIDIA Issues Leading Apple to Pursue Integrated Intel Graphics for Mid-Range Notebooks?
 

blahbrah

macrumors 6502
Nov 9, 2006
332
220
please please please let this mean that Apple will actually invest in graphics cards via thunderbolt.
 

jterp7

macrumors 65816
Oct 26, 2011
1,291
160
please please please let this mean that Apple will actually invest in graphics cards via thunderbolt.

lol and where the hell is msi's solution. Version ii and still no sign of it in the US. I guess for those people who believe the air and 13pro are gaming machines, the 4000 will be fine. It's a shame though for people used to the horsepower of the 15pro.
 

TerrorOFdeath

macrumors member
May 15, 2008
88
19
Would be interesting to see, how it will affect the price of those without Nvidia GPU.

Or in the appleusuale way, how they gonna explain the same pricing with/without Nvidia discrete GPU (if they actually do at all)^^

Well at least its gone be the Intel 4000. Finally something uptodate with DX11 etc.

Tod
 

iRCL

macrumors 6502
Nov 2, 2011
284
0
What's the big deal? Even the 3000 is excellent for a laptop part. Yes I know there are faster out there, and if you want that you can go buy an Alienware laptop. Right now I'm playing Path of Exile, Diablo 3, Dragon Age 1/2, DDO, and lots of low horsepower adventure games at wonderful smooth framerates @ 1440x900 on my MBA 2011 i5 1.6ghz with the 3000. Sorry but I just do not see why everyone complains about the new Intel GPUs as being awful because in fact they are not.

Edit: And I don't even want to hear the "I don't play games I am a media artist" pitch either because I work with heavy editing of extremely large photographs frequently in pixelmator
 

striker33

macrumors 65816
Aug 6, 2010
1,098
2
This report fails on so many levels.

Why would Apple, a company with tens of billions of dollars spare change, release a product update, when they could quite easily wait a few months longer until the GPU's are ready.

No one smart enough to know what GPU stands for would go near the 15 inch models if they had integrated graphics.

Plus it gives them more time to make sure everything is peachy before launch.
 

existe

macrumors member
May 11, 2009
72
22
What's the big deal? Even the 3000 is excellent for a laptop part. Yes I know there are faster out there, and if you want that you can go buy an Alienware laptop. Right now I'm playing Path of Exile, Diablo 3, Dragon Age 1/2, DDO, and lots of low horsepower adventure games at wonderful smooth framerates @ 1440x900 on my MBA 2011 i5 1.6ghz with the 3000. Sorry but I just do not see why everyone complains about the new Intel GPUs as being awful because in fact they are not.

Edit: And I don't even want to hear the "I don't play games I am a media artist" pitch either because I work with heavy editing of extremely large photographs frequently in pixelmator

But CUDA...
 

cashxx

macrumors member
Sep 14, 2010
67
111
Bad News....

Thats bad news.....they better drop the prices or something to make up for the change. I wouldn't buy a computer without a dedicated GPU. The shared ram stuff sucks.
 

wordoflife

macrumors 604
Jul 6, 2009
7,564
37
I'm glad my 2010 13" MBP has the 320M. I know it's still integrated, but much better than Intel stuff IMO.
 

yonis

macrumors member
Jun 30, 2009
42
0
I'd prefer to see AMD graphics replace it rather than Intel graphics. But I hate NVIDIA.

I haven't had one NVIDIA GPU that hasn't gone bad. True story. My MacPro1,1, MacBookPro4,1, and MacBookPro6,2 all had bad GPUs which caused kernel panics and needed replacing.
 

arkmannj

macrumors 68000
Oct 1, 2003
1,752
543
UT
What's the big deal? Even the 3000 is excellent for a laptop part. Yes I know there are faster out there, and if you want that you can go buy an Alienware laptop. Right now I'm playing Path of Exile, Diablo 3, Dragon Age 1/2, DDO, and lots of low horsepower adventure games at wonderful smooth framerates @ 1440x900 on my MBA 2011 i5 1.6ghz with the 3000. Sorry but I just do not see why everyone complains about the new Intel GPUs as being awful because in fact they are not.

Edit: And I don't even want to hear the "I don't play games I am a media artist" pitch either because I work with heavy editing of extremely large photographs frequently in pixelmator

I pay a premium price for a Mac, I want it to be a premium product, even if Intel's graphics are "good enough" for now, they won't have the longevity in the future, and many of us don't want to have to replace our laptop every year (or even two years) becasue Apple didn't put in hardware that was adaquit for several years. We have incvreasingly put more off onto the GPU (with CLI, CUDA, etc...) so I think it's fair to expect every bit out of the GPU that we can get. Not to mention that many people are used to havign a laptop that switches between multiple GPU's depending on the work load needed, etc...

Now if Apple wants to drop the price of the laptops, and remove the "pro" from the name, I guess we can start talking about having just Intel integrated graphics.
 

flat five

macrumors 603
Feb 6, 2007
5,580
2,657
newyorkcity
Edit: And I don't even want to hear the "I don't play games I am a media artist" pitch either because I work with heavy editing of extremely large photographs frequently in pixelmator

try using some 3D cad apps..
then change your tune.
 

nickelt

macrumors member
Apr 23, 2009
94
0
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Most 13" macbook pros are only used for email and updating facebook. No biggie really. If you really are a pro you wont have a 13" macbook.
 

Stovepiper

macrumors member
Feb 27, 2011
91
0
What's the big deal? Even the 3000 is excellent for a laptop part. Yes I know there are faster out there, and if you want that you can go buy an Alienware laptop. Right now I'm playing Path of Exile, Diablo 3, Dragon Age 1/2, DDO, and lots of low horsepower adventure games at wonderful smooth framerates @ 1440x900 on my MBA 2011 i5 1.6ghz with the 3000. Sorry but I just do not see why everyone complains about the new Intel GPUs as being awful because in fact they are not.

Edit: And I don't even want to hear the "I don't play games I am a media artist" pitch either because I work with heavy editing of extremely large photographs frequently in pixelmator

This is good to hear as I'm planning to pick up one of the new Airs after they are updated and use it as my main machine. I don't do a lot of heavy gaming but I was planning on some Diablo 3, and I'll be using Final Cut Pro X. Glad to hear that even the 2011 models are beefy enough in the graphics department for the games you listed.
 

lukarak

macrumors regular
Jul 29, 2011
180
4
This has been done before. MBP 15'' was available with the 9400m. It's not that much of a shock.
 

danwayfilms

macrumors member
Feb 15, 2012
42
0
This news makes me more convinced that purchasing the high level 15 inch late 2011 with antiglare is a better and better idea..
 

Frankied22

macrumors 68000
Nov 24, 2010
1,787
594
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When do you guys think we will start seeing Mac refreshes? Don't the iMacs usually get updated first?
 
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