NVIDIA Powered MacBooks on October 14th?

[Abu Tech]

Im not sure what to make of this rumour if it is indeed true. I like most posters would like extra horsepower in the graphics department but can this not be done with an intel logic board + dedicated GPU from nvidia/ati? With nvidias recent problems with graphics cards are they a reliable partner to have?

Also how would using a dedicated nvidia logic board impact on users that use bootcamp? Although im sure whatever apple release in terms of hardware updates will satisfy most. I guess I am still sitting on the fence with this one until I have physically used the new MB's/MBP's.

 

[PsykX]

Wow, this would seriously ROCK!!!

I love nVidia, and the DDR3 support with these great frequencies mean => I'm buying 4GB of the best! I wonder how this will compare with my current 7600GT though on my iMac. I know 9200 or 9300 is the low entry models, but they are STILL 2 generations after. Anyway, not that I game a lot on my computers!

I've been waiting since August to buy a new MacBook... if these rumours end up being real, the wait will have been useful, otherwise I'll have a small deception... but still, the new 4500 card from Intel isn't so bad and I actually don't know any benchmark comparison between both. It's just that I'll still miss DDR3!

 

[gooey]

If the new Macbook employs nVidia's chipset instead of Intel's, I'd like to switch to MBP. If MBP does, I'd definitely go for MB. If both of them do, I'll wait for at least 6 months until they prove to be fault-proof. (ugh... what a pain. )

Baseline: I'd like to stay away from nVidia's chipset for now.

Recently, I've suffered from the faulty nVidia chipset problem with my wife's Dell XPS m1330, and it took me several days to recover data from the crashed hard disk! Whether or not nVidia's integrated solution offers more beef than Intel's, stability is far more important to me. I've never seen any chipset offering better stability than Intel's so far, no matter portables or desktops.

 

[Baadshah]

So was September 9th.

And September 16th.

And September 23rd.

And September 30th.

But not October 7th? Why is that? Why is NEXT Tuesday NOT plausible?!

no, because since 9 sep there was info about 14th oct. So it got to be this.

Else im going to be very mad

im really hoping on a new macbook.

 

[Loge]

But not October 7th? Why is that? Why is NEXT Tuesday NOT plausible?!

It gives Apple an opportunity to surprise everyone and release something when nobody is expecting it.

 

[kingtj]

Disagree.....

Apple would be making a big mistake unifying the notebook line....

There are obviously two different types of customers for their notebooks. Some people are more price-conscious and simply want a reliable, nice notebook that can run OS X and lets them get on the Internet, use Office, etc. Maybe they've got a higher-end desktop already for the gaming and video editing and so forth?

Others want more of a full-blown system out of their portable. They intend to make it their primary computer, or they want to do a lot of 3D gaming on it, or maybe they do heavy video editing on the go? Whatever the case, they're fine with a much higher price-tag, as long as it gets them what they're looking for.

All I *hope* we're seeing here is BOTH products moving way up the scale, as far as what they offer. If the Macbook starts offering most of the "benefits" that used to be reserved for the MB Pro, then the Pro version needs to up the ante by just as much!

Personally? I think the ideal Macbook Pro would stick with improvements like their backlit keyboard, but go to offering the higher resolution 1920x1200 type displays as standard issue. They'd probably offer video options above and beyond the improved nVidia chipsets in new Macbooks, and CPU-wise? They might start offering quad-core? Although I know it probably won't happen (largely due to Apple's love of the slot-loading DVD drives, which I can see many benefits to), it'd also be really nice if they'd manage to do something more modular with the drives. I think "Pro" users would appreciate being able to remove the DVD drive temporarily, to swap it with a second internal hard drive.

Possibly, the current MacBook Pros are not that "Pro" over the MacBook. Apple needs to combine/unite their laptop line.

 

[Purple Pelican]

Who is "us?" Because I assure you, the MBA is neither too large nor heavy for most people... And FW being "essential?" Except for a few people with FW DV cameras, I don't think so.

In my opinion a smaller MBA (like 12") would be very useful if it were given a high-pixel density screen, like those in the 17" high-res MBP. Some people may still want a smaller notebook; just look at the Amazon.com bestselling notebook list. You'll be surprised. At the same time, I agree with you that in terms of demand, the demand for a FW port is virtually nonexistent in an ultraportable like the MBA.

About the new MacBook... The new casing and new nVidia integrated graphics would eliminate both of my reasons to choose a MBP over a MacBook. The update will definitely make the MacBook better, but it might also cannibalize some MBP sales, like with me. But if the MBP is upgraded comparably (new graphics, quad-core, nicer displays, advanced multi-touch, etc) I would buy it over the MacBook. For now though, Apple's not giving me very many reasons to prefer the 500 USD more for a MBP

 

[Yixian]

Tech wise all I want out of the new MacBook Pros is a PRO GPU. Something serious, something worth all that cash, I don't care what they have to do with the case to make that practical, but whatever it is do it.

I couldn't care less about anything else. Blu Ray would be nice but that would make the MBP good value for money, and we can't have that can we.

 

[lgoodlove]

Yes

YES, this is great news considering the macbook pro's can easily be beat out by several windows laptops with GPU's. hopefully it will push apple to put more power in the GPU. With snow leopord and nvidia 9XXX chipsets we can hope that apple will put out performance that makes vista look even more embarrassing.

Any one else thinking that this could help mac gaming to? If they advance all the hardware GPU's for laptop's this could stop the hardware limitations and if snow leopord helps GPU's on the software side... that would help mac get back into ratio with windows gaming???? maybe idk but i can only hope for the best

 

[parapup]

Finally! The x3100 is too slow and makes too much heat to run anything. My MacBook gets hot (about 60ºC) while running the screensaver...

Hehe - Nvidia chipsets are not exactly known for less heat and more stability - powerful GPU sure, but I am betting 10$ - Apple will have high return rates on the launch of a Nvidia Macbook if there is one.

I personally have repaired my Penryn Nvidia MBP twice in a year due to graphics glitches so far. Nvidia - thanks, but no thanks

 

[AidenShaw]

twice in half a year

I personally have repaired my Penryn Nvidia MBP twice in a year due to graphics glitches so far. Nvidia - thanks, but no thanks

The Penryn MBP was introduced the end of Feb 2008, so it's probably been a lot closer to two repairs in half a year...

Date: February 26th, 2008 Today Apple introduced its first MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks based on Intel's 45nm mobile Penryn CPU.​

 

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

I do like the move to Nvidia but I wish they would move to dedicated graphics memory. I guess that is one of the big differences between the MacBook and MacBook Pro.

 

[Yixian]

I really have no idea why anyone would need to assist their CPU with their GPU to be honest, the only bottleneck in performance on any modern Mac bar the upgradeable Pro is the graphics performance as far as I can tell.

I can encode a video in HD in no time at all but my £1300 MacBook Pro can't run Crysis at half the performance of a PC laptop £400 cheaper. If 0.3" of thickness is the reason for that, then ADD THOSE FREAKING 0.3".

About the only consumer group holding back on switching from Windows are the gamers, and in case Apple noticed, there are a vast number of gamers in the world, video games are a bigger industry than both movies and music.

 

[JeffTL]

Hmm, i just don't understand why there have been no more pictures leaked if these laptops are actually that close to release... I'm dying for more tidbits.

More people would have information about it than actual pictures -- particularly something like this, which would be known to sales and possibly engineering at nVidia. Also, it is easier to leak parts suppliers anonymously than pictures.

 

[illegallydead]

Based on rumors, it sounds like the MacBook and MacBook Pro will share similar looks, and both will have aluminum casings. They will probably have differences in screen size - 13" for the MB and 15" and 17" for the MBP.
[...]
Now, there could be a 13" MBP as a top-line, BTO option - which I would LOVE - but I think the MacBook will mostly be integrated Intel graphics so they can keep the cost down and help differentiate the product line.

No way will the MB and MBP look that similar. As you mentioned, they need to differentiate the product lines, but they will make it extremely overt. Like the iPhone vs. iPhone 3G, people need to be able to tell at a glance if you have bought the newest, latest, and greatest product, as they can easily with the MB vs. MBP currently. That is what their marketing is like. Nothing subtle about it. You are only as cool as the amount of $$$ you have forked to

No hating or anything, just the facts of basic product positioning and the psychology of

 

[The Samurai]

UK Student 'Back to School'

Do you think Apple will continue to offer the free iPod Nano (£95 rebate) offer when the new Macbooks will be 'supposedly' be released on the 14th of October? The 'back to school' offer is due to end on the 30th October.

I personally think somethings not right here. If you look at it from a students perspective, its an absolute steal:

1) 15% discount on the Macbook (rougly £110)
2) £95 rebate
3) Rumors of cutting prices on the Macbooks (lets say £50 for the sakes of argument)

From a students perspective, it looks like theres going to be a good £200'ish price cut.

 

[Yixian]

Do you think Apple will continue to offer the free iPod Nano (£95 rebate) offer when the new Macbooks will be 'supposedly' be released on the 14th of October? The 'back to school' offer is due to end on the 30th October.

I personally think somethings not right here. If you look at it from a students perspective, its an absolute steal:

1) 15% discount on the Macbook (rougly £110)
2) £95 rebate
3) Rumors of cutting prices on the Macbooks (lets say £50 for the sakes of argument)

From a students perspective, it looks like theres going to be a good £200'ish price cut.

Wohoo! Now the only question is: Ally Capellino bag for my new MBP, or a DSi?

Decisions, decisions...

 

[Mazda 3s]

Last time I checked, 5 minutes prior, Nvidia is not a standing member of the Unified Extensible Firmware Group.

http://www.uefi.org

Last time I checked Nvidia's chipsets don't work with UEFI nor will it work with Nehalem.

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7713&Itemid=1

Read that article: The business politics trump everything.

Apple will not jeopardize their preferred status with Intel and Intel won't jeopardize it's precarious stylish status having Apple on-board.

Apple will release their own chipsets that comply with Intel and leverage Apple specific solutions making their hardware differentiation obvious from general PC laptops, desktops and workstations.

On the flip-side:

1) Intel and NVIDIA are already in talks to resolve the dispute as witnessed by NVIDIA's allowance of SLI on Intel chipsets.
2) PA Semi/Apple don't have a license to produce chipsets for Intel processors.
3) Only SiS and NVIDIA have licenses to produce chipsets for Intel processors AFAIK.

 

[MShock]

I bet this is for the Macbook Pro line. I feel that the Macbooks would need some distinction, so I bet there will be a build to order option that allows for the user to switch between integrated and dedicated graphics chips. Sony does this on the FW, SR, and Z I think. For sure on one of the new laptops they just released with great design.

 

[logana]

Do you think Apple will continue to offer the free iPod Nano (£95 rebate) offer when the new Macbooks will be 'supposedly' be released on the 14th of October? The 'back to school' offer is due to end on the 30th October.

Why not - the terms and conditions state "a Macintosh computer" - so unless the new MacBooks are not "Mac" computers then the £95 iPod Nano rebate is good.

The only problem would be if they were not introduced until 1st November since the BTS offer ends on 31 October.

 

[aleksandra.]

"integrated" - graphics processing unit (GPU) is part of the Northbridge (memory/system controller) in the support chipset.

"dedicated" - GPU is a separate GPU-only chip that is soldered to the motherboard.

"logic board" - same as motherboard, the main circuit board

"DDR3" - the latest in mainstream memory technology


Search for any of these terms on Wikipedia for an in-depth explanation

I'd add that most important difference is that dedicated graphics have its own RAM, while integrated share CPU's. Especially in laptop when both are soldered to motherboard anyway (meaning you can't replace graphics only).

So does this mean the MB and MBP will have the same card?

Surely if they give the MB the same card there isnt any point in getting a MBP?

Will the MBP be updated on the 14th or just the MB?

There's no way they'd release MB and then MBP after a while. It's either both at once or MBP goes first. Any upgrade to MB would make it better than current MBP in all but graphics, and that's not happening.

So was September 9th.

And September 16th.

And September 23rd.

And September 30th.

But not October 7th? Why is that? Why is NEXT Tuesday NOT plausible?!

It seems October 7th is talked about and hoped for - just as the day Apple may issue invitations for October 14th event, not as the MacBook release date itself. Also it seems speculation about 16th and 30th wasn't much - maybe every other Tuesday seems better?

I will assume you don't go to University, because in this world, it IS being patient.

Did you ever start a new semester without having your computing stuff?

Apple missed their school timeframes for laptops btw, and it's hard to forgive.

Right. Did your teachers write on the board or they had 1 powerpoint per class? Oh wait... powerpoint? Did it even exist? :O
Because that's my case.

And yeah, missing the school (college+university) timeframe is really something bad for them, just in case you're too ignorant to realize it.

Why they'd give you an iPod to talk you into buying a new Mac, when they can offer it as a way to clear their stock? It makes perfect sense for Apple to introduce new models after this promotion ends. It's more profitable for them. And yes, I'm a student without a laptop... hopefully it'd change by the New Year (laptop part, not student part ).

Any one else thinking that this could help mac gaming to? If they advance all the hardware GPU's for laptop's this could stop the hardware limitations and if snow leopord helps GPU's on the software side... that would help mac get back into ratio with windows gaming???? maybe idk but i can only hope for the best

I don't think it'd be a significant improvement, if any. Snow Leopard's only supposed to make use of GPU to increase overall performance when you aren't doing anything graphic-intensive. So not much difference in gaming from the software side, though it might bring better GPUs to Macs (since they'll be more useful).

 

[ChrisA]

Finally! The x3100 is too slow and makes too much heat to run anything. My MacBook gets hot (about 60ºC) while running the screensaver...

Why would you run a "screen saver" on a notebook? They burn through battery power and as you found out use a bunch of CPU and GPU power to compute the pretty moving image. Why not just black the screen?

 

[deriko100]

i doubt theyre will be a update theyve been saying that for months

 

[puffnstuff]

it's possible for the MBA to take the place of the MB if they dropped the price down enough. Then they can just make the mb and mbp one.

Everything about the MBA is entry level except for the price. Why so high? Is it because of the custom cpu?

 

[Tallest Skil]

Why would you run a "screen saver" on a notebook? They burn through battery power and as you found out use a bunch of CPU and GPU power to compute the pretty moving image. Why not just black the screen?

Exactly! Screen "savers" are left over from the CRT days, when leaving an image on your screen would BURN IT IN. Screen savers only run down the backlight life on LCD screens! DON'T USE THEM!