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Possibility to see a new iMac til Friday?
- Thread starter nicklaz0r
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Has there been a situation where the iMac had a different GPU manufacturer than the MacBook Pro? (And vice verca) ?
2009 & 2010 models. But Apple wasn't paying much attention to what graphics they put in the MBPs until very recently. For example, the Nvidia 330m was in MBPs as recently as the beginning of last year, but is a positively atrocious card.
iMacs haven't used Nvidia since the late 2009 entry level model.
No way it'll be this week. If they had one ready they'd have mentioned it, even if it were only 2 or 3 weeks out. They'd be taking pre-orders if it were that close.
It's hard to find solid information. But, for example, take the Origin EON17s. In base configuration, its expected ship date is July 3. But both the 680M and 7970m are listed as "extended lead time", and change the expected ship date to July 13. I see similar results with the 680M from some other vendors, and Alienware - which has announced 680M inclusion in the M17x and M18x - doesn't even allow it to be selected yet when configuring the computer.
Excellent information, thanks. I was hoping Apple would flex some muscle and get dibs on the cards before other companies.
But what makes apple go with the 680M instead of some 7090M thing I heard before? (I really dont know about these integrated GPUS). I also heard that the 7090 or what it's called was better than the 680M and has been available.
I might be waaaaaaaaaaaaay off, but I heard about another GPU that would make the iMac pretty damn strong
The AMD 7970m is the other possibility. Which also pushes out the Origin ship date, but is shipping ok (well, with 1-2 week lag) in Alienware, so it's even harder to read.
The AMD 7970m is a damn fine card, twice as good as the 2011 iMac's 6970m. Some early benchmarks showed it outperforming the Nvidia 680M. Later benchmarks refuted that. It looks like the 680M is actually better than the 7970m, by about 10-20%. (And you pay 100% extra for that performance boost.)
I'm speculating here, but it's possible that Apple has quietly signed a long-term commitment to Nvidia exclusivity in exchange for some early access to components and/or better-quality video driver development. It's also possible that they're planning on going with AMD but don't have enough on hand yet, but that's a weaker probability IMO.
I'm kind of hoping for the 7970M. For instance, I would think Apple would have the sense to put a SSD standard in the machine before paying double for a slightly better video card. Otherwise, I can definitely see the 680M being a BTO option (which is really annoying because you just know it's going to have an absurd price).
But if they did sign some kind of exclusivity agreement, that would make sense. If I remember correctly, ATI drivers for OSX are historically kinda ****** (or is the other way around?). Here's to hoping they get it to us in some kind of timely fashion.
Performance-wise, video drivers for OS X in general are historically kinda ******. In addition, Nvidia historically has some stability issues.