Recent MBP Upgrade Says Something...

[w00t951]

All of the MacBook Pros have had upgrades halfway through their life cycles. They were all CPU bumps that are mostly negligible. This year, however, the CPU was bumped a slightly higher amount and they actually put in a 6770M that has about an 82% higher memory processing capacity and a 15% faster pixel-pushing capacity.

Does anyone else think that this marks a change in Apple strategy, one where they will start shipping decent video hardware in MacBook Pros?

I was hoping the Intel-NVIDIA dispute would be worked out for next year or at least 2013, so that an NVIDIA GTX 670M 2GB (2012) or an NVIDIA GTX 770M 3GB (2013) could be added. I know that those cards are slightly over Apple's TDW, but perhaps an option could be added to trade the optical drive for a more powerful GPU. If not, they can add an HD 7770M 2GB (2012) or an HD 8770M 3GB (2013) for an AMD card.

Does anyone else hope/think this will happen? I got the feeling Steve was opposed to putting a more powerful GPU into the MacBook Pros.

We can all hope!

 

[psykick5]

I really hope they stay away from Nvidia like the plague. They make absolutely terrible video cards.

I also think they should have a beefier video card in the 17 than they do in the 15.

 

[infernohellion]

I really hope they stay away from Nvidia like the plague. They make absolutely terrible video cards.

I also think they should have a beefier video card in the 17 than they do in the 15.

I couldn't agree more with you. Why is it that all that extra room is really being put to use, apart from adding more battery. Now, optical drive out and put something nice in there!

 

[WarpSpawn]

I have no idea if they had inferior drivers on a Mac or anything else that might justify that opinion, but Nvidia has always served me well in Windows. Even to the point that my pretty out of date rig is playing some of the more recent games with decent settings.

 

[w00t951]

I have no idea if they had inferior drivers on a Mac or anything else that might justify that opinion, but Nvidia has always served me well in Windows. Even to the point that my pretty out of date rig is playing some of the more recent games with decent settings.

AMD seems to purposely prevent the latest drivers from being installed on Mac GPUs. My 6750M is running Beta 3 11.10 drivers, and I had to use 11.1, 11.4, 11.6, 11.8 and now 11.10 beta. NVIDIA has much better written driver packages that allow you to Clean Install in one step. My 2008 MacBook Pro with a 9600M GT still gets the latest driver updates. NVIDIA cards also have much better tessellation performance, which is critical for achieving good DirectX 10/11 performance and visual quality. I have no idea why people are willingly buying AMD cards if there are NVIDIA equivalents out there. Also, more games are optimized for NVIDIA than AMD, though this doesn't matter nearly as much now as it did 5 years ago.

 

[psykick5]

AMD seems to purposely prevent the latest drivers from being installed on Mac GPUs. My 6750M is running Beta 3 11.10 drivers, and I had to use 11.1, 11.4, 11.6, 11.8 and now 11.10 beta. NVIDIA has much better written driver packages that allow you to Clean Install in one step. My 2008 MacBook Pro with a 9600M GT still gets the latest driver updates. NVIDIA cards also have much better tessellation performance, which is critical for achieving good DirectX 10/11 performance and visual quality. I have no idea why people are willingly buying AMD cards if there are NVIDIA equivalents out there. Also, more games are optimized for NVIDIA than AMD, though this doesn't matter nearly as much now as it did 5 years ago.

In desktops: More money, less card.
In laptops: Overheat, solder, and other issues.

Summary: Nvidia is a joke.

I couldn't agree more with you. Why is it that all that extra room is really being put to use, apart from adding more battery. Now, optical drive out and put something nice in there!

Exactly. I want a 17 and need more than a bigger screen and an extra USB port to justify the price.

 

[dusk007]

so that an NVIDIA GTX 670M 2GB (2012) or an NVIDIA GTX 770M 3GB (2013) could be added. I know that those cards are slightly over Apple's TDW, but perhaps an option could be added to trade the optical drive for a more powerful GPU. If not, they can add an HD 7770M 2GB (2012) or an HD 8770M 3GB (2013) for an AMD card.

How do you imagine that would help cooling.
Unless they do some big redesign the only vents are at the screen hinge. Removing the optical drive won't change this. At best they can make the cooler a bit bigger but that only helps up to a point. At some point you just need to push more air and for this you would need thickness or more holes in the design.

Also 670M is just so way out of the TDP budget it is ridiculous.
I think you misinterpret the 6750 because of the naming scheme. It is comparable to the 550M but in Nvidia 460, 560 and 570 are a complete new class. Same as the 68xx or 69xx series or the CF equivalents.

330M was a 23W TDP part.
5650 was 15-19W
6750 is the same as a 5650 with slightly higher clocks 20W maybe.
Add the GDDR5 IMC that just sucks more power and the GPU is probably around 25W TDP. 30 Maximum That is not at all far from what Apple always used. They just pick the best in their TDP budget.
560M is already 50W, 570 is around 75W, 580 100W.
That is 2,3,4 times as much TDP.

I think you are just wrong here and misinterpret the facts.

Does anyone else think that this marks a change in Apple strategy

It is the same strategy as always. Use GPUs in the 20-30W TDP range.
40nm and AMDs architecture just allowed something decent now.

 

[w00t951]

As die sizes get smaller and smaller, heat will also decrease. Also, leaving a larger space in the case will help more than you imagine.