Yes but there must be some conflict between nvidia and apple because mobile gpu from amd in this generation (maxwell vs gcn1) was worse and apple still decided to use amd. What will brings 14nm and Polaris, who knows?
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Waiting for Skylake MBP thread
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Maybe. Is there even a single TB3-based eGPU product on the market at the moment? For example, the Razer Core isn't actually out yet. We do know that the TB3 bandwidth is 1/3 of PCIe bandwidth, and that there is presumably extra latency from going over the connector. I don't think we know yet how "realistic" TB3 eGPUs are. Please correct me if I'm wrong and we do have hard benchmarks.
I'd imagine eGPU info will come more into play from GDC - seems something that fits well with the event. (IDF Shenzhen around the same time happening this year? Bit of a damp squib seemingly last year). Intel unlikely to give information on an unannounced/unreleased product - and in previous times they've added information at the IDF events for recent releases. Would imagine 3rd parties would be NDA'd about any possible eGPU chassis and dock products.
TB2 was realistic, and TB3 has eGPU as an explicit improvement - it's might not get 100% of the docked card, but form what previously seen, 80% might be feasible - nothing to sneeze at if it's a decent card.
Alienware's PCIe Graphics Amplifier as an example of eGPU.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2907...bo-boosts-a-laptop-with-titan-x-graphics.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...g-4th-quarter-2015-mainstream-in-2016.777013/ gives some reviews from people with one.
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Have we seen the 580 in the wild yet?
Honestly, the promise of that shiny new iGPU is the only thing that's keeping me from buying an XPS 15 today.
Sure, but does the 80% scale? I've seen the same figure, but not for high-end cards. It may well be that what people are expecting, plug in top-tier card and get most of the performance, just isn't going to happen.
The Alienware Graphics Amplifier isn't a good predictor, since it doesn't use TB3. I believe it's actually getting the full bandwidth of PCIe, so is going to scale better to high-end graphics cards.
Bottom line, this just doesn't feel to me like the kind of thing Apple likes to be first out of the gate with. Maybe next year once the basic tech has shaken down some.
Def a gamble. If be even less optimistic about an eGPU. Even if a suitable product with the right performance was to come available by September, it would probably be very expensive, negating whatever profits you make by selling your MBP now rather than later in the year. Would take quite a while for the prices of eGPUs to come down to a reasonable level.
Have not seen any reviews of either the 550 or 580 yet. Maybe Apple will be the first to market with them.
Maybe for the 580, but unless Apple is very fast, Vaio will have already beaten them in the 550.
Nope. While Apple takes their sweet time, the Vaio Z Flip ships with the Iris 550 in 9 days. Meanwhile HP commits to bring Xeon w/ P580 in the first half of this year. Hear that Apple? Hello? Is anyone over in Cupertino not working on the iPhone or watch bands?
Well there's always looking at the performance from TB2 eGPU attempts. Intel's definitely in on TB3 having this as a feature. Would seem strange that Apple - the GPU weakling of the PC industry snubs this gift for GPU performance improvement.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7987/running-an-nvidia-gtx-780-ti-over-thunderbolt-2
HP will release info way ahead of time because they have plenty of competitors to get ahead of (Dell, Lenovo, etc). Apple has no competitors. As much as we hate it, there are no other manufacturers for OS X. Apple has no incentive to push things out quickly. It's not a fine line for them. They've got a broad brush to paint with their release schedule and they know it. The longer they can hold out on releasing a machine the more money they make (milking those that don't know any better and buying very old technology which costs Apple less and less to manufacture as time progresses).
I have been following this forum for a little bit and notice that everyone is more concerned about the dgpu (graphics) than anything.
Yes, but the rMBP was never meant to be a gaming machine. eGPU's will be a thing with TB3, but I don't expect Apple to offically support them, should be compatible through Bootcamp, though.
I just hope that the 13 comes with a quad, but is highly unlikely. They need a way to differentiate the 13 vs 15. I do like the thought though.
Everyday we get closer to the march event without rumors makes a march announcement less and less likely. BUT I get very excited for the fact that I will either A) no longer have to question what date it is and plan accordingly for a new laptop in June OR B) be pleasantly surprised when they release some awesome upgraded jenk in March. One of those two things will happen and they won't be able to tease me for another 4 years.
Won't happen. As @vatter69 points out, there is no quad core CPU with the required TDP: Intel's U-lineup used in the 13'' MBPs has a 28W TDP but only comes with 2 cores, while the H-series, which is used in the 15'' MBP and has quad core offerings has a TDP of 45W. Of course, Apple could configure them as cTDP-down, but performance loss would be huge and any gains over a U-CPU at least questionable. Also, logic board real estate would be a problem, as the H-series not only uses bigger chips, but also is no SoC; The U-series incorporates the PCH (combined south and north bridge) into CPU, whereas the H-series requires a separate chip. Thus, Apple would have to greatly redesign the 13'' MBP to house a bigger, more complex logic board, and to enable a higher TDP; Which would make the 13'' MBP either much heavier and thicker ore destroy battery runtime. Also, if Apple offered the quad core only as a high end option, volumes would be low and the effort required to create such a machine very high; If Apple made all 13'' MBPs quad core cost would go up (significantly).
So: No quad for the 13''.
Also: People keep saying that a march launch is unlikely, as we haven't had any leaks or rumors yet. I don't think that's necessary. We haven't had any leaks for the iPhone 5se either (only rumors), and that is a sort of new product category with huge volumes and a big supply chain.
A new MBP would be either not redesigned at all, or a small redesign without any huge changes (no new Unibody, no new Retina display…). So, interest is much lower, and the supply chain is much smaller. For most more boring Mac updates we haven't had rumors at all or only a few days in advance.
Not bad, not bad.
But... the bezels?
These are simply upscales of the 12" MacBook, nothing done to the bezels. Sure, I'd like thinner bezels too, although these are already an improvement to current gen I believe. Dell XPS 13 and 15 have thin bezels, but there's a catch right underneath the screen...
And to be honest, I'd rather have the MacBooks design bezels than this.
If the redesigned macbook pro's bezel is as thin as Dell's XPS line I expect them to rename FaceTime to NoseTime.
Less bezel under the display, a little bit more bezel on top of the display... tada!
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