Most of the articles suggest that it's much, much closer to Polaris than it is to Vega.
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Waiting for the 2018 MBP
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If the MacBook Pros release any time between June and August do not expect Vega. The only available mobile parts are identical Polaris rebadges from the 2017 MBP GPUs. Their only difference is driver/software optimizations. If anything else (better) finds its way into the MBPs then be pleasantly surprise, don't set yourself up for disappointment.
This year is big for CPU improvements, one of the best in a long time, but every other component will remain similar if not identical. The big question mark is what they do to address the defective keyboard design for buyers who might be wary of a purchase.
This year is big for CPU improvements, one of the best in a long time, but every other component will remain similar if not identical. The big question mark is what they do to address the defective keyboard design for buyers who might be wary of a purchase.
I'd be interested in knowing the exact model of that Lenovo if you're able to easily find out.
I believe this has already been mentioned but the Vega M chip supposedly isn't a true Vega part. AMD is apparently working on a true mobile Vega chip (the CEO held up the supposed mobile GPU at CES) but there's no indication yet on when it will launch. It'll be a nice surprise if it launches with the new MBPs, but I'm not holding my breath.
I do agree with you on Apple likely buying up a large number of the new CPUs.
At CES, they mentioned that a single vega mobile design was being prepped (which turned out to be Kaby Lake G), so this is unlikely.
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Are the iMacs also updated around the same time? I am still holding out for a MBP (really need it) but an upgrade to 21.5” sounds nice enough. The 27” was perfect but always a tad big for me.
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Maybe we are looking at different benchmarks? Results I’ve seen put the higher-performance part just within the grasp of GTX 1060 (we are talking desktop parts here!). So the 100Watt - this includes both the CPU and the GPU - SOC is roughly as fast (within 15% or so) as the RX570 with its 150watt TDP (closer to 200) in most tests I’ve seen. It’s 50-100% increase of performance per watt over normal Polaris! Even if it’s not the true Vega chip, surely there is nothing to complain about performance-wise? Same improvement applied to the MBP GPU would put it above the 1050Ti.
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Likely, though somewhat less certain. The respective Coffeelake chips for the iMacs are out aswell (I think), and the 2017 iMacs were announced at last WWDC alongside the 2017 MBPs so there's a good chance history will repeat itself this year aswell. Also this year marks the 20th anniversary of the iMac so there are some nice marketing opportunities there for Apple.
However, iMacs on average had a somewhat longer time between generations, for example there were more than 18 months between the 2015 and the 2017 one, whereas the MBPs never really took longer than a full year to get refreshed, outside of bigger redesigns. So if Apple is working on a bigger update or maybe somewhat of a redesign, then it could easily take longer than till WWDC; but overall I'd still say that we will get both new MBPs and iMacs next month.
It’s not just the performance per watt to consider here because that’s also dependent a lot on the manufacturing process and of course the memory interface.
The issue here is the feature set. Code that is written to take advantage of Vega’s new features to increase performance has no effect on Vega M. It behaves the same as Polaris, because it effectively uses the same core as Polaris.
For most of us that won’t matter but the point is that it’s still not Vega. It is Polaris with an updated memory interface and an updated manufacturing process.
I'm not so sure. Intel first announced back in November 2017 that they were working with AMD on a "custom-to-Intel" GPU from AMD. They then officially announced the Kaby Lake G with Vega M graphics product via press release on January 7th.
On the same day, AMD had their CES presentation and mentioned the upcoming Vega mobile discrete GPU but without mentioning any relationship to the Intel Vega M solution. I'm pretty sure what AMD was referencing is their planned "standard" discrete Vega mobile chip that they will sell to any OEM that wants it. This is going to be a different chip than the "custom-to-Intel" Vega M.
Edit: I tried to link to the exact timestamp in AMD's presentation where AMD holds up the Vega mobile discrete GPU, but Macrumors seems to strip out the timestamp. Scrub to roughly 1 min 18 seconds to get to that part:
Indeed. The Vega that's in the Ryzen APU behaves like Vega in terms of speed boosts with software written to take advantage of Vega features. The "Vega" that's in the Intel Kaby Lake G release behaves like Polaris, with no speed boost at all.
It doesn't mean the Intel "Vega" in Kaby Lake G is slow. It just means it's not really Vega. The other thing to note is that the Intel solution still includes the Intel iGPU. So it's actually Intel CPU + iGPU plus bolted on Polaris GPU core with an updated memory controller. In contrast, the Ryzen solution is a true next gen APU.
The Ryzen APU may not actually be faster than Kaby Lake G with current workloads, but Kaby Lake G is missing hardware features that the Ryzen APU has. Kaby Lake G seems like a reasonable design, and pretty decent. A lot of people would be very pleased to have it. Nonetheless, it's misleading to call it Vega.
Ultimately though, it's just a marketing term anyway. It reminds me of the i5 in the MacBook. It seems to me the main reason to call it an i5 is to confuse people into thinking they're getting something comparable to the i5 in the current MacBook Pro, even though its performance is only marginally better than the m3.
It doesn't mean the Intel "Vega" in Kaby Lake G is slow. It just means it's not really Vega. The other thing to note is that the Intel solution still includes the Intel iGPU. So it's actually Intel CPU + iGPU plus bolted on Polaris GPU core with an updated memory controller. In contrast, the Ryzen solution is a true next gen APU.
The Ryzen APU may not actually be faster than Kaby Lake G with current workloads, but Kaby Lake G is missing hardware features that the Ryzen APU has. Kaby Lake G seems like a reasonable design, and pretty decent. A lot of people would be very pleased to have it. Nonetheless, it's misleading to call it Vega.
Ultimately though, it's just a marketing term anyway. It reminds me of the i5 in the MacBook. It seems to me the main reason to call it an i5 is to confuse people into thinking they're getting something comparable to the i5 in the current MacBook Pro, even though its performance is only marginally better than the m3.
Intel's Cannon Lake 10 nm Core i3-8121U CPU supports a new form of LPDDR4, called LPDDR4X. This is even lower power than the LPDDR4 that MacBook Pro users have been waiting for.
Samsung Semiconductor proposed an LPDDR4 variant it called LPDDR4X. LPDDR4X is identical to LPDDR4 except additional power is saved by reducing the I/O voltage (Vddq) to 0.6 V from 1.1 V. On January 9, 2017, SK Hynix announced 8 and 6 GiB LPDDR4X packages. JEDEC published the LPDDR4X standard on March 8, 2017. Aside from the lower voltage, additional improvements include a single-channel die option for smaller applications, new MCP, PoP and IoT packages an additional definition and timing improvements for the highest 4266 Mbit/s speed grade.
That means 2019 will bring 32 GB MacBook Pros for sure, with very good battery life. The question now is how fast these laptops will be, cuz the 15 W Core i3-8121U isn't much faster than my 5 W Core m3 MacBook.
Samsung Semiconductor proposed an LPDDR4 variant it called LPDDR4X. LPDDR4X is identical to LPDDR4 except additional power is saved by reducing the I/O voltage (Vddq) to 0.6 V from 1.1 V. On January 9, 2017, SK Hynix announced 8 and 6 GiB LPDDR4X packages. JEDEC published the LPDDR4X standard on March 8, 2017. Aside from the lower voltage, additional improvements include a single-channel die option for smaller applications, new MCP, PoP and IoT packages an additional definition and timing improvements for the highest 4266 Mbit/s speed grade.
That means 2019 will bring 32 GB MacBook Pros for sure, with very good battery life. The question now is how fast these laptops will be, cuz the 15 W Core i3-8121U isn't much faster than my 5 W Core m3 MacBook.
That means 2019 will bring 32 GB MacBook Pros for sure, with very good battery life. The question now is how fast these laptops will be, cuz the 15 W Core i3-8121U isn't much faster than my 5 W Core m3 MacBook.
Yeah, it's really shocking just how bad the Cannonlake architecture seems to work after it's already been delayed for 1.5 years. Intel didn't even manage to get the iGPU to work in this i3 chip, and since any dedicated GPU faster than the Iris Plus would use much more energy than the CPU itself, that's a huge bummer for a low voltage chip.
I guess Intel might make enough progress to release new 10nm CPUs which are comparable in performance to the current 14nm++ chips by this time next year, but seeing how bad things are currently, I don't expect any major performance gains on the CPU side, apart from the LPDDR4 support.
The iGPU is also going to be an interesting one. With Ice Lake, Intel is supposed to double the execution units of the basic HD graphics chip from 24 to 48, effectively giving it the same amount as the current Iris Plus offerings have. And while this may sound great, it's entirely possible that they will simply kill of the Iris parts at that point, if Intel doesn't find a way to make an even more powerful iGPU. Since there are absolutely no rumors about a new architecture for Intel's iGPU designs, and Intel's own GPU is at least two years away, this might mean a rather unimpressive 2019 update to the MacBook Pro.
The more I wait, the less I would tolerate a laptop that doesn't give me 32gb of RAM.
My current mbp has 16gb and that is one of the reason why it has done such a great job.
I'm prepared to be disappointed...
My current mbp has 16gb and that is one of the reason why it has done such a great job.
I'm prepared to be disappointed...
There is a 99.9% chance that the 2018 MacBook Pro will NOT have 32 GB. You'll have to wait until next year.
Is it normal that there has been absolutely no article or rumours about new MBPs considering that WWDC is in 2 weeks? Or are MBPs not fancy enough for anyone to care about leaks for them?
I originally thought that any new Intel GPU would come in 2020+, but recently I've seen lots of rumors about Intel unveiling a new GPU at CES in 2019. Search for 'Intel 2019 CES' and you'll see tons of them.
I think it's pretty normal. Laptops don't get nearly the same scrutiny as phones. One sign to look for as we approach WWDC is whether stock starts to run low in third party stores for some MBP models, and whether the build-to-order lead times start to increase (from the usual few days to perhaps a few weeks).
Which would make Apple 3+ years late to the '32 GB of RAM in a notebook' party.
I'm betting on a routine internal spec bump, with maybe a keyboard update. Less major of an update -> less likelihood of a leak.
32GB aside, whaddya guys say. New MBP being released for 2018 or not. I've been on due time for the last 2 years....and have been waiting out for a new MBP replacement. My late 2013 is due for a new battery and I don't want to spend the spend, only to not put it towards a new MBP. Spec for spec, I won't be missing much. My 2013 has 1 TB SSD and 16, which is inline with what a current new one will be, just a bit faster, shiner and a possible flawed keyboard design
So are there going to be any changes in specs? compared to last year? I know there are no rumours as of now but looking at the history every year, do they improve any specs or it's just minor updates like keyboard and stuff?
I have MacBook Air 2012 and it's got the battery problem where I need to replace the battery. That's not the problem since I won't be selling it. Usually, I use laptops for my work like email and browsing but now I want to do video editing (beginner stuff) so I want to buy MacBook Pro 13inch with Touchbar (It has little better specs and + Touchbar).
Also, I'll be travelling in July, do you guys think it would be out in the market by July first week? prices in India are heck expensive and doesn't make any sense from buying here.
Any help, appreciated!
I have MacBook Air 2012 and it's got the battery problem where I need to replace the battery. That's not the problem since I won't be selling it. Usually, I use laptops for my work like email and browsing but now I want to do video editing (beginner stuff) so I want to buy MacBook Pro 13inch with Touchbar (It has little better specs and + Touchbar).
Also, I'll be travelling in July, do you guys think it would be out in the market by July first week? prices in India are heck expensive and doesn't make any sense from buying here.
Any help, appreciated!
There were rumours and leaks right before the Education event, and they turned out to be either false or premature, so the lack of rumours at this stage might not be indicative of anything at all!
This argument makes no sense. Radeon Pro 500 series were also not "available" prior to the MBP 2017 refresh -- they were announced simultaneously. But I'm sure you understand that these chips had to have been available to Apple before this time? Availability or announcements of mobile graphics chips really means very little until they sit in an actual laptop, since these chips typically are not sold directly to consumers.
None of this indicates or counter indicates that MBP 2018 will have Vega Mobile chips, neither does the availability of the X chips really. I have not seen any indication anywhere that the Vega Mobile chips would be delayed. I do notice however, that AMD have been pretty timely with some other product launches, like the Ryzen 2000 series for example.
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They tend to refresh specs to current standards, for CPU and GPU at least. It's a bit unclear what might happen this year, since there are a few options for the CPU parts that Apple uses. It's reasonable to expect that all models get two more CPU cores. For GPU it's also unclear. AMD announced a Vega Mobile in Jan, but there's of course no word on whether it will make it into MBP 2018. It might and it mightn't. Beyond that there may well be other minor updates, probably nothing big.
Biggest CPU upgrade since 2012.
13" is gonna get a Quad Core and 15" most likely will get a Six Core setup on the high models while keeping Quad Core on the "entry" version.
Polaris came out in 2016, not 2017.
Radeon 500 series is a rehash of Radeon 400 series.
And in 2018 there is now Radeon 500X series, which is a rehash of Radeon 500 series.
All are Polaris.
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