Hi,
I am waiting to purchase a MacBook Pro, I am in no hurry and want to get the most modern available to futureproof my purchase as much as the possible.
I feel the same way.
Seeing as the current MacBook Pro's have 8600GT graphics and there are reports of the chips failing, I assume it is likely that Apple will change the chipset. Will they likely go for the nVidia 8700M GT or even better 8800M GTX which is currently available in Alienware laptops?
No. It doesn't work like that. nVidia's cards have an XXX0 naming scheme, where the first X is the generation (8), the second two is the family (generally 400, 600 or 800), the suffix (i.e. GT, GTX) is the model.
An X400 is a low-end card, X600 is a mid-range card, and an X800 is a high-end card. Apple has never used (or even offered) a high-end card in any laptop (and have never used a high-end card as a standard card in any model of computer ever). They always used mid-range cards.
An 8700 is half-way between mid-range and high-end, but it runs too hot for a MBP.
Most likely are either a 9600 GT, Radeon 3650, or Radeon 3670. Personally, I hope it's a 3670, but if they thin it out it might well be a 3650 (or worse).
Btw, the 9600 GT (and 8700 GT, and 8800 GTX, for that matter) are all affected. It looks like most if not all recent laptop (and possibly desktop) nVidia cards are affected by the defective dies.
I ask as I plan to use some graphic heavy apps and also play some games via bootcamp.
Good luck with that without a workstation graphics card.
My pleasure.
*watches the I-need-a-huge-amount-of-graphics-because-I-don't-realize-the-decent-cards-are-so-powerful-they-are-all-the-same-unless-you-are-playing-crysis people go nuts thinking this is a plausible idea*
Lol.
I assume that's a joke.
Unless Apple is pissed at Nvidia over the whole GPU issue recently, I doubt they will switch back to ATI. Companies normally don't switch back and forth, doesn't convey good business practices. Expect another Nvidia product.
Apple's been using ATI since 1997. They never stopped using them, and as the above poster as pointed out to you, they definitely offer Radeons almost across the board with the iMacs, and it's standard on the Mac Pro. They've been going back and forth between ATI and nVidia for years on the PB/MBP.
