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When will Apple implement nVidia 850m into their MBPs?

1

1nfinity0nhigh

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 15, 2014
37
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Currently the rMBP 15 offers a discrete GPU, the nVidia GT 750m, which were released in ~March 2013. nVidia released the 800m series (and specifically the 850m) in February 2014.

I wanted to buy an rMBP 15, but I wanted to see if anyone thought they'd be implementing the 850m (which gets almost double the 750m's performance) in the next few months. Does anyone have any guesstimates as when to expect them? I asked on reddit, and I'm getting 50% "real soon" (as in 2 months"), and 50% "not for a while" (as in spring 2015), but no one is citing any sources or giving any reasoning as to why they think so. So if you could explain why, that'd be great. Thanks
 
Since Apple does not release any roadmap, all dates are guesses, some better due to having some background like Intel not releasing any Broadwell chips (new architecture, successor of current Haswell chips) until 2015, some worse due to being wild.

If the current 750m does not fulfil your computational needs, look elsewhere or wait at least till 10/2014 (October is a likely month for updates going by past Apple updates) or even Q2/2015.
 
I mean if Apple doesn't update to 850m in October 2014, and they do indeed wait until Spring 2015, it would mean they went 2 full years without any graphics update. Do you think they'd do that?

Also, is it likely they'd put the 850m in October, and then make a new update in 2015 with the new intel chips come out? Really just looking for your opinion and reasoning behind your guess, as you probably know way more about apple hardware releases than I do

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I found this article http://www.itpro.co.uk/mobile/22111/intel-broadwell-release-date-specs that states Intel's CEO promises Broadwell chips by the holiday season of 2014. So if that's true, do you think we could expect 850m's in rMBP 15's by then?
 
1nfinity0nhigh said:
Currently the rMBP 15 offers a discrete GPU, the nVidia GT 750m, which were released in ~March 2013. nVidia released the 800m series (and specifically the 850m) in February 2014.

I wanted to buy an rMBP 15, but I wanted to see if anyone thought they'd be implementing the 850m (which gets almost double the 750m's performance) in the next few months. Does anyone have any guesstimates as when to expect them? I asked on reddit, and I'm getting 50% "real soon" (as in 2 months"), and 50% "not for a while" (as in spring 2015), but no one is citing any sources or giving any reasoning as to why they think so. So if you could explain why, that'd be great. Thanks
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I may be mistaken but I don't believe they added the 750m in March, i think it came out in October. I got mine in the fall and Id waited till the new chips were in. Might not come out till spring next year making it a year and a half. I would love to upgrade to the 850m, but i'm not too optimistic that they'll upgrade it as soon as next month.
 
1nfinity0nhigh said:
I mean if Apple doesn't update to 850m in October 2014, and they do indeed wait until Spring 2015, it would mean they went 2 full years without any graphics update. Do you think they'd do that?
Click to expand...

The 750M was introduced in the Macbook Pro in October 2013 so if it gets replaced in spring 2015, that's much less than two years. You should measure these things by when a chip enters Apple's product line, not when it's introduced to the general marketplace.

Also, is it likely they'd put the 850m in October, and then make a new update in 2015 with the new intel chips come out? Really just looking for your opinion and reasoning behind your guess, as you probably know way more about apple hardware releases than I do

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I found this article http://www.itpro.co.uk/mobile/22111/intel-broadwell-release-date-specs that states Intel's CEO promises Broadwell chips by the holiday season of 2014. So if that's true, do you think we could expect 850m's in rMBP 15's by then?
Click to expand...

They're not going to swap in the 850M in October. Apple ties upgrades to its graphics options with upgrades to the CPU and chipset. For example, the current 750M graphics arrived with Haswell in October 2013. Before that, the Geforce 650M was introduced in June 2012 when the Macbook Pro switched to Ivy Bridge. And before that, Sandy Bridge was accompanied by a switch to ATI graphics in February 2011. There has never been a graphics-only update and the graphics stays the same for two cycles - the introduction and the mid-cycle refresh. The 750M was introduced in October 2013 and it stayed put for the July 2014 refresh so this is completely in line with Apple practices. Folks who thought the 850M was going to replace it last month were not paying attention or got carried away with wishful thinking; Apple has NEVER replaced a graphics chip after only one round.

Apple has also never refreshed the Macbook Pro twice in three months. Apple did launch the retina Macbook Pro in June 2012 and then updated the lineup in October 2012 but that was to add the 13" model (remember the retina Macbook Pro launched with only the 15" model). But when they did launch the 13" model, the 15" model was untouched.

That link you found is the Intel CEO promising that a Broadwell CPU, not all Broadwell CPUs, will be out in 2014. The Broadwell chip that will come out this year is for tablets and mobile devices. The version of Broadwell that is for Macbook Pro and other notebooks won't be released until 2015.
 
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I doubt Apple would release a laptop and update it again 90 days later. No evidence, just common sense. In the fall you will get an iPhone, iPad, and speculations around iTime, iMac, Mac Mini, and Apple TV updates. Lots of Apple to do while avoiding the MacBook pro.

As for the 850M itself, there are no guarantees it will ever get into MacBooks. Apple only offers 1 laptop with a dGPU and if the iGPU associated with broadwell makes the gap meaningless, you could see it get dropped entirely.

Latest rumours put broadwell for MacBook Pros in summer 2015. However, if anyone remembers, Haswell processors were released in early-mid 2013, and didn't make their way into MacBooks until October 2013.

So, with an early to mid 2015 CPU released date, you can reasonable expect a late 2015 upgrade that may or may not have the 850m (potentially 950m if Apple doesn't drop dGPU).

Worth the wait?
 
Likely never. Current roadmap puts quad core Broadwell chips out next summer. By then nvidia will likely have its 9 series out. So, if anything, it will be a 950m in the next rMBP
 
a GPU update will be most likely Q2 2015 with Broadwell CPUs. Not before.

Apple don't do GPU only upgrades to laptops, they get bundled in with new CPU generations and supporting chipsets.

Reddit is just internet noise.
 
I've been wondering the same thing. The 800M series is just a re-branded 700M series GPUs. This was only a refresh, but since Broadwell won't be here in October, the Mid-2014 Retina MacBook Pro will be it for that line of notebooks until Broadwell and by that I mean 2015.

The biggest "upgrade" of this year's refresh was the cutting of prices by $100 for the high-end 15" model.

I seriously hope that whatever the iMac refresh will be will at least include Thunderbolt 2. GRRR!
 
Crunch said:
I've been wondering the same thing. The 800M series is just a re-branded 700M series GPUs.
Click to expand...

Er. No.

700M series was a rebrand of the later 600M series based on the Kepler GPU.
800M series is mainly Maxwell based, with only the 860M being available also as Kepler.

Granted, nVidia are a pain in the bum for mixing architectures across ranges and rebranding.
 
MagicBoy said:
Er. No.

700M series was a rebrand of the later 600M series based on the Kepler GPU.
800M series is mainly Maxwell based, with only the 860M being available also as Kepler.

Granted, nVidia are a pain in the bum for mixing architectures across ranges and rebranding.
Click to expand...

The day I figure out NVIDIA's naming schemes and architectures is the day I lose my sanity.
 
I'm considering getting a Mac again. I sold my 2012 model. I'm really considering it. I like my Asus G750JS with the 870m in it, but it's kind of big.
 
Well since there already was a refresh of the 15" MBP which should have seen the GPU update but didn't, it seems almost certain that Apple wants to hold out for Broadwell and drop the dGPU entirely from all notebooks.
If you care about GPU performance don't hold your breath for an update. What you see is what you get. A 850M and better is significantly faster than the 750M and widely available in a lot of thin notebooks like the MSI GS60. Just stay away from any X70M notebooks if you don't want huge bricks, but X50M, X60M is available in thin notebooks.
Apple doesn't try to compete on GPU performance. The 750M on the MBP isn't even a real 750M but a slower 650M essentially as the 700M series Turbo Boost feature is disabled and the default clock is lowered to 925Mhz. It is on average 15% slower than a 750M GDDR5 as found in Windows notebooks and a 850M with GDDR5 is about twice as fast. Apple's 750M is barely any better than Iris Pro.
 
n8236 said:
Gawd, I wanna upgrade my 650M so bad! This is taking forever...
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I don't think we will see any big changes until Skylake which isn't due until the last quarter of this year. Honestly I'd like to see Thunderbolt 3 to support 60hz 5K external displays, thinner bezels, longer battery life and usb 3.1 (10Gbps) before I upgrade

I have a 2012 Retina Macbook Pro 15" and I'm holding out until then. I could end up waiting until 2016 or 2017 for that though :)

Actually part of me would like to see quad core processors in a 13" form factor but that could be a long way off.
 
Woodcrest64 said:
I don't think we will see any big changes until Skylake which isn't due until the last quarter of this year. Honestly I'd like to see Thunderbolt 3 to support 60hz 5K external displays, thinner bezels, longer battery life and usb 3.1 (10Gbps) before I upgrade

I have a 2012 Retina Macbook Pro 15" and I'm holding out until then. I could end up waiting until 2016 or 2017 for that though :)

Actually part of me would like to see quad core processors in a 13" form factor but that could be a long way off.
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I'm strictly in it for the discrete GPU. The only reason I didn't hop on the 750M train was because it was too small of a jump.
 
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