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Why wait for Sandy Bridge? It's just going to be another dual core chip
- Thread starter puma1552
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That's because your data is not up-to-date.
http://www.fudzilla.com/processors/item/20347-sandy-bridge-to-get-usb-30-support
we also have to take into account that the IGP in SB seems really better than any intel HD graphics card so far.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3871/the-sandy-bridge-preview-three-wins-in-a-row/7
but the actually interesting point is that the discrete graphics that apple will decide to use *must* be better than the SB IGP, so, according to that benchmark, there's no risk to have MBP with families of card such as Radeon 54xx.
I think that USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s and a decent IGP (and consequentely hope for a decent discrete GPU) are enough to wait until January.
ciao!
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3871/the-sandy-bridge-preview-three-wins-in-a-row/7
but the actually interesting point is that the discrete graphics that apple will decide to use *must* be better than the SB IGP, so, according to that benchmark, there's no risk to have MBP with families of card such as Radeon 54xx.
I think that USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s and a decent IGP (and consequentely hope for a decent discrete GPU) are enough to wait until January.
ciao!
Because Intel themselves say that they don’t plan to support USB 3.0 for mass production until late 2011/early 2012. Just because their SB series chipset can support USB 3.0 does not mean that they’ll automatically put USB 3.0 on it.
Laptops or desktops that supports USB 3.0 now are still using third-party USB 3.0 chipsets on their motherboard and usually is a hack because they use lower speed PCIe that will not take advantage of the FULL speed USB 3.0. It’s going to actually take another year for USB 3.0 technology to mature to the point that it can do the full speed. We have seen this happen every time a new technology has come to the market, it even happened with the first USB, FW and so on.
We’re talking about Apple here, they are very conservative about their hardware and will not put products that has not been proven to be solid. Right now USB 3.0 market is still immature with first generation USB 3.0 chipsets that comes with their own issues.
What we have is a chicken and egg situation meaning what needs to comes out first to drive the market forward: the external USB 3.0 products that will not work on many computers since OS X and older OS like XP does not have USB 3.0 drivers yet (I could be wrong about XP, but I know for sure about OS X) or the USB 3.0 support in computers and as well as the OS support for it. When I say that it will not work, I meant taking advantage of USB 3.0 protocol and its speed, just because it’s backward compatible does not mean that it’ll work at faster speed and then what’s the point of buying them if they are a bit more expensive and you can’t take advantage of it for a while? Future-proofing is not a good idea in technology, chances are by the time you have the full USB 3.0 support in your computers, you may buy another USB product anyway.
It’s going to take time for the USB 3.0 technology to mature until than, it is highly unlikely we’ll see USB 3.0 on Macs for the next 6 months or with the first SB based Mac laptops.
Intel skimped on the PCIe lanes for USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps support on the P5x/H5x and the mobile variants.
We'll be seeing a leap to PCIe 2.0 for DMI and a few more lanes beyond the 16 you got under Nehalem/Westmere.
It's reasonable to wait for USB3 if that's what someone wants and it fact comes with SB. Think about how long it takes to transition. We've lived with USB 2 for a long long time and I suspect USB 3 will be here for a long long time. CPU's change every year, interconnect generations take much much longer. It just makes sense to wait if you can AND the vastly improved USB 3 performance is important to you. It's not the same as CPU upgrade cycles.
Well, like I said, mine isn't in immediate need of replacement and I guess this is the same situation a lot of people are in. If it doesn't need to be replaced, why not wait until something that fits your needs perfectly is available. If you are waiting for USB3 and SATA III when you don't need it, that's just silly. But why buy now, just for the sake of not waiting.
I didn't wait because, come next year, VAT goes up to 20%. Government ain't getting more money from me, dammit!