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New MacBook Pro series

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Re: New MacBook Pro series

#51

Post by Stormbringer »

joshfinnie wrote: post #9

I never understood why the 13" version is such a second class citizen? Is it that different of a footprint that Apple can't fit the same technology in it... or is this Apple's plan?

Probably because of overlap between it and the MacBook and the MacBook Air?

Frankly, I'm amazed they still offer a 13 inch MBP (which is not to say that it isn't a good little machine, but that Apple likes to segment their market clearly)

I can't see the prices and options at the moment, but it may be that the MBP is just a couple of hundred bucks more than the top end MacBook, which means that some people might stretch that little bit extra.... but the Apple lineup is becoming very cluttered around that small portable computer strange attractor.

Re: New MacBook Pro series

#52

Post by reustle »

tcoppi wrote: post #40
DocSavage wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a bit disappointed because I wanted to fool with GPU programming and I think Nvidia is still the standard there: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4638324/nvidia-vs-amd-gpg... Does anyone have any experience with OpenCL versus Cuda?

you can't program cuda in os x anyway, apple only uses OpenCL. As far as I know, os x doesn't support OpenCL on the intel graphics chips either

Of course they don't.

Re: New MacBook Pro series

#53

Post by Corrado »

philthy wrote: post #46

sucks i bought a MBP two months ago...

Yea, I just ordered 4 Henge Docks for the current (last?) generation MacBook Pro lineup. Crap! I have a support question out to Henge to see if the ports line up or not.

BTW: I'm not affiliated with Henge in any way, just a satisfied customer. If you need a dock for your MBP, the Henge is it!

Re: New MacBook Pro series

#54

Post by CountSessine »

tsycho wrote: post #12

Interesting that they are now offering a SSD drive......does this mean they have now added the SSD TRIM command (or planning to add it in Lion)?

Not sure why you were voted down - I really want to see Apple support TRIM, too.

Does anyone know whether there's a next-gen interface standard that's being worked on that might supersede SATA, with more elegant support for flash memory (beyond SATA's hacky NCQ+TRIM)?

Re: New MacBook Pro series

#57

Post by Stormbringer »

pmjordan wrote: post #33
wheels wrote: post #18

Color me disappointed. I was hoping for: • Ditching the optical media for longer battery life • 4 cores in the 13" • Max RAM of 12 GB (this one isn't listed ... maybe?) • The higher resolution 1440x900 resolution in the 13" that the Macbook Air has Altogether it's a pretty wussy update. Basically it looks like the diff (on the 13" model, which is what I care about) is: • Faster CPU (finally!) • Thunderbolt port (coun…

I don't think the laptop versions of the Core i* have 3 memory channels (neither do the Socket-1155/1156 desktop versions), so 3x4GB of RAM would be a strange/suboptimal configuration. There probably isn't enough physical space in a 13" laptop for more than 2 modules anyway (unless you sacrifice battery or optical drive space). Even soldering them to the motherboard wouldn't save much space - I think all current 4GB…

Wasn't there a problem with some of the core processors? I don't remember which ones, but I'd check very carefully.

Also worth checking out is what scale they are made at, I remember some of the core i processors were only being made at the higher nanometers scale (e.g. older less heat efficient technology).

It would be ironic if the Core i5 four core model was more battery efficient and produced less heat than the core i5 two core models...

Edit: no, I'm not referring to the recent thing with the sandy bridge architecture, but a previous architecture. Did some more research and it sounds like back in September some of them were produced at 32 nanometers and others were produced at 45 nanometers. Also there may have been some initial problems going to their new 32nm process.

Presumably by now they've got the issues that I remembered sorted out (so that they can have new and different issues like sandy bridge ports and so forth).

Re: New MacBook Pro series

#58

Post by pmjordan »

Stormbringer wrote: post #57
pmjordan wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the laptop versions of the Core i* have 3 memory channels (neither do the Socket-1155/1156 desktop versions), so 3x4GB of RAM would be a strange/suboptimal configuration. There probably isn't enough physical space in a 13" laptop for more than 2 modules anyway (unless you sacrifice battery or optical drive space). Even soldering them to the motherboard wouldn't save much space - I think all current 4GB…

Wasn't there a problem with some of the core processors? I don't remember which ones, but I'd check very carefully. Also worth checking out is what scale they are made at, I remember some of the core i processors were only being made at the higher nanometers scale (e.g. older less heat efficient technology). It would be ironic if the Core i5 four core model was more battery efficient and produced less heat than the c…

All the new MacBook Pros use the latest "Sandy Bridge" generation CPUs. You can tell by the type of integrated GPU. There was a problem with the secondary SATA controller in the first revision of Intel's chipset for these CPUs. This has since been fixed, and also only surfaces in systems with more than 2 SATA ports.

Re: New MacBook Pro series

#60

Post by scott_s »

wippler wrote: post #7

may be they should've relabeled the 13" MBP as Macbook and retired the white Macbook, frankly the specs are quite low except for the CPU.. display at 1280x800 :( But the 15" and 17" inchers look awesome with quads

I think that was the original goal - hence why my original 13" unibody just says "Macbook" and not "Macbook Pro." I think they originally planned on retiring the white plastic model, and either calling all of them Macbooks, or just calling the 15" and 17" models Pros. I can only assume they changed because there was still demand for the slightly cheaper plastic model.
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