While everyone else is talking about the new almighty Thunderbolt ports the new MacBook Pros are sporting, one big switch that isn’t getting all that much attention is Apple’s switch from NVIDIA GeForce GT graphics processors to AMD’s Radeon HD GPUs.
The switch takes place on the 15″ and 17″ units while the smaller 13″ MacBook Pro just has the standard Intel integrated graphics card. Apple is claiming that the switch to AMD has increased performance threefold over the old MacBook Pro models.
Also among the new features is more energy-efficient graphics. Thanks to the new microarchitecture, the graphics processor is on the same chip as the central processor and has direct access to L3 cache. That proximity translates into performance.
The graphics processor also automatically increases clock speeds for higher workloads. An integrated video encoder enables HD video calls with FaceTime, while an efficient decoder gives you long battery life when you’re watching DVDs or iTunes movies.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
17 responses to “Apple Beefs Up Graphics Performance on MacBook Pros by Switching to AMD”
THANK YOU APPLE FOR SWITCHING TO ATI – It’s about time!! When will we see AMD CPU’s and/or FUSION??
AMD CPUs and APUs will never make it into Apple.
Dell was bribed 5-billion by Intel over several years to artificially cap AMD’s market share.
Apple is Intel’s new Dell.
As Otellini said in court evidence, Apple (like Dell) is the “best friend money can buy.”
A-pple
A-pu
This article is misleading. The GPU would only be on the same chip as the CPU if the computer was running on one of the new Fusion chips (Ontario or Zacate). If it is still an Intel CPU, then the integrated graphics will be the more standard type of integrated graphics that are a separate chip on the motherboard. However, they would likely still be more efficient because the last couple generations of Radeon chips have been more efficient than Nvidia chips.
I think it is unlikely that the Pro line will use something as low powered as Zacate. If the Macbook Pro line does get a Fusion chip, I think it will be the upcoming Llano chip, nothing less.
It’s a sad story, this means that we can forget CUDA support in the upcoming Final Cut Studio Apps. I was really hoping we could get realtime Grading in Color, but I guess that’s just a dream.
Hi Buster,
My name is Dick Hurtz from Holden. Ha ha Ha
These AMD / ATI GPU’s have support for OpenCL. Performance / feature wise, isn’t that comparable to CUDA? Just curious.
“Thanks to the new microarchitecture, the graphics processor is on the same chip as the central processor and has direct access to L3 cache.”
What? The CPU is Intel and the GPU is AMD. They’re really on the same chip? They made a single chip together? I’m having a really hard time believing this.
Interesting and useful post