New NVIDIA hardware capable of more than Apple lets on
We've already seen some suggestions that more is hiding under the hood of the new unibody MacBooks than Apple has disclosed. Now Gizmodo is reporting that the NVIDIA folks have revealed to them that the graphics hardware in the new MacBooks is capable of quite a bit more than Apple has has chosen to use.In particular, the the dual GPUs in the MacBook Pros can apparently be run in a Hybrid SLI mode allowing them both to be active at once (and thus increasing graphics performance over the discrete chip alone). In addition, the hardware is apparently capable of on-the-fly switching between the two GPUs instead of the present implementation which requires logging out to switch between the integrated 9400M and the discrete 9600M GT. In principle, this would allow the machine to dynamically switch between using the discrete chip when plugged in and the integrated chip when running on battery power.
So what's the upshot? In the short run, not much. Just because the features are supported in the silicon means squat unless Apple decides to implement them in software. In the best case scenario, however, the new MacBook Pros might see performance increases with only software and/or firmware updates. Of course, whether Apple will choose to do that (which would perhaps decrease the incentive to buy the next generation of machines) is another question altogether.
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We've already seen some suggestions that more is hiding under the hood of the new unibody MacBooks than Apple has disclosed. Now Gizmodo is...
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The one thing about hybrid SLI that didn't sound good to me when I heard about it before is the fastest card or the card with more memory - will run at the speed of the slower card or disable its additional memory. That's amongst other caveats. Switching the cards on the fly or using one of them for OpenCL sound more like the features to be excited about.
October 23 2008 at 3:05 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIn other words having one faster GPU is better than running two slower ones in SLI. When you hybrid SLI the GPUs in the Macbook Pro it would be like using SLI with two 9400M's. So just using the 9600 should be better.
October 23 2008 at 3:12 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI have to agree, all those features sound like they fit in exactly with what Apple is attempting to do with Snow Leopard, and I wouldn't be surprised if you saw support for them come OS X 10.6
October 23 2008 at 2:01 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHe's not referring to the MBPs that were just released, but a future revision that is an eventuality (they'll upgrade even the newly released MBPs eventually). If they could add Hybrid SLI via only firmware/software/drivers and were planning it as a selling point of new hardware, it would decrease incentive for the new machine.
October 23 2008 at 10:59 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyAs stated above, obviously Apple is switching "on-the-fly", since it doesn't require a reboot. The logout issue more likely has to do with the WindowServer daemon not yet being able to handle the switch on the fly.
October 23 2008 at 10:50 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThis reminds me of those who adopted the first Macbook and Macbook Pro's with 802.11n and didnt know it, only to have to pay a fee to enable the capability. Would we again have to pay to enable the technology that is already present, just not working to its full potential?
October 23 2008 at 10:25 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI don't understand this post's parenthetical comment "(which would perhaps decrease the incentive to buy the next generation of machines)".
Why would Apple enabling SLI mode on the MacBook Pro decrease the incentive to buy it?
I think they mean the NEXT generation that isn't out yet.
October 23 2008 at 10:58 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyApple has been known to somewhat artificially create small differences between very similar products, and then use those as justification for rather large price gaps. I think that trend has reached its extreme with the current line-up of aluminium MacBook (Pro)s
However, contrary to what this article seems to suggest, I don 't believe Apple would willingly prevent Mac owners from using the full capabilities of any product they bought, unless the software to make it work were not available (yet). So I guess this must be something that will be made possible eventually, on the current generation of hardware, even though it might be used as one of the selling points for Snow Leopard. And I 'm cool with that.
"However, contrary to what this article seems to suggest, I don 't believe Apple would willingly prevent Mac owners from using the full capabilities of any product they bought"
Really? Then why does the ATI Radeon x1600 in my White iMac only run at half or less the processor and ram clock that it runs on other machines?
Apple has purposely forced graphics chipsets to run at lower speeds in the past just so the machine could run silently. Personally, I'd like a choice, and some sort of overclocking software would be great, but I doubt it will ever happen.
When Nvidia says the chipset supports "on-the-fly" switching, they mean they can do it without having to restart the entire graphics system. That's why you don't need to *power* *cycle* the new MBPs to change video chips.
I am certain that Apple is planning to implement transparent chipset switching and hybrid SLI, but they are not going to announce that until the drivers are stable. In typical Apple fashion, you'll hear about it when Apple *releases* it!
Remember, this is a brand new chipset and Apple has put a product on the street before Nvidia even announced the chipset. I remember the days when I used Windoze and there were updates to the graphics drivers at least once a month. Sure, I could use all the new features of the new card -- but only for a few hours before some bug in the drivers crashed the machine. It was often many months of struggling with buggy drivers and system crashes before the machine was actually usable.
Now, here is where things get *really* interesting. Y'all know that Snow Leopard is just around the corner, right? If so, maybe you've heard the reports about the "lack of features" in Snow Leopard. The big deal with Snow Leopard is what's under the hood. Full support of the 64-bit architecture. Improved support for multi-core processors ("Grand Central"). And most interestingly, OpenCL, where GPU processing power is made available to applications.
I would not at all be surprised to see not just true on-the-fly video switching and hybrid SLI on the MBPs under Snow Leopard, but the transparent sharing of GPU processor power. For example, say you are running a computationally intensive app that doesn't require any fancy graphics. The system could use the integrated 9400 chipset for display, and then dedicate all of the 9600's compute power to the app. When you think about the architecture of the 9400/9600 architecture in this light, it makes a *lot* more sense.
Given that today's GPU engines have as much raw power (if "power" can be defined by the number of transistors) as the CPU, so theoretically Apple may be able to effectively *double* the speed of some applications on the MBP when Snow Leopard comes out.
Come on, people, you just know that all the unused power of the GPU in today's MBPs has been driving Uncle Steve crazy. And Steve is fussy about his "product tiers." Why would the entry level MacBook get the same aluminium unibody treatment as the flagship laptop if there were not to be something else major to differentiate them? The only major difference now (aside from firewire and LCD quality) is, you guessed it, the secondary GPU.
-g.
Apple won't get the message unless savvy customers hold off on buying. I am quite happy with my current MacBook Pro, but Hybrid SLI mode would have me reconsidering...
October 23 2008 at 10:04 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyPLEASE PLEASE do this apple, I can be patient and wait but don't make me spend another $2,000+ just to do the same features my machine is capable of
October 23 2008 at 9:26 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplySteve Jr, you beg as though Apple listens to their customers. I guess it doesn't hurt, though. PRETTY PLEASE Apple?
October 23 2008 at 9:54 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHot Apps on TUAW
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