GPU Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Geekbench scores benchmark iPhone 4S A5 at 800MHz

by Kelly Hodgkins (Oct 11th, 2011)

Here is some good news and bad news for prospective iPhone 4S owners. The bad news is that the iPhone 4S has a dual-core 1GHz CPU, but its clocked to 800 Mhz. The good news is that, even with slower clock speeds, the 4S still beats the pants off the iPhone 4 and other Android ...

Next generation iPad / iPhone GPU licensed to other manufacturers

by Matt Tinsley (Jun 15th, 2011)

Imagination Technologies, makers the PowerVR graphics processor found in the iPhone and iPad, has announced that its next generation PowerVR Series 6 architecture has been licensed by six lead partners: ST-Ericson, Texas Instruments and MediaTek. The remaining three partners are yet to be ...

AnandTech benchmarks the iPad 2, shows huge graphics gains

by Chris Rawson (Mar 13th, 2011)

AnandTech is in the midst of a lengthy analysis of the iPad 2's hardware. The results so far confirm what most of us already knew: the iPad 2's display is virtually identical to the original iPad, the cameras are nothing to write home about, and the CPU is slightly more powerful. What's most ...

Have a MacBook Pro with a faulty GPU and no AppleCare? You may still be covered

by Chris Rawson (Mar 8th, 2011)

If you own a MacBook Pro with an NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT GPU and an expired warranty, you may be unaware that since late 2008 Apple has offered a free out-of-warranty service program for the faulty graphics chipset. Apple's replacement program for the 8600M GT was initially valid for three ...

Sandy Bridge GPU may suffice for low-end Apple laptops, processor could show up sooner than expected

by Michael Rose (Dec 9th, 2010)

As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the first round of Sandy Bridge-powered PC laptops is about to hit the market. Intel's new chip architecture is intended to provide a major boost in power for mobile and desktop machines, but there's been some concern about the integrated GPU on these devices ...

Could AMD Fusion chips be coming to Macs?

by Sam Abuelsamid (Nov 12th, 2010)

Ever since Apple finally abandoned the PowerPC platform in favor of the x86 architecture, Macs have been exclusively powered by CPUs from Intel. Throughout that time, however, there has been speculation that Apple could dual source and use some of AMD's chips as well; that may have just been ...

Mac 101: Integrated versus discrete graphics

by Chris Rawson (May 14th, 2010)

More Mac 101, our occasional series of posts that focuses on tips and training for new Mac users. The recent launch of Steam for the Mac has brought a great deal of focus on the Mac's graphics capabilities. Specifically, it's led many Mac users to wonder whether Steam's games will run well (or at ...

Behind the scenes, Optimus (not) at work on new MBPs?

by Dave Caolo (Apr 13th, 2010)

Update: While Engadget originally reported that Optimus was behind the MBP power-saving switch feature, AppleInsider is citing NVIDIA representatives that the feature isn't based on their tech -- they say it's home-grown by Apple. Thanks to our commenters for pointing this out. Great power is ...

Hints found of OpenGL 3.0 support in 10.6.3

by Mike Schramm (Jan 12th, 2010)

News is bouncing around today that the current test version of Mac OS X 10.6.3 has OpenGL 3.0 installed in it, and while it's not completely working yet, developers are hopeful that this means Apple is pushing to have full OpenGL 3.0 support in place as soon as possible. What does that mean for us ...

Rumor: The iPhone's next GPU

by Steven Sande (Jan 11th, 2010)

The Graphics Processing Unit, or GPU, of any modern computing device is an important piece of hardware that offloads 3D graphics rendering from the main processor. At CES 2010 last week, chip manufacturer Imagination Technologies may have spilled the beans on the GPU for the next generation of ...

iPhone 3G S is crazy fast at 3D compared to iPhone 3G

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Jun 22nd, 2009)

They didn't just slap an S on the back and call it a day, you know. Apple has improved the 3D performance on the 3G S by including a more powerful graphics processor. According to John Casasanta, the speed increase is up to four times that of the 3G. But don't take his word or these OpenGL ES speed ...

OpenCL 1.0 ratified; is Snow Leopard now ready for launch?

by Steven Sande (Dec 10th, 2008)

There's been quiet anticipation for the last 6 months for OpenCL (Open Computing Language), which is an Application Programming Interface standard allowing developers to take advantage of the power of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) in parallel with multi-core processors. The result? Applications ...

TouchArcade: Second-generation iPod touch faster than iPhone

by Robert Palmer (Nov 24th, 2008)

TouchArcade interviewed Handheld Games Corp's Thomas Fessler, who noted an interesting bit of the company's research: Second-generation iPod touch devices are significantly faster than their predecessors when it comes to 3D rendering. In fact, it's faster than both iPhone models as well. In its ...

New NVIDIA hardware capable of more than Apple lets on

by Mat Lu (Oct 23rd, 2008)

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 ...

Yes, Virginia, you do have to log out to switch graphics cards on the MBP

by Michael Rose (Oct 15th, 2008)

Having options is good; saving energy is good; improving battery life on your laptop is very good. Having to log out and back in to switch between the two video cards on the MacBook Pro? Um... not all that good. Kinda annoying, to tell you the truth. Engadget posted a video last night of the swap ...