Macbook refresh rumours....?
- Thread starter kirkster
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Pretty disappointed with the specs to be honest. Good processor upgrade, but they've gone backwards on the graphics card. Hard drive is still bizarrely 5400rpm!
Equivalent PC Laptop: Dell XPS 15: 2.53Ghz i5, 4Gb RAM, 640Gb 7200rpm HDD, Nvidia 420M. £650.
Equivalent PC Laptop: Dell XPS 15: 2.53Ghz i5, 4Gb RAM, 640Gb 7200rpm HDD, Nvidia 420M. £650.
I'm considering going the opposite way. I was planning on one of these for uni in august/september time but now I'm heading towards getting a low spec Air 11" and hooking it up to a monitor. I don't use it for games, and for the occasional light bit of photoshop it is about the same spec as my current pc with the exception of a slower processor (by 400mhz) and a worse graphics card. If I ever need to process video I would VPN into my PC in order to do the encoding...
That's really weird too since Sandybridge supports USB 3.0
I know they want to push the Thunderbolt connection, but I really don't know how that will take off seeing as USB3.0 is pretty popular right now
also apple still thinks $1 = £1
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I thought it was with the new Sandybridge chips, but I could be wrong.
What an utter let down, I would rather keep my 13" MBP with 320 Nvidia Graphics. I don't mind paying a bit more for Apple because of the quality and style but it's just getting silly now. It's old/low tech at a premium.
They should have ditched the Superdrive, Increased the Res to 1680 x 1050, fitted 2 x 2.5" internal bays so we could have the option of SSD and Hard Disk, 4 x USB 3 ports, eSata port and lastly gave us an half decent GPU.
They should have ditched the Superdrive, Increased the Res to 1680 x 1050, fitted 2 x 2.5" internal bays so we could have the option of SSD and Hard Disk, 4 x USB 3 ports, eSata port and lastly gave us an half decent GPU.
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Or, more realistically in my view, given build quality and target market - a Dell Latitude E6510 - Last gen 1.85 Quad core, 4GB RAM, Quaddro 3100M, 500GB Drive - £1477. If I was buying a 15" windows machine instead that's what I'd have I think...
I am dissapoint. spend all year saying they havent put new intel chips in the 13" because the gfx would have be a backwards step but then do it anyway? must have been making too much of a killing on those 999quid core2duos
No USB3 is because there's no intel chipset that handles it. Can't really think of a great reason for USB3 anyway .
Don't know what to do now when it's a 13" ive been wanting , I don't even use the graphics but the extra cash for a half decent screen res is my annoyance now
No USB3 is because there's no intel chipset that handles it. Can't really think of a great reason for USB3 anyway .
Don't know what to do now when it's a 13" ive been wanting , I don't even use the graphics but the extra cash for a half decent screen res is my annoyance now
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I don't get it - every review says the graphics are on a par yet people have somehow made up their mind it's a backwards step? Don't let the facts get in the way...
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glad last years 15" still is better than whats just been launched
Felt I had to quote this as its been said in the thread but people seem to selectively not read them
Doesn't. The PC vendors are using an PCI-E NEC chipset.
To nitpick Sandybridge is the CPU/IGP. USB 3.0 would have been included on the Cougar Point chipset.
Intel 3000 review:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Intel-HD-Graphics-3000-graphics-solution.43710.0.html
Verdict
The performance of the Intel HD Graphics 3000 can indeed be called impressive. In many older and current gaming titles it competes at a level of entry-level graphics cards like the Geforce G 310M, the GT 220M or the ATI HD5470. It multiplies the performance of the previous Intel GMA HD solution. In practice this means that older games can be played at high graphics settings and current games mostly at low graphics details.
In our test we also noticed that some games did not run faultless on the Intel HD 3000 graphics. Obviously, software updates, which will hopefully be available in form of driver updates soon, are necessary here. E.g., there are problems with the brightness (Left 4 Dead 2 and Supreme Commander are too dark, Sims 3 and HAWX 2 too bright after changing the resolution) and Mafia II did not run at all. In comparison the drivers from AMD and NVIDIA are clearly more mature.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Intel-HD-Graphics-3000-graphics-solution.43710.0.html
Verdict
The performance of the Intel HD Graphics 3000 can indeed be called impressive. In many older and current gaming titles it competes at a level of entry-level graphics cards like the Geforce G 310M, the GT 220M or the ATI HD5470. It multiplies the performance of the previous Intel GMA HD solution. In practice this means that older games can be played at high graphics settings and current games mostly at low graphics details.
In our test we also noticed that some games did not run faultless on the Intel HD 3000 graphics. Obviously, software updates, which will hopefully be available in form of driver updates soon, are necessary here. E.g., there are problems with the brightness (Left 4 Dead 2 and Supreme Commander are too dark, Sims 3 and HAWX 2 too bright after changing the resolution) and Mafia II did not run at all. In comparison the drivers from AMD and NVIDIA are clearly more mature.