OS X Lion tested with unreleased Intel Core i7 Ivy Bridge chip

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  • Reply 21 of 26
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Misa View Post


    And Apple rarely uses the desktop grade CPU's in their systems (apparently only in the largest iMac) they get more of a bulk discount more likely from using all laptop parts, and that's one of the justifications for wanting to axe the Mac Pro (not selling enough to have volume discounts maybe?)



    That is not true, all current iMacs use desktop parts.

    http://www.everymac.com/systems/appl...ndex-imac.html

    iMac "Core i5" 2.5 21.5-Inch (Mid-2011) 2.5 GHz Core i5 (I5-2400S)

    iMac "Core i5" 2.7 21.5-Inch (Mid-2011) 2.7 GHz Core i5 (I5-2500S)

    iMac "Core i7" 2.8 21.5-Inch (Mid-2011) 2.8 GHz Core i7 (I7-2600S)

    iMac "Core i5" 2.7 27-Inch (Mid-2011) 2.7 GHz Core i5 (I5-2500S)

    iMac "Core i5" 3.1 27-Inch (Mid-2011) 3.1 GHz Core i5 (I5-2400)

    iMac "Core i7" 3.4 27-Inch (Mid-2011) 3.4 GHz Core i7 (I7-2600)

    iMac "Core i3" 3.1 21.5-Inch (Late 2011) 3.1 GHz Core i3 (I3-2100)



    This page shows which Sandy Bridge model numbers are desktop, mobile, and server.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge
  • Reply 22 of 26
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    Almost all the refactoring that went into the new chip went into the GPU. There will be some gains for CPU centric software for specific instructions. For the most part though it is all GPU. This has been a known reality for sometime now.



    Mostly correct.



    In addition, Ivy Bridge adds some external features like support for USB 3 on the chip as well as DDR3-1600.

    http://www.techpowerup.com/143951/In...-Detailed.html
  • Reply 23 of 26
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Misa View Post


    Oh god I hope not. I sat out the current Mini (still hoping for a Mac Pro) because they were only dual-core with the GPU, the quadcore was Intel onboard nonsense, and I'm not paying more for it. The next mini needs to be paired with a quadcore and dedicated GPU or it's a no-sale.



    Amiga has come out with an interesting development:



    http://www.commodoreusa.net/CUSA_AMIGAmini.aspx



    Double the height of the Mini with all desktop parts and Blu-Ray. Seems a bit bizarre to launch a new desktop machine just before the new processors arrive that use 20% less power but anyway, it shows that it's possible to get a full desktop experience in a tiny box. iMac prices though.



    I personally wouldn't mind the Ivy Bridge IGP and for cost, they'll probably stick with quad + IGP on the higher-end. I haven't read much about the mobile Kepler and Radeon 7000 series GPUs to see how much they improve over the previous generation.



    The iMac chips should arrive April 29th so still a bit of a wait ahead:



    http://pcper.com/news/Processors/Int...-March-23-2012
  • Reply 24 of 26
    crunchcrunch Posts: 180member
    It's so funny that nobody talks about SATA III, which, in my opinion, is one of the biggest deals of Sandy Bridge. I did see one person mention it here I think but the difference is HUGE and not even Apple has mentioned it for their own reasons, of course.



    Anyway, SSD's are crazy fast compared to the fastest 10,000RPM hard drives. Well, with SATA III running at 6Gbps, instead of SATA II 3Gbps, the speed literally DOUBLES! You need to buy an SSD that is SATA III compliant, of course, which most of the current ones are. They will run on SATA II as well, except, of course, at half the speed, and they're really no more expensive than their SATA II counterparts.



    SATA III will be there, unchanged, in Ivy Bridge.



    Another major Sandy Bridge item of interest is the support of twice the amount of RAM (for the most part). Every Early-2011 and Late-2011 MacBook Pro (13", 15" and 17") ALL support 16GB of RAM, instead of just 8GB, as Apple falsely advertises. The mid-2011 iMac's already supported 16GB of RAM by way of 4x4GB RAM chips, so if you get four 8GB chips, which have come down in price dramatically, you end up with 32GB. The mid-2011 Mac mini also supports 16GB, as does the MBP. This is great for people who run virtual machines and also for really high-end games.



    Ivy Bridge will support the same amount of RAM, but the bump to DDR3-1600MHz from DDR3-1333MHz will be negligible IMO.
  • Reply 25 of 26
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Crunch View Post


    It's so funny that nobody talks about SATA III, which, in my opinion, is one of the biggest deals of Sandy Bridge.



    There's SATA III in Macs right now. How will its inclusion in Ivy Bridge (we're already on Sandy) be any different from now?



    Quote:

    This is great for people who run virtual machines and also for really high-end games.



    "Yep," to the former, "Uh, what?" to the latter.
  • Reply 26 of 26
    hmmhmm Posts: 3,405member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    Amiga has come out with an interesting development:



    http://www.commodoreusa.net/CUSA_AMIGAmini.aspx



    Double the height of the Mini with all desktop parts and Blu-Ray. Seems a bit bizarre to launch a new desktop machine just before the new processors arrive that use 20% less power but anyway, it shows that it's possible to get a full desktop experience in a tiny box. iMac prices though.



    I personally wouldn't mind the Ivy Bridge IGP and for cost, they'll probably stick with quad + IGP on the higher-end. I haven't read much about the mobile Kepler and Radeon 7000 series GPUs to see how much they improve over the previous generation.



    The iMac chips should arrive April 29th so still a bit of a wait ahead:



    http://pcper.com/news/Processors/Int...-March-23-2012



    I wouldn't judge cost to build a machine off that. I still don't understand why case size matters much. The towers are fine below a desk. It really shouldn't matter. If we ended up with the equivalent of the mac pro at a lower cost, then that would be pretty cool. Computer growth right now is slow enough to where refresh cycles may continue to increase over time. We're at a point where for most people, it's pointless to even update a laptop every couple years. The Air catered to a lot of people whose needs hadn't changed much in a while. It allowed them to retain roughly what they had while moving to a smaller machine. In that case it made more sense, as the Air is a machine you take with you. There aren't that many people who pack up and haul mac pros. Typically that's limited to photography and video production. Google industrial color. You'll see what I mean.







    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    All Ivy Bridge chips should be around 15% more CPU performance vs Sandy Bridge at best. Intel is going for faster GPU performance for mobile and lower power consumption for desktops.



    The 3770K is 77W vs 95W for the i7-2600 in the iMac. So when the iMac is maxed out, the fan should run less.






    That in itself isn't a bad thing. I wish they'd do the same for the laptops.
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