Potential Mac-bound Intel Ivy Bridge chips to launch at end of April

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014


A slew of mobile and desktop CPUs from Intel's forthcoming Ivy Bridge lineup are set to launch on April 29, potentially signaling when Apple could refresh some of its Mac lineup.



The new Ivy Bridge chips are due to be announced the fourth week of April, according to CPU World. The news comes as Apple's slimmer 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros are said to be in production ahead of an anticipated launch.



It was said that the new quad-core-only Ivy Bridge processors will officially be announced between April 22 and April 28, and will officially go on sale April 29.



The debut of the chips will reportedly be preceded by Intel's announcement of new Z77, Z75, H77 and B75 chipsets. Review embargoes on the boards are also expected to lift on that day.



In the high-end quad-core Core i7 range, the 3720QM, 3820QM and 3920XM mobile processors each with Intel's HD 4000 integrated graphic. They will be clocked at 2.6GHz, 2.7GHz and 2.8GHz standard and will cost $378, $568 and $1,096, respectively.



All three quad-core Core i7 laptop chips will be quad-core processors with 8 threads. The two higher-end chips will feature 8 megabytes of L3 cache while the Core i7-3720QM will have 6 megabytes. The Core i7-3720QM and Core i7-3820QM will have 45 Watt TDP, while the more powerful Core i7-3920XM will run at 55 Watt TDP.





An illustration of Apple's notebook lineup planned for the 2012 calendar year.







Both the 3820QM and 3720QM chips were previously rumored to make their way into Apple's MacBook Pro lineup. AppleInsider revealed in February that Apple plans to radically redesign its MacBook Pro lineup this year with thinner and lighter designs modeled after the highly successful MacBook Air.



The three Core i7 quad-core mobile processors will be joined on April 29 by a total of 9 desktop processors in the Core i5 and Core i7 range, with all but one sporting base clock speeds over 3GHz, according to the report.



The list of processors also includes mobile dual-core chips in the Core i5 and Core i7 range, with a total of eight dual-core mobile CPUs ranging from 1.8GHz to 2.9GHz. They are expected to debut later, on June 3, and could be suitable for a new MacBook Air refresh.



On the low-end Core i3 line, there is one mobile CPU, the 3217U with two cores and a frequency of 1.8GHz, but it is not expected to arrive until the third quarter of 2012.



Mac-bound Ivy Bridge CPUs were originally expected to launch on April 8, but the launch was said to have been delayed. One rumor from earlier this month suggested Apple plans to launch a thinner 15-inch MacBook Pro in April featuring Core i5 and Core i7 Ivy Bridge CPUs.



[ View article on AppleInsider ]

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 68
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Oh, hey, April. Just what I thought. Apple's known for exclusivity deals, after all.



    Hey. Hey, Apple. If you merge the lines and call the successor "MacBook", could you please not be idiots and take liberties with what that name would imply? Meaning please keep dedicated graphics in the laptops.



    Don't look at me like that, guys. You know they'd do it. You know they'd drop dedicated GPUs from the whole lineup. They've done worse in the past.
  • Reply 2 of 68
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    A 55 watt processor might actually lower the overall power draw, that isn't the problem. The problem is all of that heat in a single point in the chassis. The question would be how do you effectively remove that heat. Even with some of the coming carbon nano tube heat sink technologies it is still a lot of heat to remove from a single point in a thin enclosure.



    So at this point I'm reluctant to believe a 55 watt chip of any sort would go into a markedly thinner MBP. These wattages probably reinforce the rumor that AIR compatible chips won't be here till mid year also, that is also a bummer.



    The other thing here, that is shocking, is that Intel seems to be awfully proud of their mobile chips considering the list price. Now Apple isn't paying anywhere near those prices in the volume that they move but still $1096 is a hefty price for a mobile chip that has a crappy intel GPU in it.
  • Reply 3 of 68
    isheldonisheldon Posts: 570member
    I want iMac updates please.
  • Reply 4 of 68
    isheldonisheldon Posts: 570member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Oh, hey, April. Just what I thought. Apple's known for exclusivity deals, after all.



    Hey. Hey, Apple. If you merge the lines and call the successor "MacBook", could you please not be idiots and take liberties with what that name would imply? Meaning please keep dedicated graphics in the laptops.



    Don't look at me like that, guys. You know they'd do it. You know they'd drop dedicated GPUs from the whole lineup. They've done worse in the past.



    Is that what they mean at every update when they say

    "Apple giveth and Apple taketh away"?
  • Reply 5 of 68
    bmobmo Posts: 6member
    I wonder what the hard drive config is going to be on the MBP refresh??? Will Apple go MBA style with modular flash or replaceable MBP style?
  • Reply 6 of 68
    rokradrokrad Posts: 143member
    Hope they come out then, so it gives enough time for me to see how it is before I buy, in order to be able to have and ready for Google I/O.
  • Reply 7 of 68
    s4mb4s4mb4 Posts: 267member
    wow, those updates will finally put the macbookpro and imac ahead of the 2010 mac pros in terms of power. 2.8 Ghz 4 core i7
  • Reply 8 of 68
    cash907cash907 Posts: 893member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    A slew of mobile and desktop CPUs from Intel's forthcoming Ivy Bridge lineup are set to launch on April 29, potentially signaling when Apple could refresh some of its Mac lineup.[/URL]



    You're all aware that Intel releases their stock to OEM well in advance of retail channel rollouts, right? If they'll be hitting the shelves at the end of April, chances are they'll be in the OEM's fabs by next week.
  • Reply 9 of 68
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bmo View Post


    I wonder what the hard drive config is going to be on the MBP refresh??? Will Apple go MBA style with modular flash or replaceable MBP style?



    What I'd like is a small (perhaps 64 GB) SSD -perhaps on the motherboard- for the OS and a larger platter drive for data. I don't expect it to happen that way, though.
  • Reply 10 of 68
    tpf1952tpf1952 Posts: 65member
    Hey Apple, one more time on the MacPro for old time's sake?
  • Reply 11 of 68
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bmo View Post


    I wonder what the hard drive config is going to be on the MBP refresh??? Will Apple go MBA style with modular flash or replaceable MBP style?



    I'm not sure what you are saying here. They may not use the same blade type modules but that doesn't imply that flash won't be used in new Mac hardware. In fact considering that more than a few companies in the industry are working on a new standard for flash based storage cards, there is the potential that Macs released this year will have an entirely new storage module approach.



    Since even SSD are know to die, I highly doubt that Apple would use a non replaceable approach in Mac hardware.
  • Reply 12 of 68
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iSheldon View Post


    Is that what they mean at every update when they say

    "Apple giveth and Apple taketh away"?



    I'm trying to guess what your former user name was. Something very familiar about your writing style.
  • Reply 13 of 68
    macbook promacbook pro Posts: 1,605member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    A 55 watt processor might actually lower the overall power draw, that isn't the problem. The problem is all of that heat in a single point in the chassis. The question would be how do you effectively remove that heat. Even with some of the coming carbon nano tube heat sink technologies it is still a lot of heat to remove from a single point in a thin enclosure.



    So at this point I'm reluctant to believe a 55 watt chip of any sort would go into a markedly thinner MBP. These wattages probably reinforce the rumor that AIR compatible chips won't be here till mid year also, that is also a bummer.



    The other thing here, that is shocking, is that Intel seems to be awfully proud of their mobile chips considering the list price. Now Apple isn't paying anywhere near those prices in the volume that they move but still $1096 is a hefty price for a mobile chip that has a crappy intel GPU in it.



    What is the wattage of the current MacBook Airs, in particular the top end; 13-inch featuring 256GB, 1.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor 4GB memory and 256GB flash storage?
  • Reply 14 of 68
    macbook promacbook pro Posts: 1,605member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Oh, hey, April. Just what I thought. Apple's known for exclusivity deals, after all.



    Hey. Hey, Apple. If you merge the lines and call the successor "MacBook", could you please not be idiots and take liberties with what that name would imply? Meaning please keep dedicated graphics in the laptops.



    Don't look at me like that, guys. You know they'd do it. You know they'd drop dedicated GPUs from the whole lineup. They've done worse in the past.



    Would you feel the same if the performance of the Intel HD 4000 integrated GPU was found to be comparable to mid-level discrete graphics processors?
  • Reply 15 of 68
    hmmhmm Posts: 3,405member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Oh, hey, April. Just what I thought. Apple's known for exclusivity deals, after all.



    Hey. Hey, Apple. If you merge the lines and call the successor "MacBook", could you please not be idiots and take liberties with what that name would imply? Meaning please keep dedicated graphics in the laptops.



    Don't look at me like that, guys. You know they'd do it. You know they'd drop dedicated GPUs from the whole lineup. They've done worse in the past.



    The love affair between Apple and Intel dried up long ago. I wouldn't expect any kind of exclusivity deals. Obviously Apple has contracts with them, like other oems. These guys tend to get access before distributors and shops like Newegg.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    A 55 watt processor might actually lower the overall power draw, that isn't the problem. The problem is all of that heat in a single point in the chassis. The question would be how do you effectively remove that heat. Even with some of the coming carbon nano tube heat sink technologies it is still a lot of heat to remove from a single point in a thin enclosure.



    So at this point I'm reluctant to believe a 55 watt chip of any sort would go into a markedly thinner MBP. These wattages probably reinforce the rumor that AIR compatible chips won't be here till mid year also, that is also a bummer.



    The other thing here, that is shocking, is that Intel seems to be awfully proud of their mobile chips considering the list price. Now Apple isn't paying anywhere near those prices in the volume that they move but still $1096 is a hefty price for a mobile chip that has a crappy intel GPU in it.



    The 55W chip is an intel extreme part. It will not make it into a mac. This is just sloppy reporting. Remember a few months ago when I mentioned they cited the wrong part for the fall refresh? I was right because I just went with the logical replacement rather than internet kool-aid. Apple has never once used one of the extreme edition parts. You gain very little speed at the cost of battery life and double the price. I see no reason for them to change policies now. In terms of real performance gains, Anandtech has never been that impressed with these (used anandtech reference to annoy you slightly).
  • Reply 16 of 68
    isheldonisheldon Posts: 570member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    I'm trying to guess what your former user name was. Something very familiar about your writing style.



    Proust?
  • Reply 17 of 68
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    What I'd like is a small (perhaps 64 GB) SSD -perhaps on the motherboard- for the OS and a larger platter drive for data. I don't expect it to happen that way, though.



    Well let's not say that. For one thing 64GB is way too small for a modern laptop called a Pro. With that type of arrangement I'd have to say the minimal flash storage size would have to be 256GB. Mainly because 128GB is just a hair to small if you are a user of a number of large apps.



    That magnetic drive, for bulk storage, is important though. Especially if you consider that it doesn't look like flash will ever catch up with magnetic technology cost per bit wise.



    The other thing here is that of the flash soldered onto the motherboard. I don't think the technology is ready for that yet. In fact just the opposite as the high density flash solutions are less reliable. I must admit though that you seldom hear about SSDs going bad in AIRs.
  • Reply 18 of 68
    cityguidecityguide Posts: 129member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tpf1952 View Post


    Hey Apple, one more time on the MacPro for old time's sake?



    I hope they refresh this line also. My 1,1 will be obsoleted by Mountain Lion, and I would consider buying a new one just so I could continue my current configuration for a few years longer.
  • Reply 19 of 68
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacBook Pro View Post


    Would you feel the same if the performance of the Intel HD 4000 integrated GPU was found to be comparable to mid-level discrete graphics processors?



    Yes. GPUs should have their own RAM, and when the RAM in the system can't be upgraded or replaced, it creates an idiotic artificial limit.
  • Reply 20 of 68
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iSheldon View Post


    Proust?



    No that isn't it.
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