nVidia Quadro for future PB's?

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
<a href="http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?page=quadro4gogl"; target="_blank">nVidia Quadro 4 Go</a> would be a nice little addition to any future PB's Apple bring out. I wonder whether Apple would get themselves together fast enough to get them into the next revisions. Dell seem to have gotten their act together fast enough ...
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 23
    Probably gonna be a while...
  • Reply 2 of 23
    macroninmacronin Posts: 1,174member
    Apple claims this is the 'year of the laptop'...



    How about, towards the end of the year, after the PowerMac 970s are released, we see something like this...



    Dual PPC970 PowerBook w/17" LCD & nVidia Quadro FX Go GPU!!!



    Talk about replacing the desktop!



    And, keeping such a configuration in mind, imagine what might come out of Apple as a full-blown tower-based workstation!



    ;^p



    [ 02-06-2003: Message edited by: MacRonin ]</p>
  • Reply 3 of 23
    [quote]Originally posted by MacRonin:

    <strong>Apple claims this is the 'year of the laptop'...



    How about, towards the end of the year, after the PowerMac 970s are released, we see something like this...



    Dual PPC970 PowerBook w/17" LCD & nVidia Quadro FX Go GPU!!!



    Talk about replacing the desktop!



    And, keeping such a configuration in mind, imagine what might come out of Apple as a full-blown tower-based workstation!



    ;^p



    [ 02-06-2003: Message edited by: MacRonin ]</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Can you say really hot powerbook. (hot as in temperature)
  • Reply 4 of 23
    macroninmacronin Posts: 1,174member
    So you have used one, and know this as a fact?!?



    Until the actual product is out, it is ALL speculation...



    ;^p
  • Reply 5 of 23
    cosmocosmo Posts: 662member
    [quote]Originally posted by O and A:

    <strong>



    Can you say really hot powerbook. (hot as in temperature)</strong><hr></blockquote>



    and upwards of 30 minutes of battery life?
  • Reply 6 of 23
    macroninmacronin Posts: 1,174member
    WOW!



    Where are you people getting these dual PPC970/nVidia Quadro FX Go PowerBooks to test?!?



    Steve must be having a heart attack, with the way you folks are blowing out your NDAs...!



    Uh, that is sarcasm folks...



    And, as before, it is ALL speculation before ANY OF US actually see shipping products...!



    For all any of us here know, a PowerBook like I outlined may run cooler than current PBs, AND have longer battery life!



    Come on folks, quit being so damned negative!



    ;^p



    [ 02-06-2003: Message edited by: MacRonin ]</p>
  • Reply 7 of 23
    why, if Dell can put a Quadro FX in with a hot-as-all-hell P4M, can Apple not do the same in a 17" enclosure. The Quadro might not necessarily be accompanied by a 970, but if Apple can tweak a (true) DDR-enabled 970 mobo to run an unbottlenecked G4 (MPX bus substituted with a bastardised version of the new bus, whatever it is called) then surely the G4 will see a nice speedbump and (perhaps) run cooler than the 970 ...



    these thoughts . they come . they go .. where they end up only Apple will know
  • Reply 8 of 23
    I was under the impression that the 970 chips were not only fairly cool running, but also low power usage. I might be mistaken, but I thought someone once said they would be ideal for laptops.



    With that, I suspect that Apple has something up their sleeves... it isn't the year of the laptops for nothing right?



    Sometimes I wonder if we don't give Apple enough credit. The whole speed issue with G4's lagging wasn't Apple's fault - and now it looks like they will be correcting that problem with their new supplier (IBM). I'm feeling optimistic about Apple's future - and as a Powerbook guy, I'm looking forward to what comes this fall and winter.
  • Reply 9 of 23
    macroninmacronin Posts: 1,174member
    macmike said:



    [quote] I was under the impression that the 970 chips were not only fairly cool running, but also low power usage. I might be mistaken, but I thought someone once said they would be ideal for laptops.

    With that, I suspect that Apple has something up their sleeves... it isn't the year of the laptops for nothing right?

    <hr></blockquote>



    Thank you!



    That is the point I am trying to get across to these folks. The PPC 970 is rumored to both run cooler & consume less power than other options, and the temp/power ratings only get better with a theoretical 9nm process?



    Same for the Quadro FX chip? Recent reviews note that it runs cooler than its GeForce FX brethren, unburdening it from the lawn blower cooling arraignment. A ?Go? version of this GPU can only run cooler still?



    And who is to say what type of battery technologies Apple has up their sleeve?!?



    As far as I know, if a beastie of a PowerBook should arise that contained dual PPC970s, a Quadro FX Go GPU, a SuperDrive, a bunch of DDR SDRAM & a 17? LCD; well, I could see the West Coast snatching these babies up ASAP.



    Perfect workstation on-the-go for freelance 3D/DCC types?!



    I have my order in?



    ;^p



    [ 02-07-2003: Message edited by: MacRonin ]</p>
  • Reply 10 of 23
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    Quadro cards, are delivered with special drivers that increase the performance of high end `3 D software.

    Thus a quadro card without these drivers is worthless. Does n-vidia will produce these specialized drivers, for such a small market like Apple ? . I doubt it. It's the reason we did not see them in a desktop. And if there isn't these card for desktop, don't even speak of laptops.
  • Reply 11 of 23
    macroninmacronin Posts: 1,174member
    Powerdoc is accused of saying:



    [quote] Quadro cards, are delivered with special drivers that increase the performance of high end `3 D software.



    Thus a quadro card without these drivers is worthless. Does n-vidia will produce these specialized drivers, for such a small market like Apple ? . I doubt it. It's the reason we did not see them in a desktop. And if there isn't these card for desktop, don't even speak of laptops. <hr></blockquote>



    First of all, taking the fact that you are a moderator into the equation, one could construe that you are ordering us (me) to cease & desist talking about Quadro-powered laptops at all?!



    I sincerely hope not, as I will NOT be dictated to about what is appropriate conversation in a thread which clearly is about PowerBooks & Quadro GPUs?!



    As for the ?special drivers? and the ?small market like Apple? crack?



    <a href="http://www.thinksecret.com/news/macosx1024.html"; target="_blank">http://www.thinksecret.com/news/macosx1024.html</a>;



    The pertinent bit:



    As for video cards, Apple is planning to support several workstation-quality graphics cards in 10.3, that weren't previously supported, including full support for NVidia Quadro 980, 900, and 750XGL. Support will also be added for ATI's top-end Fire GL series.



    I realize the grain of salt thing and all, but I have heard other whisperings of the Quadros/FireGLs coming to the Macs Real-Soon-Now? This comes from those ?in the business?? (read that as an explicit non-denial from the nVidia camp, and no comment whatsoever from the ATI camp)



    And if one takes into consideration the fact that Alias|wavefront cites the Maya for Mac OS X version of Maya v4.5 as their best-seller?



    Where is the ?small market???!?



    A lot of VFX/Post/DCC houses already use Macs (mainly for Photoshop, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Avid de jour, etc. ? mainly 2D/Editing/Compositing &lt;yay Shake!&gt; work?), and more are switching, since OS X has the Unix underpinnings?



    This ?small market? will only grow?



    And, remember, this IS Future Hardware?!



    Or would you rather we personally email you, and get your blessing before we post ANYTHING to Future Hardware??!?



    Wouldn?t want to offend anyone with our crazy hardware rants, especially on a rumor forum entitled Future Hardware!



    ;^p
  • Reply 12 of 23
    [quote]Originally posted by MacRonin:

    <strong>

    And, as before, it is ALL speculation before ANY OF US actually see shipping products...!





    [ 02-06-2003: Message edited by: MacRonin ]</strong><hr></blockquote>



    How is their speculation any less valid? Try using logic to back up your points rather than random ranting.



    [ 02-07-2003: Message edited by: Eupfhoria ]</p>
  • Reply 13 of 23
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    [quote]Originally posted by MacRonin:

    <strong>Powerdoc is accused of saying:







    First of all, taking the fact that you are a moderator into the equation, one could construe that you are ordering us (me) to cease & desist talking about Quadro-powered laptops at all?!



    I sincerely hope not, as I will NOT be dictated to about what is appropriate conversation in a thread which clearly is about PowerBooks & Quadro GPUs?!





    Or would you rather we personally email you, and get your blessing before we post ANYTHING to Future Hardware??!?



    Wouldn?t want to offend anyone with our crazy hardware rants, especially on a rumor forum entitled Future Hardware!



    ;^p</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Are you crazy ?



    Since when a mod is not allowed to have an opinion in a subject ?

    You should calm down or take a break
  • Reply 14 of 23
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    [quote]Originally posted by g::masta:

    <strong>why, if Dell can put a Quadro FX in with a hot-as-all-hell P4M, can Apple not do the same in a 17" enclosure. The Quadro might not necessarily be accompanied by a 970, but if Apple can tweak a (true) DDR-enabled 970 mobo to run an unbottlenecked G4 (MPX bus substituted with a bastardised version of the new bus, whatever it is called) then surely the G4 will see a nice speedbump and (perhaps) run cooler than the 970 ...</strong><hr></blockquote>



    The CPU dictates the bus. There is no way to attach anything other than a MaxBus or a 60x bus to a current G4.



    This time next year, unless Mot's schedule slips (which, as we all know, never happens...), there will be a RapidIO-connected version of the G4, which will be closer to what you want - although it will use RapidIO instead of the IBM bus.



    The 970 consumes very little power relative to its performance, but 19W (for the 1.2GHz version) is still a good chunk of power for a laptop. The Dell beasts with P4s and such are luggable desktops, not laptops. They can't function for long at all without being plugged in. Now, when the 970 moves to the .09&mu; process, it'll be a great (high-end) laptop chip.



    The suitability of the Quadro chipset depends entirely on what compromises nVIDIA makes for the portable version (it will not be as powerful as a Quadro AGP card) and how much power it consumes. Also, if it's engineered like most mobile GPUs, it will be modular, which means that Apple will be able to pick and choose what to take and what to leave out to some extent. I doubt Apple will release a laptop that can't at least get near their standard claim of 5 hours on battery power. The 17" is already a bit under that, so other parts of the machine would have to get more efficient if the mobile Quadro proves to be a hog.



    I think the odds are good that Apple will find a way to use it. The PowerBook is aimed squarely at video and film professionals. But since the PowerBooks have other priorities as well (thin, light, good battery life), they'll necessarily be behind 970-powered, Quadro card-bearing desktops.



    [ 02-07-2003: Message edited by: Amorph ]</p>
  • Reply 15 of 23
    rodukroduk Posts: 706member
    [quote]Originally posted by MacRonin:

    <strong>First of all, taking the fact that you are a moderator into the equation, one could construe that you are ordering us (me) to cease & desist talking about Quadro-powered laptops at all?!



    I sincerely hope not, as I will NOT be dictated to about what is appropriate conversation in a thread which clearly is about PowerBooks & Quadro GPUs?!

    </strong><hr></blockquote>



    When PowerDoc said if there isn't these card for desktop, don't even speak of laptops. he didn't mean it literally.
  • Reply 16 of 23
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    [quote]Originally posted by MacRonin:

    <strong>

    First of all, taking the fact that you are a moderator into the equation, one could construe that you are ordering us (me) to cease & desist talking about Quadro-powered laptops at all?!</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Calm down.



    Powerdoc doesn't speak English natively. It was nevertheless clear to me that he meant "not to speak of laptops," not "don't ever speak of laptops again."



    Even if he didn't mean that (heh), he's entitled to his opinion on the subject. Remember, if he really wanted nobody to post on the subject again, he could enforce that. The fact that he left the thread open does not favor your interpretation.
  • Reply 17 of 23
    thegeldingthegelding Posts: 3,230member
    i speak english natively and still confuse most people when i try posting.....g
  • Reply 18 of 23
    macroninmacronin Posts: 1,174member
    Sorry folks...



    Too much caffeine, not enough sleep...



    Gotta stop staying up late to watch Jimmy Kimmel Live...



    Gotta stop drinking so much damned Coca-Cola...



    Gotta get a life...!



    ;^p
  • Reply 19 of 23
    Hey, if you really want to dream......How about a fiber-optic CPU. NO fan...NO heat sink....50,000 times more powerful than current metal-based chips today.

    All of this in a tablet style machine, that can be layed on it's side with a fold out arm. The keyboard contured and hidden within the shell....but detachable. The micro-mouse also contured and hidden within the shell.....detachable.

    Fiber-optic CPUs are real and in research RIGHT NOW. It isn't as far a strech as you would think.
  • Reply 20 of 23
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    Nice idea, but it's not a GPU, and it still relies on the keyboard + mouse interface, which is becoming as much an obstacle as a blessing.



    If you're interested in the implications of fiber optics on computer hardware, feel free to start a new thread here.
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