News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
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Well, I got my wish. Last week, I wrote that I was hoping that Apple would finally give us a non-crippled video system in the MacBook, and on Tuesday, the company certainly delivered. The new MacBook will unquestionably perform better graphically in leaps and bounds compared to its predecessor. I’m not the only one who feels this way, either—a straw poll of Mac game developers shows unanimous support for the new graphics system.
Apple has changed motherboard designs with the MacBook, MacBook Air and 15-inch MacBook Pro line, and instead of using an Intel-sourced motherboard design (and Intel integrated graphics), it’s using an Nvidia-sourced design that uses Nvidia’s 9400M graphics instead.
Like the Intel GMA X3100 that preceded it, the 9400M is still a component integrated on the motherboard, but the difference is in the capabilities and performance.
Apple says that the new Nvidia part is up to five times faster than the Intel chipset (actually, according to Apple's benchmarks, it's six times faster running Call of Duty 4). It’s still only a fraction (about half) the overall speed of the Nvidia GeForce 8600GT chip found in Apple’s 17-inch MacBook Pro, for example, but that’s a world of difference for the average MacBook buyer who wants to go out and buy the latest game for the Mac and expect it to run.
It also helps that the 9400M uses 256MB of shared memory on the motherboard. This is twice as much as the X3100 could manage, and that means the new MacBook will be able to hold more information on 3-D textures and other details in memory, resulting in faster, better looking graphics. Allocating shared memory isn’t as fast as having dedicated VRAM—as you find on MacBook Pros—but the healthier-sized buffer will certainly aid big games.
Beyond performance, the 9400M is more capable than its predecessor. It’s up-to-date with lighting and shading capabilities that are needed to run newer games, so they’ll not only run faster than they would have on an X3100-equipped MacBook, but they’ll look better, too.
There’s another benefit too, and I alluded to it in my previous blog post: This MacBook should be able to execute Open Computing Language (OpenCL) code in Snow Leopard, the next major update to OS X. So the new MacBook will be a reasonable computer for someone who wants to use the latest and greatest Mac OS X software once it ships.
Courtesy of Nvidia, here’s a die shot of the GeForce 9400M graphics card used in Apple’s new MacBook and MacBook Pro systems.
Veteran Mac game programmer and director of development at Aspyr Media, Glenda Adams, called the 9400M “a big win for gamers.”
“It should let us be able to support the MacBooks for a lot more games than before,” Adams said. She added that Aspyr wants to get their hands on new MacBooks soon to qualify the system for “a lot more games” than they could with its predecessor.
Andrew Welch, president of long-time Mac shareware and iPhone game maker Ambrosia Software, is equally sanguine. He said the 9400M is “definitely nice to see,” especially since Apple is selling so many laptops.
Colin Lynch Smith, vice president of independent Mac and iPhone game maker Freeverse Software, called the new MacBook “awesome”.
“Finally, MacBooks promise to be great gaming machines as well as great computers,” said Smith. But Smith doesn’t expect the new MacBook to appeal to “hardcore” gamers any more than any other Mac has—for those few, specialty rigs from brands like Alienware continue to rule the roost.
“For the vast majority of users, if they can run AAA titles at decent settings on the MacBook, that’s a huge win for them and Apple,” said Smith.
What games do you want to see on the Mac? Share your thoughts in the AMW Forums.
I have three cats, and one MacBook. You’d think that pure numerical superiority would be enough for the cats to feel confident in their lot — but that’s not entirely the case. Even the fact that the MacBook is only portable where the felines are fully mobile isn’t enough for them. You see, I’ve come to the conclusion that at least one of my cats is — there is no better word — envious of my MacBook.
Alex Kidman | Dec 10, 2007
Many decades ago, there was a linoleum layer’s apprentice. For the sake of personality, let’s call him Alf. Like most apprentices, Alf was given all the tedious, noisy, potentially painful jobs that nobody else wanted to do. On one particular day in 1962, Alf was given the job of nailing down a large Masonite board to some timber, in preparation for some truly hideous lino to be set down. Alf was bored, Alf was feeling rebellious, and Alf knew it would be a long time before anyone spotted what he was up to — so he went nuts. Spiral patterns of staples, double, triple and quadruple staples — this board wasn’t going to come up without a fight.
Alex Kidman | Dec 10, 2007
The MacBook range is second-rate for internet access, and it’s high time Apple did something about it. OK, perhaps that’s a bit unfair. On WiFi or Ethernet, the MacBook is a fine internet access device -- Draft 802.11n and all that -- but what if you’re out on the road? In an era when just about every notebook manufacturer offers several models with inbuilt mobile broadband capabilities, Apple’s notebooks are notably devoid of this handy option.
Dan Warne | Jan 7, 2008
"Don't forget to get there very, very early", was the advice given to me by practically everyone prior to this morning's Macworld Conference Keynote. "Things get pretty hairy", they claimed -- and they weren't referencing Australian Macworld's fine editor. So at 5am, having been woken by the loud gentleman speaking German VERY LOUDLY, I prepared towander down the chilly streets of San Francisco and wait. And wait, and wait, and wait. Annoyance doesn't quite cover my mood when another Australian journalist makes an appearance two hours later, right behind me.
Alex Kidman | Jan 17, 2008
