Recent rumors have been circulating about the preferred chipsets to be used in the upcoming MacBook redesigns. While some have been under the impression that PA Semi may be developing custom chips for the imminent refresh, Mac Soda believes that Apple may opt to use NVIDIA chipsets instead of the Intel chipsets used in all of the previous MacBook models.
Mac Soda insists that the new MacBooks will garner the NVIDIA MCP7A-U, despite the fact that no other sources have been named in the confirmation of such claims. While the chipset utilizes integrated graphics, it does support HD video and HDMI output, two features that many would feel to be necessary.
Additional information gathered by Expreview notes that the chipset integrates the fastest mobile GPU available today. “The chipset works with front-side bus speed up to 1333MHz, works with DDR2 and DDR3 dual channel RAM, and supports PCI Express, SATA, USB, and Gigabit Ethernet.” Unlike the Centrino 2 platform, there is no support for wireless connections, yet the chipset professes to meet extremely low power requirements, a feature that may in fact be enticing Apple to take advantage of.
Ars Technica notes that while there is no way to verify such claims, there are however several reasons that make them foreseeable. While Intel’s chips have seen vast improvements, NVIDIA is more experienced in producing graphics chips. The fact the NVIDIA will be lower-powered may prove to be a better fit for thinner cases and increased battery life.
The MacBook updates have been rumored to be released at a special event on October, 14. As we near the expected release date in the weeks ahead, we will undoubtedly hear more information and speculation.
[via Ars Technica]
One Comment to “NVIDIA Chipset to be Used in Updated MacBooks?”
Apple would need to prove that these chipsets can perform better than Intel’s.
Something about this just smells fishy to me.
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