The new Macbook Pro’s may be capable of handling a lot more than Apple or NVIDIA are advertising. While confusion remains about the new notebook’s “limitations,” Gizmodo has spoken with an NVIDIA spokesperson and is able to clarify some info about performance.
In the current Macbook Pros, NVIDIA has confirmed that the dual GPUs are able to switch from discrete to the integrated GPU “on-the-”fly” without requiring the user to log out. As Giz points out, this is not unique to Apple, and Windows already supports this. Should Apple choose to update the Macbook Pro’s drivers, this functionality could be enabled. Arn from MacRumors points out, “The benefit to this, of course, is when you move from word processing to playing a game, the GPU could switch from one to the other automatically without requiring a log-out.”
This would enable support for a Hybrid SLI setup, which enables both GPUs to be used at the same time. This already exists in Windows’ PC’s, so Apple could enable it in the new notebooks with little to no announcements. While an argument remains about the benefits of a Hybrid SLI setup, “on-the-fly” switching between GPUs is considered a must by many users. “…being able to switch between the integrated 9400M and discrete 9600M GT on the fly without logging out would obviously be enormously easier than the current setup, and allow for some more creative automatic energy preferences—discrete when plugged in, integrated on battery,” Matt Buchanan explains for Gizmodo.
NVIDIA markets Hybrid SLI with the following two features:
Hybrid Power - which allows your to switch from one GPU to the other for better performance vs battery life. Apple’s MacBook Pros do support this feature but presently require you to log out.
GeForce Boost - this is the feature that allows both GPUs to run simultaneously to provide even better performance (and presumably, even less battery life).
Additionally, NVIDIA has confirmed that their new chipsets can officially handle up to 8GB of RAM. While we have yet to see a Macbook/Macbook Pro with 8GB of RAM installed, any creative professional, or gamer looking to vastly increase performance should be excited about such news.
While all of the functionality explained is entirely possible, we may never see it come to life. Without Apple’s support, and specifically a new software update targeted at the Mabook Pro’s drivers, we may not see “on-the-fly” switching any time soon. At least not from Cupertino.
2 Comments to “NVIDIA: Macbook Pro Driver Update Can Enable Dual GPU, 8GB RAM”
honestly, as a gamer, this is HUGE. i don’t want to have to log in and out when doing diff tasks
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I’m confident we’ll see a driver update in Snow Leopard. Apple is going introduce Open Computing Language enabling the use of GPU for general purpose computations. So no argument about the benefits of a Hybrid SLI.
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