Apple dumps NVidia from the Macbook Pro

[nvgpu]

http://streamcomputing.eu/blog/2015-05-09/apples-dragging-opencl-compiler-problem/

You can't even run OpenCL properly on OSX because Apple doesn't even fix their compiler bugs.

Anyone buying this for OpenCL will get a eye-opening experience.

 

[Enigmoid]

Why would you pay so much for such a bad gaming notebook?

Easy. You don't.

You pay to be part of the elite Apple club where logic is thrown out the door.

As long as Apple's well known apps are accelerated with OpenCL, its clear they don't give a crap about gaming performance so to measure it on that metric is irrelevant.

The throttling is bad enough that you will definitely notice it on apps like video rendering or heavy photoshop usage.

Lets face it, if Cinebench and cinebench alone is only running at 2.8 - 3.0 ghz then this is a problem in any rendering or high usage senario.

And this is actually a problem: The CPU does at least start at 3.3 GHz in the Cinebench Multi-Thread tests (battery and mains identical), but consumes far more than 60 Watts and reaches almost 100 °C. As a result, the clock drops to around 2.8-3.0 GHz after a few seconds and can maintain this level. This means that the i7-4780HQ is unfortunately not one bit faster than the old i7-4850HQ; the i7-4770HQ and i7-4980HQ should be on the same level under sustained load as well, which means the performance differences between the different models will be limited to short peak load or poorly parallelized software. Single-Core benchmarks are executed with around 3.5 up to 3.6 GHz, so the Turbo utilization is pretty good.

At this point its not just bad for gaming but bad for heavy applications are well.

 

[gamervivek]

Dave Baumann basically confirms that doing OpenCl2.0 is GCN2 level.

https://forum.beyond3d.com/posts/1851349/

So M370X is at least GCN1.1/2, but the spanking it gives the GCN1.1/2 in M275 in games where Tonga does the best against Tahiti is pretty strong proof of it being GCN1.2 or rather GCN3 as Dave likes to call it.

https://forum.beyond3d.com/posts/1851698/

 

[DiogoDX]

Dave Baumann basically confirms that doing OpenCl2.0 is GCN2 level.

https://forum.beyond3d.com/posts/1851349/

So M370X is at least GCN1.1/2, but the spanking it gives the GCN1.1/2 in M275 in games where Tonga does the best against Tahiti is pretty strong proof of it being GCN1.2 or rather GCN3 as Dave likes to call it.

https://forum.beyond3d.com/posts/1851698/

What AMD calls GCN GEN3 is wath sites call GCN1.2. So GEN2 is GCN1.1 (bonaire, hawaii).

 

[Enigmoid]

Dave Baumann basically confirms that doing OpenCl2.0 is GCN2 level.

https://forum.beyond3d.com/posts/1851349/

So M370X is at least GCN1.1/2, but the spanking it gives the GCN1.1/2 in M275 in games where Tonga does the best against Tahiti is pretty strong proof of it being GCN1.2 or rather GCN3 as Dave likes to call it.

https://forum.beyond3d.com/posts/1851698/

Cmon people. This is getting ridiculous.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9276/2015-15inch-retina-macbook-pros-dgpu-r9-m370x-is-cape-verde

Same registers as cape verde. Its not a respin.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Ye, M370X is GCN 1.0 Nothing to argue about there.

 

[Stuka87]

As far as I can tell (And I own one) its identical to a lower clocked 7770. Everything is the same except that it runs at 800MHz (Memory is clocked the same), which I am sure significantly drops power consumption. But the machine does get pretty warm when it is using the Radeon instead of the Intel.

 

[gamervivek]

What is getting ridiculous is branding it GCN1.0 despite all evidence presented to the contrary.

Wizzard needs to update GPUZ or make a subcategory for GCN cards. Here is the OpenCL2.0 compatibility list from AMD,

OpenCL™ 2.0 conformance logs submitted (pending ratification) for: AMD Radeon HD 7790, AMD Radeon HD 8770, AMD Radeon HD 8500M/8600M/8700M/8800M/8900M Series, AMD Radeon R5 M240, AMD Radeon R7 200 Series, AMD Radeon R9 290, AMD Radeon R9 290X, A-Series AMD Radeon R4 Graphics, A-Series AMD Radeon R5 Graphics, A-Series AMD Radeon R6 Graphics, A-Series AMD Radeon R7 Graphics, AMD FirePro W5100, AMD FirePro W9100, AMD FirePro S9150

8870M based on Venus GPU from his own site,

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/1898/radeon-hd-8870m.html

And he claims the M370X to be based on same.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2730/radeon-r9-m370x-mac-edition.html

So it is at the very least GCN1.1 or GCN2 as Baumann calls it.

Enough.

 

[Rakehellion]

Thankfully if you can sacrifice a little bit of CPU performance and 50% of the battery life, you can get $2499 MacPro beating specs in a $1499-1799 laptop, with aluminum construction, 4.5-5 lbs weight and a 4K screen.

And it would have crappy battery life.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/laptop-reviews/asus-rog-g501-review/

 

[SolMiester]

What the original article in the OP doesnt say is, if Apple had any choice in the matter in the first place, ie; perhaps the sale was blocked due to the lawsuit. So had to go AMD.
If you were in dispute with a company and didnt need their limited sales anyway, why would sell to them?, maybe they cant legally deal with them with a lawsuit pending?.
The article doesnt say, though these forums do seem to have plenty of ideas.

 

[3DVagabond]

What the original article in the OP doesnt say is, if Apple had any choice in the matter in the first place, ie; perhaps the sale was blocked due to the lawsuit. So had to go AMD.
If you were in dispute with a company and didnt need their limited sales anyway, why would sell to them?, maybe they cant legally deal with them with a lawsuit pending?.
The article doesnt say, though these forums do seem to have plenty of ideas.

Can you show a precedence for this in law? Or where you came up with it, at least?

 

[SolMiester]

Can you show a precedence for this in law? Or where you came up with it, at least?

If you pay for my time, i will look for you!

However, restraint of trade is not an uncommon occurrence, if its enacted when two parties are in court I have no idea. I was more a question of!.

NV may well of just said no to an Apple perf/$/power level tender!

OpenCL doesnt yet have CUDAs polish!, and OS X OpenCL more issues.

At any rate, doesnt look like this model will be popular anyway.

 

[3DVagabond]

If you pay for my time, i will look for you!

However, restraint of trade is not an uncommon occurrence, if its enacted when two parties are in court I have no idea. I was more a question of!.

NV may well of just said no to an Apple perf/$/power level tender!

OpenCL doesnt yet have CUDAs polish!, and OS X OpenCL more issues.

At any rate, doesnt look like this model will be popular anyway.

So you believe that Apple wanted to buy from nVidia and they refused to sell to them? Doesn't sound too likely to me.

 

[Arachnotronic]

And it would have crappy battery life.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/laptop-reviews/asus-rog-g501-review/

Crappy battery life, mediocre touchpad, screen with terrible contrast/colors, etc.

There's more to the quality of a PC than just the specs, which is something that seems to be lost upon those who think MacBooks are just overpriced machines for people who value "shiny" more than functionality

 

[Stuka87]

What the original article in the OP doesnt say is, if Apple had any choice in the matter in the first place, ie; perhaps the sale was blocked due to the lawsuit. So had to go AMD.
If you were in dispute with a company and didnt need their limited sales anyway, why would sell to them?, maybe they cant legally deal with them with a lawsuit pending?.
The article doesnt say, though these forums do seem to have plenty of ideas.

This seems HIGHLY unlikely. Even with the huge Samsung vs Apple lawsuit, Apple still bought a LOT of parts from Samsung. Samsung even fabs Apple SoCs.

I do find it comical that you think Apple laptops have "limited sales". Yes the 15" has smaller sales than say, the MacBook Air, but it is far from low volume.

 

[SolMiester]

This seems HIGHLY unlikely. Even with the huge Samsung vs Apple lawsuit, Apple still bought a LOT of parts from Samsung. Samsung even fabs Apple SoCs.

I do find it comical that you think Apple laptops have "limited sales". Yes the 15" has smaller sales than say, the MacBook Air, but it is far from low volume.

Perhaps I should of expanded, limited sales with dGPU!