News Report: Apple testing GPUs with 128 cores

[mikegg]

For later in 2021 or potentially 2022, Apple is working on pricier graphics upgrades with 64 and 128 dedicated cores aimed at its highest-end machines, the people said. Those graphics chips would be several times faster than the current graphics modules Apple uses from Nvidia and AMD in its Intel-powered hardware.

Bloomberg: Apple Working on Next-Gen Apple Silicon Chips for MacBook Pro, iMacs, and Mac Pro Due to Launch Next Year

Apple is working on a series of new custom Apple silicon processors to power upgraded versions of the MacBook Pro, new iMacs, and a new Mac Pro for...

www.macrumors.com

M1 has 8 GPU cores which translate to about 2.6tflops. Assuming all things equal, and GPUs tend to scale linearly with more cores, 128 cores would equal to 41.6 Tflops.

 

[Mopetar]

How do Apple TFLOPS stack up to those from AMD or Nvidia cards though? We've seen plenty of historical examples where one card has loads more theoretical performance that doesn't translate into actual performance in games.

Apple doesn't seem to care overly much for gaming market and it's far more likely that these GPUs are the kind of compute monsters that the professional market would want to see, because those people will buy $$$$ Macs. I don't think the gaming market will and I don't see Apple going after them as a result.

 

[soresu]

Assuming all things equal

That assumes a lot considering things didn't work out so squarely with scaling for AMD and GCN.

 

[Stuka87]

GPU's don't scale linearly with more cores. They can to a certain point, but then other factors (such as memory bandwidth, ROPs, etc) become bigger factors.

And we don't know what makes up these 'cores'. Even between nVidia and AMD a 'core' is VERY different between them.

 

[Kenmitch]

Apple = I can't type that here!

Well whatever they wind up being they'll most likely be scalper proof.

 

[mikegg]

GPU's don't scale linearly with more cores. They can to a certain point, but then other factors (such as memory bandwidth, ROPs, etc) become bigger factors.

And we don't know what makes up these 'cores'. Even between nVidia and AMD a 'core' is VERY different between them.

From what I've seen, cores usually does scale almost linearly. This is assuming that Apple sees bottlenecks and scales those linearly with the cores as well.

 

[mikegg]

Apple doesn't seem to care overly much for gaming market and it's far more likely that these GPUs are the kind of compute monsters that the professional market would want to see, because those people will buy $$$$ Macs. I don't think the gaming market will and I don't see Apple going after them as a result.

I already wrote a long post about this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/macgaming/comments/k9sa4d

Tldr: Within 3 years, basic math suggests Macs will be 50% of all computers sold yearly capable of playing AAA games. It's not smart for AAA developers to ignore 50% of the market.

In addition, you might not know this, but Apple is the largest gaming company in the world if you measure gaming revenue. And they're definitely the largest if you measure gaming profit.

Apple does care a lot about gaming but up until now, they had no way of reaching developers on the Mac since 80% of Macs sold had weak Intel iGPUs and Macs made up only 11-12% of the total market. That means if developers ported their games over to the Mac, they're increasing their audience by only 2%. It wasn't worth it.

With Apple Silicon, it's completely different because even the worst M chip Apple will ever make has a 2.6 Tflops GPU with a neural engine that could be potentially used for resolution upscaling.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Just wondering if it's a smart move to sell my 2019 16" MB Pro before the 2020 model comes out, which really seems to be likely quite a bit faster in many instances. I can make do without it for a few months.

 

[Leeea]

Tldr: Within 3 years, basic math suggests Macs will be 50% of all computers sold yearly capable of playing AAA games. It's not smart for AAA developers to ignore 50% of the market.

Your post is delusional.

This going to come as a shock to you, but pretty much every computer released today is capable of playing AAA games, even on iGPU. That even includes Apples for the last couple years. Boot camp for the win, and people boot camp them for that purpose.


The problem with pc gamers is they care about annoying metrics like value for $, and the ability to mod their games and computers. Other gamers who care more about fps per $ tend toward consoles. We all know xbox series x or ps5 destorys the m1 or anything Apple would ever sell in value terms.


Apple loses hard on both metrics. Apple not only costs far more per frame then a pc or console, and it is completely locked down. The worst of both worlds.


It is even a poor value as just a normal pc. A $1000 in the pc world will get you a lot more then a crappy iGPU, a four* thread processor, 16 meg of ram, and a 512 GB SSD.

* I know it is 4+4, with a big.Little setup. Thing is, those 4 little threads are going to be useless for gaming.


-----------

oh, and if you think non-gamers will make the the difference, the typical non-gamer buys this:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-14-La...te-Drive-Natural-Silver-14-DQ1037wm/385604861
or this:
https://www.walmart.com/search/?cat_id=3944_3951_132982_1231068_1172201&grid=true&query=pc
They even come with a keyboard, monitor, and mouse! What a deal!

Apple is not even interested in that game. Apple is a niche maker who makes niche devices. There is money with that, but it will never make up 50% of computer sales. It only makes up 11% of phone sales.


note: the above post was edited to add more content

 

[mikegg]

Your post is delusional. By any metric.

It's basic math. Try to do the calculations yourself and you'll derive at the exact same conclusion.

 

[mikegg]

Just wondering if it's a smart move to sell my 2019 16" MB Pro before the 2020 model comes out, which really seems to be likely quite a bit faster in many instances. I can make do without it for a few months.

There will be a strong used market for Intel Macs due to people wanting to grab the last generation of Macs that can run bootcamp in my opinion. Macs tend to hold up value well over time.

I wouldn't sell now. Just sell when the new model comes out.