Apple to ditch Intel and adopt NVIDIA chipsets?

Posted on Thursday, July 31 2008 @ 0:46 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
A bit more than a week ago Apple's CFO said during a conference call that they're working on a major upcoming product transistion that might affect the firm's margins but he refused to share more details at the time.

This week there was a rumour that Apple would dump Intel and use chipsets from an unnamed company and PC Perspective believes this will be NVIDIA. The site says the evidence has been mounting over the past weeks that Apple will dump Intel's Centrino platform and says future Apple notebooks, among other products which will arrive this Fall, will likely have NVIDIA chipsets and graphics solutions.

PC Perspective speculates Apple will use NVIDIA's long-developed MCP79 which is a single-chip solution that features DX10 IGP graphics, HybridPower, HybridSLI, HDMI, 1066MHz FSB support, DDR2 and DDR3 support and much more.
Some of the companies that manufacture Apple’s products also make other brands and some interesting combinations of product codenames have been floating around the web recently. Pairs of NVIDIA technologies like a mid-range MCP79 part and the GeForce 9600M GT would be perfect for the notebooks segment offering both low power consumption and great gaming performance with NVIDIA Hybrid technologies that allow the discrete GPU to be completely shut off when not in use and turn on (without a reboot) when needed. The MCP79U is going to be their ultra-low-voltage version and would be a most likely candidate for an ultra-mobile like the MacBook Air.

I have also seen reports of the a faster version of the chipset combined with both the GeForce 9600M GT and GeForce 9800M GT (just announced yesterday) that would probably be too power hungry for a 13” or 15” machine. These are most likely to be seen in updates for a 17” or larger MacBook Pro or iMacs.

To me, there is no doubt that come fall you will find updated MacBooks and MacBook Pros with NVIDIA chipsets and GPUs inside. An updated 13” MacBook and 15” MacBook Pro are the most likely initial releases according to sources – all you Apple fans should start saving now. And if the MCP79 can run at power levels as low as I am hearing then it’s also conceivable we might see an updated MacBook Air ( though less likely due to its recent release).


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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