Nvidia

Is Apple's new MacBook Pro a gaming machine?

While Macs have long been the preferred computer of the creative class, gamers have generally looked at the machines and said, essentially, thanks but no thanks.

That tech truism could be on the verge of disappearing forever in the wake of Apple's announcement Tuesday that the newest high-end MacBook Pro model will have the graphics processing firepower--thanks to the inclusion of the Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT chip--to finally give hard-core video game players what they want.

"It's more of a gaming machine than the old MacBook Pro," said Mike Schramm, a blogger who writes for both … Read more

Checking under the hood of Apple's new MacBooks

Tuesday's announcement of new and updated MacBook laptops from Apple could never have lived up to the hype of the past several weeks.

After endless predictions about tablets, touch screens, and cheaper (some would say recession-friendly) products, from an $800 MacBook to an Apple Netbook, the end result was instead a solid list of upgrades and improvements, with a few noteworthy innovations and a few interesting developments that may get lost in the "Where are the $800 MacBooks?" shuffle. Here's our take on what the new developments mean for you.

The most obvious of these is the so-called brick manufacturing process, whereby instead of building a frame and overlaying the chassis, Apple is taking the process used in the making the MacBook Air and expanding it to other MacBooks. The brick comes from a 2.5-pound piece of aluminum (in the case of the Air), which is literally whittled down to 0.5 pounds, meaning the internal frame is part of the same piece of metal as the chassis.

We were impressed with the build quality of the MacBook Air, and hearing that it's made of few individual pieces than other laptops makes sense. But the 13- and 15-inch systems always seemed plenty sturdy to us, so we're not sure if this will be a big selling point for casual consumers.

While switching to Intel CPUs a couple of years ago was a huge breakthrough in terms of mainstream appeal for Macs, Apple is moving away from Intel motherboard chipsets in favor of a new one from Nvidia.

The GeForce 9400 M combines a chipset and GPU, which will hopefully be a big improvement over the Intel integrated graphics found in most MacBooks today. It certainly won't match dedicated gaming laptops (and Mac gaming is still in a sorry state), but we've long decried the sad state of integrated graphics, and in fact, have long given up on finding a decent 3D gaming test to run on systems with integrated graphics. (Note that a dedicated 9600M GT graphics card--with either 256MB or 512MB of graphics memory--will be available in the MacBook Pro.)

Multitouch gestures aren't exactly new--we've seen them on the MacBook Air, and they were added to the last round of MacBook Pro upgrades. But one of the biggest physical changes to the new Apple laptops is the inclusion of what is being called a "multitouch glass trackpad."

We got quite used to using gestures on the Air (as well as the iPhone and iPod Touch), and the idea of a bigger (reportedly 39 percent) touchpad is always a good idea--too many PC makers include tiny touchpads that require several swipes to get your cursor across the screen. The big questions are: Will software makers take advantage of it? And will users get used to not having a physical button to click? … Read more

Justice Dept. closes antitrust probe of ATI, Nvidia

This post was updated at 8:40 a.m. PDT with a confirmation from Nvidia.

Advanced Micro Devices on Monday announced that the U.S. Department of Justice has closed its nearly two-year antitrust investigation into ATI Technologies, a graphics chip company it acquired shortly before the investigation began.

The Justice Department has decided not to take action against the company regarding ATI's pricing and marketing practices.

In December 2006, antitrust regulators began to investigate ATI and Nvidia, the two largest add-in graphics technology players, for possible antitrust violations within the graphics processing unit and cards industry. AMD acquired … Read more

More MacBook rumors and pics surface

Corrected at 2:45 p.m.: This report misidentified one of the MacBook Pro's rumored features; it is a mini-DVI connector. The report also misidentified the Web site attributed to the original report. It was AppleInsider.

Despite the tanking economy, Apple's new MacBooks due to be unveiled Tuesday are creating some buzz (see Techmeme) and propping up Apple's stock price. The latest alleged pictures in the wild are of the new aluminum case (above) of the forthcoming systems posted on MacX.cn.

According to AppleInsider.com, the new higher end MacBook Pro will include a mini-DVI connector … Read more

Apple to repair MacBooks with faulty Nvidia GPUs

An investigation by Apple shows some MacBook Pros may have faulty Nvidia graphics processors after all, despite Nvidia's earlier assurances to the contrary, the computer maker has announced.

Apple said it will repair at no charge MacBook Pros where the Nvidia GPU has failed, or fails within two years from the purchase date. Problem signs include distorted or scrambled video, or no video on the screen though the computer is turned on. Models that might be affected are 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros with Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics processors. The computers were made between May 2007 and September … Read more

Nvidia can't shake MacBook, chipset unit rumors

Nvidia has become a Silicon Valley hot spot for rumors. One is tied to an analyst downgrade Monday, the other to the rumored Apple MacBook refresh.

An analyst rekindled speculation Monday that the world's largest graphics chip supplier would sell off its chipset business, while rumors persist that the company would play a larger role in an expected refresh of the Apple MacBook.

Nvidia shares fell Monday after a Pacific Crest analyst issued a negative report on the company's prospects. In the report, the analyst said "our checks confirm" that Nvidia will exit the chipset business … Read more

Nvidia cuts workforce 6.5 percent

Update at 10:45 p.m. with additional information throughout.

Responding to "business realities," Nvidia is cutting its workforce by over six percent.

Nvidia, the world's largest graphics chip supplier, on Thursday announced a workforce reduction of 6.5 percent "to allow for continued investment in strategic growth areas," the company said in a statement. "As a result, Nvidia expects to eliminate approximately 360 positions worldwide, or about 6.5 percent of the company's global workforce."

The company expects to record restructuring-related charges of approximately $7 million to $10 million in the … Read more

Epic's Tim Sweeney predicts future of 3D gaming

If you're a fan of those John Carmack interviews that pop up every once in a while, you'll probably enjoy the interview with Tim Sweeney over at Ars Technica. Tim is one of the co-founders of Epic Games, and also one of the creators of the technology behind the Unreal and Gears of War series. We think we even understood most of it.

The gist of the interview focuses on the future of 3D-graphics programming, but this one section we found particularly interesting:

Jon Stokes (from Ars): I'd like to chat a little bit about Larrabee and … Read more

Everything you ever wanted to know about motherboards

Techradar posted a relatively accessible and comprehensive history of the PC motherboard this weekend. The articles starts with the motherboard's IBM origins in 1981, and from there hits upon the major landmarks, including the introduction of the classic PCI expansion slot, all the way up to multigraphics card support and the built-in operating systems you find today.

For the most part we find the article provides an informative background, but the biggest news of the past few months isn't mentioned. At Nvidia's Nvision 08 conference in August, Nvidia announced that it will finally let Intel chipsets support … Read more