When Mac OS X 10.5 will soon be released there might be a tiny chance for the SR MBPs to get a little hardware boost around late October/early November or around Christmas this year.
Quite some people hope there will be an option for a slightly faster graphicscard, especially for gaming purposes and because nvidia's current midrange product, the 8600m series still aren't really performing that great.
Personally I'm not convinced that we will see an option for a 8700m GT, let's say even atleast in the 17'' models. The main reason for my doubts are of course heat issues. Apple would never gamble about the stability of their systems, there is nothing more annoying then your notebook shutting down all the time because it's getting too hot.
The next thing is that even in the 17'' MBP the 8600m GT clocks ain't running at maximum speeds. The guys over at Barefeats found out that in the 17'' MBP the clock rates are like:
Core Clock MAX - 520MHz
Memory Clock MAX - 650MHz
This is actually weird because regarding nvidia the maximums for the 8600m GT are:
Core Clock MAX - 475MHz
Memory Clock MAX - 700MHz
What basically means that the Core Clock in the 17incher is already slightly overclocked. This should be no problem at all since both the 8600m and the 8700m have the same 80nm chip meaning that the only main difference between these two cards would be the clock rates. The 8700m GT would be capable of:
Core Clock MAX - 625Mhz
Memory Clock MAX - 800MHz
Another difference between these two cards are their speeds of the Shader Clock - 950MHz/1250MHz. The rest is completely the same, both have 32 Stream Processors, a 128bit Memory Interface and a maximum capacity for memory of 512MB.
Well, why not atleast a boost in VRAM then if the clocks are already performing their best regarding stability/quality? It's the same problem as with clockrates, more VRAM mean a higher overall temperature and heat is always bad news since the MBPs are already playing in the BBQ liga anyways.
Conclusion:
The chance for MBPs sporting the 8700m GT is very little. The 17incher is already running the 8600m GT's Core slightly overclocked what would be a big evidence that an 8700m GT wouldn't make much sense anyways. An option for more VRAM - 512MB is more likely because the heat won't be that raging as it would with a more hyperactive GPU. Still it's questionable what benefits additional VRAM would offer. Regarding gaming, the main benefit would be a tiny performance boost in streaming textures when playing MMOs but that's it.
What do you think?
Quite some people hope there will be an option for a slightly faster graphicscard, especially for gaming purposes and because nvidia's current midrange product, the 8600m series still aren't really performing that great.
Personally I'm not convinced that we will see an option for a 8700m GT, let's say even atleast in the 17'' models. The main reason for my doubts are of course heat issues. Apple would never gamble about the stability of their systems, there is nothing more annoying then your notebook shutting down all the time because it's getting too hot.
The next thing is that even in the 17'' MBP the 8600m GT clocks ain't running at maximum speeds. The guys over at Barefeats found out that in the 17'' MBP the clock rates are like:
Core Clock MAX - 520MHz
Memory Clock MAX - 650MHz
This is actually weird because regarding nvidia the maximums for the 8600m GT are:
Core Clock MAX - 475MHz
Memory Clock MAX - 700MHz
What basically means that the Core Clock in the 17incher is already slightly overclocked. This should be no problem at all since both the 8600m and the 8700m have the same 80nm chip meaning that the only main difference between these two cards would be the clock rates. The 8700m GT would be capable of:
Core Clock MAX - 625Mhz
Memory Clock MAX - 800MHz
Another difference between these two cards are their speeds of the Shader Clock - 950MHz/1250MHz. The rest is completely the same, both have 32 Stream Processors, a 128bit Memory Interface and a maximum capacity for memory of 512MB.
Well, why not atleast a boost in VRAM then if the clocks are already performing their best regarding stability/quality? It's the same problem as with clockrates, more VRAM mean a higher overall temperature and heat is always bad news since the MBPs are already playing in the BBQ liga anyways.
Conclusion:
The chance for MBPs sporting the 8700m GT is very little. The 17incher is already running the 8600m GT's Core slightly overclocked what would be a big evidence that an 8700m GT wouldn't make much sense anyways. An option for more VRAM - 512MB is more likely because the heat won't be that raging as it would with a more hyperactive GPU. Still it's questionable what benefits additional VRAM would offer. Regarding gaming, the main benefit would be a tiny performance boost in streaming textures when playing MMOs but that's it.
What do you think?
