BAD apple bad bad bad (mbp gpu)

[squeeks]

i cant believe this

http://www.barefeats.com/rosa03.html

We were pleasantly surprised to see the 17" MacBook Pro 2.4GHz ran as much as 11% faster than the 15" model. Though they have the same GeForce 8600M GT, you can see by the table below that the 17" model clocks up to higher frequencies than the 15" model.

this is very deceiving on apples part and i dont like it at all...

by the way thats a good website to remember, and point people at when they ask whats the difference between vram ammounts

 

[iCheddar]

So you're getting mad at Apple for underclocking the gpu in the 15" model?

Why, its supposed to be more mobile, smaller, as opposed to the 17" which is a true balls-to-the-wall desktop replacement, that you know...stays on the desktop.

Who cares, it still whoops the x1600's ass.

 

[megfilmworks]

Hey, you get what you pay for. I love my 17.

 

[squeeks]

Hey, you get what you pay for. I love my 17.

i paid for what i was told was the same gpu

usually a graphics chips speed is based on the following identifier after the model number, for ATI chips the gto is generally the lowest, followed by the gt, pro, and XT.

they can all be he same model, say a x1600, but those letters determine the speed of the core, so selling a laptop with a 8600 GT should mean that all of the chips are clocked the same, sell it as a gts or something like that if its not, i think gts is the lower rating on nvidia chips but im not sure.

Either way they shouldn't both be sold as GTs...i wonder if there is a mod to clock the chip up to 17" speeds, it should be able to handle it...

course if you really think about it...the 17" case has more room for cooling, thus a higher speed can be reached, but it still sucks that they are advertising it as the same chip when it really isn't, thats what im upset about, false advertising.

 

[Gymnut]

This article is old news per the date. It has been used as a reference for other related topics over and over again.

 

[Umbongo]

i paid for what i was told was the same gpu

usually a graphics chips speed is based on the following identifier after the model number, for ATI chips the gto is generally the lowest, followed by the gt, pro, and XT.

they can all be he same model, say a x1600, but those letters determine the speed of the core, so selling a laptop with a 8600 GT should mean that all of the chips are clocked the same, sell it as a gts or something like that if its not, i think gts is the lower rating on nvidia chips but im not sure.

Either way they shouldn't both be sold as GTs...i wonder if there is a mod to clock the chip up to 17" speeds, it should be able to handle it...

course if you really think about it...the 17" case has more room for cooling, thus a higher speed can be reached, but it still sucks that they are advertising it as the same chip when it really isn't, thats what im upset about, false advertising.

They are both 8600GTs though, they aren't anything else. Manufacturers are free to under or overclock Nvidia's GPUs as far as I am aware, but they can't go marketing them as something they are not. Perhaps Apple should morally list the clockspeeds they use, but I dont believe they are required to. I doubt they even think anyone who is looking to buy a MBP is going to base their decision on the effective clockrate.

 

[Sbrocket]

i paid for what i was told was the same gpu

You did get the same GPU. They are exactly the same products/parts. The simple fact that one has lower clock frequencies than the other does not invalidate any claim on Apple's part -- its still a GeFore 6800M GT GPU in all three models of MacBook Pro.

Now that we're past that, Apple would not randomly underclock the GPU and penalize 15" MBP users simply because they didn't buy the 17" model and didn't "pay the premium." The 17" MBP is, by its very nature, larger than the 15" and thus has more surface area to dissipate heat...so it can generate more heat. Higher clock speeds = more heat. Get the picture yet?

 

[Zel]

So what are the frequencies anyway? how much of a difference is there?

I guess the 17 having more pixels that require drawing would simply absorb an 11 percent difference and have no change in framerate.

 

[aliquis-]

So what are the frequencies anyway? how much of a difference is there?

I guess the 17 having more pixels that require drawing would simply absorb an 11 percent difference and have no change in framerate.

Well, the 17" are actually OVERCLOCKED, not just clocked different.

The memory speeds Nvidia mentions for the 8600GT are 700MHz, the 2.4GHz 15.4" runs them at 635MHz and the 17" at 650MHz.

The GPU core are supposed to run at 475MHz, the 2.4GHz 15.4" runs it at 470MHz and the 17" at 520MHz.

I guess it's easier to get of some excessheat in the 17" case design, not that weird ...

Still the same GPU thought, and I guess since Apple uses GDDR3 instead of 2 like some other manufacturers maybe they can clock higher? And in the end if you want to risk your machine totally you can overclock it yourself ..