Think about it...nothing really major has happened in the mobile world since Intel released SR, with the exception of nVidia's 8800GTS mobile chipset. Motevina isn't expected until Q2 08, I think, so anything Apple does to its laptops will either be a design change or an incremental update (1:1 RAM, maybe? bigger HDDs?). I really don't think we'll see anything really new hardware-wise until the summer.
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Can we really expect to see *new* MBPs at MWSF?
- Thread starter LoneWolf121188
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AT MWSF, probably not. They won't waste time in a keynote to announce a simple speed bump.
Around MWSF, probably. Sometime between January-February we're going to see the MBP get a slight speed bump to Penryn. That's going to be it though, no major changes.
If there's going to be a major change, it's going to be in the Summer when Montevina comes out, and here's why:
Penryn is pin-compatible with the current Santa Rosa logic boards, so it would just be changing the processor being used. If Apple were to redesign the case or make other radical changes, they'd have to design a new logic board. Then, 6 months down the line when Montevina comes out, they have to make another new logic board. That's just going to be a waste of resources and cost them more money.
So they'll update in January (or Feb) to 2.5 and 2.6 GHz Penryn. There won't be any redesign.
Come the Summer/Q3 when Montevina comes out, you'll have a bigger update. There could definitely be a case redesign since they'll be changing the inner components anyways.
Montevina is going to bring a faster FSB, a faster ram, WiMAX. You'll probably see a GFX update. The processors will be 2.53GHz and 2.8GHz.
Around MWSF, probably. Sometime between January-February we're going to see the MBP get a slight speed bump to Penryn. That's going to be it though, no major changes.
If there's going to be a major change, it's going to be in the Summer when Montevina comes out, and here's why:
Penryn is pin-compatible with the current Santa Rosa logic boards, so it would just be changing the processor being used. If Apple were to redesign the case or make other radical changes, they'd have to design a new logic board. Then, 6 months down the line when Montevina comes out, they have to make another new logic board. That's just going to be a waste of resources and cost them more money.
So they'll update in January (or Feb) to 2.5 and 2.6 GHz Penryn. There won't be any redesign.
Come the Summer/Q3 when Montevina comes out, you'll have a bigger update. There could definitely be a case redesign since they'll be changing the inner components anyways.
Montevina is going to bring a faster FSB, a faster ram, WiMAX. You'll probably see a GFX update. The processors will be 2.53GHz and 2.8GHz.
OK, so we're looking at 6MB L2 and some minor power savings, due to the 45nm fab process. Maybe some faster RAM. Maybe an 8800. Maybe a bigger HDD. Thats it, huh? I was considering selling my MBP in Jan and getting the new one, just to stay at the edge, but maybe I won't do that then...although an 8800 might sway me...
Wouldn't something like an 8800 bump up the price of the MacBook Pro? I doubt that it would become something that is standard on them, maybe an optional extra/BTO?
Apple will not put an 8800 into a MBP because it creates too much heat. I believe we wil see an all Pro MWSF this year. MP and MBP are probably going to see updates to Penryn and other updates.
Will we see faster ram?
My impression is that it will still be using the same chipset which uses the same 667mhz modules as the current models...
At least I bought another 2 X 2GB modules in preparation for the next update...
Will we see faster ram?
My impression is that it will still be using the same chipset which uses the same 667mhz modules as the current models...
At least I bought another 2 X 2GB modules in preparation for the next update...
I was going to buy my RAM now but that would be a waste of money with the droping prices in RAM. I remember at the start of the week, 4GB of RAM at OWC was $125. Now its $109. By the time January comes around, it should be under $100.
No reason not to bump the RAM up to 800MHz. I was very surprised when the SRs came out that the RAM wasn't running 1:1, especially coming from an overclocked AMD desktop.Will we see faster ram?
My impression is that it will still be using the same chipset which uses the same 667mhz modules as the current models...
At least I bought another 2 X 2GB modules in preparation for the next update...
It's actually really funny how some people will get upset with Apple and claim a product is overdue for an update, even though there are no new processors out. These aren't the super-secret PPC days, we know what is available. I concur that we will likely see a speedbump and battery life improvement with penryn, to keep up with the Jones's. Montevina in the summer. There will also probably be some form of redesign at that time, but I sure hope not as I'm rather attached to the current design (even the latch). And I'd love to see the 8800 too, though people keep yelling at me and telling me it's too hot. But they can't stop me from dreaming!
One reason... the chipset won't support it. Oh, and it's not available. Two reasons.
Well, Wikipedia agrees with you on the first point (I just assumed that since the FSB runs at 800MHz, the RAM could too...what do I know?), but newegg begs to differ on the second: Laptop Memory -> Power Search -> DDR2 800 yields 16 results from all your standard vendors (OCZ, Mushkin, Geil, etc).
I too was wondering this same question the OP raised. Here are my concerns (as I understand the processor world which self-admittedly is not very well):
If mobile QUAD cores are coming out in Q3-Q4 '08 I would see apple as definitely being under pressure to put them into the macbook pro the second they are released. If this is the case and apple only does an update every 6 months or less then they have 2 options:
Option 1: Update to penryn this MWSF (which is a pretty weak upgrade in my opinion - about 15-20% speed and 5-10% battery power according to intel) and then have a LONG wait to mobile quad-core and just skip montevina altogether. Because of the long lag time between the penryn and mobild quad core as well as a need to update sometime during the summer which aside from a penryn refresh (which would be pretty pathetic compared to the market availability of montevina at the time) I feel that this option is much less likely than...
Option 2: Update to Montevina in March or whenever they become available, do a slight refresh for the back-to-school rush and then do a real upgrade to quad core when they come out in Q3-Q4 '08. This is a much smoother transition with real increased in performance with each real upgrade. Also, given that they just refreshed the MBP to 2.6 ghz core 2 extreme it seems more likely that this is the upgrade path that they will take. Just my 2 cents but I've been wrong before.
If mobile QUAD cores are coming out in Q3-Q4 '08 I would see apple as definitely being under pressure to put them into the macbook pro the second they are released. If this is the case and apple only does an update every 6 months or less then they have 2 options:
Option 1: Update to penryn this MWSF (which is a pretty weak upgrade in my opinion - about 15-20% speed and 5-10% battery power according to intel) and then have a LONG wait to mobile quad-core and just skip montevina altogether. Because of the long lag time between the penryn and mobild quad core as well as a need to update sometime during the summer which aside from a penryn refresh (which would be pretty pathetic compared to the market availability of montevina at the time) I feel that this option is much less likely than...
Option 2: Update to Montevina in March or whenever they become available, do a slight refresh for the back-to-school rush and then do a real upgrade to quad core when they come out in Q3-Q4 '08. This is a much smoother transition with real increased in performance with each real upgrade. Also, given that they just refreshed the MBP to 2.6 ghz core 2 extreme it seems more likely that this is the upgrade path that they will take. Just my 2 cents but I've been wrong before.