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Hybrid SLI + Snow Leopard Question

O

oakiegu007

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 20, 2008
33
1
I'm debating between this gen. or last gen. MBP for purchase, but this isn't about purchasing advice!

I've looked everywhere, and see a lot of speculation, not not many definite answers, minus the NVIDIA site that says a big fat "no". However, I don't know if that's because of hardware or software ,and if Snow Leopard will change that.

In short, will Snow Leopard make use of having TWO GPUs? Or is the point of having two, solely for battery life?
 
Minimoose 360 said:
The hardware fully supports it.

Apple just has to let us have it.

C'mon Snow Leopard!!
Click to expand...

nVidia says that the 9400M doesn't support use in a HybridSLI setup, so unless they make it possible with drivers in the future or something, no, it doesn't support it.
 
J the Ninja said:
Yes, it does:

https://www.macrumors.com/2008/10/22/macbook-pros-nvidia-chipsets-can-support-dual-gpu-and-8gb-ram/
Click to expand...

No. It doesn't:

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/...mNoX3RleHQ9bWFjYm9vayBwcm8*&p_li=&p_topview=1

straight from the source:

Does the Apple Macbook Pro (Late 2008) support NVIDIA's Hybrid SLI® technology?

No. NVIDIA Hybrid SLI technology for notebook computers allows a motherboard GPU and a discrete GPU to work together for extreme multi-GPU SLI performance when needed (called GeForce Boost mode), or use just a single GPU for low power consumption and long battery life (called Hybrid Power mode).

Apple's Macbook Pro (Late 2008) does feature both the NVIDIA® GeForce®9400M motherboard GPU for everyday computing and the NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT discrete GPU for high graphics performance. You can switch between the Geforce 9400M motherboard GPU (called "Better Battery Life") and the Geforce 9600M GT discrete GPU (called "Higher Performance"), but you cannot use both GPU's at once in this implementation.

Apple's hybrid graphics technology is supported under the MacOS X operating system version 10.5.5 and higher only. When running Microsoft's Windows XP™ or Microsoft's Windows Vista™ using Apple's Boot Camp, the system locks into higher performance mode which uses the Geforce 9600M GT discrete GPU for all graphics related tasks and can not be changed to use the Geforce 9400M motherboard GPU for battery life mode.
Click to expand...

And in their technologies article about notebook chipsets here:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/hybridsli_notebook.html

You'll notice in the table a little bit lower on the page it has check marks if they are capable of 'GeForce Boost' and/or 'Hybrid Power' where it says the 9600M GT is not capable of the GeForce Boost technology, which is the combining of the onboard and discreet chip in HybridSLI to enhance performance.

So, no, it is not capable.
 
A glimmer of hope -

The exact wording:


Does the Apple Macbook Pro (Late 2008) support NVIDIA's Hybrid SLI® technology?

THey may change this. Is annoying, as Nvidia has hinted about getting it sorted. Though aren't there changes to the motherboard to more efficiently move heat on the current MBPs? Might make hybrid more possible?
 
I have ordered a new 17" Macbook Pro (June 09), and should be getting it within the next day or so.

With the advent of OpenCL and Grand Central Dispatch in Snow Leopard, I am hoping that both cores of the Core 2 Duo, the 9400M and the 9600M GT will be available for multi-core processing.

We'll just have to wait and see. :D
 
This seems inconclusive.

The tech specs link of the 9400M clearly says it supports Hybrid SLI.
Which is a fact the Nvidia Q&A link does not directly deny. It merely says a Mac user can only chose between two usages: better battery life or higher performance.

From the wording of both it seems to me that this is not a technical limitation but rather a Mac OS limitation.

So we're back to square 1 and Hybrid SLI might be possible if Apple gets their OS in line to use it.

Perhaps another 'delayed feature' that got cut from Snow Leopard because they're behind in development. Akin to ZFS, Resolution Independence and 'Marble'...
We'll probably get it in either a dot release or OS X 10.7.
 
Dreamail said:
This seems inconclusive.

The tech specs link of the 9400M clearly says it supports Hybrid SLI.
Which is a fact the Nvidia Q&A link does not directly deny. It merely says a Mac user can only chose between two usages: better battery life or higher performance.

From the wording of both it seems to me that this is not a technical limitation but rather a Mac OS limitation.

So we're back to square 1 and Hybrid SLI might be possible if Apple gets their OS in line to use it.

Perhaps another 'delayed feature' that got cut from Snow Leopard because they're behind in development. Akin to ZFS, Resolution Independence and 'Marble'...
We'll probably get it in either a dot release or OS X 10.7.
Click to expand...

You're right. According to Nvidia, MacOS X 10.5.7 is needed to use the Hybrid SLI function (sorry, i can't remember the exact page).
 
Does mid 2009 MBPs support Boost mode?

"Does the Apple Macbook Pro (Mid 2009) support NVIDIA's Hybrid SLI® technology?"

The new Macbook Pro’s feature both motherboard GPUs (GeForce 9400M) and a discrete GPUs (GeForce 9600M GT). Apple has chosen to design there own hybrid graphics technology.

The NVIDIA Hybrid SLI technology for notebook computers allows a motherboard GPU and a discrete GPU to work together for extreme multi-GPU SLI performance when needed (called GeForce Boost mode), or use just a single GPU for low power consumption and long battery life (called Hybrid Power mode).

Apple's Macbook Pro does feature both the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M motherboard GPU for everyday computing and the NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete GPU for high graphics performance. You can switch between the GeForce 9400M motherboard GPU (called "Better Battery Life") and the GeForce 9600M GT discrete GPU (called "Higher Performance"), but you cannot use both GPU's at once in this implementation.

Apple's hybrid graphics technology is supported under the MacOS X operating system version 10.5.5 and higher only. When running Microsoft's Windows XP or Microsoft's Windows Vista using Apple's Boot Camp, the system locks into higher performance mode which uses the GeForce 9600M GT discrete GPU for all graphics related tasks and can not be changed to use the GeForce 9400M motherboard GPU for battery life mode.

For more information on Hybrid SLI technology, please visit the link given below: http://www.nvidia.com/object/hybrid_sli.html

For more information on the Apple MacBook Pro featuring NVIDIA technology, click the below link: http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/graphics.html

Please get in touch with us, if you need further assistance and I would be happy to help you. Best regards, Farzana, NVIDIA Customer Care
Click to expand...
 
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