Intel iMacs: X1600 GPU is a Mobility chip

[dollystereo]

The new iMac is a laptop - it has a laptop CPU, it has a laptop NB and a laptop 3D card. The only tings that are desktop about it is the RAM, HDD etc.

Ups the ram is So-Dimm so is laptop ram!

 

[andiwm2003]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-x1600-mobility.html

There it is.

It's not a great card, but not bad for minimal gaming. No one is buying an iMac or Macbook for a good gaming machine, so it's all good, right?

i like that part of the review:

A slight disadvantage for the Mobility RADEON X1600 is that current drivers do not support hardware H.264 decoding. But at the end of the day, the H.264 content is going to be available starting from February 2006, at the earliest, however, ASUS A7G does not have a HD DVD or BD reader.

since when do we use h.264 for blogs, trailers, itunes movies and what not?

the review is from:
by Anton Shilov , Anna Filatova [ 12/06/2005 | 03:51 PM ]

are those guys living under a rock or do i miss something?



i'll wait till april 1st and then depending on the new i might spring for a imac 20".

 

[HiRez]

since when do we use h.264 for blogs, trailers, itunes movies and what not?

It's becoming pretty common. Apple's WWDC keynote stream, for example, was in H.264 (remember, H.264 is not just for high-definition, it scales all the way down to cel phones, so anything that can be offloaded from the CPU is a good thing).

Cool to see you have a Miata too! I miss mine really badly.

 

[Hydra]

This is from an AnandTech article written in december:

"The Mobility Radeon X1600 is essentially the same as its desktop counterpart with the exception that it is clocked slightly lower."

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2632&p=1

We can hope that the X1600 in the Intel iMac isn't clocked lower (can't you overclock the ATI card with software in some of the "older" Mac's?).

Would be great if someone who received their iMac could check what the specs on their X1600 are.

Any news on when we get to overclock the new X1600 GPU/MEM in iMacs and Macbooks?
Possibly even overclock the CPU.

New ATIccelator III, when are you coming?

 

[FarSide]

http://mapage.noos.fr/campahunta/index.html


ATIccelerator shows the standard clockspeeds of the chip. It would be cool, if an Intel iMac User could install it and check the frequencies...

X1600Pro: CoreClockSpeed 500MHz | MemoryClockSpeed 780MHz
X1600XT: CoreClockSpeed 590MHz | MemoryClockSpeed 1380MHz
M. X1600: CoreClockSpeed 470MHz | MemoryClockSpeed 470MHz

ATI Mobility X1600:
The other difference between the cores is the addition of ATI's Powerplay 6.0 power saving technology...

QUESTION: What's inside the iMac - Mobility|Pro|XT - Why isn't apple showing us those specs on the datasheets?

 

[Meyvn]

I think I've figured out how Apple is getting away with it. "1600 series."

 

[FarSide]

[FONT="] The pics of BakedBeans show, that they mention an "ATI Radeon X1600 graphics"in the iMac. This could be the Mobile&Desktop version of the chip... [/FONT]

 

[Joe2000]

I dont know but...

If it was the Desktop version of the Chip, would it not have a FULL SIZE DVI OUTPUT and not just a MINI DVI OUT?

- Joe

 

[TBi]

I dont know but...

If it was the Desktop version of the Chip, would it not have a FULL SIZE DVI OUTPUT and not just a MINI DVI OUT?

- Joe

The iMac doesn't have a full size DVI output for asthetic reasons. The mini looks prettier than a standard DVI port. That and they don't really want you to run dual screen, that's reserved mainly for the Powermacs. Also they can charge for the cable and make more money that way.

 

[powerbook911]

The iMac doesn't have a full size DVI output for asthetic reasons. The mini looks prettier than a standard DVI port. That and they don't really want you to run dual screen, that's reserved mainly for the Powermacs. Also they can charge for the cable and make more money that way.

I don't think "don't really want you to run dual screen" is true. I think they make it very obvious you can do this with the new iMac. They surely didn't want you to do this in the past, for they severely handicapped the iMac, but that has all changed.

 

[munkees]

to clarify that the iMac does not have a laptop CPU see following link

http://www.powermax.com/articles_reviews/the_intel_imac_revealed.html

clearly not a laptop chip it is a ziff socket? as for the mobile x1600, well I don't know and until I see a strip down picture of an imac intel 20" with the mobile then to me it is not. I beleive apple, hang on, apple did to people who purchased 1.63 MPR and 1.83, was UPGRADE, so I doubt they screw the iMac people !!!

 

[Mord]

your wrong, weather a cpu is socketed or not has no effect on weather it's a mobile or desktop cpu, it's the power envelope it's sold under, and the core duo is a mobile chip.

 

[TBi]

Some laptops used desktop P4's. Did that make the laptop a desktop? Original laptops also used older slower desktop processors. Conversely apple can use a chip which would normally be used in a laptop in their desktop iMac. I for one don't see why this is a bad thing. Unless you want your iMac to have the desktop P4 which would need a mammoth sized heatsink and the fan would have to be on constantly.

Also a P4 chip (100W+) uses as much power on it's own as the whole iMac needs (under 100W).

 

[TBi]

I don't think "don't really want you to run dual screen" is true. I think they make it very obvious you can do this with the new iMac. They surely didn't want you to do this in the past, for they severely handicapped the iMac, but that has all changed.

You are probably right. It could simply have been because they had loads of iMac cases made and they didn't want to change them. All the cases were designed to have a mini-something or other connector and not a DVI connector.