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Is Apple falling off with AMD? The worst decision Apple has ever made.

ATi. Nvidia. Different sides of the same coin. Both have their budget cards and their flagship cards.

Never really noticed a huge difference, tbh. Video hardware requirements either met or exceeded software specs, or they didn't.
 
The guy Bluaffiliate has no idea what he is talking about.. just some pc fanboy trying to educate us.. if AMD is so bad, then why has Apple chosen to use AMD over nvidia? I won't document the reasons here.
 
Joshuarocks said:
The guy Bluaffiliate has no idea what he is talking about.. just some pc fanboy trying to educate us.. if AMD is so bad, then why has Apple chosen to use AMD over nvidia? I won't document the reasons here.
Click to expand...

A knowledgeable Windows pc user would know that AMD makes some cutting edge cards and has some very good cards at the various price points. Perhaps the OP should go to a Windows pc forum and do a bit of reading.
 
ATi has won me over with video performance (every since the 5870, nVidia has had to catch up and they still really haven't)...

But the AMD processor STILL lags behind Intel:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Ouch.

Apple might use AMD CPUs for low-end Macs, but to replace Intel CPUs in high-end Macs? I think that would encourage more people to do hackintosh than to stay loyal to Apple. Intel CPUs are much faster...

I doubt Apple would make a complete conversion to AMD. Again, maybe for lower-end systems; that would make some sense.
 
-aggie- said:
I don’t know about the ATI comments, but saying AMD is crap makes no sense. In some respects AMD is a much better CPU and consistently performs better than Intel CPU’s.
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Which ones?

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Obviously that list has a rather large number of Intel CPUs putting the AMD Phenom in its place. Indeed, the highest-end Phenom is marginally faster than the W3520. :eek: (and just above the i7-2630 in the newest MBP. A notebook CPU is almost on par with the highest-end AMD CPU. That's not good.)
 
*LTD* said:
Of course, there's also Apple's A-series platform. The good stuff you see under the hood in today's iPad will find its way into tomorrow's Macs. Albeit, in much, much more powerful iterations, which will effectively end the Nvidia/ATI debate.
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The A series would be complete crap in a desktop. Even in a full desktop iteration. There's a reason companies don't generally use Atom processors in desktops. Apple won't be using their own processors or graphics cards in the foreseeable future at all.


Hell, Apple doesn't even make the A5 or A4, those chips are made by Samsung.
 
So you're a complete fool then? By "worked with hardware for years" I presume you really mean "my mum bought me a screwdriver and I fitted a stick of ram once". Because your post is completely inaccurate, childish and wrong.

ATi graphics are simply fantastic, and their processors we're excellent for gaming last generation, they do need an update to the range to stay competitive against SB though. I believe this is coming soon though.
 
ATI being second rate cards?! hahahaha... oh wow OP, you made me laugh good time.

Next time do a little more research before even trying to troll. ATI cards are the bets right now and nVidia can't even keep up. Just look at the TDPs on all nVidia GPUs.... off the scales.

Whats the only card that fries over a slight overclock? A nVidia GPU.

OP, come out of your rock.
 
Funny, Macs with ATI cards were selling just as well as Macs with Nvidia cards.

It makes very little difference to Apple's target market.

Your games either run decent or they don't. AMD/ATI and Nvidia both make decent cards.

No one really cares.
 
BluAffiliate said:
Intel was a great choice because hands down, Intel creates the best (stable & fast) processors.

Wrong. In the x86 PC market maybe so.

Now Apple has made another choice that is definitely not a good one: switching to AMD (ATI) video cards.

As a hardware guy, let me give you a quick rundown of what AMD/ATI is and why this is a horrible move for Apple. AMD & ATI are budget versions of Intel and Nvidia, respectively.

Wrong.

The whole business model of AMD & ATI is to wait for Intel or Nvidia to release a quality product and then create a budget version (with almost identical specs.) of the same product for cheap.

Wrong.

They are essentially almost knock offs of Nvidia and Intel for processors and video cards. The specs of the processors and video cards are the same as their real counterparts, so people buy them thinking it's the same thing but cheaper. WRONG, as these products routinely under-perform or break down before time has come.

Again, wrong.
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I think you get the jist OP.

I'll award you an F+ as I'm feeling generous.
 
jav6454 said:
ATI being second rate cards?! hahahaha... oh wow OP, you made me laugh good time.

Next time do a little more research before even trying to troll. ATI cards are the bets right now and nVidia can't even keep up. Just look at the TDPs on all nVidia GPUs.... off the scales.

Whats the only card that fries over a slight overclock? A nVidia GPU.

OP, come out of your rock.
Click to expand...

Actually, you're guilty of exactly the same as the OP. Yes, the first round of Fermi cards were hot, but the 5xx series are fantastic and overlock like champs - certainly not "frying" as you claim.

So yeah, cut down the fanboy claims a little.



ATi and NVIDIA make good cards, and trade blows throughout the product range. At any price point one may be better than the other, but there is definitely no overall winner.
 
Ah so many fanboys. Lets get the facts straight. Intel will always be the fastest CPU manufacturer. I could give a damn about price vs performance ratio which seems all AMD fanboys spit out. As for NVIDIA, they have always had the fastest single GPU, which matters most. As for 6990 vs GTX 590, obviously the 6990 is a better all arounder. If nvidia had beefed up the VRM and increased the clocks 10% than the GTX 590 would be the best, period. 6990 is hot and noisy, the opposite for the 59, oh and the TDP of the 6990 is higher. The majority of computer enthusiasts go with intel and nvidia.
 
chrono1081 said:
+1

As a hardware knowledgable person myself (but not the hardware person KnightWRX is suggesting, although I can write X86 assembler code) and someone who has worked in IT for a long time I can tell you that vid cards flip flop quality and features wise. Brand loyalty among vid card manufacturers is stupid.
Click to expand...

+1

Both ATI/AMD and nVidia have had good and bad products.

Good being the Radeon 9x00 series, X1xxx series, 4xxx series, 5xxx series and 6xxx series. nVidia having the 8800/9800, GTX 460 1GB and 560 Ti.

Bad ones would be the Radeon 2900 and 3xxx series, nVidia with the 8600m, the 470/480, and the older GeForce 4MX, 5200/5600/6600 series.

When it comes to computing, at the current time, I'll take what's the best performance and/or price/performance. I used to rock an Athlon 64, as they'd run circles around the P4. Now I can't recommend any AMD CPUs. Intel has better performance per clock and better/less power usage, and given that Intel has been at least 1 die process ahead of AMD for the past few years, that's not going to change, unless Bulldozer is actually the next Athlon 64.

Same with GPUs. If Apple offered it, I'd get a GeForce 560Ti/570/580 in my iMac if I could. But a year ago and change, I'd be rocking a Radeon 4870/4890.

It's hard to be loyal to a brand of GPU company, ever since 3dfx showed that you can easily fall from grace almost overnight. Pick the best card you can for the time, and most likely, be ready to switch at any given notice.

I know before, if 2 cards I were looking at from ATI and nVidia were avilable, I'd go with nVidia as the unified driver thing made things a lot simpler. Now it's basically a wash.
 
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