Roger Fingas
Intel on Thursday unveiled its first batch of 10th-generation Core processors, dubbed "Ice Lake," offering a glimpse at the options Apple will have in future MacBooks.
The 10-nanometer laptop chips are designed for better board integration, and in fact include native support for technologies like Wi-Fi 6 and Thunderbolt 3. That should allow them to keep up with Apple's demands for growing performance in compact systems like the MacBook Air.
The initial batch includes 11 chips in total, split between U- and lower-end Y-series processors. At the bottom of the list is the Y-series Core i3 1000G1, a 1.1-gigahertz dual-core chip with UHD Graphics, a 4-megabyte cache, and Turbo speeds up to 3.2 gigahertz.
At the peak is the U-series Core i7-1068G7, a quad-core unit with an 8-megabyte cache and 2.3-gigahertz base speed, able to ramp up to 3.6 gigahertz across all cores. Single-core boosts can reach 4.1 gigahertz.
Intel's new incarnation of Iris Plus is said to offer "double the graphics performance," good enough for 1080p gaming and 4K video editing. The GPU is also Intel's first to support VESA Adaptive Sync, and purportedly the first integrated option anywhere with variable rate shading.
The company is switching to a new naming scheme as well, seen below.
Apple has already updated the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air this year, but is rumored to be preparing a 16-inch Pro for launch in October. That computer may effectively replace the 17-inch Pro, which was discontinued in 2012.
Marko Zivkovic
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
23 Comments
Until ARM Macbook Air/Pro, Apple needs to pick up 10nm CPUs for Fall 2019 refresh of Macbook Pro/Air. Adds WiFi6, native Thunderbolt3, higher performance and lower power consumption with extended battery life.
AMD just released their 12- and 16-core processors on their “mainstream” platforms, I heard they’re throwing 64 cores for HEDTs. Unfortunately they aren’t good at the mobile technology, thus only offering quad-core for laptops.
It’s awkward for laptops, while AMD have no adequate mobile technologies, Intel is falling behind in core counts. You’re stuck either way. Thus, I think moving to ARM is the best hope for the Mac notebooks, skip the last x86 Macs, especially laptops, if you can.
Also, Intel is measuring TDP at their base frequencies, which means 9 Watts maximum for core m’s - at 1.0GHz, probably not including AVX.
Apple will probably do a MacBook Air and Pro refresh with these, but MacBook rebirth will be the first ARM / Axx Mac
For comparison's sake:
The current MacBook Air uses an i5-8210Y rated at 7W nominal TDP.
The new 2TB3 13" MacBook Pro uses an i5-8257U or i7-8557U rated at 15W nominal TDP.
The 4TB3 13" MacBook Pro uses an i5-8279U or i7-8569U rated at 28W nominal TDP.
So the Y series Ice Lake would need slightly better cooling than the MacBook Air currently has, but not like twice as much cooling capacity.
The U-series Ice Lake should be drop-in replacements for the U-series in the MacBook Pro.