The start of iMac Pro sales means customers now know exactly how much their custom configurations will cost, and when they are expected to ship. Buyers interested in the top-of-the-line desktop can expect to fork over more than $7,000 for an 18-core beast, though it won't ship until February.
Signalling that the iMac Pro will likely meet its December ship date, Apple suppliers are reportedly preparing the AMD Radeon Pro Vega cards that will power the computer's graphics.
External GPU enclosure developer Mantiz posted a Tweet on Thursday of the new AMD Vega PCI-E video card working in its enclosure, connected to a MacBook Pro — and that likely means that the card will work on Apple's last PCI-E Mac Pro as well in High Sierra.
The GPUs that will be in the iMac Pro — the Vega 56 and Vega 64 — have been detailed by an AMD-provided driver update for Linux, with the cards able to utilize much as twice as a much data in each register as previous cards when 32 bits of precision aren't needed.
As with the initial Radeon Pro release with the 2016 MacBook Pro, Apple hasn't provided that much detail on the same family of GPUs used in the new iMacs — but AMD has shed some light on the new processors, showing a radical improvement over the predecessors.
Users delving into the latest macOS 10.12.2 beta have discovered strings aligning with potential support for a trio of new GPU families in future hardware — a refreshed Polaris 10, the unknown Polaris 12, and the Vega 10 series.
AMD has offered up some technical information on the three discrete chipsets debuting in the new MacBook Pro line, showing nearly double the performance on the Radeon Pro 460 over the Radeon Pro 450.
Though Apple's current Mac lineup relies on AMD graphics, a switch to Nvidia could be in the works for the MacBook Pro and beyond, if new job listings from the GPU maker is any indication.
Once again, Apple probably won't rock the boat with any new MacBook Pro, and will likely stick with Intel integrated graphics and lower end next-generation discrete GPUs rather than giving macOS users faster options.
AMD's latest graphics chips, the Polaris 10 and 11, will make their way into Apple desktops and laptops shipping later this year, a report said on Tuesday.
While rumors have long claimed that Apple has plans to replace Intel's x86 chips in Macs with its own custom ARM Application Processors, MacGPUs are among a series of potentially more valuable opportunities available to Apple's silicon design team, and could conceivably replicate Apple's history of beating AMD and Nvidia in mobile graphics processors—and Intel in mobile CPUs.
Between 2006 and 2013, AMD & Nvidia fumbled the ball in mobile chips, losing their positions as the world's leading GPU suppliers by failing to competitively address the vast mobile market, enabling Apple to incrementally develop what are now the most powerful mainstream Application Processor GPUs to ship in vast volumes. Here's how it happened, the lessons learned and how Apple could make it happen again.
Members of the 2011 MacBook Pro graphics failure class-action lawsuit were updated this week on the latest developments in the case, which has expanded to include multiple states and lodges new complaints against Apple, accusing the company of deliberately concealing problems.
A long-running issue with owners of Apple's 2011 series of MacBook Pros has resulted in a class-action lawsuit, seeking compensation for apparent graphics card failures experienced by customers.
Apple's big-screen iMac will get a doubled-resolution Retina display with a forthcoming update expected to be unveiled at the company's anticipated October media event, a new report claims.
Apple's newly-redesigned Mac Pro ships standard with dual GPUs configured via hardware to support AMD's CrossFire GPU-pairing technology, but only when running Microsoft Windows.
Apple's first beta of OS X 10.8.3 has quietly added support for the AMD Radeon HD 7000 series of graphics cards, hinting that they could be featured in the company's designed Mac Pro desktop.
Former AMD chip designer Jim Mergard, a noted engineer of both desktop class and mobile processors, is said to have been hired Apple after working for a short time at Samsung.
Apple has reportedly "deliberated" moving its lineup of Mac computers away from Intel processors, though such a change apparently isn't "imminent."
New reports claim to have confirmed that Apple's upcoming MacBook Pros will eschew AMD graphics processors in favor of GPUs from Nvidia.
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Neil Hughes
Roger Fingas
Mike Wuerthele
Daniel Eran Dilger
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