Nehalem MBPs?

What kinds of improvements will the Nehalem MBPs have over the current ones? There will obviously be newer CPUs and QuickPath. Exactly how much of an improvement are they? Since it use a completely different socket, it won’t be just a minor speed bump will it? Would it be like going from Pentium to Core? And will there be other updates (ie, graphics card)? Thanks

 

Well, I have just recently received a Nehalem MBP and let me tell you, this thing is fast. The jump is like going from 486 to Core 2 duo. Things that took me 20 minutes on Core 2 duo gets done in less than half a minute.

I recommend you look into getting one yourself.

 

There are no Nehalem - Core i7 - MBP's, _insert offensive word here_. You must mean Montevina.

You can look forward to Nehalem Macs coming around or after Q3 2009.

Personally, I don't think they'll provide that big of a speed increase over the Core series, and not much in terms of power consumption either.

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Sorry no Nehalem for notebooks yet! I think you are talking about Montevina

 

I think people must learn how to read first..

 

Nehalem is supposed to be released in the MBP's around the Q3 of next year.

 

And I think you need to realize that people, especially those that are quoting the person they are responding to, may be responding to someone other than the OP.

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now, now. this need not turn into personal attacks. Simply stated, I just want to know if Nehalem will be evolutionary or revolutionary.

 

?

i was quoting to emphasize the part in bold

 

Should be a pretty big bump for memory-intensive applications (which is most).

Similar to the improvement in AMD's K8 over the Pentium 4.

 

Says who? The chip is being released Q3 of next year, that's if it's not delayed, We probably won't see MBP with them till 2010 or late 2009

 

Oct in usually when apple updates it lineup. Anyways, can anyone answer the fundamental question of "just how much faster will Nehalem be?". Would going from Montevina to Nehalem be the same as going from Penryn to Montevina?

 

No it won't be like going from penryn to Montevina, Nehalem is a whole new chip design. I don't know how much of a difference they will make in note books. You can find stats for the current Nehalem chips for desktops.

Also another reason why Apple might not go to them right away is because they will be EXTREMELY expensive and they are also quad core chips and there will be heating issues.

 

I know it's a whole new generation, but would the performance increase be the equivalent of going from Penryn to Montevina?

 

intel had stated that the i7 core will only be hosted in extreme high end rigs for the first introduction of its product, and at least for 3quarters of time...

so new macbook pro with i7 might only be seen around the same time next year

whereas mac pro might be different

or unless apple is making a 5k laptop sometime somewhere...

 

Yeah I'd say early 2010 is when we will see them.

 

i7are out for desktops and trust me it's fast, for laptops there will be an improvement, but not as much as ssd's have been

 

Intel works like clockwork, they haven't realeased a CPU product late in years. There is quite a good a possiblilty that the Nehalem based notebooks, including the Macbooks, will be realeased in Q3 since companies like Intel will provide pre-production samples to notebook manufacturers to design notebooks around.

 

...I was certain deathwinger was being sarcastic...

 

If you are waiting for Nehalem to speed up games then you are wasting your time. The primary design goal for Nehalem was to improve performance in the server market, not desktop or mobile. The reduction of the L2 cache from 6MB to 256kB will have a negative effect on many common applications which previously would have fit in the cache, although having a large L3 cache, albiet slow, and having an integrated memory controller does seem to help.

Nehalem won't offer the same transition as Netburst to Merom. For the average user, you're looking at 5% improvement clock for clock over Penryn. The real benefit is in multimedia rendering, where 20%+ performance improvements are more common, mainly due to the return of hyperthreading. Hyperthreading and the smaller L2 cache sometimes help and sometimes hinder gaming performance relative to Penryn.

Nehalem also seems to have some power improvements although it seems more to be performance/watt improvements than absolute power improvements. Really Nehalem over Penryn is similar to Penryn over Merom. It'll be evolutionary in overall performance for the average user, but revolutionary in the sense that the platform changes set the foundation for Intel's design for the next several years.

 

According to Anandtech.com

In summary: Nehalem performance will vary between applications, but in general, expect at least the same or slightly more (2-20%) performance for less energy consumption than Penryn.

Gaming: Meh, Nehalem performs about the same as Penryn, sometimes even worst due to the smaller L2 cache sizes.

Also, expect Intel to tweak their design for the mobile launch of Nehalem. They'll be after more performance per watt.

 

What kind of power savings would you expect?

 

It depends. How much computing power do u want? If you want something that's as powerful as any C2D now, it'll use more energy but there'll of course be other cpus which are faster and use the same energy envelope as now.

 

Nehalem is not available for notebooks yet. DDR3 is kind of expensive compared to DDR2 right now though.

 

well, ddr3 is somewhat more power efficient. Besides, it's the only option available on the MBP

 

I am also waiting for Nehalem macbook pro's at this point.. I've been saving $200/month so I can buy it around November - October. Do you think by that time they will have the MBP in Nehalem? Is it worthed to wait? As if it doesn't come out in October, I'll be pissed.. I want a MBP sooo badd... not really in great need of a laptop, but I just really want a MBP and get rid of my current laptop

 

hahah, I understand because I fell the same! but I want it NOW!!!

 

I just ordered mine... Nehalem isn't worth the wait. There will ALWAYS be something better on the horizon.

 

true, but it's a huge change

 

Meh not really, and there's a chance you won't even see them for a year it's not worth waiting.

 

You might want to wait until next month actually- the GPU will be much improved..

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/12/09/apple-macbook-pros-nvidia-bad

 

Everything is a huge change before it comes out. Then when it comes out, its lackluster and then the very next thing to come out will be a huge change.

 

well.. I think it's quite huge as it's a different architecture

 

That new architecture is optimized for the server market where Intel has continued to be weak in and to break into AMD's last stronghold. Consumers, especially typical mobile workload, won't see much benefit unless you are doing video encoding. Certainly it doesn't benefit games much and is actually occasionally slower clock for clock than Penryn due to the much smaller L2 cache and a high latency L3 cache.

 

hmm..that's true I guess.. and considering that most applications these days still hasn't utilize the benefit of using those multi cores, waiting for nehalem is pretty much useless huh? I am not a big gamer nor ever does video encoding in my life... so I should just get what's available at May 2009?

 

Intel really has nothing significant in their pipeline before mobile Nehalem in Q3. Right now they have dual cores at 2.53GHz, 2.8GHz, and a 3.06GHz Extreme Edition. During Q1 and Q2 they will just fill out the product line with a small clock speed bump to 2.66GHz, 2.93GHz, and introduce a non-Extreme Edition 3.06GHz. Quad core mobile chips look to continue to use a high 45W TDP like Extreme Edition parts which Apple doesn't/can't use in notebooks. The upcoming 2.13GHz mobile quad core may be able to fit the standard 35W TDP, but with such a low clock speed limiting most applications, you might as well stick with a 2.8GHz or 2.93GHz dual core since they'd probably be the same price anyways. There isn't anything spectacular and it isn't even clear if Apple's going to bother refreshing to the clock speed bumps in Q2 if Nehalem is coming around the corner in Q3 anyways.

The advice is always wait for as long as you can, buy, then don't look back. It's not like you can actually beat Intel's steady development cycle.

 

Yeah...that's true I guess.. Getting a faster clock speed is better rather than a multi core.. that's what my opinion is looking at the current software developments which still rarely utilize the multicore

 

Okay, this is nitpicking, but I keep seeing this....

Penryn is Intel's general name for the second generation Core 2 architecture. It was Conroe, then Penryn. Penryn is what's used in today's Macbook Pros. Montevina is just Intel's name for their latest "Centrino" platform. It doesn't really mean anything, and the Apple notebooks are NOT Centrino/Montevina notebooks.