macbook pro and montevina

Yes, yet another thread about someone on the fence about a new mbp. So, i have heard that yes, montevina will increase performance/decrease battery life - whatever. what intrigues me the most is that it is apparently expected to reduce laptops footprints/form factors by about 25%. Is this likely? because the current mbp looks pretty good to me performance wise. I dont think i will bother waiting if the mbp will not get smaller/lighter.

anways, my questions to summarize:
1. Is a size reduction (both weight and size) likely if and when the mbp gets an update?
2. Is it likely that the new mbp will be available for $2000 upon montevinas release?

That is all. Id really like to get one now, but since montevinas only a month/2 months away, it seems like a waste.

Thanks in advance,
Jason

 

i dont think they'll do much to it cosmetically yet. i'm thinking maybe at macworld 09.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/06/05/MacBook-Pro-gets-Intel-Santa-Rosa-LED-displays_1.html
last year they upgraded to santa rosa, and the prices stayed the same. they also upgrade to LED displays and even gave it a video card upgrade too.
so you might want to wait. montevina will give it a 1066FSB, compared to the 800mhz FSB it has now
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrino

 

can any1 confirm that what i told him was right?

 

i wouldn't expect a change to the laptop looks/size/weight wise, but no one can know for sure. i think that the only time soon that mbp's will get a new design is if the new 15.6 inch and 17.3 inch 16:9 screens become popular and would force a design change for the notebooks because of the different scales of the screens.

 

yea. so think they'll do a montevina upgrade in july, or does it appear they'll ride it out till macworld and unveil a totally new laptop. if so, this kind of blows if you want the best tech. for this fall.

 

I could see them updating to Montevina, but I'm not so sure about a case redesign right now.

While MacWorld could see an announcement, they may wait until Nehalem's mobile variants launches in Quarter 2 2009 to launch a completely new design.

But then again, the iMac was redesign last year and announced at a non-venue event, so who really knows.

 

I believe apple will come out with Montevina like this....

MBP -Next Gen Processor+DDR3 + ATI3850 Mobile Card(Due to low heat)
MB - Next Gen Processor+ DDR2 + ATI34XX Mobile Card

 

okcool, thanks for the wealth of replies guys. So, since I am perfectly fine with the current specs of the mbp, i should dive in now? the only thing i found intriguing about montevina was the potentially smaller and lighter casing that could come with it. but if you dont really see a new case design happening until macworld (January?), then i think ill bite now. i will probably sell the notebook in 9 or 10 months anyways in order to retain a good resell value. do you think i will still be able to sell it for at least $1200 come march/april assuming i keep it in 9/10 condition?

 

I think you may be able to get that value back...

 

mac are supposed to update their macbook pros in around september/october with montevina.

montevina boards are 40% smaller so expect smaller weight.
ram and cpu also runs cooler.
gpu and hard drives will be same in montevina standards. I dont know what they will put in the mac pro though

 

What's so great about montevina anyway?? I'm still using a 2.16 ghz core 2 duo MBP from way back and it's still fast!

 

dont you dare say those words. sept/october?!?! last year they did the upgrade in a month flat, why would they wait that long, and even possibly release a new MBP at macworld a few monthes later in january?

1066 FSB as opposed to 800mhz FSB.

i really wish july would come sooner, and then even more rumors would be going around. i do want the GPU upgrade too.

 

to be in par with dell when they release their first montevina based laptops.

Montevina is batter because it uses 1066 fsb and up to 6/12mb cache in the cpu, runs ram at 1066mb and is compatible with the upcoming wimax.

montevina is also around 25% more power efficient and also all of its corresponding parts give out less heat, so it gives a longer lifespan to both battery and overall life of the notebook.

wimax is a new wireless that can pretty much get up to 2km far connections from the reciever, or up to 7km if you have line of sight.

 

Not to mention the upcoming x4500 IGP from Intel which should give a nice boost to 3D performance.
EDIT: Speaking of the macbook, not macbook pro.

 

Last point first --> You don't really want the GPU update. The current video offering in the macbook pro is going to run circles around any embedded intel solution. The intel GPU is for a compact, low power, low heat solution and is more a concern for something like the Air.

The difference in bus speeds may not even be noticeable for most people, especially on a laptop, with fewer & slower peripherals and less multitasking compared to a bigger machine. Put in another light there is only going to be an improvement in throughput when the bus utilization is near 100%, a rare occurrence for any length of time on a laptop I would expect.

There's always a new model around the corner, sometimes more than one.

Doug

 

It would definitely help to future-proof a laptop though, as no doubt software eventually will take advantage of it.

 

I wish there was such a thing as future-proofing a computer, but alas no.

The difference in bus speed won't change which applications are able to run and will be invisible to anything but system software such as drivers and the like.

Hard core games may be able to run through a few more fps but in most cases perception is logarithmic and a 10% overall increase may not be noticeable.

I missed the wireless additions but apple up to now hasn't been implementing intel's solutions anyway, have they?


Doug

 

that's my concern. i want a notebook for the next 1-2 years. so i think perhaps montevina will be a good upgrade worth the wait?
and yes, kno what the intel integrated video card is, i'd only buy a laptop with a dedicated video card, such as the 8600m GT in the MBP.

 

I tried out the sony SZ780 yesterday and the combo-GPU idea is kind of cool -- embedded intel for low power and nvidia for speed. Unfortunately the SZ wasn't that impressive overall.

Doug

 

okay, so you guys are saying that a new mbp chasis is not likely to come on montevinas release? Rather sometime after macworld. Because the possibility of a smaller chasis is really all that interests me about montevina. if thats the case then i will just pick up a mbp now, and sell it sometime next year when the new chasis is released. what do you think?

 

you may see intigrate graphics chips in a different light soon. the line between discreet and intigrated will meld into one.

 

Montevina is the intel chipset and has nothing to do with the case or even the size of the motherboard.

Since most chip package sizes are determined by the external connects and not the die size the incremental changes in Montevina aren't going to make any material difference to the size.

With the mac book pro the only way the case can get smaller is with a smaller LCD which I would think is unlikely as they already have both the macbook regular and air. Unless they make it thinner of course but I doubt it can get much thinner without having the goofy port setup of the Air.

The next intel Centrino release after montevina (2009 or later) has more significant changes since it goes to an on-board memory controller like AMD and a new processor family. Coming from an opteron background myself I can say that the seperate memory bus will have more of an impact than the small increase in bus speed between the santa rosa and montevina chip sets since they both use the same basic processor (penryn) and FSB model.

See my above point about there always being a next model
Doug

 

Dedicated will always offer better performance, but intel is working to help bridge the gap a bit. Starting with montevina, intel will start to make their integrated graphics more competitive, but they'll never be equal to dedicated graphics.

 

Agreed though I think intel has a hard time keeping up with a moving target in the graphics field and concentrates more on lower end solutions.

Doug

 

to actually answer your question. yea, that sounds good man. there's going to be a part update in about august, but there wont be a full re-design until macworld 2009 or later. i doubt they'll be anything new until then. so go ahead and make that purchase now.

 

Sounds like a good plan. But, if you can wait a while, you should wait for the Montevina release and get that one. You could probably resell for a bit more when the time comes.

 

i really wonder bout the GPU release of the MBP when montevina comes out. if it's just a 9600gt, i think i might buy now, but then again you never can tell.