Will MacBook chip end Intel graphics franchise?

Will Apple's decision to use Nividia chips in its new MacBooks be a catalyst for change?

With all the hoopla surrounding Apple's choice of Nvidia graphics in its new MacBooks fading, it remains to be seen if Nvidia's GeForce 9400M has legs.

Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q708 may presage other designs with Nvidia GeForce 9400M

(Credit: Toshiba)

Intel has a successful integrated graphics franchise and is the leader in laptop graphics. Before I get slammed, let me be clear that I'm not talking about performance. I'm referring to market share. Many laptop suppliers--particularly in the low-cost and ultraportable segments--default to Intel graphics because it offers adequate performance, reasonable power efficiency, and it's cheap (if not free).

The question is, can Nvidia's GeForce 9400M change the industry practice of opting for Intel simply because its solution is adequate and cheap? And, is Apple signaling a sea change? The first indications are that the 9400M offers improvement over Intel's graphics, according to CNET Reviews. (Games and photo editing applications like Photoshop are two obvious areas where Nvidia will beat Intel's newest GM45 integrated graphics.)

And Apple was getting plenty of feedback apparently. Nvidia's recent statement in a conference call may be representative of what other PC makers are hearing from their customers. Apple was getting "a lot of feedback...from the Apple community" who were demanding better graphics, according to Bill Henry, director of notebook marketing at Nvidia.

Nvidia's one-chip 9400M is truly an integrated solution and thereby a direct Intel competitor. In addition to the graphics-dedicated transistors that make up about 70 percent of the die (chip) area, the 9400M chipset includes a memory controller, PCI Express, USB ports, SATA ports, high-definition audio, and legacy support. Importantly, Nvidia said it has maintained the same power envelope of Intel graphics.

But it's not clear whether this will change the dynamics of the market. Whether, for example, the largest vendors that now use Intel integrated graphics in ultraportables will opt for Nvidia as Apple did with its Air. There is a formidable list of vendors that use Intel's GM45. Hewlett-Packard (EliteBook 2530p), Dell (Latitude E4200), Sony (Vaio VGN-TT190UBX), and Toshiba (R600-S4202).

Or maybe a market shift will happen elsewhere. Toshiba has offered a glimpse of what some may do. The high-end Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q708 ($4,199) was announced last week, packing an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300, a 128GB solid state drive, and integrated GeForce 9400M graphics paired with two Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTS graphics chips.

The beauty of this design is that a user can switch between the power-sipping 9400M when doing undemanding tasks and the powerhouse 9800 GTS graphics when playing games.

And reports claim that new designs from HP, Dell, and Asus will use the 9400M.

But the jury's out. We'll have to wait to see what other PC makers elect to do over the coming months and whether putting Nvidia graphics in ultraportables and other laptop designs is a new imperative.

[Technoracle]

As long as it works, the average consumer will be fine. I do think competition is healthy for Intel though!

[Someone-else]

Most computers sold today are bottlenecked by it's graphics, it's usual to see C2Ds with 2+Gb of RAM, 200+Gb HD that can't even run Vista Aero or HD videos smoothly, which is a waste.

It's good to see a sign that things might change soon.

[Astinsan]

It probably has something to do with gma chips being low end. When you sell a "high end" laptop... it would be easier to sell it with a high end graphics chip.

Intel isn't going to care. GPUs are only one area of their fab. I personally don't see any issues with it. It works fine on my little netbook running compiz.

[bakedpatato]

Do I care? No as I seek out computers without Intel GMAs.
However, it only means that people won't complain to me that "omg this game wont run sum card thingy is not supported" the less GMAs there are in the world.
The Toshiba example in the article kinda seems off, IMHO. High end laptops never had GMAs in em and the high end GPU/low end GPU tech has been around for a while, see the Alienware 15inch laptop.

[tacit]

"Games and photo editing applications like Photoshop are two obvious areas where Nvidia will beat Intel's newest GM45 integrated graphics."

That's only partly true. All versions of Photoshop through Photoshop CS3 do not take advantage of accelerated 3D graphics hardware *at all* and receive zero benefit from high-end accelerated graphics hardware. The only version of Photoshop where the graphics hardware maters is the new CS4, and even there it only benefits a handful of functions.

Far more important to Photoshop performance is RAM. Expecting a significant boost in Photoshop performance by buying a machine equipped with Nvidia graphics over integrated Intel graphics is likely to result in disappointment, and certainly will make no difference whatsoever to folks using CS3 and earlier.

[benjwah]

If you don't like GMA, I doubt another integrated chip is going to do the trick. It might be a little bit better, but a decent performance increase will come with a proper discrete graphics setup.

[John Howell]

My Mac mii has a crappy GMA 850 in it. I really would have paid an extra $400 for a propper video chip becuase it is the only thing stopping this great little machine being perfect for me 8(
Doesn't matter too much though, if I want games I use my XBox, but some PC game styles are much better and I prefer thinking games and sims to shooters.

[dmtien]

I'm one of the converts from the MacBook (Black, with GMA graphics) to the new MacBook. Aside from the obvious boosts in 3D graphics capability (games, Apple Motion, Keynote effects), it solved a big problem with flash videos disappearing off the screen because of insufficient video RAM as well as other 2D quirks ascribed to the underpowered graphics card. If nVidia is able to meet and exceed the Intel chipset as well as keep pricing and power consumption at the GMA levels, then it is definitely a game changer. Other than the lack of FireWire, for a media workstation, I don't really have a need for a MacBook Pro for the day-to-day tasks.

[kelmon]

One can hope that this gives Intel a kick up the backside. If a reasonable adoption is made of the nVidia solutions then Intel will hopefully be forced to produce better solutions to avoid a more widespread defection. That said, the price of the GPUs will be deciding factor for many companies in order to avoid increasing their final price to the customer unless they are sure that the customer is prepared to pay more.

[Canberra-photographer]

Given how useless Intel GMA is for... well, practically everything, this will hopefully give consumers better performance and give Intel a kick to put out something better.

[Alex Alexzander]

It's not a Mac Chip, it's an nVidia chip. I get you want headlines that draw people in, but at least get it right. It's not a Mac chip.

Alex Alexzander

[ittesi259]

Nowhere is it claimed to be a chip produced by Apple. MacBook chip clearly means the chip found inside the MacBook and the article makes it clear its from Nvidia. And the headline is correct as the prompting action for this whole discussion was Apple going with Nvidia and dropping Intel.

So understand the context of the article before you rip the headline, which is entirely correct.

[Alex Alexzander]

whatever... It's not a macbook chip. In an nVidia chip. Play with it all you like. It's nVidia and should be spoken and written this way. As the same chip is available to all. What next, you'll call it the dell chip, and the hp chip? It's going to get confusing when in reality it is an nVidia chip plain and simple.

Alex Alexzander

[Shadowcaster787]

I will stick to my workstation graphics :P

[snvindore]

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