Apple bitten by own words
With the old G4 version of the Mac Mini, Apple made a lot out of the fact the diminuitive desktop had a standalone graphics card.
Rather than just tout its own graphics power, Apple took a swipe at many low-end Windows PCs, which use integrated graphics chips that share memory and processor power with the rest of the PC.
"Go ahead, just try to play Halo on a budget PC," Apple said. "Most say they're good for 2D games only. That's because an 'integrated Intel graphics' chip steals power from the CPU and siphons off memory from system-level RAM."
That's all well and good. But now comes the new Intel-based Mac Mini. And guess what, it has integrated graphics too. The folks at Macworld spotted Apple's problem and noted that the company took down that old page from its Web site.
Now Apple has a new page, one that touts the new Mac Mini, its Intel Core processor and, yes, integrated graphics.
"Mac mini features a graphics processor integrated into the system, and one that's no slouch, to boot," Apple says on the new site. "The Intel GMA950 graphics supports Tiger Core Graphics and the latest 3D games. It shares fast 667MHz memory4 with the Intel Core processor, for an incredible value proposition."
Yeah, I guess calling it a power-stealing siphon hose wouldn't have sounded too good.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina.
