Future Apple hardware to be powered by AMD?

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Those sleuthing Apple informants seem to have struck gold once again. After noticing a continuous stream of AMD bosses and representatives travelling to and from Apple’s Cupertino campus, they’re now reporting that Apple is seriously considering the #2 chipmaker as a replacement for its current Intel offerings. Apple is thought to be unhappy with Intel, whose prolonged chip development cycle has slowed the pace of Apple’s hardware refresh and whose incompatibility with Nvidia has forced Apple to use the less than optimal integrated Intel graphics chipset. In fact, Apple’s dissatisfaction with Intel’s GPU performance is what prompted the company to develop the novel automatic graphics switching utilized by its recently refreshed MacBook Pro line-up. The hardware work-around allows the notebook to switch from the integrated Intel chipset to the more powerful NVIDIA GT 320M and GT 330M cards when needed. AMD, with its strong ties to ATI, could seemingly offer Apple greater flexibility over its future products which might one day include a powerful graphics subsytem worthy of the Apple name. Before you get too excited and sell your new Core i5 and Core i7 MBPs on eBay, keep in mind that all of this is speculation based upon the rather ambiguous, yet highly referenced “people familiar with the matter”. Respond appropriately.

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41 Comments
  • buckdutter

    I bet Apple is looking ahead to AMD Fusion – CPU/GPU on one chip that AMD has been working towards since aquiring ATI a few years ago. Could do wonders in terms of cost for performance for future Macbooks. You could say it is what Intel did with Nehalem…except I would say it would be done “right” since it is fair to assume the graphics would not be garbage.

    Last I checked the future ‘Bulldozer’ line was going to be the first iteration (2011 release I think), but I have not looked into all this for a long time, so that may have changed.

    It’s good Apple is keeping their options open.

  • APlayerFromTheHimalya

    I think it this way. Apple has always charged premium for their hardware solutions. By lowering the costs and manufacturing, plus partnering with 1 company that provides you a really good chipset so that you can get everything you need from a sole provider, they make more money.

    It may also be a move to intimidate Intel….I also agree with Keymaker. It would make so much sense…buy them and be done…

  • s0yp0p

    r0x s0x

    intel made the books utter poopy

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