The Inquirer – Wednesday 08 August 2007:
THE RELEASE of Apple’s new super-sleek Imacs heralds more than just a design change for the Cappuccino-based firm – it marks some prime inventory movement for the boys at AMD/ATI.
Until yesterday, and the release of the new models, ATI had its graphics chips in just two of the thirteen standard Macs – its X1600 cards were available in the mid-range previous-gen Imacs – with Intel below and Nvidia 7300 above.
The new Imac line is all-ATI, instantly doubling the company’s share of the Mac graphics business.
I wonder if they’ll start using AMD CPUs any time soon.
It must work to their advantage to have everything provided by the one chipmaker.
At the moment AMDs chips are slower than intel’s ones, but the soon to be released Phenom chips look damn good!
Wow, you guys are really dedicated. You posted this at 3 in the morning!
When you can prove that Phenom is faster than Penryn, then I’ll look into their chips. As for their graphics cards, ATI’s been pretty disappointing this generation. More than 6 months after nVidia releases their stunning DX10 cards, ATI releases one that can keep up with the midrange model but eats more power and generates more heat than the top-end cards. Not exactly impressive.
#3: It’s still overpriced so Apple can justify how they’re built.
>>Wow, you guys are really dedicated. You posted this at 3
>>in the morning!
I think their servers are somewhere out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The time stamps are always an hour EARLIER than Pacific time.
That “3am” posting appeared around 7am here, which is the time it would be on the east coast.
#1 – After the iMac intro, etc., there was a sitdown Q&A session with the media folks in attendance. The question about using AMD cpu’s was asked. Jobs replied, “We use Intel”.
[edited: spam]
#3 pedro “Still any doubts that macs are just a run-of-the-mill pee cee?”
Apple like any PC manufacturer is entitled to expand their hardware base – nothing new here. Good for them to catch up with the mainstream.
Hey Pedro – Still on your diet and your son still eats pizza in front of you? 😀 Just remembering an old comment of yours…
Cheers
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro – Setting a chum line for Mac users?
Seems ‘Lauren the Ghoti’ gave up on the previous ‘discussion’ – well the rhetoric from her more like – so looking for more? 😉
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=13020#comment-740669
Cheers
#10 tihz_ho
on your previous post you raise a point, that many people raised and is very simple to explain in two simple points:
There are many Window users who are angry that Apple does not let OS X run on their PC boxes. Is this fair? Apple is high on how Mac users can now run Windows and don’t have to buy a new box. However true to Apple’s form, Apple want only boxes THEY sell – Macs – to run OS X. That’s off! Its like iPods only work with ITunes – which is also unreasonable!!
1- Apple is a hardware company.
2- Apple is not big enough to handle the immense diversity of hardware around.
Those two points explain everything. Apple is only interested in selling hardware. That’s why they always bundle the software.
If Apple opens up OSX to the PC platform they are in for two things: Start selling less hi margin boxes and start having to triple their staff to develop drivers and support for every piece of hardware under the Sun. That’s why Microsoft is so huge, they have to check that windows works not only in Dells, but HPs, Lenovos and every beige box around, with every CPU/chipset/Gpu configuration.
As it’s easily gathered, Apple would lose tons of revenue in the immediate future.
As for AMD chips inside macs, wait and see. Apple is not willing to put itself on a position to depend on a (relatively) small provider, as with the days of IBM/Motorola.
#12 Thanks for the explanation however I did understand – that is why I said what I said. “Apple wants only boxes THEY sell – Macs – to run OS X.” I just didn’t go to why they do this – you summed it up well.
For exactly the reasons you cited was a previous point I made about people bitching about MS and that we would not have the PC technology we have today if it weren’t for one preeminent.OS. Love him or hate him we ought to thank Bill.
The reasons you cited also explains the technology lag Apple traditionally has with new cutting edge hardware. Its all about the money.
Cheers
Pedro – I was only pulling your chain about stirring up the mud with Mac users! 😀 Obviously you were throwing the stones underhand!
As much as I enjoy dominating the anti-Mac crowd here, I can’t get worked up over this story.
Apple’s main seller is the MacBook Pro, and it used ATI graphics in its first two generations… but just switched to Nvidia for its third generation.
Apple plays the two graphics companies off of each other, and will continue to do so until the GPU is tied (or part of) the CPU (which isn’t too far away).
This is a non-story, but your Apple polishing is noted.
#13 yeah, I knew you did.
I was just clarifying that to the wider audience, since it’s a general mistake/wishful thinking…
On the post at hand, I was just re-reading what I wrote earlier and struck me that Apple is careful not to tip the scales too much. If AMD/ATI goes under, the market will turn into a unique CPU provider, and also unique GPU provider (intel an nvidia). That is not good at all in the long run. R&D would stall and prices would rocket.
That’s why Dell also sells AMD PCs too.
#15 psst. Pedro… Mac is a brand. Apple is the company (ahem…)
#17 – Don’t bother explaining such logic to him.
#2, I’m from Australia, so 3am is actually more like 8pm (or whatever).
#14
And I thought the real reason behind why the case of the new iMac is built entirely out of aluminum was because it’s a giant heat sink for the ATI/AMD chipset
Jay Leno Chin
OMG, these are rubish.
On a 20″ computer 40%!!! of the front is bevel and chin? Almost half of the front of that computer is not montior??? This is an example of good industrial design???
Are you guys kidding?
I suggest for your apple branded goodness, ignore the iMacs, and get a mini or mac pro then the cinema display. Then you get the all important apple branding plus a decent looking computer. Not that albatross that is the iMac. OMG, those look horrible.
Then we come to that new keyboard… Wow, so extreme… Please don’t tell me the battery is sealed… Oh no, you have to be kidding me??? Its sealed? the battery is sealed on a KEYBOARD??
#20 – Your worship is noted.
Are you fanboys really going to take an article about ATI video cards in iMacs and turn it into a PC vs. Mac debate? Don’t you have anything better to do? Defrag your hard drive maybe?
#25
Don’t get me wrong, when I first saw the new iMac (with the computer off) it took my breath away. But then, the picture of it on started surfacing… And the way they made the monitor look larger than it is is sooooooo cheap and dishonest.
It is like you are on a date with a girl, she has ginormous chesticles, and she is happy to go home with you. So you get home, and you find out she stuffed her bra, to the overflowing preportions. Honey, I would have accepted you just the way you are, you just had to be honest with me…
On second though, ignore this post, I just wanted to use the term ‘ginormous chesticles’ in conversation.
The all-in-one design touted by apple (even in the presentation side by side with a Dell…) as being more efficient, only removes one, or maybe two cables out of the equation. However, they never mention its biggest drawback: obsolescence. In three years or maybe four, your glitzy new all-in-one Mac will be outdated, but the monitor will be good as new. Too bad you can’t have one without the other, you either have to toss’em both out or sell the iMac cheap and never recoup the value of the monitor.
And also the form factor is very pleasing to the eye but very hard on tinkerers. Never think of upgrading nothing other than memory or maybe disk… no new video card, no new processor, no new USB or FireWire cards, serial ata links, no overclocking… well, all that stuff one can easily do with a box and monitor approach.
But… Why would I pay $1,900 on a machine just to work on a spreadsheet?
#25 Just add something to please you Pedro:
I got a ipod nano, the original Nano. I always eschewed the idea of buying any iPod, but this was a gift. Apparently a friend of mine just switched to mp3 listening on his new Nokia phones and this nano was forgotten at the bottom of his Gym bag, going to waste. So he gave it to me.
Overall I like it, it’s small and easily fits in the pocket, the interface is ok, though sometimes gives me some hardtime over the sync method (I have it on sync to smart playlists, but sometimes I like to manually transfer files…) but mainly I have two major rants about this:
Why didn’t apple chose a standard usb connector on the device????
sometimes I want to put some songs over at the office, but guess what, I don’t have the friggin cable…what! Am I supposed to carry it with me all the time?
Secondly, why can’t I just drag files over on windows… why am I forced to use iTunes? Because of DRM? That’s nutz. I can add non drm files to itunes and sync them, but why go through all that trouble…
#29 You wouldn’t, that’s why there’s PCs on every cublicle or office space in the world.
Macs are growing in market share, but that’s mainly the home segments and the portable segments. Not the accounting department favourite choice…
#28
Still no sdram slot… Between two phones and a half dozen digital cameras in my house, the sdram slot is critical to my computing life. I guess you could add a sdram dongle to the mac, but it is so simple, why isn’t it built in yet? I guess overly complex (for the end user) technology like sdram is just not in the apple road map.
I kinda don’t agree about the monitor issue you have. Monitors are just another consumer electronics device, and monitors have about the same life as a computer… Although if you were a gamer, having a seperate computer and monitor is critical because you will be upgrading your computer every 6-12 months.
As I age, I am tinkering a lot less, and I love the all in one form factor. I probably would have been a switcher during this refresh if they had gotten rid of the jay leno chin. Although I would have been the apple oddity who ran Vista exclusively on my iMac.
#29, #31
I think the computer in every office and cube age is coming to an end. I have the budget to upgrade my computer system currently. We are upgrading our accounting system. (Going to either by Dynamics or Advance Pro if you are wondering). Right now the system that looks like it makes the most sense, is ditching computers on the desktop and replacing every computer with a single HP Integrity server, and thin client. Then here is the kicker… We close the data center, the sever is hosted at a co-location provider. All the desktops are provided by the integrity’s hyper-visor.
As a tech what I don’t like about that solution is… That would basically be the end of my techinal job… I guess I would still be needed to make sure the lan was working at all the locations, and for provisioning to workstations… But not a lot else…
Joao – your complaint about the design of the iMac as being non-tinkerer-friendly is hard to understand. Apparently you have forgotten that they build other models; the iMac suits the person who has no need to change anything, for those who need to swap out that DVD burner for a Blu-Ray, or decide to add a second monitor or 10.2 sound, they build a different model, the Mac Pro. Perhaps you’ve heard of it…
pedro, sad to hear the kid has such probs w/ the iPod. Maybe he could try the latest craze all the kids are into these days – it’s called “sleeping” – and while they’re doing it, they can even use the time to put a charge on their ‘Pod…
Real Mac should not have Ethernet it should have Apple Talk.
Real Mac should not have USB it should have FireWire only
Real Mac Should not have same CPU as PC uses.
Real Mac should not have VGA, DVI port, should Apple type.
Real Mac should not have Same grapic card as PC.
Real Mac should not have PCI-E should have Apple Slot/SuperSlot etc.
All late macs are just run off the mill PC with modified Bios and OSX.
#35 – Real Mac by your definition would be even more expensive for sub-par hardware.
TCP/IP over Ethernet is the networking standard for a very good reason: it works. And Appletalk would further isolate Mac from the internet as it would require special hardware to work.
Have fun convincing companies to put out firewire keyboards and mice. That interface is overkill for most devices. Let hard drives, cameras, and other such devices rule that port.
Yes, Mac should use the PowerPC, a chip so slow that Apple finally caved and admitted that Intel’s was faster, which is no small feat.
So, you’re saying Apple shouldn’t let their users buy a monitor that fits their needs? Especially when you consider that DVI runs the same digital video stream format that HDMI does.
When you show me an Apple design that beats the GeForce 8800 I’ll accept that one.
And further isolate themselves from PCB printers? That’s just another reason to cast themselves back behind PCs again.
No, all late Macs are common PC parts in a pretty case with too much thermal compound. That crash just as bad as they did way back on OS 8, when they were “Real Macs”.
Thank you for giving me a chance to respond to that much fail.
(And no, I don’t hate Apple, most of their stuff just doesn’t suit me and how I use a computer. That said, I love my iPod and iTunes.)
I see. The iPod will sit safely there until he wakes up and starts bitching about how he can’t listen to it while it’s charging.
No DNA test needed, pedro. That’s your offspring, alright.
#32 you might want to try floola…it’s free and fantastic iTunes replacement
#34 yes I’ve heard of it… in fact I discussed it with you. The MacPro is too much expensive. It’s workstation class all over and I’m talking home use. Xeon…intel 5000 chipset…fb-dimm ?!?
PS. I’m recycling my old (5 year old) athlon 1200 machine as a media center. And i’m pleased to find out that keeping it to a minimum installation, I can use VLC as media player to everything and even watch 720p (that as high as my Bravia goes, and it’s enough too.) h264 quicktime files (something QT player gags on any processor slower than 3ghz). There’s also a very nice firefox extension that lets me assign player I choose to every type of media in a page. Now I open all my QT streams on VLC. John will be pleased to know I can watch cranky geeks full 40 inch screen streaming direct from the net.
I put all the stuff in a inexpensive media box and I have now a media extender on my living room for the cost of a box (50euros) and a wireless card (24euros).
The Mac can’t beat that.
#35 Real Mac ended in 1993