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  • MrCommunistGen - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    WHAT!!?? A 3rd generation with Haswell? I know several people in my company who have been waiting for this refresh to requisition new laptops will be very disappointed.

    If M370X is Cape Verde (GCN 1.0), I'd also consider it a potential regression compared to (even) mobile Kepler, let alone Maxwell 1 or Maxwell 2, at least for thermals and perf/W... correct me if I'm wrong.

    Then again... I can't see Apple making that kind of decision (mistake). So maybe this is something new?
  • MrCommunistGen - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    I was reading this for the rMBP refresh details, not the iMac... my comments are directed at the new rMBP 15".
  • creed3020 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    The same is true for both systems. There are mobile quad core Broadwell SKUs announced but I didn't hear anything yet about their actual availability.

    I would think that the next round of refreshes will definitely feature an updated CPU and chipset.
  • dragonsqrrl - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    By that time they'll probably jump straight to Skylake. Intel really missed the mark with quad-core Broadwell.
  • Gondalf - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Umm i don't see Intel much interested to ship quad core Broadwells still they will with few HQ parts. After all Haswell performs well and i can see a little refresh of retina line (the top model IMO) as the SKUs will are out in a couple of months. Face it, haswell is so strong that there is a little incentive to do update for an OEM.
  • dragonsqrrl - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    I think you're misinformed. So you're saying Intel decided to delay quad-core Broadwell because they simply have no incentive to release it? And it's not due to 14nm manufacturing delays as published across the web? If that's the case what incentive did they have to launch Broadwell at all? And what incentive do they have to launch Skylake in 2H 2015?
  • MrCommunistGen - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    I agree. At this point the next rMBP 15" refresh could very well be an entire platform refresh to Skylake.

    I'd love to see them slim down the display bezel slightly and use those savings to make the device footprint a bit smaller. I switched to a 2014 15" rMBP from a 2013 13" rMBP a few months ago because I needed more cores. I love the added performance. I miss the smaller formfactor.

    I think it'd be great if M370X was Bonaire or Tonga. On a slight tangent: I'm sure the cost/benefit ratio makes this unlikely, but I'd like to see AMD get all of their GPUs within a series onto the same version of GCN. Of course history indicates this will never happen as rebrands are king.
  • creed3020 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Not surprised to see Haswell stick around for a little while longer considering no quad core Broadwell SKUs have been released yet. Then again Apple can usually pull a trick or two out of Intel's hat, however, looks like this time they weren't successful.
  • Stuka87 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    From what I have read the M370X is a cut down Tonga.
  • dragonsqrrl - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    I honestly don't have the slightest clue why Apple would choose the M370X if it was Cape Verde. GCN 1.0 is completely uncompetitive at this point, especially in mobile. But I'll give Apple the benefit of the doubt, it has to be something else, probably something like Bonaire? But that also wouldn't make much sense for AMD's naming convention since we already know the M375 is Cape Verde...

    Just a bit baffling either way. Objectively it seems like the 950M would've been the better option regardless.
  • FriendlyUser - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    The M370X is the successor to M270X and is the Stratos XT chip. Wait for the benchmarks.
  • dragonsqrrl - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    Nope, it's just been confirmed Cape Verde:
    http://www.anandtech.com/show/9276/2015-15inch-ret...
  • tabascosauz - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    There is speculation that Apple is finally carrying through with purging their entire lineup of Nvidia. The Mac Pros have been Nvidia-free for a long time, and Nvidia's recent legal proceedings against a fellow OEM (Samsung) are thought to have spooked Apple enough to switch to AMD.

    Tonga, despite making a disappointing debut in the R9 285, could, with some improvements, prove to be promising on the mobile front.
  • Morawka - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    apple just wants healthy gpu competition. Thats why they swap vendors every two or three years. If they just settled on Nvidia, then apple doesnt have many options if they ever wanted to swap to AMD 10 years down the road.

    They are basically feeling sorry for AMD and giving them a piece of that apple revenue, while at the same time, intimidating Nvidia into giving better bids on GPU's in the future.
  • dragonsqrrl - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    There is already a mobile variant of Tonga, the M295X. And with a ~125W TDP it's not exactly stellar there either.
  • j5b - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Apple Store spec:

    Support for up to 5120 by 2160 resolution at 60Hz on a single external display (model with AMD Radeon R9 M370X only)

    5120 by 2160 over a single cable!!!

    Is the R9 M370X the first video card to support DisplayPort 1.3?
  • testbug00 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    AMD seems to have worked with Apple to get one GPU to drive the 2880p resolution at 60Hz. I suspect this is another collaboration. That would actually be a much better explanation for Apple going from Nvidia to AMD than either I had. I think.
  • j5b - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Interesting... another collaboration, or actually just DP 1.3?

    In either case, it will be interesting to see why Apple wanted 5120 x 2160 for external displays... not quite 5K... but 5K widescreen? Maybe a new cinema display from them in the future at this resolution?
  • repoman27 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    It's still the same Thunderbolt 2 controller and DisplayPort 1.2. 5120 x 2160 is just "21:9" UHD. At 60 Hz, 24 bpp using SST it only requires 16.8943104 Gbit/s. DP 1.2 can do up to 17.28 Gbit/s.
  • testbug00 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Perhaps because Broadwell dies over 150mm^2 appear to be impossible to manufacturer with good yields. Based on which Broadwell CPUs have been launched.

    "Samsung uses PowerVR which infringes our patents" may be part of the Apple case. That, or just AMD offered the cheaper part that was good enough.

    I really think Apple should have gone Maxwell over GCN in all their products sans the Mac Pro (as Maxwell lacks FP64) instead of GCN. If price is the issue. If the issue is due to potential legel fights with Nvidia, Blah. Still wish they went Maxwell, but, I can understand why they didn't.
  • Crunchy005 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Maxwell would have been really nice. I feel nvidia wasn't playing nice and the AMD option might have been cheaper.
  • KoolAidMan1 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    There aren't any mobile Broadwell quad cores out yet. I don't think they're out until towards the end of the year.
  • WinterCharm - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    M370X is Strato XT. Totally new chip, and a true 300 series card. Not a rebrand.
  • darwinosx - Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - link

    Talk to Intel.
  • name99 - Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - link

    "Apple has confirmed that the 15” rMBP continues to use Intel’s Haswell processors and not their newer Broadwell processors, and as a result the processors available for the 2015 15” rMBP are identical to the 2014 processor options."

    Read between the lines. Apple obviously has access to these Broadwell CPUs and knows SOMETHING about Intel's release dates.

    They're not going to release an upgrade that looks silly next to the next round of Broadwell pro laptops. They're also not a company that release HW updates lightly, every few months, or just because "heck, we haven't released an update for a while now and people are grumbling".

    Which MEANS:
    - either Broadwell for this particular power/quad cores is problematic. (Slower than Haswell, overheats too soon, or whatever) OR
    - Broadwell for this particular power/quad cores is being delayed even further --- certainly a whole lot more than "happening soon". (And don't expect Skylake quad-core to appear in the next six months either.)
  • GC2:CS - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    If I understand corectly, they had just put a SSD capable of 2GB/s reads in the new MacBook Pro ?

    Are they crazy ? That's more than in a MacPro desktop....

    Curious if they used their custom controler like in the new MacBook which got 2 Flash memory packages. If I remember corectly the MacBook Pro got 8.
  • jeffkibuule - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Not all that crazy, Mac Pro hasn't been updated in almost 2 years.
  • Flunk - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    It's just not a volume seller, which relegates it to the slow lane. I'm guessing Apple thinks they have a captive audience of people who simply have to have the "fastest Mac" and they might be right.
  • Kevin G - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Only ~18 months since it has been shipping.

    Though in fairness, the 2013 Mac Pro was to replace the *2010* model. That system shipped 3.5 years before the 2013 model reached consumers.
  • tipoo - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    No, that's the max the bus supports with their doubling of lanes. The SSD speed is still down to the controller and NAND. I'm guessing it will be the same speed as the new Macbook Airs, ~1200MB/s iirc.
  • Ikefu - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Its nice to see AMD get in a few mobile GPU wins. More competition means more motivation on innovation from NVidia as well.
  • Zhongrui - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Such a refresh is meaningless. I will hold my money for the next generation 15"MacBook Pro !
  • jaydee - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Time to party like it's 2013...
  • dragonsqrrl - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Wait, didn't the previous Retina iMac come with an M295X?
  • Kevin G - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Not by default but rather as an option.
  • dragonsqrrl - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Didn't realize that, that's not good. I can't imagine driving that resolution with anything less than the M295X. I've only seen reviews of the M295X SKU, and even then reports of stuttering and performance issues with general usage seem quite common. And you're certainly not going to be doing much gaming at native res.
  • MikhailT - Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - link

    Actually, the performance is worse with M295X, not M290X. It's pissing some folks off who bought the upgrade expecting some tiny benefits but none as it disappears as it started to hit the thermal constraint faster than M290X.

    The issue with iMacs 5K aren't the GPUs but the heat constraint in the silly "thin" chassis for a desktop.
  • dragonsqrrl - Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - link

    "Actually, the performance is worse with M295X, not M290X."

    Interesting, but really doesn't surprise me with a 125W GPU in there.

    "The issue with iMacs 5K aren't the GPUs but the heat constraint in the silly "thin" chassis for a desktop."

    I think that's exactly a GPU issue.
  • j5b - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Had anyone noticed that the Apple Store spec:

    Support for up to 5120 by 2160 resolution at 60Hz on a single external display (model with AMD Radeon R9 M370X only)

    5120 by 2160 over a single cable!!!

    Is the R9 M370X the first video card to support DisplayPort 1.3?
  • Ryan Smith - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    There aren't any 21:9 4K displays yet, but some quick napkin math indicates that you should be able to drive such a display via DP 1.2, if only barely. Though Apple isn't very forthcoming with details, so it may yet be DP teaming.
  • vailr - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Is the discrete video part replaceable, or is it soldered on to the laptop's logic board?
    Could the AMD video part be replaced with something like an nVidia 970m video part?
  • ws3 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Let's see.. That would be: No, Yes, and No.
  • dragonsqrrl - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    No
    No

    ...
  • Crunchy005 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Haha dude it's apple. It would be impossible for it not to be in that form factor. Maybe the giant ASUS desktop replacements but not a macbook. Also it's apple...
  • kspirit - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    It's a wonder how everyone thinks that new Macbook Air with one port and an obscene pricetag was the first computer to have a forcepad. The reviewers are all creaming themselves over it.
    Folio 1040 had it a long time ago. Apple isn't really as novel as some people like to believe.
  • ws3 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Just you put a MacBook with a force touch trackpad side by side with a Folio and you'll see the difference.
  • kspirit - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    It's the same implementation... Windows has the Forcepad's force-based gestures too (like press harder to scroll faster, etc.)
  • cloudgazer - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    It's not entirely the same implementation - the Folios only have the older Synaptics ForcePad which had no haptic feedback.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmoorhead/2015/0...

    What's amazing about the new Apple trackpads (and hopefully the new as yet unseen in the wild Synaptics trackpads) is that they feel exactly like they click, even though they don't.
  • KoolAidMan1 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Implementation and execution are different things. Who did it first doesn't matter as much as who does it better.
  • KPOM - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Exactly. If you don't tell someone that it uses haptic feedback, I would guess they wouldn't know it. Even knowing that it uses haptic feedback, it feels like a "regular" trackpad.
  • Beany2013 - Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - link

    That, and the fact that the trackpad on the Folio 1040 is a bit pile of wank.

    Source: I have one. And I use a mouse after six months of suffering with misclicks and poor right click detection.
  • Crunchy005 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    The macbook air does not have a force touch trackpad, that would be the Macbook that has it(also the one port thing applies to the Macbook not the air).
  • Crunchy005 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Also I see no mention of a force touch trackpad or anything like that on the folio(on HP's website anyway). I'm very curious, if you could point it out and possibly a link that would be cool. :)
  • kspirit - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    http://www.infoworld.com/article/2607676/computer-...
  • Crunchy005 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Awesome, thanks for the link. Thats cool didn't know they had that. They should really advertise it as a feature, looks like HPs marketing isn't doing their job.
  • KoolAidMan1 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    People are freaking out because Apple's execution is the best so far.

    Try a Folio and a Macbook trackpad side by side, it isn't even close. Force touch is some sorcery
  • drzzz - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    The Statement "The big news here is that Apple has done away with the non-Retina 27” iMac" is incorrect. A quick check of the US Online Apple store shows there is still a 27" non retina configuration available at the 1799 price point. I find this level of bad reporting from AnandTech to be disappointing. Here is the link to the US apple store pages

    http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/imac scroll down and the non-retina 27" is on the bottom left side

    http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/imac?product=ME0... here is the product page for the non-retina 27" model

    Again really, if you are going to report something has been done away with at least do a check of the Apple Store before hitting publish.
  • Mushkins - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    You know discontinuing a product doesn't mean you immediately pull all the remaining stock off shelves, right? It makes perfect sense for them to still be selling what they already have sitting in a warehouse until its gone while not manufacturing any more of that product line.
  • drzzz - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    AT is the only site reporting that the non-retina 27" have been done away with. None of the Apple dedicated sites are reporting this. I can find no Apple press release that states this as fact. Given they are still available in the store the statement I quoted originally is indeed false. When they are removed from sale and no longer in the store then and only then have been truly been done away with.
  • Significant - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Not only is it still on the store, it is also still described on the product page:
    http://www.apple.com/imac/specs/
    So I see no indication that it has been discontinued.
  • dragonsqrrl - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    I think what Ryan meant is that the 2015 refresh does not include a non Retina SKU. This does not mean the 2014 non Retina version will be discontinued, which is part of the normal life cycle for Apple products.
  • errorr - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Once again I know some people have questioned the force touch trackpad but for me it has been a revelation. Truly extraordinary in how good the touch pad feels to use.

    After trying out the new MacBook keys I find I'm rather disappointed with the same old scissor keys on the 13" rMBP.
  • mdriftmeyer - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Just recently purchased 1695 shares of AMD knowing the inevitable growth in their GPU division.
  • mdriftmeyer - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Apple requires OpenCL 2.0 compliant GPGPUs. Good riddance Nvidia.
  • LukaP - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Actually NVIDIA enabled oCL2.0 on their Kepler+ cards with a driver a while ago.
  • mdriftmeyer - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    They're OpenCL 1.2 conformant. They have partial support in areas for 2.0. They are nowhere near AMD and with OpenCL 2.1 soon to be out with LLVM it's a clear course Apple is with AMD.

    CUDA is the past.
  • id4andrei - Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - link

    "CUDA is the past." Only in the alternate universe you live in. CUDA is pretty much a defacto standard in the professional market. Apple is using the MBP 15" and the mac pro as leverage against CUDA. They are trying to kill CUDA for the sake of OpenCL.
  • semartin - Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - link

    I'll be hanging onto my late 2013 rMBP a while longer it seems
  • MrHorizontal - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Is there any corroboration to this M375 and this Strato XT mentioned at WCCFtech?

    http://wccftech.com/amd-strato-xt-benchmarks-radeo...
  • dragonsqrrl - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    Well not the M375 at least. It already launched and uses Cape Verde. Do you mean the M370X?
  • JDG1980 - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    It looks like they've dropped Tonga (R9 M295X) as an option for the high-end Retina iMac. Was it because of the overheating allegations? It's unfortunate that the top configuration now has only 2GB of VRAM; on 5120x2880, that's barely enough to display the desktop, let alone do anything graphics-intensive. The low-end configuration should have 4GB and the high-end should have 8GB.

    As for the R9 M370X, my money is on this being a Bonaire chip. I'd like to see a new GPU, but apparently AMD doesn't do that any more.
  • Ryan Smith - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    M295X is still there. It's a BTO option on the high end model for $250.
  • cloudgazer - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    The R9 M295X is still showing as an option as far as I can see (UK and US stores), are you sure you're not looking at the lower of the two Retina iMacs?
  • mdriftmeyer - Tuesday, May 19, 2015 - link

    You'll be wrong.
  • jbk224 - Monday, May 25, 2015 - link

    Since new 15" MBP has the same quad core processor as the 2014 model, is it worthwhile to buy the new model or look for a good deal on the 2014 model? Processing speed for editing large raw files is the key.

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