MACBOOK PRO 2016 SPECS NVIDIA UPDATE
MACBOOK PRO 2016 SPECS NVIDIA UPGRADE
MACBOOK PRO 2016 SPECS NVIDIA SOFTWARE
MACBOOK PRO 2016 SPECS NVIDIA PC
MACBOOK PRO 2016 SPECS NVIDIA MAC

My hope is that Apple will update the Pros pretty soon, but the Mac's slowing update frequency in recent years isn't a good sign this will be the case. As for the Macbook Pros, Kaby Lake's mobile lineup is practically complete as of CES 2017. I suspect Apple will update that notebook to Kaby Lake once they manage to fit the new Butterfly Switch 2.0 keyboard into that tiny chassis.

MACBOOK PRO 2016 SPECS NVIDIA MAC

If there's any Mac that can be upgraded to the Kaby Lake right now, it would be the 12-inch Macbook. Now that the Macbook Air's successor has a Retina display, every bit of GPU improvement counts. By sticking with Skylake, Apple sacrificed CPU clock speed (the main improvement in Kaby Lake) in order to provide a huge GPU boost to the Macbook Escape. As you can probably guess, Iris GPUs have not yet arrived in Kaby Lake's Tier 2 lineup. When it comes to Intel's GPUs, the Iris lineup is the cream of the crop (more on Intel Iris in the next section). That means the Touch Bar equipped 13-inch and 15-inch Macbook Pros are forced to use Skylake chips, but the Macbook Escape can't use Kaby Lake's Tier 2 chips either because of a notable omission: Intel Iris.Р”В®ven though Apple doesn't like including a discrete GPU in their sub-15-inch notebook lineup, they still had the decency to pack as powerful an integrated GPU as they can. So what does this have to do with Skylake and Kaby Lake? At the time that the new Macbook Pros were designed, announced and shipped, the Kaby Lake lineup only included Tier 1 and 2 CPUs. Tier 1 powers the 12-inch Macbook line, Tier 2 powers the Macbook Air and the newly released Macbook Escape, Tier 3 powers the 13-inch Macbook Pro, and Tier 4 powers the 15-inch Macbook Pro.

Tier 4: TDP of 45 W Quad core For high performance systemsР”Р„s you can probably guess, you can find a Macbook for every tier on the list.

Tier 3: TDP of 28 W Dual core For mainstream portables.

Tier 2: TDP of 15 W Dual core For ultraportables.

Tier 1: TDP of 5 W Dual core For fanless systems.

Intel's mobile lineup can be divided into four tiers, each representing a different form factor and performance target: High TDP processors can achieve high performance, but require plenty of cooling to do so, while low TDP processors are more performance-constrained, but run cool enough to be used in thinner and lighter devices. Keep in mind that Intel's mobile processors need to target specific TDPs ( Thermal Design Power) in order to be suitable for specific form factors or hit specific performance targets. What's actually going on is that the Kaby Lake lineup is incomplete, while Skylake provides the most up-to-date processors that Apple actually uses in its Macbook Pros.

MACBOOK PRO 2016 SPECS NVIDIA PC

The accusation, therefore, is that Apple is behind the PC curve because they are using last-gen processors to power their newest Macs. The complaint is that Apple used Intel's 2015 lineup of processors, codenamed Skylake, instead. This has been one of the primary complaints lobbed at the new Macbook Pro, and I will do my best to explain why these complaints are completely unfounded.Р”Р‡or those who aren't yet familiar, Kaby Lake is the codename for Intel's lineup of processors for 2016.

MACBOOK PRO 2016 SPECS NVIDIA UPGRADE

In this second part, I will tackle more PC-like concerns such as the CPU and GPU to see if they are a worthy upgrade over previous iterations.

MACBOOK PRO 2016 SPECS NVIDIA SOFTWARE

Even the Mac's software strengths must stand on a strong hardware foundation, and as macOS continues to evolve and become more sophisticated, so must the underlying hardware that powers it all. After all, the Mac's languishing specs until now is why we nerds knew that a refresh was coming in the first place, and that it was better to wait. On the other hand, it is still super handy to care about the specs of the Mac. Other PCs, by comparison, were the sum of their parts.

Apple was successfully able to leverage their design chops and hardware-software synergies to come up with a line of desktops and laptops that were greater than the sum of their parts. Instead, Macs continue to sell in profitable numbers, riding on a marketing story that focuses on the experience of using a computer rather than CPU core counts and RAM size. If specs were all that mattered, Macs should have been extinct a long time ago. On the one hand, the fact that Apple doesn't need to market their Macs based on specs is a testament to their marketability over commodity PCs. While they are still opinions, please keep in mind that this is NOT a review.Р”Р„pple is not known to fixate on the underlying specs that power their Mac lineup of computers. In case you missed it, you can check out Part 1 here.Р”Вisclaimer: These are thoughts about a line of products I have not yet used.

Macbook pro 2016 specs nvidia