A discovery made by the tonymacx86 Blog lends credence to rumors saying that Apple is preparing to refresh some desktop computers with Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors, high-speed Thunderbolt ports and, now, new graphics as well.
The source in question
notes that
the Mac OS X 10.6.7 update for early 2011 MacBook Pro models shows native graphics acceleration support for some Radeon HD 5000- and 6000-series cards that aren’t yet used by the Mac maker.
In fact, some of the solutions listed by tonymacx86 aren’t even launched yet.
The blog was allegedly able to 'confirm' that "Apple has included native graphics acceleration for some Radeon HD 5xxx and 6xxx cards in the Mac OS X 10.6.7 Update for early 2011 MacBook Pro (Sandy Bridge).”
Needless to point out, Apple would have no reason to include support for the new hardware, had it not planned a refresh.
According to the source, the MacBook Pro-only Mac OS X 10.6.7 Snow Leopard build appears to offer native support for the following ATI and AMD graphics solutions:
- ATI Radeon HD 5630 Device ID 0x68D8
- ATI Radeon HD 5630 Device ID 0x68D9
- ATI Radeon HD 5670 Device ID 0x68D8
- ATI Radeon HD 5730 Device ID 0x68D8
- ATI Radeon HD 5770 Device ID 0x68B8
- ATI Radeon HD 5850 Device ID 0x6899
- ATI Radeon HD 5870 Device ID 0x6898
- AMD Radeon HD 6850 Device ID 0x6739
- AMD Radeon HD 6870 Device ID 0x6738
- AMD Radeon HD 6970 Device ID 0x6718
Apple will have to confirm one of multiple scenarios now, the discoverers note, in that Apple could mark the end of Mac-only graphics cards with OS X 10.6.7, or that they’re opening up their platforms
Then again, “What happens to NVIDIA?”, the discoverers wonder. Apple has had a long a fruitful relationship with the vendor, and there hasn’t been any solid indication that their partnership was ending.
Readers are free to express their own opinions in the comments.
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