14 DAY TRIAL // People with access to the OS X 10.7.3 bits seeded by Apple over the weekend have confirmed the presence of several drivers that bear references to an upcoming AMD graphics card.
The drivers are for desktop solutions, meaning the graphics card in question should be deployed in a new batch of Mac Pros - Apple’s only Macintosh computer to use desktop-grade solutions (physical cards) for graphics.
As noted by MacGadget.de (machine translated), all other Macintosh computers (the MacBooks, the Mac mini, and the iMac) use mobile graphics solutions.
The interesting thing about the new drivers though, is that they bear the codename "Tahiti" - known to be used for AMD's upcoming 28nm desktop graphics cards.
Due out in January 2012, the new Tahiti series should be branded Radeon HD 7xxx in XT and PRO versions, according to another knowledgeable source.
Looking at the function names from driver, Netkas remarks: “So, what is it, just usual early support for future cards, or Apple is testing this card with future Macpro? And btw, 6990 works in osx with patched drivers for 6970, just add your dev-id(of master card) into x3000.kext and ati6000Controller.kext’s info plists.”
The Mac Pro line of computers is long overdue for a refresh, though Apple is believed to plan the discontinuation of the workstations.
Cupertino is rumored to have plans for a new batch of iMac computers that will replace the clunky Mac Pro once and for all.
After skipping a few refreshes as its siblings got Thunderbolt ports and newer generations of processors, the Mac Pro seems poised to go out the same way the white MacBook did.
Yet the aforementioned drivers stand as testimony that Tim Cook & Co. are cooking up something that might eventually replace the current line of Mac Pros.