14 DAY TRIAL // As the entire world so anxiously expected, the Cupertino, California-headquartered Apple unveiled yesterday its new and refreshed lineup of portable computer systems, part of the MacBook family. Aside from the improvements in design, all of the company's freshly launched MacBooks are now featured with the graphics capability of NVIDIA's GeForce mobile graphics processors, which are said to deliver a significant performance boost over Intel's integrated graphics featured on Apple's previous generation MacBooks.
With yesterday's launch, Apple has finally refreshed its entire lineup of portable computer systems, featuring them with the very latest in computer technology, including DDR3 memory and NVIDIA's latest mobile GPUs. All but one of Apple's next-generation MacBook systems are now powered by NVIDIA's powerful GeForce 9400M GPU, which features 16 parallel processing cores, and delivers up to five times the 3D graphics performance of previous MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air designs. The news also comes as a great opportunity for NVIDIA, a company that has been going through rougher times these past months, specifically because of the failure of its mobile graphics chips, reported in several notebook systems from HP, Dell and other major systems vendors.
MacBook users will now be able to benefit from the graphics capabilities of NVIDIA's latest mobile GPUs with the integrated GeForce 9400M graphics. In addition, MacBook Pro configurations will also allow users to switch from the integrated graphics to a discrete GeForce 9600M GT with either 256MB or 512MB of GDDR3 video memory, capable of further improving the graphics quality delivered by Apple's powerful portable systems.
One of the more impressive upgrades is related to the slim and lightweight MacBook Air, which has also been featured with NVIDIA's GeForce 9400M GPU, while also coming with DDR3 memory, instead of DDR2, as featured on previous models. Also, the lowest priced MacBook Air, which can now be yours for “just” US$1,799, will include a higher-capacity 120GB SATA hard drive, running at a cool 4200RPM.
The big news regarding Apple's latest MacBook systems is that the Cupertino, California-based company has decided to switch sides and go with NVIDIA's solutions over Intel's integrated graphics, despite all the issues surrounding the former’s previous generation mobile chips.