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Apple Could Adopt AMD's New Radeon HD 6990M GPU for Next iMac

Tuesday July 12, 2011 1:15 pm PDT by Eric Slivka
AMD today announced the launch of its new Radeon HD 6990M mobile graphics processor, calling it the world's fastest single mobile GPU with up to 25% greater performance than NVIDIA's just-announced GeForce 580M.

While Apple typically uses middle-of-the-road GPUs in even its high-end MacBook Pro models in order to meet the requirements of the thin enclosure and thus will not be considering adopting the new Radeon HD 6990M for the notebook line, the company does also use AMD's mobile GPUs in its iMac line, where it has adopted a number of mobile components in order to save space within the desktop machine's sleek all-in-one design.

Apple currently offers AMD's previous top-end mobile GPU, the Radeon HD 6970M, in the highest-level configurations of its 27-inch iMac line, suggesting that Apple may be planning to adopt the Radeon HD 6990M in its next iMac update. AMD in fact specifically touts the improved performance of the Radeon HD 6990M over the 6970M.

The AMD Radeon HD 6990M also represents a significant upgrade from AMD's current gaming notebook graphics solution, the AMD Radeon HD 6970M, raising the bar from both a performance and image quality perspective.

Apple of course just released updated iMacs a little over two months ago, and the company is thus unlikely to refresh the lineup again until late this year or early next year. Of course, depending on how AMD's future GPU development cycle meshes with Apple's iMac update cycle, even newer GPUs could be available for the next iMac, with the Radeon HD 6990M perhaps sliding down into the mid-range iMac models.
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PlutoPrime
8 months ago
BREAKING:

Apple may adopt new components in the refresh of its next generation products.

During a top secret meeting amongst the Illuminati, we were briefed that Apple may indeed use faster and improved components in the next version of its products. Analysts agree.

The leaders of the secret world government had their jaws in contact with the floor during the top secret revelation.


Still developing...
Rating: 18 Positives / 2 Negatives
Avatar
wikus
8 months ago
Anyone expecting Apple to use high end graphics cards in ANY of their computers should just switch over to a custom built PC.

Apple's history and negligence in graphics has been a stunning failure.
Rating: 10 Positives / 2 Negatives
Avatar
toddybody
8 months ago

Oh how I could spend all day proving you wrong there but I won't. I'll just say the iMacs can play a ton of games. Sure not the latest at the highest resolutions. But 95% of people don't need or want that. I say for everyone who is not a bleeding edge gamer - the current iMac line up is a best buy for games.

And you know what? The Barefeats website agrees with me too.
http://www.barefeats.com/imac11c.html

So anyone who says the iMac is terrible at games simply does not understand and needs to be informed. The iMac won't ever break frame rate records. But it plays most games at a very acceptable (and at sometimes darn good) level. So I'm not complaining and neither should anyone else.

The iMacs run mobile GPU's for a reason. They are sleek, sexy and are pretty good. Those SLI/crossfire options sure they give good performance but they are big ugly things that need a lot of power (and a dedicated fan at times) to run. I care about my power bill and in the performance per watt of power used to run the GPU I like how the iMac's mobile cards are.

Apple never failed in the GPU department. They just choose their GPU's (for iMacs and notebooks) with the best specs for the least power used. Apple never wanted the most powerful GPU in these devices. And neither do I.


The simple fact is, mobile graphics (not CF at that) + High Native Screen Resolution leave it in a mediocre state. Not to sound snarky, but true PC gamers require much more graphical muscle and would scoff at the ignorant bragging of a 6970m. Sure, the iMacs can run most things Source well...and also Blizzard offerings; but titles like Crysis, Crysis 2(DX 11 + HR Pack), Metro 2033, AvP...you're not going to have anything close to a premium experience (high settings, 30FPS+ Min).

BTW, I lol'd at "(And a dedicated fan sometimes)"...as if that were a bad thing. The iMac's cooling solutions are a joke.
Rating: 3 Positives / 0 Negatives
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Icaras
8 months ago

Macs have never been the best gaming rigs, and never will.


I'm very glad you say this...

Oh how I could spend all day proving you wrong there but I won't. I'll just say the iMacs can play a ton of games. Sure not the latest at the highest resolutions. But 95% of people don't need or want that. I say for everyone who is not a bleeding edge gamer - the current iMac line up is a best buy for games.


You completely....missed his point. Reread what he said: "Macs have never been the best gaming rigs, and never will." There is really nothing more you can do to argue with that, as that is simply the fact.

I am very happy that iMacs are indeed capable gaming rigs, and that's fine with me, but we can all agree here that they will never be the best. Hell is right on the dot. They're gaming rigs, yes, but the best? No. Nontheless, you still won't see me telling anyone to let that fact stop them from gaming on a Mac.
Rating: 2 Positives / 0 Negatives
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Hellhammer
8 months ago

All the 6000 series Radeons we're released last year, including the 6970 (not the crappy mobile version) in late 2010, compared the 5870 being offered in the mac pros in mid 2010.

Regardless of noise, heat and price, (especially price since macs are WAY overpriced) the issue is and has always been performance, an area where apple has been the butt of all jokes in terms of graphics. even YOU state that in your final comment that apples never been the best in gaming rigs.


AMD 6850 and 6870 - Released on October 22nd
2010 Mac Pro - Announced on July 27th, shipped sometime in August

So, at the time Mac Pro was updated, ATI 5870 was the fastest single-chip GPU from AMD.

Oh how I could spend all day proving you wrong there but I won't. I'll just say the iMacs can play a ton of games. Sure not the latest at the highest resolutions. But 95% of people don't need or want that. I say for everyone who is not a bleeding edge gamer - the current iMac line up is a best buy for games.

And you know what? The Barefeats website agrees with me too.
http://www.barefeats.com/imac11c.html

So anyone who says the iMac is terrible at games simply does not understand and needs to be informed. The iMac won't ever break frame rate records. But it plays most games at a very acceptable (and at sometimes darn good) level. So I'm not complaining and neither should anyone else.


Read what I actually posted before you start arguing:

Macs have never been the best gaming rigs, and never will.


I never said Macs cannot game, but if you're looking for the best gaming solution, then stay away from Apple.
Rating: 2 Positives / 0 Negatives
Avatar
redsteven
8 months ago

BREAKING:

Apple may adopt new components in the refresh of its next generation products.

During a top secret meeting amongst the Illuminati, we were briefed that Apple may indeed use faster and improved components in the next version of its products. Analysts agree.

The leaders of the secret world government had their jaws in contact with the floor during the top secret revelation.


Still developing...


I concur... this is a pretty lame article, unless it's one hell of a GPU
Rating: 2 Positives / 0 Negatives
Avatar
chrmjenkins
8 months ago

A slightly higher clocked, pin for pin compatible faster mobile GPU? Really?

At least we get more shaders so we move from a HD 6850 to a lower clocked HD 6870.


It really is silly that we have to talk about mobile GPUs as if they weren't downclocked desktop parts, especially when we're talking about driving 2560x1440 resolutions. At least it has 2GB of VRAM.
Rating: 2 Positives / 0 Negatives
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Teilzeitemo
8 months ago

Wow .. really? And when iMac 2011 will be held? it's just 2 months since last refresh and we're speculating already.

I think 6990M is not going to make it by that time, there always newer and better GPU. It's the fastest updated component in computer world, it's a pain for wallet to always have greatest GPU. Even gamer would admit that.


It is, but it has become cheaper in the past few years, at least in the desktop segment. Today you can max out quite anything on 1080p with a 200€ GPU.
The real pain is to stay with apple if you have a serious gaming attitude - almost not affordable, at least highly inefficient money wise.
Rating: 1 Positives / 0 Negatives
Avatar
akaralias
8 months ago

Anyone expecting Apple to use high end graphics cards in ANY of their computers should just switch over to a custom built PC.

Apple's history and negligence in graphics has been a stunning failure.


Except when it comes to 3d post production and high quality picture with accurate colors, running flawessly on an 30' monitor with 2560x1600!
Come on, games are not the only standard to buy a computer. But even in that area i am missing nothing, practically, wether I am playing a game in Mac OS X or my Windows partition...
Rating: 1 Positives / 0 Negatives
Avatar
Constable Odo
8 months ago

Oh how I could spend all day proving you wrong there but I won't. I'll just say the iMacs can play a ton of games. Sure not the latest at the highest resolutions. But 95% of people don't need or want that. I say for everyone who is not a bleeding edge gamer - the current iMac line up is a best buy for games.

And you know what? The Barefeats website agrees with me too.
http://www.barefeats.com/imac11c.html

So anyone who says the iMac is terrible at games simply does not understand and needs to be informed. The iMac won't ever break frame rate records. But it plays most games at a very acceptable (and at sometimes darn good) level. So I'm not complaining and neither should anyone else.

The iMacs run mobile GPU's for a reason. They are sleek, sexy and are pretty good. Those SLI/crossfire options sure they give good performance but they are big ugly things that need a lot of power (and a dedicated fan at times) to run. I care about my power bill and in the performance per watt of power used to run the GPU I like how the iMac's mobile cards are.

Apple never failed in the GPU department. They just choose their GPU's (for iMacs and notebooks) with the best specs for the least power used. Apple never wanted the most powerful GPU in these devices. And neither do I.


Can you imagine trying to fit some SLI/crossfire cards into an iMac enclosure? Those things must consume power like crazy. You practically have to build the computer around those high-performance graphics cards. That's special purpose stuff than most consumers don't care about at all. My iMac runs cool, quiet and is energy efficient which I think would be more important to most consumers than absolute frame rate. There's no way Apple would consider such a thing. I'm not a game player, but if I was, some gaming Windows PC would be my additional computer built strictly for gaming.

Apple is building computers for the average consumer and Macs should fit most consumer's needs perfectly and work well for many years.
Rating: 1 Positives / 0 Negatives

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