Intel to Supply Apple with Special High-End Haswell Processors for MacBook Pro

According to SemiAccurate, Intel will provide Apple with an ultra-high performance version of its Haswell for Apple's upcoming MacBook Pros. The report claims that the chips will include a special version of Intel's highest-end GT3e (Iris Pro 5200) integrated graphics.

Apple has requested a special top bin cream-of-the-crop GT3e selection from Intel, with "as much GPU power as possible." With the top chips going solely to Apple, that leaves the slightly less desirable remains for Intel's other customers.

It was widely assumed that Apple would release its next generation Haswell-based MacBook Pros at WWDC alongside the Haswell MacBook Airs, but that did not happen. Both the 13-inch and the 15-inch MacBook Pros have since shown up in benchmark results, however, suggesting that a release is coming soon.

The benchmarked 15-inch MacBook Pro revealed a Core i7–4950HQ chip running at 2.4 GHz, along with Iris Pro 5200 integrated graphics, which, as noted, are the best that Intel has to offer. Intel’s promotional materials have suggested that the Iris offers 2–2.5x the performance power as the i7–3840QM chip with HD Graphics 4000 in the current high-end Retina MacBook Pro, but the new Retina MacBook Pros could see even greater performance boosts.

haswell_iris_graphics
Earlier this week, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggested that the updated MacBook Pros will launch in mid-September. It is unclear if Apple will refresh both the Retina MacBook Pros and the standard MacBook Pros, but many believe that Apple is planning to phase out the non-Retina varieties.

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Top Rated Comments

Nalmond92 Avatar
156 months ago
Discrete graphics

Really wouldn't surprise if apple killed off discrete graphics in the 15inch proRetina.
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Exponent Avatar
156 months ago
Oh my god I hope the refresh is in September. I'm going to university, so I want to get it before I head off.

My advice: You're heading off to school - focus like a madman on the subject matter, and not on the machine.

University tuition is astronomically overpriced as it is (thanks to the fact it's subsidized and considered "mandatory"), so use the resources they have on campus.

I always found that those that focused on technology and having "the latest and greatest" - and I was in that group - didn't do nearly as well as those who focused on the core foundation of their field. (I wasn't too bad there either, but I definitely got distracted by always trying to apply the latest technology.)

For your means, any MacBook made in the last 2 years should do fine. If you're in engineering, get a big screen and/or an external monitor (which are dirt cheap). And study, study, study!
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
daneoni Avatar
156 months ago
...and there it is. The death of the Pro in MacBook Pro. So Apple can continue their irrational obsession with stripping functionality to make thinner and thinner.

R.I.P.
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TEAMSWITCHER Avatar
156 months ago
One processor to rule them all..

It began with the forging of the Great Processors. Three were given to the Workstations, immortal, wisest and fairest of all computers. Seven to the Desktops, great gamers and craftsmen of the office documents. And nine, nine processors were gifted to the race of Laptops, who above all else desire power.
For within these processors was bound the strength and the will to govern each system. But they were all of them deceived, for another processor was made. Deep in the land of Intel, in the Fires of Mount St. Helens, the Dark Lord Otellini forged a master processor in secret, and into this processor he poured his cache, his malware and his will to dominate all systems. One processor to rule them all....
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
brand Avatar
156 months ago
apple don't drop Dedicated GPU (Nvidia/ATI) .. that would be huge mistake.. Remember rMBP 13" sales.. not good right .. reason no GPU

Do you have proof? I doubt it.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Marrakas Avatar
156 months ago
The refresh needs to be at 760m speeds at the minimum for it to be any interesting. If not, no more mac for me.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)