Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 16th Oct 2008 17:40 UTC
In our coverage on the Apple press event earlier this week, where Steve Jobs introduced a revamp of all the company's notebooks (as well as a new Cinema Display), an error leaked into our story. We said that the new dual-GPU MacBook Pros used Hybrid SLI so you could use both graphics chips at the same time for better performance, but as it turns out, this isn't the case. This was my fault since Jobs didn't actually claim any Hybrid SLI being used. To detail the matter further, Apple has released a support document explaining the features of the dual GPU architecture.
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RE: A bit more accuracy...
by google_ninja on Fri 17th Oct 2008 15:08
in reply to "A bit more accuracy..."
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The Macintosh has supported multiple graphics chips and monitors for a lot longer than they were supported under Windows and the generally available PC operating systems: the distinguishing factor that should be clarified is that of using them in a crossfire/SLI type of solution is more recent in coming.
Considering Apple hasn't truly chased after the gaming crowd for a very long time (that seems to have been more of an Apple 2 series thing, if that was even actively chased by Apple, instead of it just happening) so they've not been horribly impressed on the need to do an SLI type of solution. So, too: isn't that more the province of graphics card manufacturers to come up with such drivers, to a large extent, or, if desired, do the custome hookup between a pair of cards via a cable (instead of doing it through the backplane)? Apple purposely setting up their system backplane/bus (PCI-E these days) would definitely help for their systems that have slots, and is required for laptop/non-modifiable video systems, but for the ones with slots, that's optional on Apple's part, just like it has always been optional on PC manufacturer's part.
I guess it comes down to the chicken/egg question: which comes first, the high-end gamer hardware support, or the OS support for the high-end gamer hardware? And the "If you build it, they will (or not) come" scenario.