“Following the announcement of the new Apple MacBook Pro, AMD has launched the Radeon Pro 400 series of power-efficient graphics cards for laptops,” Mark Walton reports for Ars Technica. “The range spans the Radeon Pro 450, the Radeon Pro 455, and the Radeon Pro 460, all of which are available in various models of the new 15-inch MacBook Pro. All are based on AMD’s latest 14nm FinFET Polaris architecture, as used in desktop gaming cards like the RX 480, and all have a thermal envelope of less than 35W.”
“Unfortunately, while AMD claims the Radeon Pro 400 series is great for content creators like ‘artists, designers, photographers, filmmakers, and engineers,’ those hoping to do a bit of gaming on their shiny new MacBook Pro will probably struggle,” Walton reports. “With 640 stream processors (10 compute units) and 80GB/s of peak memory throughput, the Radeon Pro 450 is likely to perform similarly to the likes of the Radeon HD 7770 and R7 250X, both of which feature similar specifications. Reviews of the R7 250X show that while 1080p gaming at low and medium settings is mostly acceptable, high settings at reasonable frame rates are out of reach.”
“If you really want to do some gaming on your new MacBook Pro, there is one option available to you,” Walton reports. “The high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro (starting at £2,350) can be configured to use the Radeon Pro 460 for an additional £180. The Pro 460 will get you up to 1080p @ 60FPS in some games, with higher quality settings.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Are MacBook Pro users really big gamers?
SEE ALSO:
IBT: Apple’s MacBook Pro Touch Bar is the coolest thing ever; will change the way we use laptops – October 28, 2016
Wired hands on with Apple’s New MacBook Pro: It’s a whole new kind of laptop – October 27, 2016
CNET on the new MacBook Pro: Apple’s amazing strip show reinvents the notebook – October 27, 2016
Hands on with Apple’s new MacBook Pro: Looks and feels so good it’s unreal – October 27, 2016
Apple debuts three new TV ads for all-new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar – October 27, 2016
Apple unveils groundbreaking new MacBook Pro with revolutionary Touch Bar and huge Force Touch trackpad – October 27, 2016
Theory:
Apple had new iMacs in mind to announce too, but got knocked off-kilter by Microsoft’s announcement of their new touch desktop. Deciding at the last minute not to go head to head on desktop announcements they ditched the iMac announcement. This explains: 1: the shortness of the event, 2: the uneven presentation by Tim, 3: the “Hello Again” let-down (“Is that all?”).
Vote below by stars if you think it’s likely or not. I’ll start with a 4.
I would have bought a slightly refreshed iMac. I don’t know what’s going on or what they’re thinking. I need an iMac, not a laptop, phone, or watch.
You COULD be right… but chances are this decision wasn’t made at the last minute. It’s VERY likely Apple knew what Microsoft was going to be releasing a while ago and decided to wait.
I don’t think that is the case. The chatter about the new MacBook Pro has been ongoing since the beginning of the year. I have heard nothing about desktops whatsoever. If Apple is running scared by a Microsoft announcement, then God help us all. That means that all Tim Cook’s talk about amazing products in the pipeline are untrue. I think Apple is sending a very clear picture with this. The iPad is there sub-$1000 platform. That is where they want the majority of their customers to stay. If you want a Mac, it is now going to command a premium; even more so than before. I get that some people are disappointed with the GPU, but Apple is drawing a line in the sand. This is what they are offering. Take or leave it. They don’t seem to be listening to their customers. I think we just have to accept that. This whole thing has been very eye opening.
We DON’T have to accept that.
We can very vocally complain. We can not buy the recently announced models. We can even move to other platforms or create hackintoshes.
We don’t have to just accept it.
Mac sales have been dropping. The community has been very vocal about what they want. Apple finally gave us new Macs – on their terms. They didn’t listen to us. The desktops remain in limbo. They have a plan for moving forward. They are slowly revealing it.
Well before the MacBook event, there was discussion of a separate event for desktop machines, later. That make sense to me. Separate events keep the buzz going longer. Mashing everything together would dilute the impact of the advancements. A month later, people start asking, “What have you done lately?”
pro level flagship product has consumer level gpu.
ok.
good to know.
And not the most powerful. Nvidia’s 1080M is the most powerful mobile comercial GPU today and it is more than 3x faster than the AMD 460 included in a 3K Mac Book.
While the 1080M is much more powerful, it is also both much more power hungry and kicks out much more heat.
While I believe that Apple’s obsession with lighter and thinner laptops is way overblown and while I need a significantly more capable portable than my maxed out 2015 rMBP, I don’t want to lug around a “laptop” that is more of an “easily transportable desktop” machine. That’s what those luggables sporting 1080M graphics are.
confirmed. Pro level flagship machine has consumer level GPU.
and just 16 gigs of RAM max.
Real gamers use powerful and EXPANDABLE desktops.
“Real gamers” waste too much of their lives playing stupid games.
Who gives a f*** what your personal opinion of gaming is? These are potential CUSTOMERS that Apple chooses to ignore. They are customers who are willing to spend a lot of money on hardware
You must really hate the millions of iOS users who waste *even more* time playing “stupid games”.
Guess useful pro CUDA Nvidia support as exists in my Mac Book Pro 2014 has gone by the wayside with the choice of AMD. Not as good for Premiere Pro users but I suppose fine for the FCPX crowd.
“Following the announcement of the new Apple MacBook Pro, AMD has launched the Radeon Pro 400 series of power-efficient graphics cards for laptops,” …
This article is total BS.
AMD announced these chips five months ago. You don’t have to do much digging on the ‘net to find those announcements and ship dates.