Apple Commentary: Oh Beloved 9800 Mobility, Where Art Thou?

Apple Commentary: Oh Beloved 9800 Mobility, Where Art Thou?
Posted :: Mar 9, 2005 by Antares

In the next of Antares' series of editorial-like articles, he shares his thoughts on the state of portable graphics processing hardware.

So lately I have decided to give Apple more credit than I usually do. I mean, c'mon, the Mobility 9700 is a powerful GPU. It kicks a lot of ass, even though it was released a while ago... hm, yeah. Sure, the bus speed is only 167, but the G4 is special and has special needs. Tiger will make me feel better. I nod to reassure myself.

In my daily efforts to avoid homework, I stumble upon Dell.com to see what their current XPS gaming notebooks are offering. Lo and behold, the mighty 6800 Go will be the available standard on 4/11/2005 with 256 MB of onboard video memory. The true meaning of Joseph Conrad's "the horror... the horror!" is finally made clear. However, let's not forget that Dell's XPS line is not known for its light weight and portability.

Hmm. Not only does the Pentium M trounce the G4, now their graphics chipsets are lifting the computing equivalent of 500 ton silicon barbells.

After crying for a few hours, I discovered the 9700 is now a year old -- middle-aged, to say the least. Even the 9800 Mobility is old news. So much for my vociferous outpour against the 5200 FX used in the 12" Powerbook. What's more, the 9700 is still based on the R360 core. In other words, it's a glorified 9600 Mobility (a google of the early benchmarks will elaborate on this).

To make matters worse, Dell offers mobile workstations with ATI's Mobility FireGL -- nothing even comes close for Apple, especially for CAD users (I know this is really isn't a Mac market, but what can I say, I'm a sensitive guy).

What is a Mac user to do? As a Powerbook owner, I predict that it is likely that the line will be updated again sometime this year. In the mean time, I have a few theories on the subject.

Theory #1: Apple introduces PCI Express in the PowerMac line, with a PCIe mobile graphics option for Powerbooks at the same time or shorly after. Possibilities: X700/Go6600, X800/Go6800.

Theory #2: Apple revamps the Powerbook line with a new chip or "superman" G4+ (read: 200MHz FSB, 1.8GHz+), and uses the 9800 Mobility.

Theory #3: Apple fubars. Dell takes over the Earth.

-- Antares