As you guys probably know, Apple released a speed-bumped revision of the MBP at the same time as the MB. I have a couple questions, if any of you purchased them (I'm ordering mine at the start/middle of July to give the maximum time for new revisions)...
1. How's the fabled "heat issue"? Is it honestly much worse than my 2003 12" Powerbook?
2. I'm primarily upgrading for graphics performance. How is the card with Pixel Shader 2.0 stuff (Doom 3, Oblivion) in Windows and OS X? My current game under development uses PS 2.0 pretty heavily and lags noticably on my Go5200, but not on my friend's R9700 mobile (in his 15" Powerbook).
3. Does it come with the necessary adaptors, etc. to plug it into a VGA monitor? I see the DVI jack on it but I'll be kind of angry if I have to purchase an additional adaptor.
4. Does anything actually use ExpressCard/34? I'd sure like to get a TV card so I can get rid of my spare PC and go to dual monitors.
I'll probably have more questions later, but these are a good start. As it stands, I really want to buy one but the constant whinings of users on MacRumors and Digg about the heat are somewhat annoying. I pushed a Rev A MBP pretty hard at a Best Buy and it didn't seem to overheat at all.
I doubt it's as bad as the original 12" Powerbooks. Those computers got hot, hot, hot! I've used an infared thermometer, and my friend's 867Mhz 12" Powerbook got to 60 degrees celsius on the bottom. That is far, far too hot. I have a feeling that the heat will be fine most of the time.
The Macbook Pro's x1600 is faster than the Go5200 and the R9700. It's a modern, capable GPU. Apparently you can overclock it in Windows.
It comes with a DVI dongle, but you'll have to buy a DVI to VGA adapter from Apple for $20. You can also get a DVI to S-Video/Component adapter for $20.
There's a couple card readers and an EVDO card coming out, but no TV tuners. There is a USB 2.0 TV tuner thats about $150, IIRC.
I'm thinking most of the initial problems were blown out of proportion and are now fixed. Good luck with the purchase; I should be joining the ranks of Macbook Pro owners later this year!
It comes with a DVI-VGA adapter.
I figured that not much in the world could be hotter than my little 1.33GHz 12" Powerbook. It literally sears the hair off of my legs if I use it in my lap for an extended period of time, even through pants, and has pushed 65'C CPU temp on occasion. I hear the 867MHz machines are even worse. I suspect the problems (if any) are fixed by now, or definitely will be by July.
I figure the X1600 is a lot better than the R9700m and the Go5200 in particular; I was just curious how it compares to the NVidia cards (I have a 6600GT on my Windows box and are.. reasonably pleased with how Oblivion runs). I'm sure I can find some specious benchmarks. I probably won't screw with the card clock, because it's a laptop, dammit.
I do figure the MBP problems are blown out of proportion; pretty much anything on Digg is.
For TV tuners, I found the AverMedia AverTV ExpressCard TV tuner, though I don't think it's Mac compatible.
Thanks, guys. I'm pretty sure I got a DVI/VGA adaptor with my PC's video card as well. I just wanted to know if the dongle came with it (my Powerbook came with both mini-DVI to DVI and mini-DVI to VGA cables).
Actually, you're not overclocking it in Windows, you're setting it to run at its normal speed. People have found that Apple underclocked the GPU under OS X for some reason (probably heat), and that you can set it to run at its correct speed under XP.
Arhgh. What sucks is I just got my 1.83GHz about 3 days before they released the new ones. It sucks. I realize the speed difference may not be all that much, but a nice even 2GHz sure would look a lot nicer than this stupid 1.83.
If you bought it from an Apple Store, take the machine back. Apple has a policy where you can return a machine if the model was upgraded within 7 days of when you bought it.
Geos, same with mine and they said they can't exchange it for me. A$$ holes.