Just when we thought the two companies had found true love, it turns out there’s some turmoil beneath the surface. After NVIDIA’s acknowledgment of mobile GPU breakdown (and denial that the faulty GPUs were in Apple products), Apple determined that many video failures in MacBooks were in fact NVIDIA’s fault. Okay, they worked through that. But it seems NVIDIA has been taking Apple for granted, and displaying “arrogance” in its proposals for continuing a partnership. NVIDIA arrogant? Well blow me down!
So what happens next? After the end of this current product cycle (so probably next year), Apple may be dropping NVIDIA like a rock. But wait a second, it would take a lot of convincing to get AMD to put their GPUs in an Intel system, considering their growing interest in whole-system advantages. It’s all so confusing! Fortunately, it’s also all speculation, so we can wait it out and see what happens.
What do you guys think? Back to AMD? Perhaps Intel has something up its sleeve? Or maybe NVIDIA will apologize and they can have hot and sweaty make-up negotiations. Semiconductor gossip is so juicy!
[via Electronista]
Hmm… well, something big like faulty GPUs and not taking the blame… I think Apple will drop NVidia “like a rock”.
However, I don’t quite know if Apple will pick up AMD either… I’ve heard rumors that NVidia’s and AMD’s newer GPUs have extremely inflexible circuit layouts. I’ve also heard Intel’s Larrabee provides much more design freedom than the other two.
So who knows? Whoever Apple picks up will probably be the next leader in GPU, between Intel, AMD, and NVidia.
I’d guess Intel would be the likely suitor should NVidia and Apple “break up”.
No Tegra for iphone then – bad Apple
If the tegra is as good as they say Apple might just have to crawl back.
“ohh baby, you know I didn’t mean it, that chip meant nothing to me. It was just processing !”
Apple calling someone else arrogant? Steve Jobs is the MASTER of arrogance.
Wouldn’t Snow Leopard’s Grand Central framework be a great fit for Larrabee? Considering Intel’s approach, from what I’ve gathered, is going to be more software dependent than anything else.
I think people fail to recall nvidia already set aside millions of dollars to handle the faulty chip issue. Not all of that money have been spent yet. I recall reading this money is for the big companies buying their chip. As to how each companies (hp, dell, ibm, etc) handles it by either a recall, repair, extending warranties, software update, etc is up to the individual companies to decide. Some are better than other.
Also funny is how people call nvidia arrogant. Imo, they all are. Intel with their x86 “no one can make them unless we allow it” Wow, that is really supporting openness. Or AMD, “we support open technologies only” but in the future we will build everything in-house: CPU, GPU. Or Apple: they are even bigger when it comes to keeping their products proprietary.
I may seems like a nvidia support but I am only be fair. Look at it from both angles. imo, nvidia f up with their faulty chip and i think they could have handle it better in terms of PR. Some of the other sites are actually using Inquirer as a source. Honestly, Inquirer is the worst as a source. Not sure what happen to Charlie on Inquirer but that guy got a chip on his shoulder and some major beef with nvidia. So the guy who cries fire fire fire at every article is sudden taken as a credible source. I reserve my judgement. Hopefully nvidia pulls through this ordeal and get back to make great gpu like TNT. I like the competition they bring to AMD/ATI and Intel. It just gives us customers more choice.
Brilliantly written piece!
Love geek humor…
Ummmm, there is the 3rd thing and thats putting intel graphics in Apple Macs. hahahha Good for Nvidia, and I hope AMD doesn’t settle for anything less than Apple switching to AMD chips. If Apple is going to use ATI graphics they better help bring AMD’s market share by using their processors. Maybe Apple can use Matrox video.