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Intel’s new graphicsboosting chips What improvements can we expect from Intel’s latest processors? BY matt bolton such as iFixit (ifixit.com) publish detailed guides to replacing almost every part in your Mac, should you need to. As long as you can source replacement parts, from eBay for example, and don’t mind getting hands-on, repairs can be made. What might be more of a concern is the time and effort you have to invest in replacing parts, rather than having Apple do it for you. For some components, such as the hard drive, this is an easy process (depending on your model of Mac). If a fan or speaker goes, it’s much trickier. If keeping your Mac running involves numerous complicated fixes with hard-to-find components, you may be better off buying a new computer. Hardware isn’t your only consideration when working with an obsolete Mac – you’ll need to find out what software it can run. The most important consideration is that Apple no longer offers security updates to any version of OS X earlier than OS X 10.9 Mavericks. How much that’s likely to affect you depends on what you do with your Mac – running it offline should be fine, but using it as your main work device could spell trouble. There’s no point upgrading the hardware if it falls prey to malware! Swapping your old version of Safari for a recent alternative, such as Camino (caminobrowser. org), and using anti-malware software will help, but you’re still at risk when online.
In January, Intel revealed models of its latest generation of processors, codenamed Kaby Lake, including models that will almost certainly find their way into future MacBook Pros, iMacs, and Mac minis (possibly even by the time you read this in the case of the desktops, though we expect it to take a little longer). Many of Intel’s recent releases have focused on battery life improvements, but Kaby Lake will offer similar battery life to existing chips in most cases. In terms of performance, it will be optimized for some specific tasks (including working with and viewing 4K video), but mostly you’re looking at a slightly faster version of what we have now. The biggest gains will probably be in Intel’s integrated graphics chips, which Apple relies on heavily in many Macs, where performance may increase by around 20% (with the GPUs rebranded to Iris Plus instead of Iris Pro, presumably just to annoy tech writers who have to explain the difference). As ever, we don’t know exactly what Apple will use, but Intel announced some chips that are right in Cupertino’s comfort zone. For example, the obvious chips for the stock 27-inch iMacs would raise speeds from the current 3.2GHz and 3.3GHz to
3.3GHz and 3.4GHz (the actual improvement would likely be better than those numbers suggest), though the 4K 21-inch iMac is less clear, since Intel has yet to announce any Iris Plus desktop parts. Chips suitable for the MacBook Pro were released too, but we wouldn’t expect to see an upgrade for those until late in the year, though these chips would also work nicely for a Mac mini: we might see one with 3.1GHz and 3.3GHz dual-core Core i5 processors as standard, with Iris Plus graphics. Kaby Lake also supports Thunderbolt 3 across the range, and should be able to lift the 16GB RAM limit of the new MacBook Pros, according to reports. It also supports a new faster type of storage, named Octane, but we suspect Apple is happy with its current ridiculously fast storage.
The next Mac lineup should boast Intel’s latest optimized processors.
maclife.com mar 2017 11