Giz Explains: Why Does the New MacBook Pro Have Two Graphics Cards?

The biggest update to the new MacBooks—on the inside anyway—is their graphical muscle, which has been hooked up with some Barry Bonds-level steroids. Apple ditched Intel’s crummy integrated graphics and chipset (basically the traffic controller between the processor and everything else) entirely, opting for a new one from Nvidia that combines the chipset and a GPU on a single chip—the GeForce 9400M. The MacBook Pro, being more Pro-erer than the MacBook, now rocks two graphics cards—the integrated 9400M and a separate, beefier GeForce 9600M GT. If that swirl of numbers, letters and BS is confusing, here’s what’s up.

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(7 Comments)
  • [–]

    John Cleary

    Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 8:33 AM

    Um.. Apple didn’t invent OpenGL bud… It was created by Silicon Graphics…

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL

    John

  • [–]

    Bennish

    Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 11:17 AM

    John you misread – OpenCL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCL

  • [–]

    Dan

    Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 11:51 AM

    Look again John.

    It’s OpenCL, not GL

  • [–]

    Open CL is not Open GL

    Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 12:44 PM

    I think you’ll find Open CL is not Open GL, smartypants.

  • [–]

    matt

    Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 5:38 PM

    Dell xps 1730 uses to graphics cards. An 8800 GT and a second 8800GT.

  • [–]

    kane

    Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 10:27 PM

    so the limitation of not allowing sli on the mac setup, is this a software or hardware limitation? Hopefully just software, coz that would be kick arse, and yes i don’t mind plugging a power cord in to use that kind of grunt, geez. So heres fingers crossed for a system update that allows this feature, or at the very least, bring on the snow leopards.

  • [–]

    cary Whittier

    Thursday, February 12, 2009 at 8:59 AM

    where is this ‘switch’ in the system prefs you write about? could not find it.

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