New MacBook and MacBook Pro announced today

They look pretty sweet. On the MBP, they're using the new 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo with better power specs, and they increased the HD to 250GB, added the new trackpad from the MacBook Air, and doubled the memory on the NVidia graphics card to 512MB.

No confirmation yet, but I imagine this would be a cool machine for SL.

yes, but i was hoping they'd go with the newly released mobile Geforce 9600GT .... maybe next revision.

Considering it took them EIGHT MONTHS to write drivers for the 8600, I doubt they were eager to release something with a 9600 two weeks after they got the drivers working.

Just a thought.

MacBooks still seem to be stuck with crappy integrated graphics! A cheap 64mb NVidia or ATI mobile graphics card would be a lot better, and more compatible with OpenGL games. The MacBook also doesn't have the multi-touch trackpad either, which I was surprised at.

I hear the X3100 isn't too bad in Second Life after the 10.5.2 graphics update.

Give it a try at the Apple Store and if it works for you, go for it.

Zorin - we have a new Apple store near me (I'm in the UK) so I might pop in and try the macbooks as you suggest - but will they l let you download the SL client onto an in-store machine? Don't they have them running on guest logins? I have no idea as I've only been in once and briefly. (I have to say, though, that Apple stores make great free Internet cafes.)

Do the macbooks work OK in SL now? I'd quite like to save myself a bundle of cash by getting the MB instead of the pro so any reports of smooth running would be welcomed.

They might run alright, but an actual graphics card would almost certainly be better. Intel integrated graphics are not supported at all by Second Life, meaning any update in the future could stop SL working on MacBooks, which sucks.

Regarding the Macbook Pro, I got the 15" 2.5 Ghz model with the 512 megs of video ram and it was getting anywhere from 12 - 24 fps in the latest Windlight client. Also the lockups and total memory drain problem were not evident.

This machine is running OS X 10.5.2 and has the graphics driver update.

I am getting beachballs periodically, but that was happening on my older MBP with the ATI X1600 with 128 megs of video memory as well.

I'm not really sure thats true, as is used to be. Mac requirements do not list Intel integrated, true... but Windows reqs didn't use to either, they do now. Its probably just neglected mac client, or neglecting Mac documentation.

This is the m/c I have my eye on, (maxed out to 4GB memory). I checked with Cancom, the Apple supplier, who explained one anomaly: the SL System requirements page recommends NVIDIA 6800, 7600, 7800, or 8800 graphics cards, while the new MacBook Pro has the 8600 card. Apparently, the 8600 is the MacBook Pro variant of the MacPro 8800 but smaller to fit into the laptop case and with only a small performance hit.

Radar, you mention a graphics driver update: can you please say more, and the URL, so that I can get Cancom to fit it for me, as I am a technologically-challenged Neko of little brain?

I am getting total system freezes as my old MacBook Pro (original issue 2GB, ATI Radeon X1600 graphics) heats up. I usually put a frozen picnic-basket ice-pack under it at that stage and it stops crashing (except that SL smells a bit of chicken salad with mayonnaise but that's okay). Do you find the same over-heating problem with the new MacBook Pro?

Any other comments you had before I thrust £zillions into Cancom's mit would be enormously appreciated.

Byee!
Christi

8600s are actually a lot different than 8800s, not just under clocked. Whoever said that was trying to over-simplify the matter for people who have no clue what computer hardware is.

If it was the 8800, underclocked, or anything in any way, Apple would sell it as a 8800. They did this same thing with firstgen MBPs with the radeon X1600s. they are severly underclocked in 1st gens, and later MBPs X1600 is like 33%+ faster. Apple still just called them all X1600s

'Whoever said that'? Why, the salesman of course! Never mind. Here it is, the mid-range model of the MacBook Pro, OS10.5.2 updated, 2.5GHz core 2 duo, NVIDIA8600, maxed up to 4GB memory (_not_ Apple's), and it flies. I can now run Windlight, there's much less lag even in heavily populated & scripted areas, and it never crashes. (Before, on my first-issue MacBook Pro, it would crash 4 or 5 times as the machine heated up, to the point that I was standing it on a picnic ice-pack). It _does_ 'pause' occasionally for 5-10 seconds, sometimes with the beachball and sometimes not, but always recovers, and that's not bad in comparison.

It's nice to have a readable keyboard where the letter k works again-- I'd worn out 3 keyboards doing SL on the old one and am now starting off with one of those plastic see-through keyboard membranes as some sort of protection from day 1. And actually, the machine is noticeably faster with other stuff too, not just SL...

I also have just got the same spec mbp, 2.5Ghz, 250G, 4G and the 512 graphics. It is quite a bit faster than my old 20" intel imac, but the pauses are really anoying, put paid to any driving, fighting etc. It does get very hot and the battery life is half what it is with any other application (i also run Aperture, Photoshop, Illustrator). I just hope Apple or I suspect Lindens sort out the graphics soon. SL is still the only application that crashes a mac.
But I love my mbp and sl inspite of the problems.

Jo, did you download the OSX10.5.2 update? That might help your pauses. I'm surprised you get crashes.
As for overheating, that's long been a feature of the MacBook Pros. All I can say is that it seems a little easier now, than on my first-series model.
Byee!

They don't write drivers for it, NVIDIA does, and Apple licenses them.

That's not entirely true; NVidia gives Apple the basic driver code I believe but it's still ultimately up to Apple to do final coding on it I believe.

There's talk of a newer driver format which should in theory make it possible for OS X to use the exact same drivers as for Windows (re-compiled) without any changes, so that Macs can use any graphics card that PCs can provided manufacturers take the time to do the compilation. But I can't for the life of me find any of the links to that; as usual the new standard is some stupid abbreviation I can't remember.