Apple’s Intel-bashing leads to Mac mini speculation
Posted by Lab Rat
Macenstein reader Fuzzbie pointed out a small blurb at the end of the current Mac mini graphics page that seems to be Apple taking yet another dig at Intel (or at least Intel’s other customers), and at the same time provides for an interesting bit of speculation. This time Apple bashes Intel’s budget PC graphics chipset.
“Go ahead, just try to play Halo on a budget PC. Most say they’re good for 2D games only. That’s because an “integrated Intel graphics� chip steals power from the CPU and siphons off memory from system-level RAM. You’d have to buy an extra card to get the graphics performance of Mac mini, and some cheaper PCs don’t even have an open slot to let you add one.�
Now, to be fair to Apple, we should point two things out. First, this is true. Most sub-$500 PCS have horrible graphics performance, and many don’t even have an AGP slot to allow for updating (of course, the mini is not exactly rolling in extra card slots itself). Second, this was written before the Intel Macs arrived (although obviously Apple knew they would be using Intels at the time).
But what’s really interesting about this will be to see if Apple sticks to its guns on this claim when it comes time for the new Intel Mac minis. Does this mean Apple does not plan to use an integrated graphics solution from Intel on the new Mac minis? The current minis use ATI’s 32 MB Radeon 9200 chips to handle the graphics load. There would likely be a huge cost savings for Apple if Intel could provide them with a tiny, custom all-in-one chipset needed to fit into a mini without having to add additional graphics chips.
Many have been worried that the move to Intel might mean some historically inferior all-in-one solutions from Intel may find there way into the lower end of the Mac line. While this blurb on the Mac mini page can be read as just propaganda-esque rhetoric, and a girl can change her mind, it does provide a good deal of hope on that front.
Also of interest will be to see just how long it will be before Apple feels compelled to remove all its “anti-Intel/PC� talk from its site.
