The MacBook will be updated today, depending on the moment, the Apple Store Online may already be listing it. It’s a minor bump spec-wise from first glance, but on the inside… things get much better for the MacBook.
The three main changes are: The Santa Rosa platform (800 MHz Front Side Bus), Dual-layer SuperDrive, and Intel GMA X3100 graphics.
The front-side bus speed will give you an instant performance boost, and the dual-layer burning is nice (though the low-end unit still has only a Combo drive). But, the best part of this bump is the Intel GMA X3100… the first Intel graphics card that isn’t absolutely horrible.
Previous to the X3100, Intel handed off much higher-order 3D processing to the CPU. This means that while Aqua and Aero aren’t going to hit the CPU… games will. The performance of the GMA950 was beaten out by cards that Apple was shipping in PowerBooks years ago. The GMA950 was clearly the worst graphics card on the market capable of handling Mac OS and Vista graphics… in fact, it was designed to barely meet Vista’s Aero requirements.
The X3100 finally brings 3D processing completely in-house to the GPU (well, as much as a typical card). Performance improvements are dramatic… the chip rivals a Radeon X1300. Now, MacBook Pro owners like myself aren’t going to be feeling cheated out… the MacBook Pro does still pretty much have best-in-industry graphics.
What does this mean for you? It means if you want to play a casual game while on the road, or run Final Cut on your MacBook… you now can. Prices stay the same.