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Comment by stcredzero | Hacker News Reader

2. No kaby lake - this is an intel release timing issue, if you want Kaby Lake wait a few more months.

Nvidia 1060 graphics! I don't need faster or more power efficient CPU as much as I need faster and more power efficient GPU!

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1060 GPUs are power hungry, and MacBook Pros have generally not included this class of graphics hardware. It would be more likely, if they were to move to Nvidia, to use the 1050 instead.

> MacBook Pros have generally not included this class of graphics hardware

Isn't this a larger problem? It's not just graphics anymore; it's the ability to work on basic ML. Even the top of the line GPU you can fit in a laptop is barely enough to handle this, and Apple seems to prefer to believe that need doesn't exist.

Hell, even the Mac Pro has anemic and HUGELY overpriced compute options.

And forget about Vulcan.

granted, while it's great in concept to work on ML everywhere, given that it is such a data and GPU-hungry process, the tradeoffs for an ML capable machine would make a shitty laptop. All the nVidia engineers that I see use a large "portable desktop" that has to accommodate the increased cooling and power contraints for a discrete GPU.

And, after having a number of laptops (and an iMac) die from heat death due to the ball grid array solders of the GPU wearing out, I'm done with discrete GPU's in anything other than a desktop box.

Better in this day and age to prototype on the macbook, then offload the heavy lifting to a dedicated ML box or, at the rate things are going, to Amazon...

I generally do agree, but 'laptop' is a little disingenuous when you're talking about an engineer's workstation—I get very little code written out of reach of a power socket. I'd even put up with a heavier/clunkier/louder machine (slightly) for a gpu/power boost.

They did use to make 17" laptops; calling those portable was really stretching the word.

I'm still holding out for official support of external GPU enclosures. The hardware already supports driving an external GPU over thunderbolt. People have hacked the software to work, but its still buggy. And right now it requires turning off some macos security features so they can inject 3rd party kexts.

I'd love to have an external desktop class GPU at home so I can play games or goof around with OpenCL and VR. Then I can simply unplug the laptop & use the integrated graphics chip when I'm on the road and need power efficiency.

1060 GPUs are power hungry, and MacBook Pros have generally not included this class of graphics hardware.

Fine. Shut off the 1060 when I'm running on battery, but let me have it when I'm plugged in! Let me have the best of both worlds!

No thanks. You are not the intended market.

Yet NVidia graphics were found on Macbooks as recently as 2010. And it worked great. My 2015 Air w/ Intel integrated graphics is slower on most anything 3D, and renders glitches that I never saw on my 2010 Air w/ Nvidia.

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