Apple MacBook Pro has been well received since the Intel-based laptop was launched by Apple. Except from Intel’s new processors MacBook Pro also comes with ATI’s Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics circuit. Despite these relatively powerful components Apple has managed to keep the heat at bay and the system’s noise at a minimum. However, new information has surfaced that says that Apple has intentionally crippled the graphics with MacBook Pro. According to HardMac’s information Apple has downclocked ATI’s Mobility Radeon X1600 circuit to 310MHz/278MHz from the usual 470MHz/470MHz. A considerable difference and the reason has nothing to do with bad circuits from ATI.
At HardMac they’ve tested to raise the frequencies for the Mobility Radeon X1600 circuit to 470MHz/470Mhz and they didn’t experienced any artefacts or other stability problems, but it did result in other side effects.
”I also did not notice any artifacts, but it took only couple of seconds to turn one the cooling system fan to a rotation speed that I have never experienced before even when performing CPU intensive tests. It is clear that Apple has underclocked the GPU of the MBPro to keep the machine as silent as possible; and also to keep a battery lifespan similar to the PBG4 (eventhough overclocking the GPU only reduced battery lifespan by 30 minutes).”
Apple seems to limit the graphics performance for less noise and longer battery time, to many a good solution, but not to everyone.
Source: HardMac
