Could this be the chip that brings serious 3D gaming to the MacBook?
AMD has recently updated its Radeon R-series section on its website, to include the latest versions of the R5, R7 and R9 graphics processors, featuring the brand new M400 chip, with support for up to 8GB of GDDR5 memory, and 1500MHz memory clock.
Several iterations of the Apple MacBook Pro have been powered by AMD Radeon R-Series GPUs, with discrete results. AMD GPUs have been the go-to chip for entry-level graphic options in MacBooks, in the past few years, due to their relatively well-balanced cost/performance ratio. With that said, R-Series chips, by AMD have hardly a history of high-performance in higher-end 3D gaming, which is typically nVidia’s “turf”.
With the release of the M400 R5, R7 and especially R9, AMD seems to be confident in its ability to give nVidia a run for its money, in the laptop and ultraportable category, with future MacBooks the most likely recipients of the new chips.
AMD is investing a great deal into its graphic division, with almost daily updates in regard to its upcoming Polaris architecture, which is expected to push the limits of graphic processing power across all devices, from mobile to desktop, and especially VR, an areas in which Apple has been rumored to have put quite a lot of its resources into.
By this token, we can make a strong case for future MacBooks to be powered by the new chips, and an even stronger case for future MacBooks to finally be able to handle 3D games, like Rise of the Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed or the newly released Doom, as well as Windows PCs in similar categories.