Both Apple’s 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models which feature Retina displays will feature Intel’s Haswell processors, it was announced at Apple’s event last night. There are other upgrades heading to the machines, which have become available immediately in the US, but these updates will probably take a little time to filter through to this side of the planet.
Apple’s 13-incher will find itself gifted with a Core i5 Haswell processor (2.4GHz/2.9GHz) from Intel along with a 128GB solid-state drive, 4GB of system memory and an updated Iris GPU from Intel replacing the HD 5000 graphics solution (also from Intel) seen in the previous model.
There are a couple of options for the 15-inch Retina MacBooks. The base model will feature a 2GHz Core i7 Haswell chip and Intel’s Crystalwell GPU, which is part of the Iris family. Its bigger brother will see a Haswell 2.3GHz/3.5GHz chip taking up residence. The GPU is getting a substitution, dropping the Nvidia GT 650M in favour of an Nvidia GT 750M and all of its bells and whistles.
Both 15-inch Retina MacBook Pros have the option to upgrade their processors to something a little more speedy in the form of Intel’s 2.6GHz/3.8GHz Core i7 chips and the machines will all be getting Thunderbolt 2 port upgrades as well as 802.11ac wireless support. Overseas pricing for the Retina laptops stands at $1,299 (R12,750) for the 13-inch model (base price) and $1,999 (R19,560) as a jump-off point for the 15-inch version. Stuff is expecting at least some markup on these prices once Apple’s upgraded machines make the trip to Africa.
Source/Image: Ars Technica