checcco Posted November 8, 2010 Share Posted November 8, 2010 First of all, sorry for my english, I'm Italian...but hopefully you'll undesrtand everything I'll write... Please avoid answers like "Search the forum", cause I've been searching and reading the forum for about a month, and all I want to do is try to make a summary of what I've learned about OSX on new laptops. I think non-guru people need a summary. So please, I'm going to write down what I've understood so far and you feel free to correct or add anything. I'll keep the first post updated and change the title to make it more clear for all the people to benefit. I think the starting point for all of us is: I wanna buy a NEW laptop which can run OSX and has similar performance to a MacBookPro I think we should start with QE/CI related problems... 1) Don't buy a laptop with ATI Graphics. They're not supported at all... No one seems to be working on making them supported. (or did I miss someone?) 2) When new MBP came out, new kexts came out too to support Intel Graphics. It seemed like this was the solution for a lot of laptop. This solved nothing instead. What I understood is the kexts look for the nvidia card and even if you have it they won't find it, since Apple does hybrid graphics their very own way. So at the moment Intel graphics are not supported but people are working on the matter 3) You're new laptop will have 99% a Core i processor. Most of them have integrated graphics and a discrete graphic card. In this case you won't be able to use your discrete graphic card since OSX will try to use it the apple way (through the integrated graphics). If your BIOS let you turn off integrated graphics then you're lucky (maybe), but most BIOSes won't, and they'll let you turn off only the discrete, i.e. a laptop with only Intel graphics (see point 2). 4) A solution to me seems to be: buy a laptop with a processor without integrated graphics (most common today is i7-720QM) and with a fully supported nVidia card. Which are the fully supported nVidia cards? Here we need people to report back. For now I'd stick with gt3x0m. Coming next... Wifi, audio, sleep... To everyone reading this: please leave a comment, tell about your story, I'll update the first post. Thanks everybody.. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/236542-to-all-the-gurus-on-this-board/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
checcco Posted November 8, 2010 Author Share Posted November 8, 2010 It's nearly impossible to have attention about laptops on this forum... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/236542-to-all-the-gurus-on-this-board/#findComment-1578830 Share on other sites More sharing options...
3.14r2 Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 I wanna buy a NEW laptop which can run OSX and has similar performance to a MacBookProBuy a similar notebook. You can check Wikipedia for more details on the hardware used in MacBook Pros. Select the model with same chipset, cpu, VGA card. WLAN card can be replaced, so it not necessary should be the same.1) Don't buy a laptop with ATI Graphics. They're not supported at all... No one seems to be working on making them supported. (or did I miss someone?)AFAIK ATI cards are used in some Mac Pro/iMac models (not MacBooks). So some are supported by OS X (at least desktop cards).2) When new MBP came out, new kexts came out too to support Intel Graphics. It seemed like this was the solution for a lot of laptop...What I understood is the kexts look for the nvidia card and even if you have it they won't find it, since Apple does hybrid graphics their very own way. So at the moment Intel graphics are not supported but people are working on the matter It depends on the Intel card model. Some are supported (the ones that are used in MacBooks) and some are not.The difference between Nvidia card used in Mac and the same card used in a PC - EFI firmware. PC cards doesn't have EFI firmware. Therefore a PC card can not be used directly (without some additional manipulations) on Mac it wont be loaded since no EFI firmware is present and so it can not be detected. On a Hackintosh Nvidia (or ATI) cards are not working OOTB for the very same reason - OS X does not know how to "handle" the card without EFI firmware. But in a Hackintosh EFI firmware can be (and is) emulated using various methods including (but not limited to): EFI string, Boot loader option, injectors. 3) You're new laptop will have 99% a Core i processor. Most of them have integrated graphics and a discrete graphic card. In this case you won't be able to use your discrete graphic card since OSX will try to use it the apple way (through the integrated graphics). If your BIOS let you turn off integrated graphics then you're lucky (maybe), but most BIOSes won't, and they'll let you turn off only the discrete, i.e. a laptop with only Intel graphics (see point 2).Not necessary Core i. Some have AMD CPU Some models have Core2Duo. It depends where and how to look for a new notebook.On cards... IMHO it depends on card(s) used. ...Which are the fully supported nVidia cards? Here we need people to report back. For now I'd stick with gt3x0m.You need Google and Wikipedia (and/or Apple website) to find out what components are (were) used in Macs. There is a short list of supported cards.It's nearly impossible to have attention about laptops on this forum...Yeah, indeed... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/236542-to-all-the-gurus-on-this-board/#findComment-1579218 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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