During its last Mac hardware event, Apple announced that the configuration of MacBook Pro will be updated with new options for AMD Radeon Pro Vega graphics cards, amongst which the Pro Vega 16 and Pro Vega 20 options are the most significant. And now, MacBook Pro has been finally updated, allowing users to purchase these options from Apple’s online store.
The options are only available for the $2,799 MacBook Pro
Users can now purchase these options for the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. Unfortunately, they are only available on the highest-end $2,799 version of the laptop. In addition to the base price of MacBook Pro, we will have to pay an extra $250 for the Pro Vega 16 and $350 for the Pro Vega 20. When it comes to the base GPU, however, it was only slightly updated from the Radeon Pro 555X to the 560X.
The graphics performance faster by up to 60 percent
According to Apple, the graphics performance for tasks that are GPU-heavy, such as 3D rendering and video editing, could be faster with the new cards by up to 60 percent. Moreover, AMD stated that its second generation high bandwidth memory technology for the cards is much better than the standard GDDR5, being also more power-efficient.
There are also AMD Vega options for iMac Pro
The AMD Vega card options are now also available on the new iMac Pro. Compared to those that we can purchase with MacBook Pro, iMac Pro’s Vega Pro 56 and Vega Pro 64 are much more powerful, although they are also more expensive (Vega Pro 64 costs $600). Still, Vega 16 and Vega 20 were created specifically for the MacBook Pro, so we can be sure that they will improve the performance of the laptop quite significantly.
Frances might be just at the beginning of her career, but after attending a technical school, she has a fresh perspective on today’s technology. She contributes to the site with tech news.