If you’ve been holding out for a high(er)-end GPU option before taking a Macbook Pro plung, AMD and Apple have announced the option you’ve been waiting for. As of today, you have the option to choose the new 7nm AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and add +$700.00 to the 16-inch Mackbook Pro base price of $2,799.00.
The new Radeon Pro 5600M houses 8 GB HBM2 memory while you were previously limited to maxing out on the 5500M with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory (for a +$100 addition). The difference? The GDDR6 memory clocks in with a bandwidth of 196 GB/s while the HBM2 memory nearly doubles it with a reported bandwidth of 394 GB/s .
On top of that, the 5600M adds 40 Compute Units, 2560 Stream Processors, and up to 5.3 FP32 TFLOPS. However, you’ll see a decrease down to 1.54 Gbps in Memory Speed over the 5500M’s 12Gbps. Still, according to 9to5Mac, Apple is reporting a 75% increase in speed over the 5500M.
From keyboard and screen to ports and GPUs, there’s a sense that Apple has been skimping on the hardware side so another option is always welcome. For 3D CAD and content creation, a Macbook Pro has been a desired device but slow to match power and options in mobile PC workstations. The free online WWDC 2020 that kicks off next week is expected to have more hardware announcements, including that of a redesigned iMac and dumping Intel for its ARM-based Mac chip initiative. Fingers-crossed some additional news on the mobile or 3D CAD front will be revealed as well.
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