According to Mac Rumors, the latest MacBooks might have an unannounced new feature: GPU-accelerated h.264 codec decoding.
According to anecdotal evidence, the new aluminum MacBook’s processor runs around 75% slower when playing back 1080p movie when compared to a last-gen MacBook Pro with the Nvidia 8600M GT.
That makes sense: the MacBook’s built-in 9400M chip is designed to support offloading video decoding to the GPU. But it’s nice to see confirmation; more over, it seems to hint that we’ll be seeing a lot more high-definition content on iTunes, sooner rather than later.
Apple Enabled GPU Hardware Decoding of h.264 [Mac Rumors]
noted
I recommend to correct this: ” the new aluminum MacBook’s processor runs around 75% slower ”
Actually, the cpu utilization is 75% less. Speedstep is not THAT good yet, so cpu frequency scaling is not the same as CPU usage.
But is this performance boost from the new video card or the new version of OSX shipping on the new MacBooks/Pros?
Will I see the same performance boost on my old MacBook Pro when the new version of OSX is released publicly? (the incremental release, not Snow Leopard)
Yeah, theoretically the current 8600M GT should be able to do this just fine, too.