Lionel at HardMac makes a good point about GPU acceleration and how it could force Apple to focus on certifying the latest cards for use in OS X:
As we reported it earlier, Adobe unveiled its CS4 suite yesterday with availability for the end of the year. One of the main new features for Photoshop is the ability to benefit from GPU processing power to speed up rendering and/or some functions.
If Apple was always offering graphic cards from the generation N-1 to Mac users, the new CS4 suite could push Cupertino to revise this weird strategy and better follow GPU availability, not only for gamers, but now for all Pro users. Indeed, Apple will most likely not let CS4 suite and other audio/video/graphic software to run faster on a Win-based PC than on a Mac, as it could push long-time Mac users to the PC world. So it has to do with market shares and Apple’s image.
Hopefully Apple will attempt to adopt some of the latest cards from ATI and NVIDIA to further enhance the performance of applications like Photoshop, ImageReady or Motion, which in turn will help us gamers!
It’s interesting to see computing come full circle, where seemingly different and unconnected parts and processes start to become one, allowing performance benefits and a better, more unified machine.
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