Those of you hoping for Retina display enabled Macs in the future will be excited to find that Intel’s next-gen Ivy Bridge processors will be capable of supporting displays with up to 4096×4096 resolution, paving the way for Retina-display Macs.
Intel released last week that the new processors will be able to process video and support displays at that resolution:
Not only can the MFX engine display up to 4096 x 4096 pixels on a single monitor, but it can also handle video processing for 4K QuadHD video as well. Remember when, two years ago, Jen Hsun Huang at Nvidia for the first time encouraged 4K resolution – at that time 3840×2400 or as he called it XHD2, for ultra realistic gaming too, to use the extra pixels to justify the high end card need? Now, what a fate, Intel is making it real on the – integrated graphics platform, of all. Now, can we have back those 16:10 3840×2400 or, better, 4096×2560 monitors?
Intel will partly be able to achieve this by including a vastly improved build-in graphics processor on these next-gen chips, allowing entry-level computers with integrated graphics to handle the feature, and even ultralight computers such as the MacBook Air. OS X Lion already has built-in support for Retina-level displays.
In addition to supporting Retina-level displays, the new Ivy Bridge processors are also expected to see about a 60% boost in speed and performance. Personally, I’m thrilled, and can’t wait for Ivy Bridge Macs when they hit the shelves, likely some time in 2012.
