New MacBook Pro: GeForce 8600M GT Inside

One of the most important change in the new MacBook Pro models released yesterday is the new GPU, moving away from the Radeon X1600 Mobility to the NVidia GeForce 8600M GT. This is the first time that Apple includes a NVidia graphic card in its high-end notebooks; and such a move could also be linked to the acquisition of ATI by AMD, and the improved relationship between Intel and NVidia.
From its specification, the GeForce 8600M GT seems to be a powerful mobile GPU. Its Core is clocked at 475MHz, shaders at 950MHz, while the memory frequency is set to 700MHz and features a 128-bit bus. A more powerful model is available from NVidia, the GeForce 8600M GS, but its power consumption was probably not fitting Apple's requirements.
How faster is the GeForce 8600M GT?
According to Apple, it is 57% faster than the X1600 found in MacBook Core Duo. But one should remember that in MacBook Core Duo, the GPPU was underclocked by Cupertino, and was subsequently increased by 25% in the Core 2 Duo-based MacBook Pro.
So the GeForce 8600M GT will most probably improve performance by 30% at best compared to the Radeon X1600 GPU found the prevision MacBook Pro revision.
Beside the clock speed, the most important point for a GPU is the driver, and if Apple and NVidia can not release a good one, having a faster GPU on paper will not be translated into reality. From the past history, GPU drivers have always been Apple's Achilles’ heel.