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Mac OS X 10.6.7 suggests support for generic video cards

Hacker Tony of TonyMacx86 discovered that the latest Mac OS X 10.6.7 update for the 2011 MacBook Pro includes native graphics acceleration for select AMD and ATI video cards. These cards include seven Radeon 5xxx and three 6xxx models that are not present in any shipping Mac products.

Several of these AMD/ATI cards may debut in the upcoming refresh of the Apple iMac line, but Tony believes Apple's support for these cards extends beyond built-in hardware. The hacker proposes the idea that Apple may support off-the-shelf video solutions in its upcoming desktop models.

In this scenario, a Mac user would be able to swap out their video card, similar to how PC users replace video hardware on their Windows machines. Most Macs do not currently offer user-replaceable video cards, with the exception of the Mac Pro line; even there, only a very small subset of the cards on the market have Mac-compatible drivers.

[Via MacNN]