Apple's 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros to sport quad-core i7 CPU, AMD graphics

French Apple site Mac4Ever (via Google Translate) posted a photo of what appears to be a 15-inch MacBook Pro box. The site also claimed to have obtained several pictures of the 13-inch earlier on Wednesday.

The site was unable to verify exactly which model the box was for, but asserts that it is "without doubt the entry or mid-range," because the 3D card has just 256MB of RAM.

According to the photo, Apple's next-generation 15-inch MacBook Pro has:

• An Intel Core 2.0 GHz i7 quad-core processor with a 6MB cache
• 4GB of RAM at 1333 MHz
• 500GB hard drive
• 15.4-inch screen with 1440x900 resolution
• Intel HD Graphics 3000
• AMD Radeon HD 6490M GPU with 256MB of memory
• FaceTime HD camera
• 8x SuperDrive
• Thunderbolt and Mini DisplayPort
• SDXC slot, FireWire 800 port and two USB 2.0 ports
• Audio and Ethernet ports
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
• 2.54 kg in weight

Update: Mac-TV.de also obtained details and photos of the boxes of the 15-inch and 17-inch models. Specifications of the 15-inch are the same as listed above.

Specifications for the 17-inch model are said to be the same as well, but with a 2.2GHz Quad Core i7 processor and a screen resolution of 1,920-by-1,200 pixels.

And finally, Mr. X, a known and proven tipster, provided part numbers for the five new MacBook Pro models set to arrive on Thursday:

MC700LL/A - MBP 13.3/2.3/2X2GB/320/SD-USA

MC724LL/A - MBP 13.3/2.7/2X2GB/500/SD-USA

MC721LL/A - MBP 15.4/2.0/2X2GB/500/SD/GLSY-USA

MC723LL/A -MBP 15.4/2.2/2X2GB/750/SD/GLSY-USA

MC725LL/A - MBP 17/2.2/2X2GB/750/SD/GLSY-USA

Mac4Ever has a mixed track record with predicting Apple products. In July of last year, the site incorrectly claimed that Apple would release a 64-bit version of iLife '11 with a 'mystery application.' In September, the site correctly predicted that Apple was working on a FaceTime for Mac application, though a rumored FaceTime for Windows has yet to materialize.

According to one report, Apple will wait until after Intel's press event unveiling the Light Peak/Thunderbolt technology to take the wraps of the new MacBook Pros, though it's also possible that the Mac maker could launch the notebooks online early Thursday morning as usual.

For more information, see AppleInsider's MacBook Pro rumor roundup and information archive.