Do I need the 9600m GT video?

I am ready to purchase a new MBP that I will use all day long with hotcomm voice and picture chat, email, powerpoint, word, excel,browsing, and a professional stock trading application called realtick that will run through vm ware or parallels and skype. This will not be my only computer but it is the one I would like to use the most. I am sensitive to heat problems and am considering the 2.4 processor because I have it in my head that it may run cooler. I recently used a thinkpad, (i know not a direct comparison), with a t9300 and dedicated video and it was so hot it could______ fill in blanks... Ultimately the heat is what killed the motherboard so I would like to stay as cool as reasonable.

I am considering the refurbished 2.4 15" with the nvida 9600m GT and 9400m GPU's because I like the price. I also think I can get some value from the dedicated video on my stock charts, (but am really not sure). I do not want to outsmart myself and get the wrong thing. Would someone here with some experience maybe give me an opinion if I should be looking at the 2.53 15" without the switchable video. The heat is one issue, but the other is my realtick charting software that will have to run under windows xp that I am concerned about with regard to needing the stronger GPU.

I would really prefer to use an apple laptop, so I am looking at the old 15 2.4 for 1299 refurbished, but the 2.53 goes for 1450, so still within reach, just no 9600m GPU. but at some point the price begins to matter and as it climbs to 2,000.00 i will probably back away from apple and go back to a lenovo w500 where the price to value seems ok. But, would really like to just find the right apple and get it.

Any help would be most appreciated.

 

never seen any type of charting software need a very powerful GPU... whats the software list as requirements for GPUs?

more than likely, the 9400M would do nicely, and create less heat... and give longer battery life.

 

Everything you're running is 2D. The difference between the two GPUs will be most obvious running 3D applications. For your use, you'll see more benefit from spending more on the processor than on the GPU.

 

The thing people seem to forget now is that the days are soon to be over of GPUs being strictly for 3D applications. Snow Leopard introduced a new technology called OpenCL, which basically allows developers to harness the power of the GPU the same as they would a CPU:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/#opencl

So don't discount the usefulness of the more powerful GPU just because you're not doing visual effects or playing Crysis.

 

Yes, but using the CPU as a CPU is still more efficient than using CUDA or OpenCL for most applications (although CUDA-accelerated video encoding is very fast).

 

Thanks for all the nice comments. I ordered and received the 2.4 w 9600m video this week. I decided if I want the video its there. For some other reason I also just wanted the old style easy replaceable battery. A 2.53 same style machine did pop up on the refurb page just before I ordered and looked like a fabulous deal at just 150.00 more. It included 4 gig ram, 512m video and a bigger hard drive, but I decided to pass it up and go with the 2.4. Maybe a mistake, but I really wanted a 'p' series processor and not of a 't' series. My 1 year old totally broken think-pad had a T9300 and it was nothing but trouble with the heat and terrible battery life. While I'm sure the Apple is better, (couldn't be worse), I opted for cool running and lower power draw.

Anyway, I couldn't be happier. The machine does in fact run cool, (more so on integrated video setting), and seems plenty fast enough for everything I do. I was a little worried about the glossy screen as I have never had one and hate glare, but have found with a little adjusting its fine and the actual screen quality is fabulous.

 

No you dont need it. A new one is coming out in 2 months.

 

Yeah- the refurb model is a great value and you get the rep. battery. Just stick with the 9400m, it's more than you need and will save you a lot of battery life.

 

I have a 9400m+9600GT ... and almost all the time I'm only using the 9400. I only turn on the 9600GT for a couple of games... even though most games I still just use the 9400.

 

You can pick up 4 GB of RAM for far less than the $150 difference and upgrade it yourself. Probably add a 7200 RPM hard drive as well from Newegg and still be under the price of the 2.53 model you were looking at.