Macbook Pro Graphics Question

When I look at the 256 and 512 options for the pro, I notice that they are both 8600 GT. I would assume that means they both have the same clock speeds and such.

So, how big of a difference is there between the two?

 

It's negligible. Get what you can afford.

I've seen some users 512 3dmark06 scores and my 256 has scored higher (I also OC).

 

Well, I can "afford" a refurbished 2.5GHz 15.4" Macbook Pro, but if the difference is negligible I would rather save some money. What would the difference be if you didn't OC?

 

I'm pretty sure the 8600m GT has a 128 MB bus, making any more than 256 MB of RAM useless. It's like giving a construction crew capable of building 10 houses a day material for building 20 houses. At the end of the day, half of the lumber isn't going to be used.

 

Stock clocks they usually score in the 3-4k range.

you are correct sir.

 

There's a first time for everything.

 

The problem lies in the 8600M GT's small memory bandwidth. With a 128 bit bandwidth, it can't actually use all 512MB of memory. It can, however, use more than 256MB, just not much more. So, you will get slightly better performance with the 512, just not significantly better.

EDIT: nvm, someone beat me to the answer

 

512 MB just looks better, in a store, to consumers who are unaware of the card's limitation. It's really easy to assume that More = Better.

 

It wouldnt matter at this point both will fail eventually lol.

But what really matters between the two is just for external monitor, the 512mb vram will drive better than the 256vram.

 

Can anyone back up his statement?

 

I don't even understand what jjashik is talking about. But yeah, the difference in performance between the 512MB and 256MB versions of the MBP 8600GT is negligible. It is not limited by the clock speeds, it is limited by the bandwidth, so OCing the 512MB version wouldn't give you much more improvement than OCing the 256MB version.

 

I think he is refering to the issues and overheating on SOME 8600 gt's. I wouldn't worry too much about it, tons of 8600 users here having no problems whatsoever.

 

nvidia recently announced that some of its older generation GPU are defective. they continue to says that the packaging material die or what not is weak, and is prone to seperate under THERMAL CYCLING.

it seems the one that releases BIOS update are DELL and HP. so they are the main offender.

more recently, nvidia also goes on to say that the current gpu that are shipping featured a stronger packaging material.

apple hopefully not affected by this problem as they are more proprietary than other manufacture.