Macbook vs. Macbook Pro Need Suggestions

Which one should I get. I need it for college: games like the Sims 2, flight simulator, train sim, etc. And I need it for music editing (light) and video editing (light). Portability and battery life are important.

Macbook 13"
2.4 GHZ
2GB
250HD
Integrated Graphices
$1400

Macbook Pro 15.4"
2.4 GHZ
2GB
250HD
Geforce 8600
$1664

 

Definitely the MacBook Pro at these prices! The 8600M GT will be really beneficial for the gaming you want to do, and the larger screen and higher screen resolution will help in video editing and overall computing.

 

I def agree with sam...grab a mbp...you will be happy you did...and check the difference between glossy and matte screens...

 

If you're going to be running any kind of 3D game on it then the MBP is the only way to go. As for battery life they are usually about the same (I actually find my 17" lasts longer than my friends 13"), and for portability, the MBP has a little more of a footprint, but is a tad thinner.

 

at those prices it would be silly to not get a MBP. The video card itself should run you close to the difference in price.

 

I recommend waiting to see what happens with this defective nvidia cards hoopla. It shouldn't take more than two months for the next mbp update.

 

Where did you find such a great price for a MBP ?

 

Time to switch to ATI . The 4000 series looks promising.

 

How are you getting the MBP that cheap? Its pretty much a no-brainer to go with the MBP. The 2.4 ghz penryn model only has a 200 GB hdd btw.

 

Yeah! ATI HD4XXX Rocks !

But AMD Struggles to Survive

 

If you want to play MS Flight Simulator, go for the Macbook Pro for sure. With all the textures and shady engine, it even struggles on mine, at high resolutions.

Too bad actually, cos it's a great game!

But I don't see it running on the Macbook.

 

Yeah, the sole fact that you're gaming gives the MBP a huge benefit, and the price difference you have it set as is not much at all.

Yeah, I know! I've been having issues with my 8800 GT (NVIDIA & Vista, who would've thought), so I'm returning it and getting the ATI HD 4850 instead.

 

I want HD4XXX series mobile cards asap .nVIDIA keep sucking our hard earned money due to lack of competition

I'm waiting for Mobile HD4870X2 .

 

Yeah, I've been a loyal NVIDIA user for a long time, but they seem to have taken the market for granted now since the release of the 7 series. The 8 series was good, but definitely not good enough. And NVIDIA drivers are just terrible. ATI coming in and being a really strong competitor with the 4000 series is only good news for the consumer.

Anyway, we're going off topic .

 

No, we aren't, since the MacBook Pro uses Nvidia 8 series graphics cards

ATI is slaughtering Nvidia, which is almost keeping AMD afloat at this point. If they went back to being ATI, it'd be cool. Except they won't, and AMD still sucks.

 

Well, AMD Puma looks better, but Nehalem's just around the corner, so unless AMD has some secret stuff up its sleeves, its really dangerous for them...not to mention, AMD needs a much better marketing department. The consumer mindset basically doesn't even consider AMD a viable option anymore. Its all Intel.

I hope ATI grabs a larger market with the 4000 series, and Apple switches to ATI for the next generation of MBPs. That'll tell NVIDIA to wake up and realize they need even better GPUs and much better drivers.

 

AMD Puma looks better, right up until you hit the small detail that the most battery life you can expect out of ANY Puma based notebook is 3 hours, due to the HD 3200 IGP (which is just an HD 2400 GPU soldered to the motherboard). NBR's review dv5z unit hit 2:22 on balanced settings, and I doubt other notebooks will get far past that unless you add a huge sized battery (12 cell or so).

I still want ATI to succeed though. If they switch to the HD4m for the next MBP, I'd be very happy, and if I was buying a GPU right now, HD 4850 all the way.

 

College savings.... my university has an apple store. Thanks for the help guys!

 

Lucky you