MacbookPro 9600GT 256vidmem vs 512mb is it worth paying difference ?

Hi guys I'm about to buy a macbook pro MB471LL or MB470 and I was just wondering is it worth paying that huge price difference, between 256mb vs 512mb vidmem. I mean will I notice the difference when gaming ? I will do mostly intensive gaming and some rendering as well. And Something else did you hear something about the black intensity on this lappies like tinted out?

 

why are you buying a laptop with a 9600m if you're going to be doing intense gaming? you'll probably manage medium in crysis. The upgrade is not worth it, though.

If you want to game, look at the gateway 7811 or asus g50vt-x1...

 

well yeap I guess you're right, but I like this new mb , is the vidmemory increase going to be significant only if I play Dx10 games? or it's just useless cause of the 9600GT being 128bit ?

 

You'll find folks in here in both camps. Some claim the 128 bit limits performance...I think it remains to be seen once software opens up the abilities to use both video cards in the system. There are other sites that say the 128 bit issue is a non-issue. Really up to you. I know I haven't had any trouble yet running anything on my MBP that I was running on my XPS1710 (gaming). However, I don't play Crysis so can't answer any questions about it. I will say that when gaming in Windows, the fans go to high without having to do any tweaking like I did with my Dell.

I would suggest that you research some other sites besides this one to get a well-rounded answer to your question.

 

Sup Shirt well I did some posts on some mac specific forums.. but most of the people say performance isn't noticeable on 512mb GT (that I will notice the mem games using larger textures and that will be evident on dx10 in vista, some guy said), but I mean apple relleased a second model with 512mb cause of something.. I don't think they just released it cause they wanted to charge more money for the 4gb of ram an 6mb l3 cache ... I mean it's 500 bucks more.. but.. dunno .
What I didn'tget was that about the fans kicking in ? you got a macbook pro the 2008 model? I mean the unibody ? ohh yep you got one I checked your signature.. so which model you got ? MB470LL or MB471LL ?

 

Actually Apple did just release a different model with a useless 256MB more vram for an extra $600. Its called a marketing gimmick.

Those posts were misguided. The 9600M cannot make use of that extra memory. What do they mean by "128bit is not issue?". So the card just suddenly decides to use the extra memory? No. Its nit worth paying the difference.

 

sup gaz **** you really think it's not worth it.. I'm sunk into a big confusion ...grr, you do mean the extra 256mb won't affect performance at all say using vista dx10 and large textures.

 

The difference is going to be small. $600 is not worth it for just the GPU, but if you add in all the other upgrades, it might be worth considering.

 

About the fans...on my Dell, it used to allow overheating/shutdown without engaging fans to high when needed. I had to download a third party app to make the fans work right. On this MBP, when running games on my windows partition, fans go to high as needed and keep the temp reasonable (although any laptop runs hotter than a desktop due to the limited space to dissipate the heat). I can't speak to old MBP to new MBP because this is my first mac (late 2008 MBP).

As you can see from the post a couple above this, one from the camp "it doesn't make a difference". As you'll find posted on some other sites, the extra VRAM CAN hold larger textures and it can keep them there. Yes, the 128 bit might limit how fast they get there, but once they're there, they're there and you can manipulate them much better than only half of them were there (256 vs 512). Again, it depends on what you use the computer for...and even for gaming, once the 512 of data is there (on the card memory), it is faster accessed than having to go back and find any that would be above 256 (if you were using 256 instead of 512).

So, whether the textures are 256 or 512, they still have to pass through the 128 bit pass through. However, once there, with the 512, you can obviously access double the size of data that would be available on the 256.

Edit...kind of like the folks who would say 4g of system RAM doesn't make any difference over 2g of system RAM...and look where we are now in terms of what a system can use...you can boot up a system on 512 or 1g of RAM, but it sure works a LOT smoother the more of the stuff you can get into the RAM...

 

You should go read Chaz's thread on mobile graphics card.....9600M GT graphics card is 128-bit memory bus then 256MB or 512MB wont make any or much difference as you couldn't utilize the whole thing.....512MB is worth the upgrade if only the 9600M GT was 256-bit memory bus.....definitely not worth paying more for the 512MB....but if money is not the factor...go with the most expensive one.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=302231

 

Other arguments aside, don't forget you are also paying for a faster CPU, a bigger hard drive, and twice the system RAM. Granted, two out of three of these you can upgrade yourself, perhaps cheaper, but then factor in what you think your time is worth for finding/buying/waiting for the upgrades to arrive, and decide if it's worth it or not. So it's not just about the VRAM upgrade for the extra $$...it's about increasing performance in 4 different ways...

 

Hi chen well I would be paying 500 bucks more for

- 6mb L3 cache
- 4gb of ram instead of 2gb
- and 512mb vidram instead of 256mb

is it worth it?

taking into account what you said about the bus being 128 bits... what about some ppl saying you could use both cards.. I don't hink that might happen but.. and what about shirt said .. once textures are on vidmem being 512 you can manipulate but if it has to go back.. it may be a tad slow going through 128 bit bus.. so..

 

sup shirt yep that's what I posted .. I'm paying for

- 6mb l3 cache vs the other model has 3 mb
- 4 more gb of ram that yeah I can upgrade it myself but I got to make some research aboutwhich sticks are comp which are not.. and well..
- and most important at least for me 512 vidram

how much would that mean all that ?500 bucks.. I guess it's fine..