Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MacBook Pro ATI upgrade?

KingYaba

KingYaba

macrumors 68040
Original poster
I have found a local guy selling the low end macbook pro for a really nice price. I'm just curious is there a way that I could upgrade the video card to the 256 instead of the 128 in the future?
 
Eidorian said:
No, you can't upgrade the video chip.
Click to expand...
He/She's right, the video card, er..., chip is soldered on to the logic board, making it very difficult if not impossible to upgrade/replace.
 
Xander562 said:
He/She's right, the video card, er..., chip is soldered on to the logic board, making it very difficult if not impossible to upgrade/replace.
Click to expand...
I would have said video card but that implies it's on its own separate PCB from the logic board. So it'd be GPU and memory soldered onto the logic board. 😀

One logic board has 128 MB and the other 256 MB.
 
I'm really rakin my brain here, cuz the guy will sell me that low end macbook pro for 999 bucks (In Person). I'm trying to see if I really need that graphic card. I'll say it's quite an upgrade from my G3 Pismo and eMac for one thing.
 
that doesn't sound legit... lol

but if it is, what a great find you've got! the video card shouldn't hold you back. if you're doing anything that would actually demand a better card than what's in there, you should probably think about moving to a desktop instead, anyways.
 
The extra VRAM is quite simply not of any use to most people these days. Few games currently take advantage of that much VRAM, and the system rarely does. Unless I REALLY knew I needed 256MB for some reason, I wouldn't even think about it. Are you planning on doing high-end gaming or running motion? If not, don't worry.

That said: $1000 MBP, and you're wondering whether to buy it or not?! Either it's stolen, there's something seriously wrong with it that is not covered by the warranty (or voided it--it got dropped or something), or the guy selling it is an idiot.

There's no way a fully functional MBP that's still under full warranty (and it's not old enough for the warranty to have expired "naturally" yet) is only worth $1000. Rember that if the warranty hasn't been voided by an accident, you can still buy another 2 years of AppleCare for $350 (or less, if you shop around).
 
Unless you are heavy into 3d rendering or 24/7 gaming I would say go for it. Although, it does sound to good to be true. Keep in mind that if you pick it up for $1000 you can sell it on ebay for quite a bit more and put that towards the 256mb should you decide that you need it...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back