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Question about the new Mac Mini's Shared VRAM

C00rDiNaT0r

C00rDiNaT0r

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 12, 2006
254
49
New York, New York
I'd like to buy a new Mac Mini. I will max out the RAM to 4GB, and I don't care about the extra hard drive space. So the only difference that matters to me would be the shared VRAM.

I will hook my mac mini up to a HDTV to watch HD video, including some 1080p M2TS video, which for some reason my first gen. 15" low-end MBP (2GB RAM, ATi x1600 with 128MB dedicated VRAM) has trouble playing.

Is the $599 version capable of playing those movies? Will the extra 128MB (shared) VRAM in the $799 version bring substantial improvements in this field?
 
phobic99

phobic99

macrumors 6502a
Mar 3, 2008
707
37
The shared VRAM increases up to 256MB once you have 2GB of RAM installed. I bought the base model Mini and picked up 4GB of RAM for $53 (Newegg) just because it was cheaper than buying the "high end" mini.
 
C00rDiNaT0r

C00rDiNaT0r

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 12, 2006
254
49
New York, New York
phobic99 said:
The shared VRAM increases up to 256MB once you have 2GB of RAM installed. I bought the base model Mini and picked up 4GB of RAM for $53 (Newegg) just because it was cheaper than buying the "high end" mini.
Click to expand...

Does that mean if I bumped it all the way up to 4GB I get 512MB shared VRAM? If that's the case I'll just go ahead and buy the lower-end model.
 
C

ckourlio

macrumors newbie
Sep 22, 2008
6
0
phobic99 said:
The shared VRAM increases up to 256MB once you have 2GB of RAM installed. I bought the base model Mini and picked up 4GB of RAM for $53 (Newegg) just because it was cheaper than buying the "high end" mini.
Click to expand...

I am having trouble finding the ram upgrade on Newegg. Any chance you can post a link or let us know what to search for?
 
C00rDiNaT0r

C00rDiNaT0r

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 12, 2006
254
49
New York, New York
theLimit said:
No, it only goes up to 256MB. The 128MB is just a cap that the system uses to leave enough RAM for OSX to work with on a 1GB configuration.
Click to expand...

Ah, that's still not bad.

ckourlio said:
I am having trouble finding the ram upgrade on Newegg. Any chance you can post a link or let us know what to search for?
Click to expand...

Yea I only saw Corsair's RAM for $125 there.
 
T

TheDPR

macrumors member
Mar 31, 2005
51
0
theLimit said:
No, it only goes up to 256MB. The 128MB is just a cap that the system uses to leave enough RAM for OSX to work with on a 1GB configuration.
Click to expand...

Why is this the case? Why doesn't the VRAM continue to scale with the physical RAM?
 
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