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Josias

macrumors 68000
Mar 10, 2006
1,908
1
Rovman said:
You are right...and at the same time wrong. The chip is designed so that it can have a cap set or have dynamic allocation. In the MacBook, apple have actually capped it at 64mb (some say 80mb but i dunno where they get that from). However when running windows on your MacBook, it allocates the full 256mb.

1. GMA/950 is set in OS X by Apple to draw a maximum of 64 MB.
2. GMA/950 can from Intel draw up to 224 MB.
3. Some people believe the GMA/950 can draw 80 MB in OS X. They're wrong. The extra 16 MB are drawn to run OS X and the boot-up. GMA can in OS X not draw more than 64 MB. Some users have in Vista Beta seen that their MB's draw 224 MB, but not in OS X.
4. To the OP. Can you take a screenshot of that insane MB, and BTW, arr you sure it wasn't and MBP?:D
 

baxterbrittle

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 8, 2005
236
1
Josias said:
4. To the OP. Can you take a screenshot of that insane MB, and BTW, arr you sure it wasn't and MBP?:D

Which one is the MacBook Pro again? Is that the one that's black and made of plastic with a glossy screen? I'll go and take a photo rather than a screen shot - A screen shot can more easily be photoshop'd. So if I took a screen cap everyone would go - oh he photoshop'd it he's such a liar yarda yarda yarda. I'm not here to **** with anyone - I just want to get to the bottom of it.
 

Chundles

macrumors G5
Jul 4, 2005
12,037
493
baxterbrittle said:
Which one is the MacBook Pro again? Is that the one that's black and made of plastic with a glossy screen? I'll go and take a photo rather than a screen shot - A screen shot can more easily be photoshop'd. So if I took a screen cap everyone would go - oh he photoshop'd it he's such a liar yarda yarda yarda. I'm not here to **** with anyone - I just want to get to the bottom of it.

The MacBook Pro is the 15" or 17" aluminium laptop.

The black one is just the top end MacBook. I went down to my local AppleCentre yesterday and the Graphics bit in the System Profiler lists "64MB shared with system memory."
 

Electro Funk

macrumors 65816
Dec 8, 2005
1,073
0
The Opium Garden
From my BlackBook purchased a week or 2 ago...
 

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baxterbrittle

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 8, 2005
236
1
Some screen caps

I finally got a screen cap - Sorry no photo's yet. Tell me what you think.
 

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netdog

macrumors 603
Feb 6, 2006
5,760
38
London
Can a 950 use dedicated VRAM? I have never heard of such a thing, but that doesn't mean that it isn't possible I suppse. Engineers?

Could this be some sort of upgraded BIOS (I know, wrong term, but you know what I mean) that instead allocates 256MB, and is just labeled as VRAM when it is actually shared from system memory?

Ideas?
 

baxterbrittle

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 8, 2005
236
1
Dunepilot said:
What happens if you restart the said machine?

This machine has been restarted multiple times I think since I last saw it - but can't be positive. I will try to investigate further when I get the chance. Anyone know if activity monitor reports anything for the shared memory for the 950? Because that would be a helpful indication.
 

whooleytoo

macrumors 604
Aug 2, 2002
6,607
716
Cork, Ireland.
Josias said:
1. GMA/950 is set in OS X by Apple to draw a maximum of 64 MB.

From Apple's MacBook Tech Specs page:

"Memory available to Mac OS X may vary depending on graphics needs. Minimum graphics memory usage is 80MB, resulting in 432MB of system memory available."
 

Josias

macrumors 68000
Mar 10, 2006
1,908
1
whooleytoo said:
From Apple's MacBook Tech Specs page:

"Memory available to Mac OS X may vary depending on graphics needs. Minimum graphics memory usage is 80MB, resulting in 432MB of system memory available."

Dude, that is the systme/boot thingy drawing the extra 16 MB. Nor mally these 16 MB would'a been drawn from the VRAM, but since there is none, this is considered consumed by the GMA indirectly.:eek:
 

whooleytoo

macrumors 604
Aug 2, 2002
6,607
716
Cork, Ireland.
Josias said:
Dude, that is the systme/boot thingy drawing the extra 16 MB. Nor mally these 16 MB would'a been drawn from the VRAM, but since there is none, this is considered consumed by the GMA indirectly.:eek:

Yes, but that paragraph also states that's the minimum VRAM usage, not the maximum.
 

Dunepilot

macrumors 6502a
Feb 25, 2002
880
0
UK
someguy said:
I hope Apple isn't putting better machines on the floor to drive ordinary MacBook sales. :eek:

That's pretty unlikely, isn't it. Apart from the fact that those things sell themselves, it'd be legally questionable to do that (at least in the UK) under the Trade Descriptions Act.
 

netdog

macrumors 603
Feb 6, 2006
5,760
38
London
That capture is certainly interesting. Particularly the MacBook 1.1 designation. Firmware update?
 

NightGeometry

macrumors regular
Apr 11, 2004
210
216
Manipulated?

Hmm, well, my MacBoot designation is also 1,1, serial no. is the same too.

My guess, someone has been using image manipulation...

Opened it in photoshop, and zoomed right in (bear in mind that I am no image manipulation expert), and the two in 256 for vid memory looks a little suspicious, the 5 also looks a bit off, but not so much. Though that could just be the jpeg artifacts.

In general, if it is a fake, then it seems quite a good one (I would imagine a screenshot photoshoped then re-screenshoted to get it right).

Just my thoughts.
 

FleurDuMal

macrumors 68000
May 31, 2006
1,801
0
London Town
NightGeometry said:
Hmm, well, my MacBoot designation is also 1,1, serial no. is the same too.

My guess, someone has been using image manipulation...

Opened it in photoshop, and zoomed right in (bear in mind that I am no image manipulation expert), and the two in 256 for vid memory looks a little suspicious, the 5 also looks a bit off, but not so much. Though that could just be the jpeg artifacts.

In general, if it is a fake, then it seems quite a good one (I would imagine a screenshot photoshoped then re-screenshoted to get it right).

Just my thoughts.

Yup. Well spotted. The '2' in '256' looks too thin compared to the others for my liking.

But at the same time, I can't understand why anyone would bother faking such a picture :confused:
 

NightGeometry

macrumors regular
Apr 11, 2004
210
216
Well, you could just do it to see how much attention you get, to set off an 'upgrade tuesday' thread (G5 powerbooks anyone?).

Why does anyone ever post a manipulated image of a non-existent Apple product?

Apart from that two looking a little bit odd it seems quite good. I tried saving out the system profile editing and reloading, but whilst I could change some things couldn't find how to change video memory. And I've no idea how you'd get a saved file to load in system profile by default. BUT - that would be my guess, someone has created a fake system profile, and knows how to get that to load by default. Then gone into the store and basically made an 'adjustment' to the machine to show the changed file.

If that is possible, then I like it. It seems a real subtle trick to play :)

Does the GMA 950 exist in a version with dedicated memory?
 

baxterbrittle

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 8, 2005
236
1
Trying to get attention!? Are you kidding?

Seriously why would I bother photoshopping this rubbish? What would be the point? I was in the shop and saw this and thought hey now that's interesting I should see what other people's MacBook's show. It seems that most have reported 64MB Shared so my guess is that there is some sort of reporting error - maybe a glitch with an unupdated system? Maybe they use a standard Install image across the showroom so that all machines have the same info and that particular image doesn't have the correct software to recognise the MacBook - then why does the machine next to it report 64MB Shared? I don't know. Why are there 3 different logic board when there is really only 2 configurations of machine? I don't know - this is why I am asking.

As I said when I started this if the BlackBook has 256MB dedicated then I would buy one instead of a white one. That's why I'm trying to get to the bottom of this! Just because you can't offer any constructive reasoning as to why this machine says what it says you just go, oh he photoshopped it - oh look at the 2 it looks sort of funny and I know photoshop work when I see it, blah blah blah.
 

netdog

macrumors 603
Feb 6, 2006
5,760
38
London
I don't think you are doing this for attention, and I also want to get to the bottom of it. Why not have the store call through to HQ?
 

baxterbrittle

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 8, 2005
236
1
Oh and I've got a Hi Definition PowerBook but you probably eouldn't believe that either:)

No really I have!
 

baxterbrittle

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 8, 2005
236
1
netdog said:
I don't think you are doing this for attention, and I also want to get to the bottom of it. Why not have the store call through to HQ?

It's a reseller store and I used to work there - You can't get anything out of Apple. Nobody at Apple AUS would know anyway!

Can anyone tell me if Activity Monitor reports anything for the GMA's memory usage? Anyone at all - preferably with MB or MacMini.

Cheers
 
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