I think the problem is in the drivers. Apple chose to mount nVidia GPUs but they were never able to implement good drivers. MBPs with ATI cards, even if less powerful, give a much better experience.
On Google earth, my MBP with the 9600 or the 9400 has a performance worse than a MB with Intel GPUs. With the 9600, the movement from one space to another is not as fluid as with the 9400. The stack animations were much more fluid on the early MBP than on this one.
Before this unibody, I had an early 2008 MBP with the 8600. For months, I could not watch videos or scroll website without having graphics corruption. I had to wait 10.5.5 to have those problems solved. I did not try with 10.5.6, by till 10.5.5 neither the previous MBP nor this unibody MBP could quicklook at multiple jpg in index mode files without freezing. They are all software issues.
The problem is all in the drivers. It is very disturbing that Apple released machine like the MBPs without worrying to implement good drivers, but they can because we have no alternatives. Anyway this lack of quality in the drivers is quite surprising since Snow Leopard will require very reliable drivers for the graphics subsystem.
thistle
