128 vs 256 VRAM & Vista

[ZoomZoomZoom]

I am looking at buying a 15.4'' MBP in a couple months when they release the Rev B preloaded with leopard. I know that I will be putting in 1.5g of RAM. I don't know how much VRAM I need, though.

I will definitely be dual booting into Vista, and will be using a 24'' external LCD; no wish to upgrade to a 30'' though. I will be doing some photoshop, but nothing serious. I want to be able to play games like WoW and The Sims 2 at smooth frame rates and at least medium quality.

Will 128mb VRAM let me do all these things? Does it matter whether I have 128 or 256mb of VRAM if I want to play around with Aero on Vista? Would 256 be any better than a 128 when it comes to having an external monitor? I'm not playing games like Doom 3, but I still want a machine that can give me good frame rates on moderately graphics-intensive games.

And sort of a side question - will having a bigger graphics card negatively impact my battery life significantly?

I don't have the itch to have the 'latest and greatest' but these are some things that I need to see my MBP do. So, can I do it all with 128, or am I looking at a hole $500 deeper in the wallet?

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

More is allways better in my view.

 

[davisjw]

I'd defiently upgrade to the 256 to get the "smoothness" you want. As far as I know a bigger video card wont have an effect on battery performance or at least not so much as to be noticable.. Someone correct me if I'm wrong..

 

[ZoomZoomZoom]

More is allways better in my view.

More is always better, but I'm more concerned as to whether 128 is 'enough'. I plan to replace my laptop in 2 years, so I'm not too interested in totally future-proofing myself; I just want to see whether or not if 128 can do what I need during those 2 years.

 

[bobber205]

128 is enough. WoW goes "close to quality smooth" on the macbook's vram...

 

[wisredz]

This is really important to me as well. I plan to buy a Mac as well and I would like to know if the 256 VRAM will make WoW playing any better. WoW isn't such a demanding program so I believe 128 will be enough.
I also think in terms of "the more the better", but this service is not present in my country at the present time.

 

[PlaceofDis]

more. yeah you could get by with the 128, but eventually you'd see some lag. two years.. never know what you'll want to do besides WOW...

 

[SmurfBoxMasta]

Get the best system you can afford right now, so it will do what you want it to for the longest time possible. And normally, the higher spec'd the machine is, the better the resell value will be down the road......

And BTW, Vista w/ Aeroglass IS a vram resource H O G, so the more the better as far as that is concerned.... and Leopard will most likely have higher eye-candy requirements too

 

[Maxiseller]

I second everything said.

It's not a tremendous investment now to upgrade, but you can't do it later on - thats a big pain if you decide you really could have done with it!

Vista is a hungry OS - feed it everything you can.

 

[wisredz]

well I know I won't be playing WoW all the time but I'm not interested in FPS games, and 128 is good for NOW which something I do not like at all. I want to buy the best computer I can, but the 256 mb service is temporarily unavailable. Actually it's this way. They don't have the part I want, so they will need to import it from the USA or UK, which, I am said, expensive and time consuming.
Anyway I asked another apple dealer (unfortunately there is no apple center in my city, and I'm living in the capitol ) and am waiting for their reply on this matter. Praying they have the part at the ready. Pray for me, will you guys?

 

[zap2]

a few mouths? By the time we get 10.5 you'll be looking at a pretty old Rev B MacBook Pro... stuff will change a lot before we get 10.5, and we will possible go through 2 revs of MBP(on rev c)

But get the most you can, as it can be upgraded after the fact.