2.8ghz Macbook Pro 15" mid 2009 performance questions

[joaomario]

Hello,
I'm considering buying the model stated in this thread title. I know that the processor is an older T9600 model and not the more efficient P9700. What I would like to know from those of you who have this model is; do your notebooks run a lot hotter with this processor? do the fans struggle to keep the MBP cool? I know these fans are always on at a silent 2000rpm but how often do they have to rev up? Do they constantly cycle up and down?

This would be my first Mac so I just want to understand how a particular advertised GPU feature in PCs translate to Macs; PC manufacturers state that their computers have graphics cards with (for instance) "512mb dedicated memory with up to 1791mb shared." If I understand this correctly the PC GPUs take memory from the RAM and that's what the "Shared" bit is. The Mac website doesn't mention anything about "shared" memory so how does this apply to macs?
Thanks.
JM

 

[spinnerlys]

The fans will spin up, when the CPU gets hot, so when the CPU is working more than normal or it's really hot outside, the fans spin faster.

Also, the graphics cards in the MBP are two separate ones.
The 9400m is the one which takes memory from the RAM (256MB) and the 9600m has its own dedicated 256/512MB RAM.
Both can't be run at the same time.

So you either get 256MB taken from you system RAM or get 256/512MB on your graphics card.

 

[joaomario]

I'm aware a fan speed up when the computer gets hotter. What I want to know is; on the 2.8ghz models, do the fans speed up(get louder) more frequently during normal OS X operation as apposed to say the 2.66ghz model which has a P series procesorr, not a T series.

I know about the dual graphics processor on the mac but I don't think this is the same thing as the claim from PC manufactureres that their computers have 1.5-2 gigs shared video memory.

JM

 

[da1legend]

I have the same model as stated and noticed that there isn't much fan action during normal OS X usage. Such as surfing, email, word processing, playing music and sometimes watching movies (really depends on the quality of the film). The fan does rev up when I'm using something like Alias or Final Cut. But other than that it's pretty silent. You can use it on your lap for about an 45min - an hour before you feel uncomfortable.

 

[spinnerlys]

I'm aware a fan speed up when the computer gets hotter. What I want to know is; on the 2.8ghz models, do the fans speed up(get louder) more frequently during normal OS X operation as apposed to say the 2.66ghz model which has a P series procesorr, not a T series.

I know about the dual graphics processor on the mac but I don't think this is the same thing as the claim from PC manufactureres that their computers have 1.5-2 gigs shared video memory.

JM

I had a 2.53GHz uMBP 15-inch model before I got the 2.8GHz 17-inch one, and the 17-inch is much cooler than the 15-inch, which might be due to the bigger surface area, and therefore better heat dissipation.

I don't know about the PC manufacturers' claim though.
It might be, that when the graphics card run out of their RAM, they take over from the system RAM.

But when do you run out of 512MB of RAM with a graphics card?