After becoming impatient on the waiting for the MBP to be released, i have to do what i have to do. I'm going to buy a 24" iMac in the interim so i can get work done. My question is with the graphics card... I mainly use Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Would i see a significant increase in performance by upgrading to the 256MB GPU?
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ADVICE: 2' iMac Graphics 128/256
- Thread starter nodabs
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Absolutely not at all. If anything, spend money on the most ram you can afford- you only would want that extra video game for 3d rendering and gaming.
nodabs said:
I'm not an expert, but here's my take: OS X caches as many window stores as possible on the graphics card so that when Quartz Extreme (or whatever its called) renders the desktop, it sends as little data over the system bus as possible. Twice the VRAM means twice the capacity for caching window stores before your system bus becomes the bottleneck.
I have stated this idea here several times and nobody has refuted it -- but of course that doesn't mean its correct.
My main concern in your case is that it sounds like you're a pro trying to get work done for your livelihood. Are those apps UB yet? I thought they were not, in which case you're emulating the core of your workflow.
iKWICK7 said:
I would have to disagree with this. At the moment photoshop is neither a universal binary nor does it support core image. Motion 2 and an app called imaginator do and it can be seen in this graph http://www.barefeats.com/quad12.html that the graphics card and the amount of vram present greatly enhances the performance in each of the apps. As you are not only upgrading the VRAM in the 24" but also the graphics card this would help to furture proof the imac, however until photoshop supports core image it would be of little benefit to upgrade.
Another point being that although there is speculation that the graphics card in the 24" is upgradeable i have yet to see evidence that this will be an "easy" upgrade path. Ram however can be upgraded at any point.
The upgrade is priced so reasonable that I would go for it just to make your system a bit more future resistant.
As applications and other media develop, VRAM will continue to play an important role.
As applications and other media develop, VRAM will continue to play an important role.
I will be using this system for as an "interim fix" until i can get the MBP, at which point it will become less a "work" machine and more of a home computer. I would normally just buy the graphics upgrade for such a nominal fee, but then i wouldn't be able to just pick up a machine at my local apple store. Decisions, decisions...FFTT said:
nodabs said:
I don't know about the software benefits of having the better graphics card, but having the 7600 instead of the 7300 will help you when you sell the iMac. For anyone doing mid-range gaming, the 7600 is a big improvement on the 7300.
Now whether or not it's worth it for you is a different question.
