2560x1600 vram

[ranger0900]

Hi,

Looking to get one of the 15" MBP, either with the i5 or the i7. I do plenty of photoshop work and I'm curious would the increase in vram help me considering I'm going to connect to my HP 30" LCD.

I've searched through numerous threads and articles and the conclusion tends to be the larger vram helps in gaming (which I won't do) on a large resolution.

Does anyone have first hand experience with MBP and a 30" while using Photoshop or really any 2D performance? I'm thinking about going with the i5 and save the money for the SSD and/or memory upgrade, but if the larger vram (or the i7) help at 2560x1600 then I'd be willing to shell out the cash for it.

Thanks!

 

[Wattser93]

In Starcraft 2, the extra VRAM makes a huge difference for frame rate when ran at 2560x1600 to an external monitor.

So I'm assuming it'll be well worth it to get the i7 for the extra VRAM if you plan on using it at that resolution since gaming is GPU intensive and I'm assuming Photoshop is also.

 

[Timur]

2560 x 1600 x 24 bit = 11,72 mb

Most likely OS X underlying 3D engine will need some memory for doing its magic, but that should not be anything to worry about in 2D.

Most of the RAM needed in 3D games is for textures and layers and layers of them.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

Dang he said NO GAMING and ya'll are talking about starcraft and textures ~.~

OP, It all depends on what version of PS you're using. CS4 and CS5 versions are GPU accellerated. CS4 version will enable/disable features and behave differently depending on how much VRAM you have. I can't find the same document for CS4 but I would expect it to behave much the same way.

 

[mulo]

Dang he said NO GAMING and ya'll are talking about starcraft and textures ~.~

agreed, but vram might still make a pretty big difference for his photoshopping as ps uses vram.

 

[Timur]

Dang he said NO GAMING and ya'll are talking about starcraft and textures ~.~

Reread my post Mr. Dang, I pointed out how *little* RAM is needed for normal desktop operations and just underlined that all the RAM on GPUs is for gaming textures and stuff.

But if PS makes use of GPU functions (especially anything anti-aliasing based) then it will also need more RAM, but even if you multiply those 11.72 mb x 16 you still only get around 188 mb. So 256 mb seems plenty for anything that doesn't need textures.

 

[Timur]

I checked GPU RAM usage on bootcamped Windows. For normal Desktop operations (Aero 3D and Firefox 4 GPU acceleration turned on) it seems to be somewhere between 180 - 260 mb. Running a HD video pushes it towards 300 mb, but I assume that old data is just kept in there (aka not deleted) as long as free mem is available.