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64 mb or 128?

H

hkarlsen

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 26, 2005
30
0
Hi!

I am preparing to buy a 15" 1.67 2 gb RAM PB, with 64 mb video adapter.
Will there be a significant performance boost, if it had the 128 mb adapter instead? Im going to use the mac mostly towards final cut and perhaps cubase, and graphic adapter boosts game performance most, right?

Thanks for any help!
Regards
Håvar


Ps: Does anyone know if having 2gb ram decreases battery performance in any way?
 
hkarlsen said:
Does anyone know if having 2gb ram decreases battery performance in any way?
Click to expand...

the more memory your computer has, the less disk swapping it has to do. the less your computer uses moving parts, the more battery life the system has. what do you think ;)
 
JFreak said:
the more memory your computer has, the less disk swapping it has to do. the less your computer uses moving parts, the more battery life the system has. what do you think ;)
Click to expand...

Whilst that is true, 2GB seems overkill to avoid swaping to disk. DRAM, or more specifically the RAM which Apple uses, is very battery draining, 2GB would use far more battery life than 1GB.

I suggest you go with 1GB RAM, and 64MB VRAM, as a good trade off between battery life and performance. You won't be swapping with 1GB I assure you. Unless you're dealing with huge textures (>64MB) there's no performance increase getting 128MB VRAM over 64MB VRAM, infact, the memory modules on the 128MB cards are slower.
 
Ok, it seems logicall that it drains more power. But, since the offer im going for is 2 gb only, cant I just unplug one of the rammodules (i guess its 2x1024), if I need better battery once in a while? Is this something that can be done by users?

Thanks for great input anyway!
Haavar
 
Sure you could, though, if you're buying 2GB and have no choice about it, I'de stick with it.

Unless battery life is absolutley nessisary, then yes, you could remove one of the RAM modules.

I was really trying to save you some money and being realistic about performance gains. 2GB is not going to be much better than 1GB, largley due to the G4's poor FSB speed, which acts as a bottleneck between the CPU and the Memory. The same applies for the VRAM, though, for different reason. Battery life will suffer too, though I couldn't give you an estimate on how much, as I haven't looked at the specific details of the RAM .
 
it's two times one gigabyte, and there's no reason why both sticks should always be installed. however, it's not so easy to take one out, as you would have to have a very tiny screwdriver to open the memory door...

i have two half-gigabyte sticks installed and the battery life is reasonable. it was better with the older titanium powerbook, but this aluminum model is just fine. not quite as good, but reasonable anyway.

i think disabling airport adds more to the battery life than taking one memory stick out. it is also beneficial to use the energy saving options offered by the operating system.
 
Ok.. This is really interesting.
Ofcourse, I dont have to buy the 2 gb, but right now I have the choice between 512 mb and 2 gb (buying on ebay). But the seller is active, and I guess the 1 gb will come along soon.

So theres no point in getting 2 gb then? If so, you will save me some money :)

Thanks!
 
I would go for the 128 mb video. In fact that's what I did a couple of months ago. You are buying an expensive computer that you will work with for some years. You can't upgrade the video card later, it's now or never. I would rather get the video card now, and get more ram or the bigger hd later, as you can upgrade those anytime...
 
128 is better. BUT it will shorten the battery life,also it will hardly be noticable.
 
running video editing programs and with general computing use, make sure you have at least 1GB RAM. Nothing in the world wring with 2GB, as you could always use more(if its not too expensive). I remember 4 years ago when I had my comp with 640 MB ram (at the time 512 was a lot), most people thought it was "overkill" but thats never the case, most people also thought 40GB Hard drive was overkill.

in terms of the VRAM, it would def be nice, espicially with video, OR if you are planning on screen Spanning the PB to anohter monitor, it will split your VRAM in half, so you would really notive it there. (again if you can afford it get it).
 
I agree with almost everyone. Get the most you can afford on things that can't be upgraded cheaply (sub $200). Get the most hard drive and best video card you can. If you then only afford 1 gig stick then that will serve you fine until you can get another stick. I wish I had gone for the 128mb video card now as some games just dont play as well as I had wished, like halo and battlefield for some reason just don't get very good framerates. Also with that amount of vram one would think you should be good for around 4 until you might want a new machine. Doing this will also increase the value of the Pb when you want to sell it.
 
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