8600M GT vs. 9600M GT?

[cathyy]

And Timish, yes, the GMA X3100 is built into the chipset in the MBP Santa Rosa's, the Intel 965 chipset. I stumbled across this fact using a program called Everest in Windows. Everest tells you everything about your computer and its hardware. I saw that it had info on the 8600m (the dedicated Video Card) and an integrated that read:

Integrated video card: X3100
Status: Disabled

They cannot use hybrid SLI with this video card because Intel does not do SLI, that's an nVidia thing. For ATI it's called Crossfire (I believe).

The first MBP had the Napa chipset, with an integrated GMA 950 GPU and the ATI dedicated card, disabled GMA 950.
The next revision had the Santa Rosa chipset, with an integrated GMA X3100 and the nVidia dedicated card, disabled GMA X3100
The latest revision is not an Intel chipset as many know, it's an nVidia chipset. The integrated is the 9400m and the dedicated the 9600m GT, both enabled as everyone knows using hybrid SLI.

I'm pretty sure that it's simply Everest reporting it incorrectly. The MBP most likely uses the PM965 chipset which does not come with the X3100. It makes absolutely no sense for Apple to put in the GM965 (with the X3100) when it is not used at all, especially since it'd just take up space and add to the weight.

Also, it's possible to have switchable graphics with an Nvidia + Intel GPU. Sony has been doing it for years.