9400 vs. 9600

[c.s.]

I got a MacBook Pro (2.66, has the 9600 graphics card with 256 vram), and I've been amazed by the battery life I get with the 9400. My question is, I don't notice any performance difference between the two graphics cards. Granted, I don't play games or do video work, but I do quite a bit of Photoshop and online tv watching. Seems like the 9600 is kind of useless for me...

 

[crazzyeddie]

It is useless to you, at least until OpenCL comes around...

 

[Tarek]

Why did you buy it then? The 9600 is fine for me.

 

[maflynn]

I got a MacBook Pro (2.66, has the 9600 graphics card with 256 vram), and I've been amazed by the battery life I get with the 9400. My question is, I don't notice any performance difference between the two graphics cards. Granted, I don't play games or do video work, but I do quite a bit of Photoshop and online tv watching. Seems like the 9600 is kind of useless for me...

I wouldn't say useless but yes the integrated gpu is clearly more then up to the task. I'm in the same situation I'm. On the 9400 99% of the time. Perhaps when apps starting to use opencl we'll see a bigger difference Irregardless I'm very happy with the 9400m

 

[maflynn]

Why did you buy it then? The 9600 is fine for me.

Well for me, the conventional wisdom was that the discrete gpu is better but in actual usage the integrated gpu handled everything I through at it. Of course the sales folks at the apple store pushed the 9600 over the 9400 as well

I don't have any buyers remorse but clearly I bought a more expensive model when I didn't need too

 

[sharpblade1986]

I got a MacBook Pro (2.66, has the 9600 graphics card with 256 vram), and I've been amazed by the battery life I get with the 9400. My question is, I don't notice any performance difference between the two graphics cards. Granted, I don't play games or do video work, but I do quite a bit of Photoshop and online tv watching. Seems like the 9600 is kind of useless for me...

You should notice a performance boost with the 9600 playing games or with some intense video/image edition. Otherwise 9400 should be fine. Watching TV and light video/image edition can be well done with 9400. I think you will use 9400 most of time and have 1h extra battery time.

 

[dubhe]

I'm trying to decide on which 15" to go for. I play a few games where the 9600 may be of benefit but not that much. But does the 9600 make a big difference with video encoding, ie Handbrake? I rip all of my DVDs to my HDD and this can be quite time consuming. Anybody have any comparisons?

I also think having the larger processor will help, but is it worth the extra?

Thanks

 

[Tarek]

Well for me, the conventional wisdom was that the discrete gpu is better but in actual usage the integrated gpu handled everything I through at it. Of course the sales folks at the apple store pushed the 9600 over the 9400 as well

I don't have any buyers remorse but clearly I bought a more expensive model when I didn't need too

I am sorry about that. I guess if you really want a 9400 version, you can try eBay, swap with some one and get paid the difference. That's your best shot, I guess!

 

[maflynn]

I am sorry about that. I guess if you really want a 9400 version, you can try eBay, swap with some one and get paid the difference. That's your best shot, I guess!

No, as I mentioned, I have no buyers regret, I'm very happy with my MBP. Its just that I could have easily fit in the 13" MBP (back then it was the 13" MB). The main reason I chose the 15" MBP model was the 9600m GPU since I was an Aperture user at the time (since have moved to LightRoom) but even aperture works well with the 9400m.

I probably would have chosen the 13" model had the apple stores installed aperture on the 13" model but being that aperture relies on the GPU and integrated GPUs had a bad reputation for poor performance, it was a no brainer at the time. I bought my MBP last october when the move the the nvidia chipset was made and so it was difficult to really determine the performance.

I'm content with it, and have no desire to trade it for another model.

 

[Thomas Davie]

I'm in the same boat as the OP (as it were). I bought a UMBP 17 in April, and have never used the 9600. But it's there if I need it, and I was aware of Snow Leopard, so I made the right decision. The only games I play are Civ 3 Conquests (both on OS X and inside of Parallels when I multiplayer against Windows users), and they aren't what I call graphically demanding. The 9400 is a pretty decent card for what it's worth.

Tom

 

[icedd]

I got a MacBook Pro (2.66, has the 9600 graphics card with 256 vram), and I've been amazed by the battery life I get with the 9400. My question is, I don't notice any performance difference between the two graphics cards. Granted, I don't play games or do video work, but I do quite a bit of Photoshop and online tv watching. Seems like the 9600 is kind of useless for me...

It is useless.