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do graphics really make a big difference?

C

clin86

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 15, 2008
127
0
i was wondering if theres a big difference between the nvidia 9400 and 9600?

i.e in everyday tasks like opening programs and running coverflow, iphoto and flash vidoes online. Because i currently have the 2.4 unibody macbook and my computer seems to be running slow so i figured maybe an upgrade to the macbook pro might help.
also i need it to power the 24inch cinema display.
which would be a better choice for me?
i'm thinking of getting either the old 2.4ghz macbook pro or the newer 2.53ghz one.
 
clin86 said:
i was wondering if theres a big difference between the nvidia 9400 and 9600?

i.e in everyday tasks like opening programs and running coverflow, iphoto and flash vidoes online. Because i currently have the 2.4 unibody macbook and my computer seems to be running slow so i figured maybe an upgrade to the macbook pro might help.
also i need it to power the 24inch cinema display.
which would be a better choice for me?
i'm thinking of getting either the old 2.4ghz macbook pro or the newer 2.53ghz one.
Click to expand...

for the tasks you mentioned the 9400 is more then sufficient. a large number of windows laptops nowadays run on the inferior intel GMA X4500, and even they can handle those things fine.

but the 24 inch display... i think that a better video card would help there. i'm not positive about it though, feel free to correct me if i'm wrong, MR members. the logic i'm using is that when you play games a lower resolution usually results in better framerate/performance. likewise, the higher the resolution, the harder your GPU has to work. would this also apply to using an external display to push your resolution past native?
 
clin86 said:
i was wondering if theres a big difference between the nvidia 9400 and 9600?

i.e in everyday tasks like opening programs and running coverflow, iphoto and flash vidoes online. Because i currently have the 2.4 unibody macbook and my computer seems to be running slow so i figured maybe an upgrade to the macbook pro might help.
also i need it to power the 24inch cinema display.
which would be a better choice for me?
i'm thinking of getting either the old 2.4ghz macbook pro or the newer 2.53ghz one.
Click to expand...

9400 is more than enough for all this, even for the 24".

What do you mean by "seems to be running slow"?
 
like when i run safari, i seem to get alot of the spinning beachball. especially running plug-ins or flash heavy websites
 
clin86 said:
i was wondering if theres a big difference between the nvidia 9400 and 9600?

i.e in everyday tasks like opening programs and running coverflow, iphoto and flash vidoes online. Because i currently have the 2.4 unibody macbook and my computer seems to be running slow so i figured maybe an upgrade to the macbook pro might help.
also i need it to power the 24inch cinema display.
which would be a better choice for me?
i'm thinking of getting either the old 2.4ghz macbook pro or the newer 2.53ghz one.
Click to expand...

Using both to the limit, wasn't it a ~ 2-5x difference?
 
t0mat0 said:
Using both to the limit, wasn't it a ~ 2-5x difference?
Click to expand...

In gaming performance (looking at fps benchmarks) and 3D rendering, the 9600m is about 2x as fast. In other applications, there is not a big difference performance-wise.
 
hmm so what actually affects the performance of everyday use such as opening of programs, faster web surfing i.e no spinning beachball
 
so the clock speed of the processor doesnt matter at all? so would u recommend just upgrading to a solid state drive instead of getting a new computer?
 
clin86 said:
so the clock speed of the processor doesnt matter at all? so would u recommend just upgrading to a solid state drive instead of getting a new computer?
Click to expand...

You will notice significant speed improvements if you upgrade the HDD. If you just upgrade the processor, you probably won't notice any difference. Also, if you're running only 2 gigs of RAM, that would probably be the culprit.
 
clin86 said:
i was wondering if theres a big difference between the nvidia 9400 and 9600?

i.e in everyday tasks like opening programs and running coverflow, iphoto and flash vidoes online. Because i currently have the 2.4 unibody macbook and my computer seems to be running slow so i figured maybe an upgrade to the macbook pro might help.
also i need it to power the 24inch cinema display.
which would be a better choice for me?
i'm thinking of getting either the old 2.4ghz macbook pro or the newer 2.53ghz one.
Click to expand...

Why not the 2.53 refurb @ $1449. That way if you decide to play games someday you can and you still get the Expresscard slot.

Cheers,
 
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