Does the 128vram do much?

[Sundance Kid]

I'm getting the pb for university and for Logic. I don't really care about getting the .17 gigabyte increase in the G4, just about the difference i will get from the 128Vram. I've heard the Tiger will need a minimum of 64Vram. Is this true? If so, would buying the 128Vram make a huge difference because it is double?


And for Logic will it help any? I don't play games much so i won't be using it there. What exactly does Vram do to help your system, when it is not making things look better?

 

[edesignuk]

Tiger (and beyond) are moving more and more on to the GPU, the more memory the better. It's only £70 on a laptop that costs £1579, so really it's peanuts in terms of cost.

If it were me buying new, I'd do it.

It won't do squat for Logic BTW.

 

[JzzTrump22]

Just buy it, that way you could always say you have maxed vram. Theres a difference but it depends on what you use it for. There have been many tests done between the 2 cards, search the forums.

 

[Sundance Kid]

Tiger (and beyond) are moving more and more on to the GPU, the more memory the better. It's only £70 on a laptop that costs £1579, so really it's peanuts in terms of cost.

If it were me buying new, I'd do it.

It won't do squat for Logic BTW.

So you think it would help the computer a lot with the 128Vram? Do you thing the speed difference would be huge?

Since i'm canadian, the price difference would be a lot though going from the 1.5 G4 to the 1.67 and 128Vram.




price for 1.5 without superdrive: $2573.96 CAN
price for 1.67 and 128Vram without superdrive: $3021.66 CAN



So almost a five hundred dollar difference with the education discount and tax. Is it really worth it??

 

[edesignuk]

Since i'm canadian, the price difference would be a lot though going from the 1.5 G4 to the 1.67 and 128Vram.

Sorry, I didn't realise you would go for the 1.5 otherwise (a lot cheaper). In that case, no, I wouldn't bother with it. Get the 1.5 and spend anything extra on more RAM, which will help you a lot more in Logic

 

[brandon6684]

The 128MB will probably last longer. The future appears to be depending healily on the GPU. 64MB is decent right now with 32MB being lowend(and my 16MB be uterly useless). Pretty soon(possibly as soon as Tiger) 64MB is going to get shoved down into th low end, with the 32MB geting hung out to dry. 128 may not give you a huge advantage now, unless you are a gamer, but should give you more security for the future. I would expext that within the next year or so, Apple may bump their low end VRAM upto 64MB, and I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see the next revision or PowerMacs to come with 128MB Radeon 9600XTs as the default, since right now it's only a $50 upgrade from the 64MB Nvidia Fx 5200. For the PowerBooks it's tougher choice since it's a $100 price bump(or more if going from the 1.5GHz model), but on the PowerMacs it's altmost as much of a nobrainer as going to the 512MB RAM upgrade.

 

[Sundance Kid]

The 128MB will probably last longer. The future appears to be depending healily on the GPU. 64MB is decent right now with 32MB being lowend(and my 16MB be uterly useless). Pretty soon(possibly as soon as Tiger) 64MB is going to get shoved down into th low end, with the 32MB geting hung out to dry. 128 may not give you a huge advantage now, unless you are a gamer, but should give you more security for the future. I would expext that within the next year or so, Apple may bump their low end VRAM upto 64MB, and I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see the next revision or PowerMacs to come with 128MB Radeon 9600XTs as the default, since right now it's only a $50 upgrade from the 64MB Nvidia Fx 5200. For the PowerBooks it's tougher choice since it's a $100 price bump(or more if going from the 1.5GHz model), but on the PowerMacs it's altmost as much of a nobrainer as going to the 512MB RAM upgrade.

wow.... so the 64mb won't last very long will it? I was planning on staying with my pb for four or five years.... do you think thats really stretching the 64 mb card? i might have to spend the extra 500 dollars...

 

[Abstract]

The video card becomes obsolete when the technology on the card is obsolete. The vRAM helps, but in this case, it won't help you with Logic. You also won't notice a speed difference, although there might be a slight increase in speed that you dono't notice.

This card is not for you. The card will not make your computer go much faster, and will not make your system become obsolete less quickly. But do consider the 128 MB card if you're running large external monitors at high resolution.

I'm Canadian as well, and I'm telling you to save $500, as I know that's a lot. Get an iPod photo or a lot more RAM.

 

[Sundance Kid]

The video card becomes obsolete when the technology on the card is obsolete. The vRAM helps, but in this case, it won't help you with Logic. You also won't notice a speed difference, although there might be a slight increase in speed that you dono't notice.

This card is not for you. The card will not make your computer go much faster, and will not make your system become obsolete less quickly. But do consider the 128 MB card if you're running large external monitors at high resolution.

I'm Canadian as well, and I'm telling you to save $500, as I know that's a lot. Get an iPod photo or a lot more RAM.

lol. Finally, the answer i've been waiting for. I don't i'm going to be using a lot of extra monitors, so this card isn't for me then. Thanks for the help guys

More ram sounds very tempting........

 

[TDM21]

Don't forget that the 128 video card in the new PBs can power a 30" monitor. Right now that might not seem very important; but, what if one day down the road dual-link monitors with high resolutions become standard? Just another way to future proof yourself.