For my new MBP will enabling the 9600 gt make a difference with HD videos?

[vader1990]

For non-gaming, or video editing, will switching the graphics card to 9600 gt, make a difference when watching 720p or 1080p hd movies, or watching HD shows on the internet? I have the low end mbp, if that matters [256mb 9600 gt]

how much of a battery life compromise should I expect?

anything else I should know?

thanks!

 

[Michael CM1]

They play seamlessly on my 128MB ATI video card in my MBP. I think your 256MB card will handle HD videos, especially those from the iTunes store (at 720p). You also have about 500Mhz on my CPU, so I really don't see any issue with the lesser of your two GPUs.

 

[MVApple]

The new MBP has enough processor power to not need graphics acceleration for hd playback. As far as I understand it, you won't be getting graphics acceleration on anything but h.264 video's played back through quicktime because currently on the mac, only quicktime offers acceleration of h.264 video and only h.264.

Enabling the 9600 would be useless either way. Even if you have graphics acceleration of your video, the 9400 has enough horsepower to easily playback hd video. If you're not getting graphics acceleration then your processor will bear all the load and again you won't be using the 9600.

That was the long answer to your question. The short answer is simply no, it won't make any difference.