I was going to get an iMac this year but college is starting to prove that portability is better. So I am getting a 15" MBP probably around December. With that said I have a total noob question about the Gforce 9600 that is used in the 2.66 MBP. Will it make the display look better or will the display look just as good with the 9400 that's on the 2.53? (like will videos look any different?) I was going to be doing some gaming using On Live (lets hope its successful!) so it doesn't matter what kind of graphics card you have. I just wanted to know if it made the display look better overall. Also does garage band work with any usb piano keyboard?
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getting a MBP, have graphics and Gb questions
- Thread starter blackhawk08
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They both can drive a monitor at the same quality. Videos will look the same. The only difference they both have is in games.
Graphics: Should look identical, but the 9600 will give better performance in games, it will probably triple your framerates.
Usb Piano: I've used alot of usb/midi devices on my mac, newer any problems.
I'm using a 20 year old Kawai K4 keyboard (the keys are fullsize and i like the touch) as my usb-midi keyboard on my Macbook Pro ( using a M-audio midi->usb adapter http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Uno.html)
I found the 9400 GPU on my MBP to be more then up to the task, so much so, that I'm on that GPU 90% time. I used to use Aperture (I switched over to LightRoom) and that application relies heavily on the GPU. I failed to notice any appreciable difference between the 9400 and the 9600. Additionally the integrated GPU runs cooler then the discreet one so my MBP runs cooler (by about 5 - 10c) on the 9400
I expected there to be a question about gigabytes. 
Echoing what's already been said... the screen will look the same with either graphics card and will play videos basically identical. Try google and the model number of your keyboard to see if it will work with garageband. It's likely it will but I wouldn't tell you for sure without hearing from someone who's used it before.
Echoing what's already been said... the screen will look the same with either graphics card and will play videos basically identical. Try google and the model number of your keyboard to see if it will work with garageband. It's likely it will but I wouldn't tell you for sure without hearing from someone who's used it before.
Thanks everybody! This is great news. If you don't know what On Live is about you should check it out here. http://www.onlive.com/service/how_onlive_works.html Basically all you need is a working graphics card (doesn't matter how good it is) and you can play even the most demanding games, like Crysis, on your MBP.