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HD 3000 Vs. 320M - Windows / OSX Hoax?

M

Maven1975

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 24, 2008
1,036
305
First off... I know the Air is not a gaming machine!

Was the reason we received an improvement with the HD 3000 (Shocking to most) upgrade due to poor Nvidia OSX drivers to begin with?

I am starting to think this is the case. There have now been three driver updates to the HD 3000 and none of them have brought perormance to match the 320m under windows.

I would think Intel would want to cater to the windows/gaming crowd and bring these magical OSX drivers to Windows.

MW3 is out now and I am about to step back into a 2010 for the 320m and battery life. Only wish I could jam the 2.13 into the 11". As for thunderbolt, I am sure by the next revision there will be more things to use with it.

Honestly though, if we are all stuck with Intel's (Ultrabook) IGP GPU's through Ivy, what are they going to do to fix things for gamers out there. Look at that report on the main page. MBA's were 23% of Apples computer sales. I walked into a Best Buy and asked them to show me all their PC laptops with dedicated graphics last weekend. The showed me 2! :( I cant tell you how many 17/15/13" laptops were there with the HD 3000 inside.

I know if I were crunching numbers/video/larger filter photos the i5/i7 would be the smarter choice. But seeing as though one can get a maxed NIB 13" 2.13 for $1100, Vs. $1650 for the i7, as a windows gamer and casual computer user, take the battery life, Snow Leopard, Gaming FPS and run. ($500 savings is half an iMac) Use that for the heavy lifting.

Thoughts?
 
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The reason there is no Nvidia integrated graphics processor (IGP) in the current MBAs, is that Intel has not licensed its i3/5/7 chips to Nvidia to make IGPs and chipsets, thus the Macs with IGPs (MacBook, 13" MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac mini) have used C2D CPUs for so long, while others had ix CPUs already. Apple doesn't want to cram a dedicated GPU inside those machines due to heat and battery saving issues, though the 2011 Mac mini with the dual core i5/7 CPUs now has a dedicated GPU.
Intel has no long background in creating IGPs, thus the relatively crappy offerings they have.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
The reason there is no Nvidia integrated graphics processor (IGP) in the current MBAs, is that Intel has not licensed its i3/5/7 chips to Nvidia to make IGPs and chipsets, thus the Macs with IGPs (MacBook, 13" MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac mini) have used C2D CPUs for so long, while others had ix CPUs already. Apple doesn't want to cram a dedicated GPU inside those machines due to heat and battery saving issues, though the 2011 Mac mini with the dual core i5/7 CPUs now has a dedicated GPU.
Intel has no long background in creating IGPs, thus the relatively crappy offerings they have.
Click to expand...

Intel has made IGPs for a long time. Just real poopy ones. "Hey, engineer... is there video on the screen? (Yea).. ok.. thats good enough."

IMO, this is why Intel had the pissing match with nVida in the first place. the 9400m and 320m, Nivida's first attempts, were a huge slap in the face to Intel.

I am sure im absolutely wrong about this.

Just to be clear - The i5 and i7 machines are the clean winner in overall performance. (Battery Life Aside) I am taking about gaming under Windows here.
 
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Maven1975 said:
Intel has made IGPs for a long time. Just real poopy ones. "Hey, engineer... is there video on the screen? (Yea).. ok.. thats good enough."

IMO, this is why Intel had the pissing match with nVida in the first place. the 9400m and 320m, Nivida's first attempts, were a huge slap in the face to Intel.

I am sure im absolutely wrong about this.

Just to be clear - The i5 and i7 machines are the clean winner in overall performance. (Battery Life Aside) I am taking about gaming under Windows here.
Click to expand...

which drivers are you using under windows ?

i have the i5 13" and I'm using the updated drivers from intel's site and i have no issues with gaming performance in windows, matter in fact it runs most of my games as good as my Acer 3830tg which has a i3 / nvidia 540m gt 1gb.
 
Well if nvidia's deal with Apple was like Intel's then Apple made the drivers not Nvidia. I know that Apple makes the drivers for the Intel GPU's and just goes to in tell for help but Intel doesn't make them. I assume the same deal is for ATi drivers.
 
Good post Maven, exactly why I stuck with the 2010 13" Air, very happy with limited games, LONG battery life, and LESS heat! Doubt I'll upgrade until Haswell or ARM.
 
MacModMachine said:
which drivers are you using under windows ?

i have the i5 13" and I'm using the updated drivers from intel's site and i have no issues with gaming performance in windows, matter in fact it runs most of my games as good as my Acer 3830tg which has a i3 / nvidia 540m gt 1gb.
Click to expand...


I find this statement interesting. So you're saying you downloaded from Intel's website, HD 3000 video drivers for Windows and have achieved improved performance, or am I misunderstanding you?
 
Risasi said:
I find this statement interesting. So you're saying you downloaded from Intel's website, HD 3000 video drivers for Windows and have achieved improved performance, or am I misunderstanding you?
Click to expand...

That's actually what most people should do. The drivers that come in bootcamp are always out of date. If you arnt Downloading your drivers from the part maker you are doing it wrong.
 
Hmm, odd. I just got home and decided to run bootcamp and see what I have. It looks like I already have the latest drivers installed. I reinstalled them anyway, just for yucks...
 
Risasi said:
Hmm, odd. I just got home and decided to run bootcamp and see what I have. It looks like I already have the latest drivers installed. I reinstalled them anyway, just for yucks...
Click to expand...

Thats good because Yucks is all you will find. :(

Anyone here with a 320m test out Modern Warefare 3? Not so hot on the 1.8 i7.
 
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