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How bad is the 9400M?

donga

donga

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 16, 2005
841
1
AZ
So how bad is the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M? I want to buy an iMac, MacBook, or MacBook Pro, and this is one of the big questions I have. I'm not going to be doing much graphics intensive stuff, but want to be able to play CoD4 and watch movies well.

Is the 9400M okay enough for gaming (CoD4, SC2 when it comes out, medium settings) or will I regret getting it and should have a gotten discrete gpu? Yes, I know discrete is always better than integrated, but will it be okay to go cheaper?

For the iMac, the $1500 24" is a great deal (in my opinion), and I'm debating whether or not to go $300 more for the processor and gt120. With the laptops, I like the smaller MB (and price), but would consider the entry level uMBP if needed
 
It's equivalent to my old desktop's GeForce 7600GS.

Putting it in numbers: Grid runs at 640x480 low at about 30fps :p
 
For an iMac, I would say spend the extra money and get a discrete GPU if you do alot of video and/or are serious about gaming.

With Apple starting to leverage the GPU in Snow Leopard, you will see faster conversion speeds with a discrete GPU. The 9400M will still accelerate the encoding and video playback, but just not as much. If you really don't care about about video, and can live with lower resolutions for games, then save the money, but I would honestly recommend it for the iMac.
 
I've never played CoD4 so I don't know the requirements but my 9400M runs UT3, Bioshock, Half Life 2, L4D, TF2 etc all very well at my Macbook's native resolution.
 
If you want an iMac you might as well go for a refurb previous gen 2.8 with the ATI 2600. It'll be faster than the 9400M, plus it's cheaper too. They also have it on clearance for slightly more if you don't want to buy a refurb.
 
raggedjimmi said:
I've never played CoD4 so I don't know the requirements but my 9400M runs UT3, Bioshock, Half Life 2, L4D, TF2 etc all very well at my Macbook's native resolution.
Click to expand...


I envy you... i have the same setup but unfortunately ut3 is very very slow even with toned down settings... plz email me or something and let me know how you have it running...
 
I can speak for CoD4 for Windows runs well and even for Mac it runs not as well but still fine. Have to turn off a few of the extras for 30+FPS but really no problems with it. Can't speak for SC2 although I'm sure it will be fine.

I don't think the 9400m is bad at all, I use it to game A LOT esp on steam. The question should be how capable is the 9400m b/c it's not bad by any means. It definitely helped turn my laptop into a "gaming" laptop although not hardcore but it's what I use it for.
 
on my pro i always turn on the 9600m GT when im plugged in, but on batt power i switch to the 9400m, i really haven't done any gaming with it, but it can handle any video i throw at it, including 1080p.
 
dcy4pres said:
I envy you... i have the same setup but unfortunately ut3 is very very slow even with toned down settings... plz email me or something and let me know how you have it running...
Click to expand...

have you updated the graphics drivers? the boot camp ones are garbage, go to nvidia's site and DL the newest ones.
 
Quake 4 ran fine on my MacBook (2.4GHz) with the 9400M

It's a boat load better than the X3100 in my old BlackBook.
 
donga said:
So how bad is the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M? I want to buy an iMac, MacBook, or MacBook Pro, and this is one of the big questions I have. I'm not going to be doing much graphics intensive stuff, but want to be able to play CoD4 and watch movies well.

Is the 9400M okay enough for gaming (CoD4, SC2 when it comes out, medium settings) or will I regret getting it and should have a gotten discrete gpu? Yes, I know discrete is always better than integrated, but will it be okay to go cheaper?

For the iMac, the $1500 24" is a great deal (in my opinion), and I'm debating whether or not to go $300 more for the processor and gt120. With the laptops, I like the smaller MB (and price), but would consider the entry level uMBP if needed
Click to expand...

In all seriousness, the 9400m really isn't that bad of a card for LAPTOPS. I play CoD4 with good results.

If you are going to get an iMac, I would seriously recommend spending the extra cash (if you have it, don't spend what you don't have) and get the gt120 or the 4750 (if you have 50 more dollars).

OR like somebody suggested, go referb and see if you can't get a good deal that way. If you aren't in too much of a hurry to purchase check the referb store every other day or so to check on new merchandise and see if there is something up your ally. I got a referb uMB and I think it is phenominal. :)

Good luck!
Post back and let us know what you ended up doing.
 
dcy4pres said:
I envy you... i have the same setup but unfortunately ut3 is very very slow even with toned down settings... plz email me or something and let me know how you have it running...
Click to expand...

I use hacked drivers and its slightly overclocked (not as much as my iMac though which has another 150mhz added to CPU/Mem). Ingame I've unticked some effect boxes like distortions. Every slider bar set to medium or high. No AA, ever. 25-35fps.
 
raggedjimmi said:
I use hacked drivers and its slightly overclocked (not as much as my iMac though which has another 150mhz added to CPU/Mem). Ingame I've unticked some effect boxes like distortions. Every slider bar set to medium or high. No AA, ever. 25-35fps.
Click to expand...

hah same situation in bootcamp, I'm using DOX drivers 185.20 I believe and OC'd some to 2.3ghz and the graphics core up to 525 and shaders to 1100..

Code: 
3DMark Score: 2381
SM 2.0: 843
SM 3.0: 900
CPU score: 2007
 
for the price you pay... the 9400M is a steal. it can run COD4 but at low settings... but what do you expect from an onboard gpu?
 
My brother has COD4 and a MacBook with the 9400M and I set his textures all to Extra and turned of shadows and specular map and he runs at about 30fps constant. It's definitely playable and it's still fun for him. He runs at the native resolution too.
 
TheSpaz said:
My brother has COD4 and a MacBook with the 9400M and I set his textures all to Extra and turned of shadows and specular map and he runs at about 30fps constant. It's definitely playable and it's still fun for him. He runs at the native resolution too.
Click to expand...

This is very true. You can run Cod4 with decent framerates at 1280x800 but you have to lower some settings to keep it playable (having FPS above 30 is recommended in first persons imo). For example, turn off "specular map", "shadows" and "V-Sync".
 
If you do have one having more RAM (so the card has more VRAM) makes a big difference. Overall it is the best integrated card Apple have eve put in their machines and unless you are a massive gamer it is good enough for most things.

As someone who makes games on the Mac the 9400 made us smile compared to the GMA cards that existed previously.

It is not a gamers card but it can play games just expect to be on the lower end of the settings for the new stuff.

Edwin

Feral Interactive
 
edddeduck said:
If you do have one having more RAM (so the card has more VRAM) makes a big difference. Overall it is the best integrated card Apple have eve put in their machines and unless you are a massive gamer it is good enough for most things.

As someone who makes games on the Mac the 9400 made us smile compared to the GMA cards that existed previously.

It is not a gamers card but it can play games just expect to be on the lower end of the settings for the new stuff.

Edwin

Feral Interactive
Click to expand...

You know what would really make me smile.... If you put V-Sync in Tomb Raider Anniversary. I hate hate hate horizontal tearing. Are there any sort of dev-mode codes or anything I can type in to get v-sync to work in TRA?
 
TheSpaz said:
You know what would really make me smile.... If you put V-Sync in Tomb Raider Anniversary. I hate hate hate horizontal tearing. Are there any sort of dev-mode codes or anything I can type in to get v-sync to work in TRA?
Click to expand...

We can certainly have a look at putting that in a patch when we do one, i don't think there is any debug vsync mode.

If you have other ideas email the tomb raider support email address.

Edwin
 
edddeduck said:
We can certainly have a look at putting that in a patch when we do one, i don't think there is any debug vsync mode.

If you have other ideas email the tomb raider support email address.

Edwin
Click to expand...

I've tried that. They pretty much told me that they never plan on adding that feature and basically said tough luck. I think it sucks. They suggested that I max out the settings to bring my framerate down as low as I can and that should help the tearing... what kind of crappy workaround is that? Anyways... I tried that and I still get insane framerates and crappy tearing. How do I go about purchasing a Mac game without knowing if it has a vsync option or not?
 
TheSpaz said:
I've tried that. They pretty much told me that they never plan on adding that feature and basically said tough luck. I think it sucks. They suggested that I max out the settings to bring my framerate down as low as I can and that should help the tearing... what kind of crappy workaround is that? Anyways... I tried that and I still get insane framerates and crappy tearing. How do I go about purchasing a Mac game without knowing if it has a vsync option or not?
Click to expand...

v-sync really depends on if the PC version had it in the code and how it was implemented. I when we had a quick look it was not simple but I will see if we can get v-sync looked at again when we do a patch.

We take feedback seriously and I have to say the best workaround is Max res with FSAA on. If we do release a patch the game will auto-update your copy when it is released.

If you have any other questions drop me a PM

Edwin
 
I played spore on my 17" UMBP at native resolution (1920x1200) and all details set to high, though I think I lowered shadows down by one level but I didn't even test to see if it made an impact, and it ran silky smooth through the 9600M GT

Fans did pick up quite a bit, but was impressed. :)
 
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