Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

lmann

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 26, 2003
33
0
Denmark
I bought an ibook 700 mhz wit cd-rom drive 16 MB Vram and 20 gigs of HD, i'm quite happy about it although apple launched its G4 ibook models two months after my purchase. The only thing which really pisses me off is the Vram since it only is 16 MBs. I'm not a hardcore gamer, otherwise i would have bought a PB. However it seems that it is impossible to replace the Vram preinstalled on the ibook. I find it rediculous, isn't there anybody out there who knows how one can replace the Vram yourself ?? It must be possible....
 
is there any way in which i can improve the game performance then ?? I'd love to be able to run games such as HALO and raven shield...
 
You would void any warranty you had taking the iBook apart to get at the motherboard unhindered, then there's getting it back together... Unless you are a consumate professional, you run the risk of damaging your motherboard beyond repair in the identification and removal of the VRAM. Good luck finding a suitable replacment VRAM chip to solder onto the motherboard in place of the existing chip.
 
I hate to say it, but I think Apple's thinking is that if you really want a more powerful iBook, you'll just buy a new one. The iBooks aren't that expensive (not that I agree with this reasoning though.)
 
Neither PowerBooks nor iBooks are built for gaming. Laptops are built for portability. The minimum requirements for these games is likely to be well beyond the capabilites of a G3 iBook.
 
i realize that the portable comps aren't for gaming certainly not the ibook, but I wouldn't mind being able to play games once in a while and not just demious rising and otto matic :eek:. So the only thing to do is increase my ram... i'm running 128MBs but wille upgrade to 640MBs soon...
 
I think that you'll find that increasing your RAM (while an excellent idea for stability) will not effect your gaming experience much. While there will be very slight benefits to having more RAM (the game won't have to use swap as often), game apps mostly use processor and VRAM to effect the speed and graphical capabilities of the game.
 
You'll notice a difference just in increasing the RAM. I'm on an 800Mhz iBook right now, and going from 256 to 640 made it a much faster.
 
Originally posted by 5300cs
You'll notice a difference just in increasing the RAM. I'm on an 800Mhz iBook right now, and going from 256 to 640 made it a much faster.
Strictly because the OS isn't forced to use the slow RPM laptop hard drive as swap space.. a definite speed increase, but with a definite ceiling.
 
why can't the ibook handle more than 640 MBs of ram. I know the G5s can hanlde a lot more since it runs 64 bit....
 
there was some talk on this awhile back.. technically the ibook can handle it but i believe apple limits it cause its a consumer model. like they limit the monitor spanning ability, although there is a hack for that.

can't say that i agree with this and i definitely don't agree with how non upgradable macs are.

but thats just the way it is

btw even if you had the best ibook out now you still probably would be able to play halo that well. you need power.
 
A 512mb DIMM is the largest size that can be made to fit in the single memory socket in an iBook. The motherboard has 128mb soldered onto it.. hence: 640mb.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.