Is it possible up grade the video ram on the unibodies?

[intellijel]

I am planning to get the low end 15" MBP unibody that has 256mb of GDDR3 video ram. Is possible to upgrade this at a later time?
I am guessing it is soldered in and the card is integrated with the mobo....

 

[Tallest Skil]

Not possible. Sorry.

 

[intellijel]

Not possible. Sorry.

then follow up question: how important is it to have 512 vs. 256?

The machine has 4gb of ram (which is tons imho).

I will be doing a ton of 3d cad work so I want to get good performance but I can't really afford to go for the more expensive model.

 

[Sun Baked]

Filters in the future and some whiz-bang GUI stuff might not work in the future.

Sort of like the ripple-effect for widgets might not work on a low-end Leopard install. But at times people hack around these limits.

Usually nothing of import until some of the Pro-apps leave the older cards behind, but you'd probably be thinking of upgrading to a machine at that point anyhow.

Edit: if you run windows and play games, you'd likely see things quicker.

 

[Runt888]

then follow up question: how important is it to have 512 vs. 256?

The machine has 4gb of ram (which is tons imho).

I will be doing a ton of 3d cad work so I want to get good performance but I can't really afford to go for the more expensive model.

I would say that it's pretty important to get as much as you can if you're doing 3D modeling. We have some CAD files at our office that will bring a computer with less than 1GB of video ram to its knees.

 

[ViciousShadow21]

I would say that it's pretty important to get as much as you can if you're doing 3D modeling. We have some CAD files at our office that will bring a computer with less than 1GB of video ram to its knees.

it is 2X the memory which makes a huge difference to me on Pro Tools and that isnt necessarily a graphic intensive program.

 

[intellijel]

it is 2X the memory which makes a huge difference to me on Pro Tools and that isnt necessarily a graphic intensive program.

really?? I do lot's of graphics work but my main use of computers has always been audio work. The graphics requirements of pro tools are fairly tiny, how would it need 512mb of dedicated memory to help it?

 

[ViciousShadow21]

really?? I do lot's of graphics work but my main use of computers has always been audio work. The graphics requirements of pro tools are fairly tiny, how would it need 512mb of dedicated memory to help it?

i dunno but a friend of mine has the uni 2.4ghz mbp and pro tools runs a lot smoother on mine than on his. it could be the cache difference tho cause he has 4gb of memory too so its not that.

 

[lazydesi]

not possible

if you have some extra $ to spend go for topmodel

 

[mikes70mustang]

well if u ever wanted any type of game, most are 512 or more now