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MacBook Graphics Card? What can it do?

P

p0Wer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 22, 2008
12
0
Hi everybody,

I am thinking of buying a MacBook with the following specs; 4GB RAM, 2.4GHz dual core processor, 250GB HDD.

What is the spec of the MacBook's graphics card?

What can the graphics card do and not do? i.e. play games etc.

Will I be able to run powerful programs such as photoshop, sony vegas with a breeze on this spec?


Thanks!
 
DON'T BUY RAM FROM APPLE.

Spec? It's an Intel X3100. It's integrated.

It can't run Crysis, if that's what you're after. It can't run Call of Duty 4... It's not a gaming iGPU.

Also, don't buy now. At all.
 
Tallest Skil said:
RAM from Apple is 3 to 4 times as expensive as in real life.

Aaaaaand updates are coming out in a few weeks, if you believe the October-worshippers. They're due, anyway.
Click to expand...

What updates?

If I bought the 4GB (I'm not too bothered about the price atm, just using it as an example), it should run photoshop, vegas etc well?

The MacBook graphics card:

Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory

What does this mean? How well will it run video editing programs and the like? :confused:

Thanks!
 
p0Wer said:
Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory

What does this mean?
Click to expand...

It means you have 128 mb of system ram used as vRAM, and 16 mb of system ram used to manage it. The gpu and cpu share the same memory bus, thus they compete for its time, slowing things down a fraction.

How well will it run video editing programs and the like? :confused:
Click to expand...

It will do photoshop and video editing just fine.
 
p0Wer said:
What's fcp? :p
Click to expand...

Final Cut Pro (and FC Express and iMovie) run just fine on a MB. If you use Color or Motion apps in the Final Cut Studio package (which includes FCP) you should go with a MBP or other Mac with a dedicated graphics card. But if you don't need these apps, then a MB is perfectly fine.

And what are these updates?!?!?
Click to expand...

Supposedly, Apple will revise the MB line in October, but no one knows for sure when it will happen.
 
Cave Man said:
Final Cut Pro (and FC Express and iMovie) run just fine on a MB. If you use Color or Motion apps in the Final Cut Studio package (which includes FCP) you should go with a MBP or other Mac with a dedicated graphics card. But if you don't need these apps, then a MB is perfectly fine.
Click to expand...

I was thinking of photoshop and sony vegas, these will run smoothly?

Cave Man said:
Supposedly, Apple will revise the MB line in October, but no one knows for sure when it will happen.
Click to expand...

Oh, as in lower the price, newer models etc? :apple:
 
p0Wer said:
What's fcp? :p

And what are these updates?!?!?
Click to expand...

Apple has been long rumored to be refreshing the macbook line with potentially new cases, slimmer design and higher clock speeds.

If you can, wait until october 14th to see if these rumors come true.
 
Please Wait

Listen to Tallest Skil. If you are not bothered about the money GET a MacBook Pro even a refurbished one. Also wait for the update you will get a better laptop and who knows apple might use a different iGPU but most likely not [i mean like from ATI]. Really you should buy a mac for OS X not gaming, I got a mac 4 years ago and when I wanted to start PC gaming I built my own gaming PC [problem solved] also gaming on a laptop is not the most enjoyable experience.
 
Tallest Skil said:
Wonderful rationale.
Click to expand...

As much rationale as yours. I actually do what he is asking a lot. I know how it works. It works fine. No need to lie to the poster about what it can or can't do. Others who have Macbook have said the same thing in this thread, so obviously you have no idea what you are talking about when you answered, not, to his question.
 
hogfaninga said:
Don't listen to him. He has a Pro. I have a Macbook and do plenty of video editing and it does great.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot.

Also; how well does the Mac & Vista combination work on your mac, seeing as you have the same specs I'll be getting. (If I purchase it before the "updates".)

--

Also, to who ever said it, I didn't plan on buying a MacBook for gaming. I have my PS3 for that ;). I was generally just wondering what the graphics card performs like. E.g. playing videos high res full screen?
 
p0Wer said:
Thanks a lot.

Also; how well does the Mac & Vista combination work on your mac, seeing as you have the same specs I'll be getting. (If I purchase it before the "updates".)

--

Also, to who ever said it, I didn't plan on buying a MacBook for gaming. I have my PS3 for that ;). I was generally just wondering what the graphics card performs like. E.g. playing videos high res full screen?
Click to expand...

I bought the Vista Home Premium 32 bit OEM from newegg.com for $79 and installed it on bootcamp. I do a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of gaming (it does good enough for me), but mostly I use it for college and work (they mostly use Windows). I have Office 2007 on it and to be honest I like it better than Office 2008 for Mac and iWork (I have iWork--nice, but I like 2007 better). I haven't had any problems with Vista. It works like it should and I like it better than XP. Yes it takes a little more resources, but 4GB is way more than enough. I like the interface better and it won't take you anytime to get used to it. Of course OS X is way better, but Vista isn't half bad IMO.

Videos look fine on it.

Maybe more info than you needed. :)
 
I run Photoshop on my MacBook and it works just fine.

I would buy your RAM from someone else, Crucial for instance, Apple over price their RAM.

You can only run Final Cut Express on a MacBook, Final Cut Pro requires a dedicated video card (which the MacBook doesn't have)
I've edited on a MacBook and its fine :]
 
One more thing and a little off topic, but since you said you will be running Windows on your new Mac. You don't need anti-virus on the OS X side, however, you do on the Windows side. I use AVG free as do many on here. As it says, it is free. Just google AVG and download it when you get your new Mac. I have never had a problem and it works great. No need to buy anti-virus protection when it is free.
 
Get the best you can afford. If you can afford a MacBook Pro and dont mind the larger size go for that. It will do all the photoshop and video editing you want. You cannot run Final Cut Pro on a MacBook because of the lack of dedicated graphics, but iMovie and Final Cut Express run very well on a MacBook.

Gaming with any kind of 3D graphics is not an option on a MacBook. It isnt that the computer wont play them. Most games dont support Intel graphics and wont load on a system with intel graphics. I owned a MacBook and 3 months later bought a MacBook pro so I could use Final Cut Pro and play some games.

Vista 32 only recognizes 3 gigs of ram. 4 gigs is pointless on Vista unless you are running the 64 bit version......which Boot Camp doesnt support at this time unless you have a Mac Pro.
 
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