Macbook graphics

[2ms]

My friend is buying a Macbook but I'm soncerned about those 950 graphics. Do they have discrete memory of any type or do they steal from the main system bus?

He doesn't game or anything, but I don't want his first Apple to be a slowpoke 2 years down the line as OS X and everything keep getting more and more graphics and memory intensive. I feel like such a graphically sophisticated OS as OS X deserves graphics hardware that is at least discrete in resources from rest of system even if not the awesomest at super gaming.

 

[Eidorian]

1. Integrated graphics
2. When you're moving a lot of data around in system RAM the video subsystem performance does suffer.

 

[2ms]

So, it doesn't have any memory of its own whatsoever? Not even just built into the motherboard or whatever? That'd slow everything down both on graphics and non-graphics side.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

So, it doesn't have any memory of its own whatsoever? Not even just built into the motherboard or whatever? That'd slow everything down both on graphics and non-graphics side.

not if you have enough system RAM. the GPU only uses about 80MB for its work, which, if you have 1.5GB, leaves 1.42GB for system use. Barely even scratches the surface.

I got my MacBook when it first came out, which was mid-May 2006, meaning it is about 16-17 months old. Its still a fast system, and it doesn't make me want to upgrade it. I've used the new models, and frankly I can't tell the difference.

That said, there are rumours of a MacBook update sometime soon, potentially with the X3100 graphics set from Intel. If your mate can, he probably should wait.

 

[sbluetruck]

i'm using the iBook in my sig and i'm fine. yes i know it's got a dedicated ATI Radeon Mobility, but it's only 32MB. if you've got plenty of regular RAM, the integrated won't matter as much. if you max it out at two (or 3.3 with two 1GB sticks) you should be just fine.