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MB for New Media Design?

I

ICD2k3

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 23, 2007
13
0
Hey guys, the logic board just went on my powerbook and was wondering if the new MBs would be powerful enough for what I want to use them for. I mainly work in flash/photoshop/after effects, but am most worried about 3d rendering in Cinema because of the on-board gfx card. The powerbook I was using was an alum. G4 1.33... do you think the new MBs can stand up to it?

I would be getting the base model with 2gb of ram... money is a little tight because im a college student
 
the MB should handle the first three fine. Yeah, it would be slower in Cinema but it should still handle it.
 
I believe the card in the powerbook was an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (4X AGP) with 64 MB of DDR SDRAM. How does this compare to the current MacBooks?
 
ICD2k3 said:
Also, since I'm a little pressed for time is it worth it to get the 2GB upgrade from apple for 175? I found this on owc: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/5300DDR2S2GB/
If I got that it would bump it up to 2.5gb of ram for less than 2, but is OWC ram that reliable? Ive heard mixed things..

any advice/opinions are very appreciated, thanks
Click to expand...

2GB is the practical limit for the MB. Using matched pairs of memory sticks greatly increases the performance. If you can afford it and don't want to mess about selling your stock RAM sticks, get the 2GB upgrade from Apple.
 
Thanks for the reply, I think ill stick with apple then. Any input on the gfx card comparison? I know the on-board in the macbook is 64mb like my old card, but the main difference is it's shared mem... is there a big difference?

ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (4X AGP) with 64 MB of DDR SDRAM
vs.
Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared

I assume the new gfx card will be about the same speed as mine now, but doesn't hurt to be sure. I use computers all day but when it comes to the specs and details I'm never sure.
 
Can't really say. The best I can tell you is that World of Warcraft runs a little bit slower on my MB C2D than on my son's PC (Athlon XP 2800+, FX5500 128MB graphics card). Maybe the CPU will make up for the slower graphics card or maybe the two cards are about the same for 3D rendering.
 
Thanks for your help, I ended up going with the base 2.0ghz macbook with 2gb of ram and a 120gb hd... I think it should serve well enough for a couple years or so until I get a job and can afford something nicer.
 
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