MBP performance on Expose' in Spaces

This morning I was in a shop where these two laptops (among others) were available for test:
1) The latest 'middle' MB: 2.4GHz 2GB 160GB-hd etc. etc.
2) An old 'middle' MBP: 2.4 GHz, 2GB, 160GB-hd, GeForce 8600 with 256MB etc.

(1) had Leopard 10.5.2
(2) had Leopard 10.5, no release specified. I assume it is 10.5.0?

(1) was much smoother than (2) on:
- going into "Spaces mode";
- performing a global Expose' in "Spaces mode".

Forgive me for the "Spaces mode", it is just to indicate the status in which both the laptops were showing four virtual desktops.

Basically (1) was smooth, (2) was very very very disappointing.

I was thinking to purchase a MBP, but now I need your advice. I searched this forum and the internet but was not able to find anything relevant.

Is the 2D performance of your MBPs that bad? Was it caused by the drivers in 10.5.0? Is it caused by the current implementation of Quartz GL (but, to be honest, I still have to understand how it works in Leopard).

I still think that such a bad performance would be impossible on a MBP. My disappointment was so great that I went to pick up a friend of mine and brought him to the shop in order to be assured I was not having a nightmare.

Thanks to everyone willing to help me.
Ciao,
lordthistle

 

Thank you for your answer. I knew and am still strongly convinced that the MBP should be faster in any single aspect.

Even if I did not check if the battery was removed, I think it is quite likely. They were computers on display and the MBP had been running for eight hours. Just out of curiosity: the MBP, that was the old 'middle' MBP, was priced 2400 euro, when the entry-level one now costs 1800 euro. I think it is the same MBP I saw months ago in the same spot.

Anyway, yesterday I made a better web search and I found many posts regarding the bad performance of MBPs on the system 2D animations. It is quite discouraging:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1352573&tstart=30
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=388317

And this one:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=375482
and
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1234146

It looks like that MBPs with nVidia cards DO NOT have smooth graphics. MBPs with ATI cards DO HAVE smooth animations. It is a driver problem, so it will be eventually fixed.

-- thistl

 

Thank you for your answer.

Expose performance was fine on both of them.

When I opened spaces, clicking on the application icon in the dock:
- MB was smooth
- MBP was not smooth at all. It was jerky, especially toward the end of the animation.

When I called Expose by clicking the correct F-keys while the notebooks were showing the four virtual desktops:
- MB was perfect;
- MBP was jerky and sluggish, in an unbelievable way, I would dare to say.

There were no more than 10 windows per desktops in two desktops. All of the windows belonging to Finder or Safari.

MB was smooth even when there were a plenty of other application running (iPhoto - showing no photo, text editors, iMovie, etc.)

It cannot NOT be a software problem, but you know...

I did not check the battery because the two notebooks were tied on the table.

thistle