Question about MBP 2011 i7 2.0 with 6490

[asdad123]

Hey guys, I have a chance of buying a base 2011 i7 2.0 GHz 15" MBP with a ATI 6490 from a friend at work for $1400.

I currently have a m11xR2 that I would sell to another friend for $700 which means that I could upgrade to this MBP for about $700. The MBP was bought on memorial day so it is barely a month old.

I am just wondering, how does the 6490 fare in gaming? Is it better than the GT335m in the m11xR2? I do not game a lot, but the occasional game on it would be nice.

Also, Ill be doing AutoCAD and other engineering programs on the MBP while using windows bootcamp. Do you guys think the 6490 would be enough?

I was thinking of waiting another year to upgrade my M11x, but for a $700 upgrade, it seems good. Just wondering how the 6490 will fare. If only it had the 6770, I would buy it in a heart beat.
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[alust2013]

The 6490 probably would be fairly close to the 335m, but I'm not particularly familiar with either. It should be able to handle the occasional game just fine, even the 13" can do a fair job with games, so it should be a bit better than that. Definitely enough for AutoCAD as well, I could do that with my 9400m.

 

[mikeo007]

The 6490 won't be as good as the 335M.

According to notebook check, in 3dMark06, the 335M scores a 6892 average (7700 max) while the 6490 only scores a 5602. Theoretical performance on the 6490 is actually a hair below the old 330m from last years Macbooks.

Will it be a noticeable decrease in gaming performance? Yes. But it's probably not going to make or break the game since you won't be playing at highest settings with either card.