Rational Discussion regarding 256Mb VS 1GB AMD Cards in 15 inch MBP

[Bear]

Dang, I thought I had what I wanted completely figured out before I came to this thread. Not the case anymore. I will be heading off to university in the fall and plan to purchase my first macbook pro in the coming weeks. I plan on playing games such as Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3, along with web browsing, music, and perhaps CS5. At the top of my budget right now is the base 15'' model, which I figured would do me alright for what I plan on using my computer for.

Now I see that everyone thinks that the graphics card on the base 15'' is pretty useless and that it was just added to look like a slight bonus?

My question is, would I be best off to get the base 15'' and not worry about what people are saying, or get the base 13'' and upgrade it to 8 gigs of ram and a SATA 3 SSD?

The video on the 15" could still be better for the games although it's not great. I'm not sure the base 13" model would fit your needs based on what you list. The better 13" model would do much better for you.

Although I do recommend you go in to a store and play with both the 13" and the 15". Some people think the 13" screen is too small for them, some love it.

 

[2hvy4grvty]

It's not so much the screen size, but the screen resolution. 1280 x 800 is really, really, sub-par. Even if there was an 1366 x 768 option, that's still a stretch, but definitely better. 1440 x 900 would be ideal on a 13 imo, and 1680 x 1050 on a 15.

Also, will this be your only computer, or will you have a a separate desktop?

 

[Bear]

It's not so much the screen size, but the screen resolution.
...

Actually I'll say it was a combination of the two. If the screen resolution is so high tat you have to make the letters bigger in order to read it, well you might just as well have a bigger screen.

In any case, my advice for going in to a store and trying the systems still stands.

 

[Surfing@Blacks]

Like others have said, video editing and photoshop use very little GPU memory. It is mainly CPU. If you game, get the higher end for sure! If don't do 3d editing and just do HD video and photoshop the baseline will be a very VERY nice computer for all those needs. You would be better off saving that 300 or 400 + dollars and get an SSD and more ram.

 

[2hvy4grvty]

I don't understand the RAM upgrade advice. Why would you need 8 GB? If you're ever to the point where 4 GB is RAM isn't enough for anything realistic you're doing, then 6490m would've already bottlenecked. And no, running 65 instances of Epic Meal Time doesn't count. But the 6490m wouldn't be able to do that anyway.

 

[Surfing@Blacks]

I don't understand the RAM upgrade advice. Why would you need 8 GB? If you're ever to the point where 4 GB is RAM isn't enough for anything realistic you're doing, then 6490m would've already bottlenecked. And no, running 65 instances of Epic Meal Time doesn't count. But the 6490m wouldn't be able to do that anyway.

Not really, if you are in logic and using virtual instruments the ram could bottleneck very quickly while the virtual ram on your GPU is barely being touched.

 

[fat jez]

It's a shame there's no option for a 2GHz CPU with the HD6750M CPU, that would be a nice sweet spot.

 

[2hvy4grvty]

Not really, if you are in logic and using virtual instruments the ram could bottleneck very quickly while the virtual ram on your GPU is barely being touched.

If you're getting to the point where your stack sizes and memory allocations are exceeding 4 GB, it's time to rewrite your code. But now that you mention it, I can see large sample matrices push the boundaries of the 4 GB limit... but I mean, come on, really? If you're that hardcore, get a desktop. But even then, it's probably not enough. You need a supercomputer if you're maxing RAM of all things.

 

[Surfing@Blacks]

If you're getting to the point where your stack sizes and memory allocations are exceeding 4 GB, it's time to rewrite your code. But now that you mention it, I can see large sample matrices push the boundaries of the 4 GB limit... but I mean, come on, really? If you're that hardcore, get a desktop. But even then, it's probably not enough. You need a supercomputer if you're maxing RAM of all things.

I agree 4gigs of ram is good. Maybe instead of the higher end 15 get the baseline one if you arnt going to game and get a ssd... that might be worth it right?

 

[2hvy4grvty]

As many have previously stated, SSD is the BEST and most noticeable investment from an everyday use perspective. If you're not gaming/running simulations on it 24/7, that $200 couldn't be better spent.

Shame that you either have to optibay, or lug around an ugly external though.