Sell old MBP, buy iMac?

[dKran]

Hey guys.

Bit of a dilemma, well not really but I have a question, and need some Guru help.

So right now, i'm equipped with;

Macbook Pro - 15 inch
2.33 Ghz Core2Duo
256 Mb ATI x1600
2 Gb Ram

Had it for a few years now, and it is still quite fast, i'm able to run the Sims 3 and stuff on it.

Anyways, i find that I don't really have much of a need for a laptop anymore, and am interested in selling it and getting an iMac, and would like it to hopefully hold a performance boost as well, as I won't be looking to get another computer for quite a while.

the one i'm looking at;

iMac - 20 inch
2.66 Ghz Core 2 Duo
2Gb Ram
256 Mb ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT

Would this give much of any kind of boost at all?

Looking around on craigslist, I have found a possible trade as well, someone looking to get rid of their desktop for a laptop, their system

iMac - 20 Inch
2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo
2Gb Ram
128 Mb ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT

How do those compare? I know the latter system takes a hit in Processor speed and Video Memory, but is that card a lot better in the first place? Or am I better to just keep the MBP?

Thank you for your help!

 

[neiltc13]

Well if you're serious about gaming you really need to be looking for a machine which has more than these ATi X2600 or 2400 cards. They were out of date when the machines were first launched and only went downhill from there. Yes, you'll get better performance than with your current machine but it will be by no means spectacular.

The displays on the 20-inch iMacs are also complete and utter junk. I don't know if this bothers you, but the viewing angles are very poor. I had one and there was a noticeable difference in colour from the top to the bottom when looking at it head on. Not good for my work web designing.

You really want to look for one of the iMacs which has either a GeForce 8800 chip or the more recent ones which have the Radeon 4850. Those will give you a much bigger boost in performance.

Just for the sake of mentioning it here the X1600 that you have in your computer is roughly comparable to the 9400M integrated graphics that Apple now has in its consumer products. Yours has dedicated video memory which is a help but don't buy a 9400M model and expect a performance boost.

Are you running The Sims 3 in OS X?

 

[dKran]

I am running Sims 3 in OS X yes. So it doesn't run brilliantly since it's cider-ized or whatever, but I can run it at medium-high settings with no problem.

I'm not really looking for serious gaming, just some WoW probably, and the Sims, and nothing likely more taxing than those.

And I'm not really able to afford something with the 8800 anyways, hoping to either just sell this one, and not have to pay too much more for a refurb iMac, either the twenty inch, though you said the screens were bad, or just do my emailing and web browsing on my iPhone until I have the extra few hundred for the 24'

So do you think it would be totally not worth it to do that trade system? Is the HD 2400 no better than the X1600 is?

Thanks again for the help! Much appreciated!