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enduu

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 5, 2009
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Hi dudes, I want to buy an 20" imac or an 13" macbook both running NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics but from what I read someone said that these macs won't be compatible with snow leopard's openCL feature. Is that true? And my final question for you is should I wait until snow leopard launches to buy my new mac (new models coming) or is it ok to buy em right now? please reply ASAP cuz I'm in a hurry. THANK YOU!
 
Hi dudes, I want to buy an 20" imac or an 13" macbook both running NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics but from what I read someone said that these macs won't be compatible with snow leopard's openCL feature. Is that true? And my final question for you is should I wait until snow leopard launches to buy my new mac (new models coming) or is it ok to buy em right now? please reply ASAP cuz I'm in a hurry. THANK YOU!

rumors...

it seems a bit hectic for apple to release a new OS, new ipods, apple tablet and refresh its computer lineup. in any case, its the imacs that are rumored to be getting minor upgrades/price cuts, not the laptops.

so if you want a laptop go ahead and buy it now, but it could be worth waiting for an imac
 
There's a month to go before SL is released. Will it kill you to wait?
(Though I really doubt any significant new hardware is on the horizon)
 
Dudes I know exactly what you mean with the waiting thing, but the problem is
I'm from europe and I want to buy it from US, and the person that should buy it for me isn't staying there until snow leopard releases. Still, will the macbook 13" be compatible with SL? And btw if conected to an external screen, can you do graphics on it? Or is the imac exactly what suits me?

P.S: i know the 15" macbook pro is perfect for working away and from home but it's just too expensive for it. I'm looking for a mac I can teach myself webdesign on. thx a lot.
 
Dudes I know exactly what you mean with the waiting thing, but the problem is
I'm from europe and I want to buy it from US, and the person that should buy it for me isn't staying there until snow leopard releases. Still, will the macbook 13" be compatible with SL? And btw if conected to an external screen, can you do graphics on it? Or is the imac exactly what suits me?

P.S: i know the 15" macbook pro is perfect for working away and from home but it's just too expensive for it. I'm looking for a mac I can teach myself webdesign on. thx a lot.

A mac from the UK education store with a 15% university discount will be better than most US prices i think
 
They just updated the laptops, there won't be any updates to those for at least 6 months most likely. I'd wager that the next laptop update will have the new Intel mobile processors and chipsets rather than some minor speed bumps.
 
Hi dudes, I want to buy an 20" imac or an 13" macbook both running NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics but from what I read someone said that these macs won't be compatible with snow leopard's openCL feature. Is that true?

I believe that only dedicated graphics cards such as the GT 120 or the HD 4850(?) are compatible with openCL but that doesn't mean you won't be able to use SL you just won't get that extra little speed bump when rendering or exporting.
 
Hi dudes, I want to buy an 20" imac or an 13" macbook both running NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics but from what I read someone said that these macs won't be compatible with snow leopard's openCL feature. Is that true? And my final question for you is should I wait until snow leopard launches to buy my new mac (new models coming) or is it ok to buy em right now? please reply ASAP cuz I'm in a hurry. THANK YOU!

open cl will work on the 9400m look it up in is on apples site.
 
Dudes I know exactly what you mean with the waiting thing, but the problem is
I'm from europe and I want to buy it from US, and the person that should buy it for me isn't staying there until snow leopard releases. Still, will the macbook 13" be compatible with SL? And btw if conected to an external screen, can you do graphics on it? Or is the imac exactly what suits me?

P.S: i know the 15" macbook pro is perfect for working away and from home but it's just too expensive for it. I'm looking for a mac I can teach myself webdesign on. thx a lot.

Dude, all Intel Macs are Snow Leopard compatible. Yes dude, you can connect a Macbook to an external screen.
 
Dude, all Intel Macs are Snow Leopard compatible. Yes dude, you can connect a Macbook to an external screen.

Dude I already know that, my question was if the macbook 13" is a good machine to do graphics on if conected to a external display. Anyway, thx everyone for the replies, I'm still undecided btw.
 
Can you elaborate on exactly what kind of graphics you will be doing (2D, 3D, etc.)?

I'm planning on learning serious web design on it so the programs that I'm going to run 90% of the time would be photoshop, illustrator and some kind of coding program like dreamweaver. Uu and for some kind of strange reason I seem to find the 20" imac beauty too big for me, probably cuz i used to work on a crappy pc conected to a 17" monitor.
 
It's too early for an iMac refresh (IMHO) and the MBP's have just been refreshed - so that isn't going to happen for Snow Leopard either. Buy your happy new shiny :apple: anytime you're ready :cool:
 
I'd agree with the other pot on here saying that the laptop range ATM is fully able to run slow leopard. The 9400m won't have the speed neccesary to utilize open cl as good as the gt120 or the HD set. But it's still gonna run snow fine. No probe there.

You might want to upgrade the ram if your using Photoshop and illustrator n stuff though. :)

PTP
 
I'd agree with the other pot on here saying that the laptop range ATM is fully able to run slow leopard. The 9400m won't have the speed neccesary to utilize open cl as good as the gt120 or the HD set. But it's still gonna run snow fine. No probe there.

You might want to upgrade the ram if your using Photoshop and illustrator n stuff though. :)

PTP
 
Dude I already know that, my question was if the macbook 13" is a good machine to do graphics on if conected to a external display. Anyway, thx everyone for the replies, I'm still undecided btw.

I'm using a white MB with an intel X3100 connected to a 22" monitor and it is working really well with Dreamweaver, Illustrator and Photoshop.
 
Unless I've been reading wrong OpenCL in Snow Leopard will initially be supported on the NVIDIA Geforce 8600M GT, GeForce 8800 GT, GeForce 8800 GTS, Geforce 9400M, GeForce 9600M GT, GeForce GT 120, GeForce GT 130, ATI Radeon 4850, and Radeon 4870.

I keep hearing a lot of people say it won't, I think they are confussed by bad rumors. Before the purchase of my Mac pro 13" 9400M I did the research. I hope nothing changes.
 
The 9400m won't have the speed neccesary to utilize open cl as good as the gt120 or the HD set.

Actually no-one knows what the difference in performance will be between gpu's when it comes to openCL as yet. It does not necessarily stand to reason that GPU a will be 2x as fast as GPU b in real world OpenCL benefits.

I have a feeling this forum is going to be over run with bitching come september with threads like 'Apple Sucks! I spent $$$ on this GPU and it's not faster than this GPU' etc....

So before we all jump on the bandwagon and start making pre-judgments about SnowLeopard and OpenCL performance on applications - let's wait to see the benchmarks.
 
You won't see an update in the notebook macs and the imac till next year. MBPs and MB was recently updated and the iMac usually comes out every spring. Check out the Buyer's Guide on this site. Snow Leopard will be compatible with all Intel Macs.
 
Actually no-one knows what the difference in performance will be between gpu's when it comes to openCL as yet. It does not necessarily stand to reason that GPU a will be 2x as fast as GPU b in real world OpenCL benefits.

I have a feeling this forum is going to be over run with bitching come september with threads like 'Apple Sucks! I spent $$$ on this GPU and it's not faster than this GPU' etc....

So before we all jump on the bandwagon and start making pre-judgments about SnowLeopard and OpenCL performance on applications - let's wait to see the benchmarks.

Oops my bad heh. I was just going out on a whim lol. Shoulda mentioned that lol. Don't worry though I'm not gonna be complaining particularly. I have already decided my 06 mini isn't going to benefit from snow leopard seeing as it's intel gma950 series. My mbp will seeing as it's got 8600gtm. Which from my elementary research will deffo be supported. :)

can't wait for snow leopard. :)
 
First post, go easy on me.

I'm ready to buy my first Mac, and I've decided to go with the least expensive iMac. right now that's the 20 inch. it's perfect for me as I don't need a machine that will do much heavy lifting. My plan was to buy the 20 inch imac with the student discount then sell the ipod touch.

so here's my snow leopard related question:
I'm very eager to buy the imac and I'm trying not to get all stressed out over the update rumors. but I feel like I should wait until snow leopard is released before I buy an imac. whether apple updates the imac with the release of sl or not, exactly what is the difference (besides price) between waiting for the sl release to buy an imac and buying an imac now and upgrading to sl myself for $10 or whatever apple is charging?

sub question: regarding the current imac vs rumored updates... does anyone currently own the march 2009 20" imac? if so, how do you like it? I'm tempted by the update rumors but the current 20" seems like a great machine.

so as a mac newbie, how would I benefit from waiting until the SL release in september? will the imac (whether it's updated or not) come with SL preinstalled?
 
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