I think it's obvious that (until recently) the graphics chip has been only truely useful for graphics based tasks.
Obvious? Really? Because a LARGE amount of threads posted in this division revolve around the questions, "Do I need the better GPU?", or, "is 256mb VRAM enough?".
Maybe obvious to you and I, but it is not,
obviously, well known among the general.
You are wrong to say performance is less than 5% with more VRAM, because it depends on what you're doing. Games that can saturate the texture ram (with huge uncompressed textures) will perform better with more VRAM.
On a 15"MBP, 512mb VRAM will NOT show performance boosts in any sort of way, above 5%. On a higher resolution laptop, or an external display, it
will make a difference. Even then, the resolution increase must be significant, and in gaming, the AA must be in the higher ranges. GOOGLE this, it is another well known fact. A 6600GT 128mb was always faster than a 6200 256mb.
The 9400M actually shares the main system RAM, which is much slower due to the way motherboards are (currently) designed. This is changing though and there are many possible solutions being researched.
Please .. the RAM interface is just as fast, if not faster, than PCI-express. That said, having to "share" RAM does NOT slow down the GPU - it is the crappy GPU architecture itself that slows things down.
Reasons why the 9600 GT is good for the 'non' pro consumer
I think you're missing an important point, nVidia, Apple and Intel are all currently working towards making their hardware/software utilize the GPU extensively. Whether or not people realize the benefits today is a moot point, many Mac users also buy with the mindset to future proof their laptops for a 3-5 year time horizon (I do). With the current crop of laptops, it makes ideal sense to buy the 9400M + 9600 GT because Apple has promised to support it with OpenCL. This will make a difference, I fully expect Apple to integrate OpenCL in all their iLife applications, the iPhotos face recognition feature, garage band, Movie Maker will all see performance increases with the 9600 GT over a 9400M.
I agree with you - the GPU
MAY will show performance gains across
NON GRAPHIC INTENSIVE apps
IN THE FUTURE (key words are highlighted for those with poor reading comphrehension.
That said, where is your proof that performance gains in those certain applications will be recognized? Do you work for Apple? Doubt it.
You can expect to see nearly 4x performance in OpenCL on a 9600 GT compared to a 9400M.
Why thank you Steve Jobs for that
official information! Oh wait ...
Whether or not these features are worth the money to you or someone else is up to them. But to simply say there's no benefit at all is plainly wrong.
Wrong. I never said there is/will be no benefit. I said that for the majority of users who don't utilize graphic intensive applications and use the Macbook for it's name and for simple usage - they won't realize any benefits, even after SL's release.
Reasons why the 9600 GT is good for the pro consumer
It's been pointed out already Photoshop has some built in GPU enhancements. With Snow Leopard (as a mac developer myself) it's clear Apple is sending a message to developers that it fully intends to foster support for a truly multithreaded/multi-core environment that blurs the lines between GPU/CPU. Pro's can expect more of their applications to use the GPU in more inventive ways, that's a fact.
Sending a message? Nvidia went about this on their on - for PC's and Mac's. Sorry, this was not Apple pushing this.
I can think of many Financial softwares than (already) use GPU enhancements, I was testing some Econometric software that does this.
I'm not doubting you, but which software are you talking about?
It's simply naive to think an inferior GPU is 'more than enough power' for all people
It's simply naive for people to buy a computer with a GPU they don't and won't ever need. That's wasteful in terms of money and energy.
It is America!
Having said this, I personally find the 9400M a very capable graphics chip (its one of the reasons that made me upgrade from my 15" PowerBook G4).
It's 5x faster than the integrated GPU it replaced - it always pales in performance benchmarks because it's stacked up against the 9600GT M.