What can the 9600M GT do that the 9400M cannot?

[DoNoHarm]

So there are lots of posts where people are asking whether they should get a MBP with a dedicated graphics card or one without. Are there benchmarks that show the exact performance gap between the base and mid tier MBP 15" model?

What would be the dividing line between the performance between these two machines? For example, could the integrated graphics card play a full HD movie on the apple 30" display? How much of the processor would such a task take up (effectively lowering the processor capability at the computer's saturation point)? Have the owners of the integrated graphics card MBP's ever noticed that they were using an integrated graphics card instead of a dedicated one?

 

[iBookG4user]

Here you go. I have a MacBook Air and have used a 13" MacBook Pro regularly, and sometimes it is very obvious that it is integrated. I also have an early 2008 MacBook Pro and with tasks such as flash games for example, the 2008 MacBook Pro will provide much better performance.

I don't have access to a 30" display, but I watched a 720P movie on the internal display of the MacBook Air yesterday and it handled it pretty well.

 

[DoNoHarm]

thanks, these stats are great, but your post is more relevant to my real world experience since I don't play any of those games. you said that it was sometimes obvious that the mb and mba had an integrated card. When? What were you doing?

If I used an external 24" screen on a macbook, would there be any difference when playing a dvd? what about when a screensaver pops up? What if the computer is under full load - since there is no dedicated card, does that mean the graphics will be jumpy even for simple tasks like a youtube video?

 

[iBookG4user]

thanks, these stats are great, but your post is more relevant to my real world experience since I don't play any of those games. you said that it was sometimes obvious that the mb and mba had an integrated card. When? What were you doing?

If I used an external 24" screen on a macbook, would there be any difference when playing a dvd? what about when a screensaver pops up? What if the computer is under full load - since there is no dedicated card, does that mean the graphics will be jumpy even for simple tasks like a youtube video?

Flash games sometimes struggle on the MacBook Air such as on the ingenuity welcome website. Those flash games will not play great on the MacBook Air, but my 15" MacBook Pro (8600GT) handles them just fine. Also, websites were a significant amount is built using flash are noticeably slower than on the MacBook pro.

I couldn't tell you about the Air connected to an external monitor though, as I don't have the adapter. But, 720P video plays well on the Air using the internal screen, so it would greatly surprise me if the 9400 struggled with DVD on a 24" screen. Youtube video should be fine, although I'm not certain about HD youtube videos, (may be a problem that is Air-specific) as HD youtube videos struggle on my Air. Regular youtube videos are fine, though.