Which new MBP for graphic designer?

[plasmaj]

Hi,
I am brand new to Macs. I am buying a MBP largely for my wife who is a graphic designer. She will be doing some work, mostly freelance, on this but will continue to do most of her work at her employer's offices. Her primary applications are Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Otherwise, it will mostly be used for the basics, email, web, iphoto, and ms office products (I can't get entirely away from microsoft) etc.

My question is, is the mid-range MBP worth the extra $500 over the base model for these applications ? My understanding is that for the most part the extra 256MB of graphics card memory will not be able to be fully utilized anyway. Is that true for the layout applications ? Also, where will smaller L2 cache be noticeable ?

I will be getting a 30" monitor for using it at home (probably the 3007WFP) and will upgrade to 4gig memory on my own.

Thank you in advance for any help choosing

 

[Abstract]

My question is, is the mid-range MBP worth the extra $500 over the base model for these applications?

Nope.

Enjoy your new base model MBP.

 

[bbeers]

Hi,
Her primary applications are Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Otherwise, it will mostly be used for the basics, email, web, iphoto, and ms office products (I can't get entirely away from microsoft) etc.

My question is, is the mid-range MBP worth the extra $500 over the base model for these applications ?...

Like previously stated. The base model will be fine. In fact I do the same thing as a graphic designer, and I just bought the base macbook pro. It should be coming in on wed. so I will keep it posted.

 

[plasmaj]

Thank you both for the help. It looks like I am going to go ahead and get the base.