White Macbook GMA 950 VS nVidia 9400m

[seong]

I have base line White Macbook (The cheapest one) which is 32 month old now. My sister bought her Macbook when the nVidia graphic chip was available for non-unibody Polycarbonate Macbook. Well, I asked her if I can trade only the HD so that I can get the graphic card and RAM that she barely uses (no gamings), so I was wondering, should I swap HD or buy the new one? Buying new one costs $999 and swapping costs $0.

 

[spinnerlys]

Your post is a little bit confusing. And your thread title is really non-descriptive, change that to get the proper audience.

Do I understand you correctly, that you have a 2007 MacBook and your sister has a 2008/9 MacBook, and you want to swap your HDD (Hard Disk Drive - the device where all the data and the Operating System (OS) is stored) with the HDD in your sister's MacBook?

That is possible, as they both use an S-ATA interface, but just because you swapped HDDs, you will not get better performance, as the CPU and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit - the integrated graphic card) are bound to the MacBook itself and not the HDD.

But if you want to trade your MacBook with your sister's, you can do that, and by swapping the HDD you will have all your data with you. But know, that you have to have the Mac OS X version installed on your HDD that your sister's MacBook came with.

Example:

Your MB has Mac OS X 10.4.11 and your sister's MB has 10.5.8 and came with 10.5.6, you have to have at least 10.5.6 installed on your system.

If you already have 10.5.6 or later installed (including 10.6.x), there will be no problem, even if she has a differing Mac OS X version.

That is because no Mac can run an OS version prior to the one it came with.
So no Mac OS X 10.5.4 on a machine that came with 10.5.5, and no 10.4.x or 10.5.x on a machine that came with 10.6, or no 10.4.11 on a machine that came with 10.5.0.

Do you understand that?

 

[seong]

oops, sorry

Sorry about what happened there, I was typing that in less than minute.
I had to go to school for a meeting (debate).
So, yeah, you got it right.
Well, the main reason that I am swapping HD with my sister's is because of the graphic that I have.
I have GMA 950, and she has nVidia 9400m, which is a big difference.
I couldn't play battlefield 2142 nor COD4, but I could on her computer.
So, I was just asking for help who have knowledge to find out 'by swapping the HD, can I run games that I couldn't run on my old Macbook?

 

[spinnerlys]

COD4 MW will be no problem with low to mid settings on the nVidia MacBook.

Other games having similar requirements as COD4 should be no problem either.

Use MRoogle to find many threads about this, as this is a regular question.

...
So, I was just asking for help who have knowledge to find out 'by swapping the HD, can I run games that I couldn't run on my old Macbook?

I'm still confused, you want to swap HDDs or MacBooks?

1. You take your sister's MacBook, she gets yours.

or

2. Your sister keeps her MacBook, and you yours, but you take her HDD and she takes yours.


Is it 1. or 2.? I presume it is 1., but I'm still unsure because of your phrasing.



from your second thread about the same issue:

Ok, as you can see on my signature, I have 32 month old Macbook with GMA 950 graphic build in. My sister, however, has nVidia 9400m, which I was longing for for at least two years.
I asked my sister about swapping my HD and her HD so that I can play COD4, BF2142, and C&C Tiberium Wars 3.
Is that possible?

Why make another thread? You could have just edited your thread title.

To edit your thread title, just click on the

button on the bottom right of your original post and then click the "Go Advanced" button below your message.


And yes, changing the HDD will not improve your graphic performance, as one has almost nothing to do with the other.

Like putting on Ferrari tires on a Fiat will not make the Fiat go as fast as the Ferrari.

According to 'my brain', it tells me that this is possible since upgrading from 80GB to 160GB doesn't change a bit of graphic performance.

That's kinda contradictory.

 

[seong]

oh, ok.

So, I have read yours, and learned something from you since I am new to Macrumors: "Macforums Newbie" under my name.
So, ya, in conclusion, number two is right:

"2. Your sister keeps her MacBook, and you yours, but you take her HDD and she takes yours." "Quote"

I don't get the Ferrari and Fiat ones since I am not switching the "tires" but its more like take the Navigation and exchanging so that I have my navigation date in my Ferrari than my Fiat.
Well, forget about that, since you have answered my question. I found out that the I could play COD4, and I am just glad to hear that.
I might try that within a few hours and I will post a reply about playing COD4.
THANKS!

 

[spinnerlys]

Ah, good that we are on the same page now.

You don't need to swap HDDs though, to play COD4 on your Mac, you can just install it on yours.

And you will not see a performance increase by swapping out the HDDs, as the GPU is what matters. You can't replace the GPU in any way, except if you exchange the whole Logic Board.

As you can see in this thread, COD4 is playable with low settings on a GMA950m, the GPU you have. As the GMA950 is an Integrated Graphics Processor (IGP), it is not really meant for playing 3D games.

Also MRoogle is a good tool for searching these forums.



Also have a look at the following to make your membership worthwhile for you.

The following is taken from the thread titled "How to maximise your MacRumors troubleshooting experience" created by mad jew in 2006. It contains more elaborate information on the short extracts I took from it and should help you in finding appropriate help. I also made some additions after finding that thread.

1. Search for threads or guides containing similar problems.
   MRoogle is quite a good tool to search these forums.
   
2. Start your thread in the appropriate forum or sub-forum.
   Here is the forum's main page with the list of all the sub-fora found here.
   
3. Use a specific thread title.
   "Need help!!!!???? ASAP!!!" and its variants are not specific.
   
4. Find and post machine hardware and software configurations.
   You can find out more about your Mac by going to the Menu Bar > > About This Mac > More Info ... (this button opens Applications / Utilities / System Profiler) > Hardware Overview.
   
5. Tell us your problem, and be specific. What is happening to your machine?
   What Mac OS X version and what Mac do you use, ... .
   
6. How long has this been happening? What changes were made just before this started?
   
7. What have you already tried?
   
8. Respond to all posted advice with details of what happened.
   
9. Be wary of the (very) occasional bad advice.
   
10. Be patient.
    
11. Be courteous.