Whoa 17" hi res mbp feels alot faster connected to 23" acd than 15" sr mbp!!

[jjahshik32]

Man it feels alot more solid and faster connected to the 23" acd, no more expose studdering, I'm sure it has to do with the 512mb vram and it makes a huge difference!! I was installing parallels + connected to the 23" acd + 13+ tabs on safari open and dling from newsgroups and no color wheel ever popped up and not even once did it hiccup and runs super fast. I've done this on the 15" sr mbp 2.4ghz model and it seems to stutter a bit and the wheel popping out once in a while and not as smooth as this 2.5ghz 17" hi res mbp! I do believe the 512mb vram makes a huge difference in driving an external monitor!

I'm even considering selling my mac pro and using the 17" with the 23" acd by itself!!

 

[queshy]

the leopard graphics update fixed the graphic stuttering on my mbp.

 

[jjahshik32]

the leopard graphics update fixed the graphic stuttering on my mbp.

Well I'm speaking of all well after those updates, the 2.4ghz SR mbp still doesnt feel as good running the 23" acd than the 17" penryn does. Only when I had the 15" sr mbp in clamshell (closed) mode felt fast but the 17" mbp without being closed and splitting the vram 2 ways to the 23" acd feels alot smoother and faster. I'm sure it has to do with the 512mb vram.

man hd content on this 17" hi res looks freakin unreal...

 

[iToaster]

The GPU in the 17" MBP also happens to be slightly faster than the one in the 15" MBP (Apple under clocked that one). But certainly the larger amount of VRAM helps, as well as that update I'd say.

 

[pionata]

That doesnt make much sense. 1920x1200 resolution used barely 10% of the 256 megs of ram (23.04 megs). And the 2d processor of a 5 year old videocard could run osX 2d fine. Must be a placebo effect... (your subconscious "guilt" trying to justify the extra 1k $ ) Or a software issue.

My 15" runs Quake 4 in 1920x1200 at a very playable framerate.

 

[jjahshik32]

That doesnt make much sense. 1920x1200 resolution used barely 10% of the 256 megs of ram (23.04 megs). And the 2d processor of a 5 year old videocard could run osX 2d fine. Must be a placebo effect... (your subconscious "guilt" trying to justify the extra 1k $ ) Or a software issue.

My 15" runs Quake 4 in 1920x1200 at a very playable framerate.

Nope not a placebo effect and I'm not telling myself to justify my purchase. I think the $1000 is well worth it for the machine being able to run very cool, the screen is incredible *best I've ever seen on a laptop* runs incredibly fast,

I'm just telling you from my tests of doing the exact same things connected to the 15"mbp 2.4sr model to the 23" acd as to the 17" 2.5ghz penryn model.

Believe what you want and tell yourself that your mbp is the same as the 2.5ghz 17" hi res penryn, maybe your trying to justify yourself that not upgrading because you have an older SR/lower end penryn machine to make yourself feel better. And I'm sure running your 1920x1200 runs good enough for you but I'm not talking about a 4 year old game, BUT I'm just telling you guys from the tests I've done from my everyday tasks that I do and IT IS THAT MUCH FASTER, period.

 

[ZiggyPastorius]

Nope not a placebo effect and I'm not telling myself to justify my purchase. I think the $1000 is well worth it for the machine being able to run very cool, the screen is incredible *best I've ever seen on a laptop* runs incredibly fast,

I'm just telling you from my tests of doing the exact same things connected to the 15"mbp 2.4sr model to the 23" acd as to the 17" 2.5ghz penryn model.

Believe what you want and tell yourself that your mbp is the same as the 2.5ghz 17" hi res penryn, maybe your trying to justify yourself that not upgrading because you have an older SR/lower end penryn machine to make yourself feel better. And I'm sure running your 1920x1200 runs good enough for you but I'm not talking about a 4 year old game, BUT I'm just telling you guys from the tests I've done from my everyday tasks that I do and IT IS THAT MUCH FASTER, period.

This is good. What do you attribute this to, do you think? Just the monitor itself? I'm going to get an LCD for my Macbook, and later, my Macbook Pro, and I'm sure curious how these benefits may show themselves? Is it the new computer, or the monitor?

 

[jjahshik32]

This is good. What do you attribute this to, do you think? Just the monitor itself? I'm going to get an LCD for my Macbook, and later, my Macbook Pro, and I'm sure curious how these benefits may show themselves? Is it the new computer, or the monitor?

I've had the 23" ACD for a year now so I'm quite familiar with how its usage goes. All this time I've used the mac pro with the 23" that you see on my sig to give you an idea of how fast I'm used to.

I've been using the 15" sr mbp 2.4ghz model with 4gb of ram with the hitachi travelstar 7k200 connected to the 23" acd for 2 days to see if I can sell the mac pro on my sig to pocket the extra $$. I figured if I can do everything pretty much the same on a mbp might as well save myself $4400. But I did notice using the 15" mbp connected to the 23" acd response times and fluidness was much better when the lid was closed on the mbp as to it used with the screen opened.

This morning I received the 17" hi res 2.5ghz penryn model with 512mb vram and I transplanted the same hitachi travelstar 7k200 from the 15" mbp onto the 17" and added the 4gb of ram as well. I installed leopard and put all the same programs that I used on the 15" mbp onto the 17" and hooked the 17" to the 23" ACD and off I went to do the same multitasking. It is noticeably much more fluid with no more hiccups running the 23" acd to the 17" mbp with not using it in closed mode.

I believe the slightly higher clock, penryn, and especially the 512mb vram drove the 23" acd that much better. honestly I could have used the 15" mbp without the 23" acd and it runs much faster to do most of the things that I do, but connected to the 23" acd (not in clamshell mode) slowed it down. But its not the case with the 17" mbp. Now I am selling my mac pro and just going to go with the 17" mbp + 23" acd combo and so far as I am typing this, I have 13+ safari up windows vista running on the 17" side screen with party poker open + bearshare program and with a 6.9 gb movie running while downloading 9.8gb on torrents with running unison in the background without any hiccups as to the 15" I would be seeing ALOT of the color wheels off and on.

 

[ZiggyPastorius]

I've had the 23" ACD for a year now so I'm quite familiar with how its usage goes. All this time I've used the mac pro with the 23" that you see on my sig to give you an idea of how fast I'm used to.

I've been using the 15" sr mbp 2.4ghz model with 4gb of ram with the hitachi travelstar 7k200 connected to the 23" acd for 2 days to see if I can sell the mac pro on my sig to pocket the extra $$. I figured if I can do everything pretty much the same on a mbp might as well save myself $4400. But I did notice using the 15" mbp connected to the 23" acd response times and fluidness was much better when the lid was closed on the mbp as to it used with the screen opened.

This morning I received the 17" hi res 2.5ghz penryn model with 512mb vram and I transplanted the same hitachi travelstar 7k200 from the 15" mbp onto the 17" and added the 4gb of ram as well. I installed leopard and put all the same programs that I used on the 15" mbp onto the 17" and hooked the 17" to the 23" ACD and off I went to do the same multitasking. It is noticeably much more fluid with no more hiccups running the 23" acd to the 17" mbp with not using it in closed mode.

I believe the slightly higher clock, penryn, and especially the 512mb vram drove the 23" acd that much better. honestly I could have used the 15" mbp without the 23" acd and it runs much faster to do most of the things that I do, but connected to the 23" acd (not in clamshell mode) slowed it down. But its not the case with the 17" mbp. Now I am selling my mac pro and just going to go with the 17" mbp + 23" acd combo and so far as I am typing this, I have 13+ safari up windows vista running on the 17" side screen with party poker open + bearshare program and with a 6.9 gb movie running while downloading 9.8gb on torrents with running unison in the background without any hiccups as to the 15" I would be seeing ALOT of the color wheels off and on.

So is getting a 20-24" LCD for my SR Macbook, or in the near future, my 15" Macbook Pro, going to affect the performance really badly? I use Logic Express and Garageband and Finale and stuffz on my Macbook/future Macbook Pro, which doesn't seem like it'd be that big of deal, I also have 4GB of RAM. Running dual-monitors like that, am I going to not want to do that?

 

[jjahshik32]

So is getting a 20-24" LCD for my SR Macbook, or in the near future, my 15" Macbook Pro, going to affect the performance really badly? I use Logic Express and Garageband and Finale and stuffz on my Macbook/future Macbook Pro, which doesn't seem like it'd be that big of deal, I also have 4GB of RAM. Running dual-monitors like that, am I going to not want to do that?

If your running those programs all at once or 2/4, I'd highly recommend using your mbp in clamshell mode (closed).

 

[ZiggyPastorius]

If your running those programs all at once or 2/4, I'd highly recommend using your mbp in clamshell mode (closed).

All, right, thanks. I usually don't run more than Logic and Finale, or Garageband and Finale, at the same time. I suppose I'll just have to test it out when I get it Can't quite afford the LCD right now. Maybe after my birthday! I hope it's not too bad, as I really need an extra screen for doing multi-project transfers and remixes in Logic, makes things so much easier.

 

[Azmordean]

Nope not a placebo effect and I'm not telling myself to justify my purchase. I think the $1000 is well worth it for the machine being able to run very cool, the screen is incredible *best I've ever seen on a laptop* runs incredibly fast,

I'm just telling you from my tests of doing the exact same things connected to the 15"mbp 2.4sr model to the 23" acd as to the 17" 2.5ghz penryn model.

Believe what you want and tell yourself that your mbp is the same as the 2.5ghz 17" hi res penryn, maybe your trying to justify yourself that not upgrading because you have an older SR/lower end penryn machine to make yourself feel better. And I'm sure running your 1920x1200 runs good enough for you but I'm not talking about a 4 year old game, BUT I'm just telling you guys from the tests I've done from my everyday tasks that I do and IT IS THAT MUCH FASTER, period.

It wouldn't have anything to do with the VRAM. I would say you are noticing the combined effects of (1) higher clock speed; (2) Penryn itself being a bit faster; (3) Higher cache; (4) Slightly higher clock on the videocard in the 17" and (5) software updates.

 

[jjahshik32]

It wouldn't have anything to do with the VRAM. I would say you are noticing the combined effects of (1) higher clock speed; (2) Penryn itself being a bit faster; (3) Higher cache; (4) Slightly higher clock on the videocard in the 17" and (5) software updates.

It could be all true what you've just mentioned, I do remember that when the 17" powerbook days the 17" powerbooks were more desirable since the motherboard was higher clocked overall and faster than the 15". I hold this still to be true and that the 17" has a superior motherboard which in overall of the more faster experience with the 23" acd. I'm sure everything you've listed matters + the help of splitting 512mb/2 vram both ways, 256mb to the 17" mbp's screen and to the 23" acd 256mb as to the 15" mbp with the inferior lower clocked gpu + slower motherboard splitting 256mb/2 vram both ways to the 15" mbp 128mb and another 128mb to the 23" acd.

I know this to be true since using the 15" 2.4ghz mbp connected to the 23" acd ran so much faster when it was in clamshell mode (closed mode) not splitting it 256/2 and using the full 256vram to the 23" acd. Even using the 17" 512mb in dual monitor mode (non closed) was much faster than the 15" shell mode (closed mode). Keep in mind I transplanted everything identically from the 15" mbp to my new 17" mbp (4GB RAM, Hitachi travelstar 7k200) and with the exact same programs and the same exact multitasking.

I also should conclude that the 23" acd is pretty vram hungry, running a 17" mbp with the 23" acd it was very hard to distinguish the speed against even my mac pro on my sig. To me the difference in speed was that dramatic overall than the 15" 2.4ghz I've used, which to me was so much slower overall it felt like a toy compared to the 17" and my mac pro.

Basically the 17" mbp felt overall (even in nonclosed mode) that much more solid, no color wheels whatsoever, no stuttering on expose or minimizing windows and no hiccups even half a second when doing pretty heavy multitasking. The 15" 2.4ghz mbp felt like it lagged by a second most of the time in response to what I did with my mouse as to the 17" was instant response(felt like thats who it should have driven the 23" ACD).

 

[xeux]

The lack responses backed by real information is hilarious in this thread.

Good lord.

Just about the only good post was the guy pointing out your trying to justify the 1k.

 

[bcaslis]

The lack responses backed by real information is hilarious in this thread.

Good lord.

Just about the only good post was the guy pointing out your trying to justify the 1k.

I've got to agree with that. I've had a 17" MBP 2.4GHz and now a 15" MBP 2.6GHz Penryn along with dozens of previous Macs. Does this new one feel more solid and faster, yes, but part of that is individual variation. If someone was getting lots of beachballs before, then it's probably some configuration or other issue. Both of these generations are plenty fast. And unless you are really pushing the GPU like in a 3D game or some application like Aperture you aren't going to see any graphics speed difference.

 

[jjahshik32]

The lack responses backed by real information is hilarious in this thread.

Good lord.

Just about the only good post was the guy pointing out your trying to justify the 1k.

Believe what you will~ I mean I got the funds from work anyways for free, so I dont see this justifying the 1k deal anyway. If I didnt see any difference or even a minimal difference to the new 17" 2.5ghz model in using the 23" acd then I wouldnt even mention it on any of these threads and just keep my mouth shut but fortunately these are a quite bit faster, and thats all I'm saying.

Either way it wouldnt do me much good to lie about the 17' being that much faster, I mean I already have a mac pro fully loaded for whatever I want to throw at it, what would I benefit from doing this? I'm just posting as how I've tested and saw for myself after using the 2.4ghz 15" mbp for nearly over a year. I just want to let the people who are deciding about upgrading or buying new mbp to know the difference in speed that I'm noticing from the older to the newer model mbp. Not to mention how significantly cooler these penryns run, finally a beautiful mbp even the size of 17" that is clocked higher can run just warm at the hottest and most of the time not making my palms sweaty anymore and feels more of a laptop than a notebook for once. I'm very eager to see the 32nm after this much improvement to the 45nm.

And so far everyone with an previous mbp is just constantly attacking me without any first hand experience out of the machines, just internally telling themselves that their older mbp is still new (and yes they are still very fast and excellent machines, hell even the first gen mbp of 1.83ghz is still fast for most things).

I've got to agree with that. I've had a 17" MBP 2.4GHz and now a 15" MBP 2.6GHz Penryn along with dozens of previous Macs. Does this new one feel more solid and faster, yes, but part of that is individual variation. If someone was getting lots of beachballs before, then it's probably some configuration or other issue. Both of these generations are plenty fast. And unless you are really pushing the GPU like in a 3D game or some application like Aperture you aren't going to see any graphics speed difference.

I dont play much games, mostly if I do is on the xbox 360 aside from crysis (only pc game I play) is done on the mac pro. But running an external monitor to the 23" acd can be laggy as if just using the monitor on the 15" mbp itself (try it and see how much faster things run especially heavy multitasking as to connected to the 23" acd or even bigger monitors). I guess to those who dont believe me is using a smaller/cheaper/easily driven monitors so it wouldnt matter.

Then tell me why running the 15" 2.4ghz mbp in closed mode is just so much faster in response on the 23" acd as to it being used in opened (non clamshell mode)?? Its got to be the vram that its distributing between the two. That is proof right there.

 

[cmcbridejr]

Dude, you just sold me on the 17".

I have been wondering if the 17" was worth the extra $, but now I feel assured.

Thanks!

 

[bcaslis]

I dont play much games, mostly if I do is on the xbox 360 aside from crysis (only pc game I play) is done on the mac pro. But running an external monitor to the 23" acd can be laggy as if just using the monitor on the 15" mbp itself (try it and see how much faster things run especially heavy multitasking as to connected to the 23" acd or even bigger monitors). I guess to those who dont believe me is using a smaller/cheaper/easily driven monitors so it wouldnt matter.

Then tell me why running the 15" 2.4ghz mbp in closed mode is just so much faster in response on the 23" acd as to it being opened?? Its got to be the vram that its distributing between the two. That is proof right there.

Seriously if you believe amount of vram is related to speed you are delusional. It's capacity not speed, it is possible that the GPU now has more data and that slows it down, but I've never see this myself. And this has been on a 23" ACD. Justifying your perceptions by claiming others use "cheap" monitors isn't a way to build credibility.

 

[jjahshik32]

Dude, you just sold me on the 17".

I have been wondering if the 17" was worth the extra $, but now I feel assured.

Thanks!

you wont regret it, not one bit. Just imagine a desktop speed even connected to a 23" acd running very fast, no stuttering, most of the time feels like your on a mac pro, speakers are amazingly loud (i dont even use the altec lansing speakers anymore just to save room as well and just use the 17" mbp's speakers since they are more than good enough to listen or watch video clips), also how much cooler they run, finally doesnt feel like a heatwave of a laptop that you carry around and the screen itself is soo much lighter and it doesnt finally fall down or close when you have it up on your lap laying down and the overall machine feels very very light (I'm guessing its due to the lcd screen (led with no inverter as well).


Plus you can use dual monitor mode with your gorgeous 17" (did I mention how these are THE best screens I have ever laid my eyes on and I own a 52" sony bravia xbr4). Somtimes I just want to totally ditch the 23" acd and just use the 17" hi res screen just because its that much eye candy, (last year I'ved owned the 17" 2.4ghz hi res glossy mbp and comparing it to an led screen.. its just looks like utter crap).

And finally it feels like its getting near perfection in these 45nm chipsets.. just the heat from them, so far running parallels and using bearshare to d/l things and running party poker, having 13+ tabs on safari, using firefox for some java scripting (non ub version), running microsoft word, excel, downloading 25+gb of files via usenet newsgroup program, uploading 15+gb on azureus, ichat open, itunes open, and even sometimes with all these programs running I do some small encoding for dvd movies and burning a disc just gets the mbp mildly warm at most as to my 15" sr mbp used to get freakin hot as hell on the left speaker area and the bottom is felt by a heat wave but not anymore! And finally no more slow downs of the occassional color wheel to slow me down!

 

[jjahshik32]

Seriously if you believe amount of vram is related to speed you are delusional. It's capacity not speed, it is possible that the GPU now has more data and that slows it down, but I've never see this myself. And this has been on a 23" ACD. Justifying your perceptions by claiming others use "cheap" monitors isn't a way to build credibility.

Just try extracting something huge with alot of multitasking without your mbp connected to your 23" ACD and compare how much better response it has as to doing all that same stuff connected to your 23" acd (non closed mode) and tell me what you experience. No matter what you will tell me or even lie about the performance difference, I will know forsure to myself at least that you will know the difference for yourself and that is good enough for me.

vram has everything to do with driving a monitor, not just ability to be able to do it, but how well it does it. Sure an ibook with 64gb of ram can drive a 1920x1200 screen but I'm sure it wont drive it very well.

I'm not arguing with you guys about the previous version mbp's wont drive a 1920x1200 or does it to where its not usable BUT I am saying that the 512vram does make a difference in driving an external display since it does split the vram in half to each monitor. It may not make more than 8% or if not at all a difference under gaming(which I could care less) but in purely driving an external display does it much better. And that's the whole reason I upgraded to get a better productivity as well as experience connected to the 23" acd with (non closed mbp because with the 15" mbp I had to used it in closed mode to get maximum/better performance out of the 23" ACD).

 

[bobbleheadbob]

I just ordered my new 17" hi-res 2.5 ghz MBP on Saturday.

It's sitting in Shanghai now...supposed to be here by the end of the week. I can't wait!

 

[jjahshik32]

I just ordered my new 17" hi-res 2.5 ghz MBP on Saturday.

It's sitting in Shanghai now...supposed to be here by the end of the week. I can't wait!

You wont regret it! Best mbp you've ever purchased!

Plus I have to say is that if the nvidia 8600m gt could go up with 512mb vram, to me that proves that the card can handle 512vram or else the card itself wont be able to be equiped with 512vram and the gap would have been stopped at 256vram. That makes sense, as to compare to motherboards that are limited to only 2gb or 4gb of ram and cant go higher since it cant utilize more than that as well.

But in general vram wouldnt make a huge difference as to getting a totally new faster card, I do agree. But using osx overall experience and mostly driving an external monitor more vram is welcomed than anything.

 

[Joko]

Whoa no offense but I find these kind of threads very funny, but also very annoying. If you love your machine so much, why are you going on and on and on?? Just say you love it once, and let it rest. Great, so you think the led is better than mercury (personally I can hardly tell the difference), but really, get back to actually USING the machine instead of sitting on MR going on about it.
Like I said, no offense, but it's kinda sad seeing these type of threads.

 

[jjahshik32]

Whoa no offense but I find these kind of threads very funny, but also very annoying. If you love your machine so much, why are you going on and on and on?? Just say you love it once, and let it rest. Great, so you think the led is better than mercury (personally I can hardly tell the difference), but really, get back to actually USING the machine instead of sitting on MR going on about it.
Like I said, no offense, but it's kinda sad seeing these type of threads.

Non taken, 2 monster drinks and a forum that interests you can get you pretty pumped up.

But to you it may seem annoying but I'm sure there are people interested in what benefits the newer mbp can offer to the previous from a person who've used it first hand experience from both machines, which to them is helpful than anything. I've googled just about for the past 2-3 weeks and no useful experiences or talks about the differences of these machines, now theres one.

 

[dnenciu]

Whoa no offense but I find these kind of threads very funny, but also very annoying. If you love your machine so much, why are you going on and on and on?? Just say you love it once, and let it rest. Great, so you think the led is better than mercury (personally I can hardly tell the difference), but really, get back to actually USING the machine instead of sitting on MR going on about it.
Like I said, no offense, but it's kinda sad seeing these type of threads.

No offense either but maybe some people would like to know the experience and ask questions.

Is good that you do not see a diff with the old version. Personally I know that it takes 10min for my laptop to get to full brightness and also the WUXGA was less bright than the WSXGA model.

As they did not have this model in the store to verify it I had to rely on accounts from people that got it to decide if I order it or not.