Widgets behaving differently on MB and MB Pro?

[valdigre]

Hi guys,

Just recently my friend and I noticed, that widgets on my Macbook use much less Ram than the same widgets on Macbook Pro. Calendar ran on my lap takes about 8 mb, while on his almost 16...

We have the same Os X versions.
My friend thinks, that this is because we have different graphics cards (Intel vs Ati), but could this really explain the difference reaching 200%?

Any thoughts?

 

[epochblue]

I hadn't heard this before, but that's interesting.

Is there any difference in the amount of RAM the two of you have? In my experience, if there's more available RAM, apps will appear to use more RAM than on a machine with less total RAM.

 

[valdigre]

My friend's MB Pro has 2.33 Core 2 Duo (my MB has 2.16) and dedicated Ati graphics of course. We both have 2 GB of Ram.

 

[epochblue]

It could be because of the graphics card, I suppose. The Quartz Extreme effects used by Dashboard are probably pawned off on the graphic card's RAM in the MBP rather on the shared RAM of the Intel Integrated Graphics.

Something to mull over, for sure.

 

[valdigre]

But the problem is, that widgets take more system RAM space on the Macbook Pro with dedicated Ati, than on the Macbook with integrated graphics...

 

[wrldwzrd89]

But the problem is, that widgets take more system RAM space on the Macbook Pro with dedicated Ati, than on the Macbook with integrated graphics...

An interesting question, for sure... but is it possible that widgets, since they are mini-applications, scale their needs to your RAM like full apps do? If that's the case, that would explain the behavior you see, especially since the MacBook uses some of system RAM for the graphics card.