The new Macbook Pro - which one?

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Weggy

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Hi all

After a bit of advice

I'm looking at one of the new Macbook Pro's to replace my PC. The question is - which one do I need? They all come with an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics card.

I was originally looking at a 13 inch one but have noted that they do not have the extra graphics card. Question is, do I need it? Will be running CS4 on it but do I need the extra graphics just for processing still images? I do take video occasionally but it's standard definitition and generally just family stuff - nothing professional.

The other option then is the 15 inch version, which comes with either a 256mb or 512 mb NVIDIA GeForce 9600M, in addition to the 9400M found on the 13 inch...

Any thoughts?
 
I'd be more concerned about the size of the 13" screen if you're planning to do photo editing on it.
 
SteveA said:
I'd be more concerned about the size of the 13" screen if you're planning to do photo editing on it.
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That was my other thought... with the saving, over the 15 inch, I'd probably get an external screen too...
 
Wait until cowasaki reads this thread, he'll be here kicking your rear-end until you buy the 17" :p

How do I know :shrug:; he's done that to me ...
 
You don't need a better graphic card for it. I used to work on a white Macbook with GMA950 which was absolutely fine (lots of InDesign, Illustrator and Fireworks). You want to look into upgrading RAM.
 
Wail said:
Wait until cowasaki reads this thread, he'll be here kicking your rear-end until you buy the 17" :p

How do I know :shrug:; he's done that to me ...
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He's got no hope! I have an old-ish 17 inch HP laptop... no way am I going that big again! I want something portable, otherwise I'd be going Mac Pro or iMac...!
 
bakedbeans said:
You don't need a better graphic card for it. I used to work on a white Macbook with GMA950 which was absolutely fine (lots of InDesign, Illustrator and Fireworks). You want to look into upgrading RAM.
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So what does the extra graphics actually do? It's clearly there for a reason but what? I'd guess it would help with game playing but I have a PS3 for that...

RAM upgrade goes without saying... most of the MBP's come with 4GB standard now... if I got the 2GB one, it would be upgraded to 4GB no question.
 
It's only useful if you do 3D rendering and/or gaming. Don't upgrade with Apple Ram, just by Ram from Crucial for a fraction of the price!
 
Agree with bakedbeans. If you don't know you need it, then you don't need it!
Snow Leopard should be out in September - might be worth holding out a few weeks to get it pre-installed...
 
SteveA said:
Agree with bakedbeans. If you don't know you need it, then you don't need it!
Snow Leopard should be out in September - might be worth holding out a few weeks to get it pre-installed...
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I wouldn't bother waiting - it'll cost P&P to get it from Apple when it comes out - and you'll have a new toy to play with far sooner.

I KNOW that I am going to upgrade - I have spent some time looking at the new bits of SL but cannot find anything that is really going to affect me.

Chris
 
I gots the 13" black macbook and to be honest its a bit small for photo editing. When I've finished uni and dont need to carry it round so much I'll upgrade!

15" maybe the best compromise?

oh an agree on the ram comment aswell :)
 
andy_m said:
I gots the 13" black macbook and to be honest its a bit small for photo editing. When I've finished uni and dont need to carry it round so much I'll upgrade!

15" maybe the best compromise?

oh an agree on the ram comment aswell :)
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Just get a external monitor? Might be cheaper and you won't lose portability.
 
Tulipone said:
I wouldn't bother waiting - it'll cost P&P to get it from Apple when it comes out - and you'll have a new toy to play with far sooner.
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I was thinking more of the hassle to reinstall (including any software/data you might have added if you end up buying Snow Leopard 6 weeks or so down the line... depends if you can resist that toy for a little while longer!
 
No reinstall of installed progs needed.. just upgrade the OS :)

I have the 13" MBP for sport work and it's wonderful. Downgraded from the 17" and haven't missed the girth.. ooeer.. since.
 
bakedbeans said:
It's only useful if you do 3D rendering and/or gaming. Don't upgrade with Apple Ram, just by Ram from Crucial for a fraction of the price!
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Not entirely true, CS4 can make use of it.

edit - that said, assuming CUDA works on MacOS, if not then it's probably pointless.
 
I use a 15.4" and the graphics capability is perfect for photo editing and a bit of video stuff. You do need to add extra RAM straight off though (not Apple as said above, it's pricey) - OSX is pretty thirsty.

Apple is cheeky through; they fit two separate 1 gig sticks as standard so to upgrade to the maximum of 4 gig, you need to buy two totally new 2gb sticks. I suppose you can sell the originals on fleabay but it's still a but cheeky. £45 from crucial.com/uk will get you 4gb.
 
divine` said:
Not entirely true, CS4 can make use of it.

edit - that said, assuming CUDA works on MacOS, if not then it's probably pointless.
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CS4 can if you use the 3D rendering of Photoshop or Flash. Anything vector or bitmap it's pointless.
 
bakedbeans said:
Not cheeky at all, 2 identical ram sticks perform much better than a single one.
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Nah, what I mean is they're cheeky for sticking in two seperate sticks, regardless of the performance stakes, meaning you have to ditch the RAM to replace it if you intend to upgrade....
 
bakedbeans said:
Just get a external monitor? Might be cheaper and you won't lose portability.
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That's what I was thinking, if I went for a 13 inch... question is, which one? Apple's 24 inch looks good and convenient (all connections provided for MBP) but seems extremely expensive...
 
specialman said:
Nah, what I mean is they're cheeky for sticking in two seperate sticks, regardless of the performance stakes, meaning you have to ditch the RAM to replace it if you intend to upgrade....
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Well, that was exactly my point. 2 identical sticks perform better than 1 with the same capacity of the other 2. That's why they put in 2x1GB and not 1x2GB.
 
divine` said:
Not just 3D

http://www.nvidia.com/object/adobe_photoshop.html
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That is purely a marketing blurb and all those features work perfectly well on my 13" MBP and 2006 Mac Pro tower and did perfectly well work on my old white Macbook with Intel 950GMA, which by todays standards has a fairly slow graphic card. I would be almost certain that those features would be calculated by CPU, not really GPU as there is nothing 3D to render. Anything 2D a 10 year old graphic card is capable of doing if it's not calculating anything to do with shadow, light, textures, etc... which technically would come under 3D.
 
Weggy said:
That's what I was thinking, if I went for a 13 inch... question is, which one? Apple's 24 inch looks good and convenient (all connections provided for MBP) but seems extremely expensive...
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Yeah, they are really expensive and a lot of people complain that the connection lead is rather short and there is no way of extending it, as far as I know. I would recommend Dell or Samsung - a fraction of the price and very nice. Just google for some reviews and you will find something.
 
On the MB Pro, buy the best you can afford. The 9600 consumes more power than the 9400, but you can switch between them

This is in the refurb store right now £400 cheaper than the latest one, but with the dual video cards. So, if you get 4Gb RAM from crucial (£40) and can go without the integrated battery, 70Gb less storage, & SD slot you could almost cover the cost of the display in the saving. The difference in CPU speed is not noticeable.

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/FB470?mco=MzIyMDAw

Or there's this one

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/FC026B/A?mco=MjE0NDk5Mw


On the monitors...

The Dell Ultrasharp 24 works out about £100 cheaper than the equivalent Cinema display
@ £480 + vat = £552
Wider range of connections, and not glossy but has no iSight built in.

http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=bsd&cs=ukbsdt1&sku=147262

Personally, I'd be inclined to spend £30 more here, on an Eizo Flexscan

http://www.eizo.com/products/lcd/s2431w/index.asp

I couldn't justify a ColourEdge just now...

BTW, the Eizo is not S-IPS which everyone seems to insist on recommending, bear in mind though that these are usually in comparison to TN panels. S-PVA is less common gives better blacks and contrast than S-IPS but a slower response. S-IPS is ideal for gaming, but I'm not gaming so S-PVA works for me.

Whatever you buy, get a calibration tool as well...
 
bakedbeans said:
That is purely a marketing blurb and all those features work perfectly well on my 13" MBP and 2006 Mac Pro tower and did perfectly well work on my old white Macbook with Intel 950GMA, which by todays standards has a fairly slow graphic card. I would be almost certain that those features would be calculated by CPU, not really GPU as there is nothing 3D to render. Anything 2D a 10 year old graphic card is capable of doing if it's not calculating anything to do with shadow, light, textures, etc... which technically would come under 3D.
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Have you tried it yourself? Do you know what CUDA/GPGPU is and what it's designed to do?

I'm guessing from the above the answer to both is a resounding no.
 
I'm in the small laptop and external monitor camp, it gives you the best of both worlds, I feel the 15.4" would be a compromise on portability and not as good for editing as an external monitor.
 
I'd go 13 for portability add a monitor if I wanted it and for LR at least a second monitor is great cos you can have image on one toolbars on t'other

In fact I would quite like to buy a 13" MPB but can't justify the expense atm, especially compared to the glass I want to buy
 
iv got the 15" mbp with the extra gfx card, its luuuuvly... but its ONLY just big enough to edit on.. im used to my 24" at home so the drop is only just livable..

Im not sure if the extra gfx card is actually doing anything.. but id rather have and not need it as opposed to the other option..:thumbs:
 
fraggle101 said:
iv got the 15" mbp with the extra gfx card, its luuuuvly... but its ONLY just big enough to edit on.. im used to my 24" at home so the drop is only just livable..

Im not sure if the extra gfx card is actually doing anything.. but id rather have and not need it as opposed to the other option..:thumbs:
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Have you enabled it though? It's off by default and you need to enable it, then logout and back in again.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archive...cant_switch_from_igpu_to_gpu_like_pcs_do.html
 
divine` said:
Have you tried it yourself? Do you know what CUDA/GPGPU is and what it's designed to do?

I'm guessing from the above the answer to both is a resounding no.
Click to expand...

Yes, I wouldn't have this equipment if it wasn't for my income. I work within the design industry.
 
So if you know what GPGPU is, why come out with comments like:

I would be almost certain that those features would be calculated by CPU, not really GPU as there is nothing 3D to render.
Click to expand...

?
 
Its certainly true that with both Mac or PC a GPU is going to help with any kind of image processing, that said with digital images I've certainly found more RAM rather than a greater GPU makes the process faster and smoother.
A newer GPU is more required for things like HD Video, encoding video files and working with video/3D graphics as opposed to basic digital image manipulation.
 
divine` said:
So if you know what GPGPU is, why come out with comments like:?
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Because it seems that you believe in hype and marketing blurb. I can truly say that those features hyped in this article: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=15600&page=2

DO work without any hiccups or delay on old (as in GMA950) graphic cards and also in the graphic card in my now 3 year old Mac Pro.

Can you actually say you work with the full CS4 package on a daily basis on this kind of hardware and therefore able to make such comments? I don't care that you don't believe me, but I care that you seem very fixed on this idea that just because it's some PR stunt it must be true. Get over it.
 
As it happens, yes I do use CS4 every day on compatible hardware and yes those things do work differently to how they would on non compatible hardware.

Whether you feel it's worth it or whether you believe it will make a difference - my issue is with you making statements as if they were factual on a technology you clearly have a massively limited understanding of. I don't care whether you want to use it, my only issue is with you spreading misinformation.

It has nothing to do with hype and marketing and everything to do with your lack of understanding in the way graphics cards are now able to operate.

Believe what you want but if I see people talking about things authortively of which they clearly have little understanding, I will call them out on it, simple as that.

I'll leave it there, as frankly the merits of GPGPU processing have little to do with which Macbook he should get.
 
My point was you are saying those features only work on certain graphic cards, which is plain wrong. I leave you to play in your cellar now.
 
Actually, I think you'll find I said nothing of the sort.

If you're going try and point score, at least make sure you base your snipes in some sort of truth. :thumbs:
 
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