ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 vs Intel GMA 950

[yellowmunky]

Hi,

The iMac, MacBook and MacBook Pro have very similar specs. The only major thing that sets them apart is the graphics card.

If a person does NOT play games then how important is the graphics card? When will the ATI card really help a user? Is it helpful for users who do graphics, video, & sound work?

The MacBook seems an excellent buy for raw power. I just wanted to know if its crippled in any way if a user does not play games but wants to use it just for work purposes.

Thanks,

 

[BornAgainMac]

I don't expect it to affect 2D graphics or sound. I believe the ATI card assist with H.264 playback so the CPU is free to do other work. If both laptops have 1 GB of memory, the one with integrated graphics will "steal" some of this memory and that memory is slower than graphics card memory. So it is a double hit on performance.

My Powermac G5 has a video card that doesn't do hardware assisted playback of H.264 video so my CPUs have to do that work using the brute force approach. My MBP can do it without taxing the CPU and it does it better resulting in smoother video playback.

I still think the MB is a good deal for most people with these limitations. Also you should get much better battery life. Use a cheap desktop for games.

 

[mmmcheese]

I don't expect it to affect 2D graphics or sound. I believe the ATI card assist with H.264 playback so the CPU is free to do other work. If both laptops have 1 GB of memory, the one with integrated graphics will "steal" some of this memory and that memory is slower than graphics card memory. So it is a double hit on performance.

My Powermac G5 has a video card that doesn't do hardware assisted playback of H.264 video so my CPUs have to do that work using the brute force approach. My MBP can do it without taxing the CPU and it does it better resulting in smoother video playback.

I still think the MB is a good deal for most people with these limitations. Also you should get much better battery life. Use a cheap desktop for games.

AFAIK, the Intel graphics supports hardware accelerated h.264 decoding as well.

 

[yellowmunky]

any more help about the graphics card?

just found out that Final Cut Studio 5.1 & ProTools LE 7.1.1 run well.

h.264 encoding i know is very quick on the new intels!

thanks,

 

[yellowmunky]

For example is e-frontier's Poser 6 able to run on the macbook via bootcamp?

Windows
Windows 2000 or XP
500 MHz Pentium class or compatible (700 MHz or faster recommended)
256 MB system RAM (512 MB or more recommended)
500 MB free hard disk space (2 GB recommended)
24-bit color display, 1024 x 768 resolution
OpenGL enabled graphics card or chipset recommended (recent NVIDIA GeForce or ATI Radeon preferred)
Internet connection required for Content Paradise
CD-ROM drive

Macintosh
Mac OS X 10.2 or later
500 MHz G3 processor (700 MHz G4 or faster recommended)
256 MB system RAM (512 MB or more recommended)
500 MB free hard disk space (2 GB recommended)
24-bit color display, 1024 x 768 resolution
OpenGL enabled graphics card or chipset recommended (recent NVIDIA GeForce and ATI Radeon preferred)
Internet connection required for Content Paradise
CD-ROM Drive

I am just confused about the graphics card. I just want to know if it only pleases gamers? What about people who use their computer's for work?

 

[splintah]

it is bad in therms of 3d

even worse than the old ibook which is faster in 3d applications altough its less than half the cpu speed

but aslond as you dont do any 3d it will be a fast machine
in some benchmarks even a little faster than the mbp (for some weired reason)

but 3d is everywhere
dont limit it to games

 

[yellowmunky]

i was dreading the word 'bad'

i just found this just to get an idea of what intensive things may or may not runs under osx or windows xp depending on the graphics card:

http://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects/systemreqs.html
http://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects/opengl.html

to integrated - "Supported features vary widely: not recommended"

The ATI X1000 series runs well but states "Does not provide OpenGL previews for anti-aliasing or 2D motion blur'

I have no idea now. A macbook/imac combo or just go for a mbp!

I just don't want to be limited in the future 'just in case' I do anything intensive.

 

[Eraserhead]

You could just wait for a Merom Macbook which will have much more powerful integrated graphics (like a mid range previous-gen card, ie about an X600, i believe though I may well be wrong.)

 

[yellowmunky]

playing the waiting game is annoying