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Considering "switching" but new MacBooks don't meet Vista's min. requirements?

S

St. Germain

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 19, 2006
381
34
I've been considering "switching" to a Mac, or at least dual booting on my laptop and keeping a PC as my desktop for gaming. However the whine and heat issues with the MBPs have quite honestly terrified me and made me wait until they've been ironed out. Then just when I was about to purchase a MB I saw that their integrated graphics card won't meet Vista's minimum requirements. That just won't do for a laptop I plan on dual-booting for 2-3 years at least. :(

Not all Macs meet Vista requirements
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/05/19/not-all-macs-meet-vista-requirements/
 
See post 14 from the link. It's fine for vista.

The Mac mini and Macbook will meet vista's premium requirements (eye candy et al) if you upgrade the ram to 1gb.

The vista website says that you need a 128mb graphics card but it also say that if you are using a resoloution of 1,310,720 pixels (1280*1024) or less then a 64mb graphics card will suffice. The macbook's optimal screen resoloution is (1280*800). The Intel GMA 950 is DX9 ready and suports pixel shader 2.0.

As was pointed out earlier it would be very easy to increase the RAM allocated to the GMA 950 through a firmware update (in fact I'm pretty sure that some PC manufacturers allocate up to 256mb Ram to the GMA 950). So the GMA 950 could conceivably be a 128mb card which would allow it to support 2,304,000 pixels (equivalent to 1920 x 1200)... or even a 256mb card which would allow it to support even higher resoloutions.

Here's a video of the GMa 950 running Vista's eye candy http://youtube.com/watch?v=aTdTdTELZj4
Click to expand...
 
This is how the BBC is reporting the specs.


Minimum
Processor: 800MHz
System Memory: 512MB
Graphics card: DirectX 9 capable
Graphics Memory: --
Free space on Hard Drive: 15GB


Recommended
Processor: 1GHz 32 or 64 bit
System Memory: 1GB
Graphics card: Runs Windows Aero
Graphics Memory: 128mb
Free space on Hard Drive: 15GB

(Source: Microsoft)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4996998.stm

I think some of the eyecandy features might be compromised but I would think you'll be OK.
 
i always find if funny watching vista demo's, i tend to do the exact same things better with 10.4 while i'm watching it.
 
Hector said:
i always find if funny watching vista demo's, i tend to do the exact same things better with 10.4 while i'm watching it.
Click to expand...

Just does what 10.4 does but uglier :) still it's nice for windows users.
 
A follow-up question then, how likely is it that Apple will put merom chips in both the MBs and MBPs later this summer? It seems to make sense that maybe only the MBPs will get the merom boost for a while anyway.
 
On that post from TUAW, it says that it would be possible to upgrade the firmware on the integrated graphics to support more ram...would 64 more mb make that a huge difference? or is it that the gpu is slow to begin with?
 
asdf123 said:
On that post from TUAW, it says that it would be possible to upgrade the firmware on the integrated graphics to support more ram...would 64 more mb make that a huge difference? or is it that the gpu is slow to begin with?
Click to expand...
My understanding is that the GMA 950 was designed to meet the specs for Vista so I think it's just a matter of apple allowing it to be bumped to grab 128MB.
 
St. Germain said:
A follow-up question then, how likely is it that Apple will put merom chips in both the MBs and MBPs later this summer? It seems to make sense that maybe only the MBPs will get the merom boost for a while anyway.
Click to expand...

Given they went straight to higher-end chips for the macbook release, and there is now no low-end powerbook equivalent, I think there is every chance they will update them all at once. And they seem to be aggressively updating their chips, so I think as soon as merom comes out, all mac laptops will have them. No more waiting - this is why apple moved to intel!
 
exactly, the difference between the MB and MBP is the gpu, apples not going to cripple the cpu on these, which is annoying i'd rather have it the other way around, but still.
 
Are sure they've locked it to 64mb/80mb in windows environment, or is it simply a lockout in OS X, meaning in XP/VISTA it will if needed use more.
 
i think that all intel mac will be powerful enough to boot MS Vista given that it has at least 1GB RAM.

but the biggest obstacle is the lack of support by Apple / Microsoft.... drivers etc...

anyway, i think that Vista is highly undervalued... everyone here seems to think that it is completely inferior... but i think it might not be that bad after all... in many ways Leopard will be more user friendly and advanced than Vista, but i still think that Vista is still a respectable OS.
 
Mac laptop hardware is totally competitive with all the non-Mac laptops out there, so it's not a question of will today's Mac be able to run vista but rather will today's laptops regardless of manufacturer be able to run Vista. So what you're really wondering is should you buy any laptop at the moment or should you wait a year or two (or three or four) until laptop technology is powerful enough to satiate vista's voracious appetites.
 
Zoowatch said:
but the biggest obstacle is the lack of support by Apple / Microsoft.... drivers etc...
Click to expand...

Judging by similar posts, VISTA has built in drivers for nearly everything on the current macmini and macbook.

We should be fine.
 
Zoowatch said:
i think that all intel mac will be powerful enough to boot MS Vista given that it has at least 1GB RAM.

but the biggest obstacle is the lack of support by Apple / Microsoft.... drivers etc...

anyway, i think that Vista is highly undervalued... everyone here seems to think that it is completely inferior... but i think it might not be that bad after all... in many ways Leopard will be more user friendly and advanced than Vista, but i still think that Vista is still a respectable OS.
Click to expand...

I agree, Zoowatch. I'm an OS X guy all the way, but I use XP at work (Network Administrator) and I envy or want for OS X what in XP seems to be a higher level of, or plethora of, smoothly integrated features, and a smooth and consistent, more advanced GUI. I really hope Apple gives Leapard's GUI a good overhaul.
 
Will Vista work on my MacBook pro with 1.5 gigs of ram? I'm just wondering because I don't think it has the Intel graphics card. I wasn't sure if that was required.
 
I think Microsoft's incompetence is part of their plan for world domination. If people think they can't even write an operating system, then they won't be worried about Bill et al. taking over the world!
 
wordmunger said:
I think Microsoft's incompetence is part of their plan for world domination. If people think they can't even write an operating system, then they won't be worried about Bill et al. taking over the world!
Click to expand...

From day 1, having the best operating system on the market hasn't been part of Microsoft's business model.
 
Mojo67821 said:
Will Vista work on my MacBook pro with 1.5 gigs of ram? I'm just wondering because I don't think it has the Intel graphics card. I wasn't sure if that was required.
Click to expand...

Your taking the pee right? :confused:

YES YES YES YES YES. Vista will and does run on MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini and iMacs.

If you search the web you will find people running the latest BETA on all those machines. Aero Glass and all the other shenanigans work perfectly be it with X1600 or GMA950..

STOP FRETTING!!! :D
 
macenforcer said:
Vista won't be out for another 5 yrs. By then you will have a different laptop. End of story.
Click to expand...
It is amazing when Vista was way back planned to be out. Way back they planned it for 2001 then it keep being re-written. pushing the dates back year after year, until now. XP was suppost to be out in the late 90s. :eek: I am not joking.:eek:
 
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