The important question is... how have you been using a Mac for 6 years and yet still spell it MAC? 
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I think the MacBook was a "good attempt"
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I think hes complaining about Flash games because, for some reason, Flash requires ungodly amounts of CPU power in OS X.. at least on the Intel Macs it does. Playing a Flash game for more than a couple of minutes will cause the CPU fan to ramp up to full speed and you can feel the system getting warmer by the second. Windows doesn't have this problem.
Oh and the GeForce 7300 was a weaker card than the GeForce 6600
Anyway, you're forgetting that a modern GPU (not the Intel cards) can basically do full video acceleration. Not just the ancient HWMC and iDCT support that the GMA series has, but full decoding and deblocking of the video stream. Except that OS X doesn't take advantage of this. Even using just those ancient features on the GMA 950 (HWMC only) or the GMA X3100 (HWMC and iDCT) they'd be able to drop a good 5-10% off the over all CPU use when playing video. A modern GPU would be able to take the CPU use down to under 10% even when playing HD H.264 content.
Theres absolutely no reason for Apple not to include a dedicated GPU. The so-called "heat" issue has been debunked, and considering how hot the MacBooks and MacBook Pros get, I don't think another 1c would matter anyway. Battery life would remain unaffected, considering that both ATI and nVidia can clock their GPUs (and dedicated memory) down to 100MHz when not needed and then scale up as needed.
Apple only doesn't include a dedicated GPU because they are intentionally crippling the MacBook and want to hide the fact that they are greatly overcharging for the MBP. Everybody who knows anything about hardware knows that, for around the same prices, you can get PC hardware with dual GPUs and as much as a full gigabyte of GPU memory on higher end. With the MBP, for $2,000, you get the bottom of the mid-range series, and for $2500 you get the middle of the mid-range. If Apple even put so much as a lowly GeForce 8400M GS 128MB (as they should) in the MacBook, even average people would begin to see that they are spending far too much money on the MacBook Pro. Geez.. the more I talk about this and the more I think about how poorly Apple treats customers, the more I want to sell my MacBook.
The fact of the matter is that Windows notebooks available for half as much as Apple notebooks can play games. For around $400 less than the MacBook after taxes you can get an HP with a dedicated GPU that can play modern games, with an HDMI output AND an HD DVD reader. The MBP doesn't even have HDMI out and can't play any HD discs.
Apple doesn't take advantage of GPU video acceleration under OS X. So theres the possibility that the Core 2 Duo in the MBPs isn't up to the task of playing Blu-Ray or HD-DVDs. You'd need Windows for that and a software player that takes full advantage of GPU features.
I only stated what for OS X uses the GPU. Not what it should use it for.
I agree that putting a GMA into MacBooks is just a separator for the MB/MBP lineups, not "heat issues" or "lack of space" or whatever. I'd REALLY like to have a MacBook with a dedicated GPU, as I play games and use Aperture, so I use my old iMac for that.
As for apple overcharging for MBPs... well... I've NEVER seen a laptop with MBP-like internals, but packed in this 1" thin beautiful case with no wierdly placed ports or vent holes at the bottom with even weight distribution and 4+ hours of real-life battery life. Could you please point me to one?
The important question is... how have you been using a Mac for 6 years and yet still spell it MAC?
Good catch
I wouldn't call it a good catch. Being anal retentive doesn't solve problems, it creates them. I saw a person with a valid question get reemed 5 straight posts for saying Powerbook rather than PowerBook so I purposely changed my sig to annoy the zealots. I never did follow up if the poor guy got his answer or not.
I will always put MAC in caps because I think it deserves it. English language > corporate sheep.
I will always put MAC in caps because I think it deserves it.
English language > corporate sheep.As for apple overcharging for MBPs... well... I've NEVER seen a laptop with MBP-like internals, but packed in this 1" thin beautiful case with no wierdly placed ports or vent holes at the bottom with even weight distribution and 4+ hours of real-life battery life. Could you please point me to one?
Good catch
Well, the "vent holes" on the bottom are there for proper cooling. I can run my HP for hours playing games and it doesn't even get half as hot to the touch as my MacBook does after an hour of regular web browsing.
I certainly wouldn't say the MacBook Pro case is "beautiful". I find them ugly. I don't like the design and the cases can be dented, scratched, or bent way too easily. Half the reason I didn't get the MacBook Pro over the MacBook was the design. The other half was the ridiculous price haha.
I'm not getting 4+ hours of real-life battery life on lowest visible settings, web/light office only use and wireless on (an essential these days IMO). What I get is an unexceptional battery life pretty much in line with other leading notebooks in a similar category. Could you point out to me how one does this.
I have also never seen a laptop in the 15" category with innards and 1" thin case like the Macbook Pro. And consequently, no other 15" category laptop I have owned dents, bends and overheats like the Macbook Pro.
I have also never seen a laptop in the 15" category with innards and 1" thin case like the Macbook Pro. And consequently, no other 15" category laptop I have owned dents, bends and overheats like the Macbook Pro.
Lol, I don't know what you're doing to your Macbook Pro! Mine gets hot when I play World of Warcraft on it, but no hotter than my Dell Inspiron did. Mine lives in a soft case and is still in perfect shape, where as my Sony Vaio T2XP had a toughened case and still cracked. I certainly think the Macbook Pro's battery life is very unremarkable, much like all of the other laptops of similar spec out there, and Apple should address that. It's a fantastic machine, though.
The Macbook, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about. Yes, a lot more of them will have been sold, but I don't know a single Macbook user who hasn't had some sort of problem, be it with the casing or the keyboard or the wireless or whatever. Folk love 'em, and I can appreciate why (they're gorgeous), but Apple deserves a 'must try harder' sticker. Perhaps the current revision has most of the problems solved already... most folk I know with problems are Core Duo users.
You Drive a Benz and worry about the quality of Apple???
I have had 9 new Benz's and they will have more quality issues then most Apple products....not including the 210.00 buck oil changes.....
I have had 9 new Benz's and they will have more quality issues then most Apple products....not including the 210.00 buck oil changes.....
As am I
Though World of Warcraft probably hammers it much harder than CS3 or any of my other work needs. If you must dent and bend your laptop then that's your call Its strange to hear that MBPs have much worse battery life than MacBooks. With the use you've mentioned I easily get 4 and more hours of battery life on my MacBook.
All the people I know who own MBPs say that doing those light tasks gets at least 4 hours out of their batteries, and somehow I trust them more. Maybe you just used it A LOT and it has already started to loose it's charge?
WTF are you trying to do with the thing? I have a macbook with 3GB of ram and it functions downright impressively, especially compared to the 15" Powerbook it replaced. It gets put through serious paces with design work, and rarely does it move slowly enough to bother me. Yeah, the fans kick in sometimes, but they did on my Powerbook too.