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Intel HD 3000 256MB vs 384 MB

M

metsjetsfan

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 2, 2011
1,410
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I noticed the Lion server intel gpu has 384MB vs 256MB. Is this really that much of a difference? Is it any closer to the ATI model i7 card that the bumped up model uses? Looking to use for imovie, htpc and some onlive gaming.

Thanks
 
The Lion quad core server model has the same integrated Intel GPU as the base dual core model. Only the higher end dual core model has a discrete Radeon GPU with it's own dedicated 256MB GDDR 5 VRAM. In terms of graphics performance the server model will perform the same as the base dual core model. Where it will excel is with it's quad core CPU which is obviously faster over despite it's lower clock speed. Which model you choose to get depends entirely on your uses and whether they are CPU or GPU dependent.

The 384MB shared memory in the server model is due to the fact it has 4GB of RAM as standard. The base model only has 2GB of RAM so it has less shared memory. If you increase the RAM in the base model to 4GB then the shared memory for the GPU will also go up to 384. That said if you increase the RAM to 8GB in either the base or server model the shared memory for the GPU will increase to 512MB. However it will still be slower then the dedicated RAM in the high end dual core with the discrete Radeon GPU.
 
Does anyone know if you see the two drives as 1 drive or two in the server model in finder
 
Last edited:
I would like to confirm that this is true. I increased the RAM on my base mac mini from 2 GB to 8 GB and the shared memory is indeed 512 MB. =)

This is new for me too. Thank you for sharing the knowledge.
 
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