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Is the low-end GT120 notably better than the 9400?
- Thread starter Whackintosh
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I find the GT 120 is a very capable card. For gaming it's a must upgrade over the 9400m. Apple has benchmarks on their site that compare.
Cool, thanks. Is it even worth considering bumping it up to a 130 if no gaming's involved?
Probably not. For non-gaming purposes, the 9400M integrated card will serve you just fine.
Just some occasional video editing and photoshop work. I'm thinking the 9400 would suffice, but I do wonder if there be benefits in looking at a 120 or even a 130? The machine will cost so much as it is, spending a few bills more would be worthwhile to me if there would be real performance gains that I would be getting (in other words, easier to spend a few hundred more now than to have to buy an entirely new machine later).
Yes, Having a faster GPU can help when using some effects in Final Cut and some apps in the CS4 suite can off load work onto the GPU. Photoshop doesn't do much other than "fly" when panning through an image. After Effects can off load some of effects onto the GPU as well. Also I'm not sure if it made it to the mac side but Media Encoder CS4 (which AE and Premiere Pro use) can use the GPU to speed up h.264 encodes, again I know it's available on the Windows side of CS4 but I'm not sure if this feature is available on the Mac side.
Even iMovie can use the GPU to render thumbnails.
At least get the GT120, you will be much happier in the long run once GPU off loading becomes more common in apps.
Even iMovie can use the GPU to render thumbnails.
At least get the GT120, you will be much happier in the long run once GPU off loading becomes more common in apps.