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When will the 9600M GT get upgraded?
- Thread starter jiE
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Apple kept their last two GPUs for 1.5 and 1.2 years, respectively.
Do NOT expect a change to the GPU before the Arrandale MacBook Pros.
Do NOT expect a change to the GPU before the Arrandale MacBook Pros.
Apple cant even cool the 9600M GT properly, so they underclock it and reduce its performance purposely by about 25%, so dont expect them to put anything more powerful in any time soon, until a completely new laptop range is released with better cooling.
Machinima,
I'm interested in reading more about this 25% underclocking, if you've got a link to your source for that info handy.
I'm interested in reading more about this 25% underclocking, if you've got a link to your source for that info handy.
Ahh...there was a discussion awhile back on the forum. The clock of the 9600M GT was lowered compared to nVidia spec I think 500MHz (nVidia spec) vs. 390MHz or something (Apple spec). Now that just tells part of the story and doesn't necessarily mean it is underclocked. Someone could probably come and expand on my post or something.
GPU-Z 9600M GT Graphics Card Information:
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
Core Clock: 500 MHz
Shader Clock: 1250 MHz
Memory Clock: 792 MHz x2
Benchmarked Reality in Apple Macbook Pro:
Core Clock: 393 MHz
Shader Clock: 785 MHz
Memory Clock: 700 MHz x2
See, its underclocked by 25%, i ran the benchmark on two Macbook Pro's to be sure, and both came back with exactly the same result, also other people on this forum have done it before too. You can use software to overclock it back to its original clocking speed, and so far after 6 months ive noticed no negative effects other than the fans running at full speed all the time when im gaming in Windows.
Probably to help reduce overall temperature and fan speed, thus increasing battery life. In any case overclocking them again is simple. Driver's can easily override a BIOS clock so there is no worry to be had.
I have actually heard that the 9600M GT in the Macbook pros perform better then their PC cousins. Regardless it doesn't really make that big a difference does it?
I have actually heard that the 9600M GT in the Macbook pros perform better then their PC cousins. Regardless it doesn't really make that big a difference does it?
The graphics cards are exactly the same. No they do not perform better than the exact same card in a PC. Apple is using 1 year old cards in their pro lines. They have really got to get their act together and come out with a real laptop soon.
I can confirm that. World of Warcraft on a HP with slightly better specs on med/high settings runs slugglish/laggy than my MacBook Pro with the same settings. I believe that the HP is running DDR2 RAM so I don't know how much that contributes to the poor performance.
I don't think there is that big of a difference when it comes to RAM speeds. The amount of RAM has a much greater affect on the performance. I would also think that with WoW the game is more CPU intensive then GPU intensive so it's hard to tell. It could either be related to a better CPU in the Macbook Pro (Don't know your HP's specs) or perhaps it is just faster in the GPU section.