Which Macbook Pro should I buy?

[hipnado]

I am about to upgrade from a Macbook to a Macbook Pro and I had a few questions. Now I know there have been many threads on the Macbook Pro and gaming, but I haven't found one that specifically compares the current models against each other.

My major question is, which Macbook Pro should I buy? I already know that I'm going to get a 15 inch model but is there a significant difference between the 2.2ghz or 2.4ghz models? Now before you say "go for the upgraded one," I am a college student with limited funds.

I mostly want it to play games like Half-Life 2, CS:Source and TF2 so I guess my question is mostly for those of you who own the 2.2ghz Pro. How do these games (and others) run?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Brianstorm91]

Don't own one myself but

Here

 

[hipnado]

Thanks

Thanks for the link. I hadn't read that before. I'm still looking for more first hand experience playing these games.

 

[rychencop]

You won't notice the difference is processor speed between the 2.2 and 2.4. I opted for the 2.4 for the 256Mb of vram. I would have upgraded to the 7200rpm hdd as well, but did not want to delay my order. I think you'll be happy with either choice and if your on a limited budget and will just use it for everyday stuff, then I would go with the 2.2 just to save the $$ and maybe buy another 2Gb of ram instead.

 

[hipnado]

Graphics

OK so I understand that I won't see much difference between the 2.2 and the 2.4 as far as CPU, but what about graphics? How significant is the difference of 128 and 256?

 

[Cerebrum]

Depends on what you're gonna be doing with your machine. Gaming works best with higher VRam, same with graphic intensive apps, and of course, if you want to plug out to a bigger monitor.

 

[taylorwilsdon]

OK so I understand that I won't see much difference between the 2.2 and the 2.4 as far as CPU, but what about graphics? How significant is the difference of 128 and 256?

If you're using the onboard 15'' monitor, it doesn't matter. They're both adequate and the extra vram won't help performance much. A 20+ inch external monitor would benefit from the extra video ram.