White iMac 24 inch gpu questions

[pepto]

Hi guys,

There is a promotion on at a local store this weekend t celebrate the release of Leopard and they have the white 24 inch iMacs with the standard 7300GT gpu for about 1300 bucks.

They also have the 20 inch for 950 and a fully loaded 2.33 ghz macbook pro for 1200.

I like to play games and so the white iMac is really tempting for me if I can upgrade to the 7600 GT at a later date. Does anyone know if this is possible?
I did a google search and found some posts where someone was claiming that they had spoken with apple who said that it could be done but I can't find anything confirming how to do it and/or the pricing.

If it's not possible I will probably go for the macbook pro because it has 2 gig of ram standard and has the faster processor.

Is there any difference between the performance of the x1600 gpu's in the mbp and the 20 inch iMac?

I hope that you can help me answer these questions because it will make my decision a lot easier.

Cheers!

 

[AlexisV]

It's not upgradeable - it's just a chip soldered to the motherboard.

If you really want to do some gaming, get the new iMac with the Radeon HD2600. It's not a spectacular GPU, but better than the 7300GT and about par with the 7600GT.

Personally I wouldn't want to do gaming on a little laptop screen.

The MacBook Pro's processor isn't that much faster than the white iMac. A couple of hundred megahertz is not a great deal of speed and don't fall victim to the 'megahertz myth'. The whole system is faster though, thanks to the higher bus speed, but you won't notice the white iMac being any slower than the MacBook Pro in everyday use.

 

[pepto]

The white 24 inch has an MXM type gpu that is removable (if you open up the case) and is not soldered into place. If I can buy a 7600 from apple and upgrade then I will definately go for the 24 inch, if not I'll have to decide between the mbp and the 20 incher.

I'm actually tempted to get the mbp nad then buy a 20 inch minitor for watching movies, gaming etc.

 

[robbieduncan]

Apple do not sell upgrade MXM GPU cards for these machines. You are basically stuck with whatever you buy up-front.