Buying a MBP and need help!

R

renzi

New member
hey,

i've been thinking about getting one for a while now and i just recently saw the refurbs at apple, i'm from canada so our prices are a little steeper than the refurbs in the states but here's my question anyways...

older graphics card with a faster processor or newer video card with a slower processor?

here's the specs.

Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
15.4-inch glossy widescreen display
2GB memory
120GB hard drive
6x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB of GDDR3 memory
Built-in iSight camera
blah blah blah

for 2089$

or

Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
15.4-inch widescreen display
2GB memory
120GB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 128MB of GDDR3 memory
Built-in iSight Camera

for 1869$

If anyone can give me any insight to the differences in performance between the two options and even any other "diffences" between the newer mbp and the older mbp, i would greatly apprieciate it.

thanks
 
For the case you haven't noticed:
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB of GDDR3 memory

I rather would go for the new iMacs instead, if you don't need to be mobile. 2mb ram are not very much, buy ram from another party as apple.
 
renzi,
I have a CD2 17" with the ATI card. The max. ram is 3GBs versus the new LED ones are a max of 4GB. The older CD2 MPB's will run final cut without a problem, either with 128 or 256 mbs of video ram. Apps like Motion or After Effects like alot of physical ram and video memory as well. These apps are more ram based versus an app like fcp which is a little bit more dependent of disk speed. If I was going to choose between the two configs. you are suggesting, I would choose the 2.3 if I was leaning towards using fcp and a motion effects program. The 2.2 if I was going to use it mainly for fcp. The newer CD2 MBP have a faster bus speed, more physical memory capabilities, and new LED screens. Hope this helps.

PS. The older CD2 MBP like mine are infamous for their unevenly lit screens like mine. So if u are doing any kind of graphics work, this may be a negative.
 
Get the newer Macbook pro with 2.4 ghz. It is a little faster than the 2.33 and it also supports up to 4gb of ram.

For FCS that could be significant if you are working with HD.

CPU -- even though it does not seem significant, even a small percentage can make a big difference. Apple may have a benchmark guide for the difference.

RAM -- FCS elements will take advantage of the extra ram. It mainly allows you to run multiple apps at the same time.

I agree with the other responder that said to get the minimum ram from Apple and then buy the other ram from Fry's or an online vender.

FYI...much advise is typically given that ram is the performance driver...that is somewhat misleading. You need as much ram as your processors can use, but over so much is used mainly for running multiple apps. Ram is an enabler, but the CPU is the key to performance. Especially when moving that many bits.
 
Last edited:
Indywannabe said:
Ram is an enabler, but the CPU is the key to performance. Especially when moving that many bits.
Click to expand...

Well, that would imply that bus speed is really the important number. In other words, having a CPU that's clocked 50% faster doesn't help much if the memory bandwidth is the same.

That's pure theory, though. I don't know whether there are parts of FCP that are CPU bound.
 
Bus speed, storage speed, firewire to get to the storage, etc. all probably have a bottlenecking potential. But CPU is at the heart.

Apple has posted CPU benchmarks with FCP. I can't remember where on the site they are, but call the Apple support guys 800 number.

There is a huge difference in FCP performance between processor speeds 2.00 vs 2.33ghz, for example.

Don't forget all the related apps included in FCS. It may be most seen when you run Compressor, Motion, DVD Studio Pro, etc.
 
If not using motion alot, then the 2.2ghz will suit better with its faster bus speed and higher ram capacity.
 
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