[plexor]

I'm going to buy a notebook and I'm really tired of PC's, so my next machine will be a mac for sure. The thing is that I've been taking a look at the macbook/macbook pro line and I really can't understand the price jump between models. I mean: The macbook 2.0 ghz costs 700 $ less than the cheapest macbook pro, and the only diferences are the one module ram, a bit more hd space and the graphic card. Of course the screen is bigger but smaller screens in notebooks are supposed to be expensive so I didn't really thing that the screen size has something to do with the price. And the graphic card is just mediocre, of course is better than the crappy Intel GMA 950, but I don't think of the ATI X1600 as a pro card. I have the 512 MB model in a pc and well the card is good for the price but not a decent choice for a serious user.

So, I'm going to make the switch but I would like to know exactly if there's any reason for this price differences. The thing is I'm going to spend 2000 bucks, give or take, and maybe the macbook with 2 gb ram and 120 gb hd is a better choice for the price in terms of performance.

Sorry for my horrible english, I live across the atlantic.

[dahcar]

go with a macbook. i would have if it would have been out when i purchased my MBP 15". unless you're going to be doing a lot of gaming or video editing, i don't think it matters much.

[tooki]

The X1600 is the second-best chip available for a laptop. You cannot expect desktop graphics performance from a laptop. There is the X1800, but it appears to not have the extensive power management of the X1600, so it probably means that an X1800-equipped laptop has both high cooling requirements and short battery life.

And besides, I strongly dispute that an X1600 is a bad choice for a "serious user". Other than for specific graphics apps (i.e. Motion) that strongly leverage the GPU, only gamers need high-end cards. With the exception of Motion and a small handful of other apps, no pro applications make any significant use of the GPU. Photoshop will run just as fast on the GMA950 as on the X1600.

tooki

[imitchellg5]

Motion seems to run fine on the MacBooks that I have used.