[dpicardi]

I don't really game anymore...(though I recently bought one of the Namco joysticks you can plug into your TV and play old arcade favorites...man I forgot how much fun Ms. Pacman, Pole Position and Galaga were! Best $14 I've spent in a while!

So I'm really only interested in hearing how well pro apps run on the latest C2D mac laptops.

I tried doing a search but that didn't work well. I've read several posts where people say Aperture is fast on a macbook and others say it is barely tolerable.

Since my second child has recently invaded my home office I'm determined to get a good laptop where I can continue to be productive editting files (hobby not profession) from my DSLR and HD Video Camera. I realize both will eat up lots of HD space but firewire drives are getting cheaper and cheaper.

I'd just love to hear some thoughts from people who own the Macbook and Macbook Pro. I can pick up a C2D blackbook for $1299 or I can get the top of the line 15inch MacBook Pro for $1999. Is the $700 worth it? Does the video card make that much difference? If so how?

I really want the interface to be snappy. I really get impatient waiting for images to "resolve" or become unblurry and you flip through them.

My mind was all but made up to splurge for the MacBook Pro and then I started reading people saying that "Aperture runs great on my Macbook." Now I'm a little confused. Still leanng toward the Pro...but wanted some dialogue with Aperture/Pro app users (CS2/FC etc.)

Thanks in advance to all who reply.

[CatOne]

If you really want performance out of Aperture, you should go with the MacBook Pro over the MacBook.

Aperture relies VERY heavily on the graphics card, because it relies on Core Image (which offloads processing to the GPU) for hardware acceleration. So the video card is VERY important. While Aperture is usable on a MacBook, performance on a MacBook Pro is substantially better.

I would also recommend you spend the extra $100 to upgrade the graphics card on the MacBook Pro, and frankly Aperture *needs* 2 GB of RAM to run optimally. It really likes the high-end hardware.

As far as other pro apps... Final Cut Pro will run the same on both, because it doesn't use CoreImage at all (at least in the current version). The only other app in Final Cut Studio that really leans on the GPU is Motion.

[dpicardi]

Thanks CatOne. I figured this would be the case. Appreciate your post.