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P · Dec 26, 2006, 10:29 AM

Apple is going with the cheapest possible. The GMA 950 serves their purposes for their low-end machines, and it's a capable enough chip if you never game. If you do want to game, a 6150 isn't enough either.

stefanicotine · Dec 27, 2006, 06:20 PM

I think that if gaming is that important, why not get a console? PSP's are dirt cheap and have comparable graphics to a MacBook Pro (of course, alot of that credit belongs to the 4" screen). Even Wii's are only $279 CAD.

P · Dec 28, 2006, 01:08 PM

That's probably what Apple's thinking too. Maybe they ought to make an iMac/Wii bundle?

Honestly though, consoles don't have the same types of game that computers do, and some of the categories that do overlap (like shooters) are still best played with a keyboard and a mouse. The sad thing is that not even strategy games like Civ or AoE will run on a basic Mac any more, because they all want to have awesome graphics.

stefanicotine · Dec 28, 2006, 02:43 PM

Originally Posted by P

That's probably what Apple's thinking too. Maybe they ought to make an iMac/Wii bundle?

Honestly though, consoles don't have the same types of game that computers do, and some of the categories that do overlap (like shooters) are still best played with a keyboard and a mouse. The sad thing is that not even strategy games like Civ or AoE will run on a basic Mac any more, because they all want to have awesome graphics.

The iMac/Wii bundle is a really good idea. Nintendo and Apple are so similar, it would just make sense that they paired up somehow. All of the new Nintendo products look so great beside a Mac.

I agree with the FPS though. I have Socom Fireteam Bravo 2 for my PSP and, while it's an amazing game and I love it, it just isn't the same as having the precision and speed a mouse gives you.

Littleguimo77 · Apr 20, 2007, 10:42 PM

Hey, I was reading through this topic because I'm getting a laptop for college and I was also wondering about the video card. Granted the system is Windows, the current setup has the GMA 950 and 2GB of RAM.

I plan on doing some CAD work in college, along with the usual movies, music, web, etc. It seems that with this video card, I might run into a problem when it comes to CAD. I want my laptop to be quite fast and I don't want to run into problems when it comes to certain apps like CAD. I don't mind spending the extra money on a video card if it means I'll see a significant difference in performance. What do you guys think? Will I be safe with the GMA 950 or should I upgrade?

My upgrade options are: 256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory™ [add $99]
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 7300 TurboCache* [add $129]

centerchannel68 · Apr 23, 2007, 06:50 PM

Depends how intense you go with CAD. For really simple things like basic buildings in Google Sketchup, it'll probably be okay. For anything complex, it'll probably bog down. Best way to find out is to go to a store and ask to load your software to try it out.