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AltecXP · Apr 17, 2010, 12:28 PM

I have a 2.4GHz unibody MacBook with 320GB 7200RPM HD, and 4GB of ram. Is it worth upgrading to the 2.66GHz, 320GB, 4GB ram MacBook Pro with the new video card?

Cold Warrior · Apr 17, 2010, 12:40 PM

What do you use your current one for?

AltecXP · Apr 17, 2010, 12:56 PM

Database, regular web/office work, VMware, light gaming.

macaddict0001 · Apr 17, 2010, 01:07 PM

Sounds like your current macbook is plenty fast.

Phoible · Apr 17, 2010, 01:08 PM

The difference is probably going to be minimal. It will be a bit faster in gaming, but the difference in productivity performance will be unnoticeable. Unless you want the higher capacity battery or have a need to get the newest thing, probably a waste.

Looking at Geekbench results, the difference between the new 13" Macbook pros and my 2007 2.16ghz C2D Macbook (maxed out on disk and RAM) is also fairly small. Since I know I'm not going to play games, it's hard to justify the upgrade. Now the 15-inchers, that's a completely different story. Trying to decide whether to get the low-end i5 or to spring for the i7.

imitchellg5 · Apr 17, 2010, 01:23 PM

Not worth it.

AltecXP · Apr 17, 2010, 03:12 PM

What 13in do you guys recommend I upgrade to? the 9400m is getting a bit long in the tooth.

Simon · Apr 17, 2010, 03:31 PM

Not worth it.

If you need more graphics power you'd have to go 15". Upgrading to the new 13" is most likely a waste of money. The exception would be if you'd find somebody willing to pay way too much for your used MB.

imitchellg5 · Apr 17, 2010, 04:27 PM

Originally Posted by AltecXP

What 13in do you guys recommend I upgrade to? the 9400m is getting a bit long in the tooth.

Um, nothing. For what you described, nothing is wrong at all with the 9400m's performance. And the 13" MBP didn't get a significant upgrade for you to probably notice any difference.

AltecXP · Apr 17, 2010, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by imitchellg5

Um, nothing. For what you described, nothing is wrong at all with the 9400m's performance. And the 13" MBP didn't get a significant upgrade for you to probably notice any difference.

Nothing wrong with it? the only modern GPU slower than it is an Intel integrated. Maybe the 9400m was good when it came out 2yrs ago....

imitchellg5 · Apr 17, 2010, 07:04 PM

I have no issues with it on my 15" MBP, and I'm dual displaying with a 1920x1080 monitor. It's fine for everything short of working in Motion with HD which is the only time I ever change GPUs. The most intense thing you described is light gaming, which the 9400m is fine for.

Phoible · 03:13 PM

The GMA950 on my 13" Macbook, now that's slow. Although, honestly, it does fine for everything other games. I can plug in my 23" HD Monitor without any slowdown or tearing. The only time I cared about the graphics was when I found out that it wouldn't run Spore. Integrated graphics have actually been pretty good for the past several years. It's kind of amazing that integrated graphics cards can run reasonably recent games. I bet that, in a couple of years, most systems that aren't at the high-end will have graphics built into the CPU (like the new Intel chips).

I remember the graphics on my first-gen white iBook. It would only do display mirroring, and the max resolution was 1024x768. That sucked.

If I cared about gaming, I would buy a $600 PC and use that. Or I could just buy an Xbox360 or PS3.

Simon · 03:28 AM

Originally Posted by AltecXP

Nothing wrong with it? the only modern GPU slower than it is an Intel integrated. Maybe the 9400m was good when it came out 2yrs ago....

Well then go ahead and spend $1200 on a new 13" MBP. Just don't come crying here when you notice it won't run all your stuff twice as fast your current MBP.

I'll say it again: if you're really worried about graphics performance you should be looking at a 15".

AltecXP · Apr 20, 2010, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by Simon

Well then go ahead and spend $1200 on a new 13" MBP. Just don't come crying here when you notice it won't run all your stuff twice as fast your current MBP.

I'll say it again: if you're really worried about graphics performance you should be looking at a 15".

I'm not paying over 2k for the same GPU I can get in a $1k Windows Laptop. I hardly call the 330m 512 a "gaming" card and I 100% don't call the 330m 256 or the 320 Gaming cards, but they are better than the 9400m.

residentEvil · Apr 20, 2010, 11:43 AM

easy...you asked and EVERYONE that replied said no. so if you don't want the opinion, why did you ask?

imitchellg5 · Apr 20, 2010, 11:58 AM

Originally Posted by AltecXP

I'm not paying over 2k for the same GPU I can get in a $1k Windows Laptop. I hardly call the 330m 512 a "gaming" card and I 100% don't call the 330m 256 or the 320 Gaming cards, but they are better than the 9400m.

Well it seems like you have money to blow if you're going against what everyone is advising, which will cost you $1,200 for no or negligible increase, so why not?

SpaceMonkey · Apr 20, 2010, 12:06 PM

I think AltecXP is asking for non-Mac alternatives in the 13" form factor? Since none of the current Mac laptops seem to meet his criteria.