MBP 128 vs. MBP 256

Everyone here has been very helpful and informative. I have one last question before deciding what to buy. Can anyone point me to benchmarks comparing the 128MB X1600 in the low-end MBP with the 256MB X1600 in the mid-range MBP? Or can you give me some insight into what the difference in performance might be? Thanks guys.

 

Hey I have been wondering the same thing because I have only been able to find gaming benchmarks with the 128mb version. I found a pretty good review of the 128mb version of the card inside an asus A7G notebook here: http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=756&cid=2
After I read the review I emailed the the guy and he said the 256mb version would have an increase of 5-10% across the board. The gaming performance at least is pretty respectable with the 128mb version, but the 256mb will be faster. Marco, the editor, also said this in his email: "The 256MB version would be somewhat faster with older games, and a good amount faster at higher resolutions -- especially with newer games."
So there you have it. But keep in mind that his review was limited in time with the card, as he says in his review of it. Also, the type of notebook the card is inside will make a difference, especially if you have a mac and are trying to run games on OS X. Hope this helps

 

Thanks a lot. That helps a lot!

 

Mind that 15.4" and 17" MBP are different. 17" are normal clocked althought when u checked, u ll find it underclocked. BUT, it ll clocked itself back to normal x1600 clock when it detects 3d graphic, or something similar.
15.4" are always underclocked, so 128mb or 256mb wont make a big difference.

 

My last system (128MB x1600 MBP) got a 3dMark05 of 2586 and the review on here for a 256MB x1600 scored 2866. 300 points. I figure every 100 points adds maybe 1-2 fps. So figure on the top end maybe 6 or 7 fps in most games. The memory is really not that important. There are many more factors that contribute to performance more than VRAM.

 

if you can afford it, go with the faster, but if you cant the slower should be acceptable, and obviously you arent a really hard-core gamer if your getting a mac, so the slower one should be acceptalbe for pretty much every game on the market now

 

I've been wondering about this myself, thanks for the numbers. 500 euro extra for upgrading to 256MB vram, +20GB hd and +0.16GHz cpu doesn't quite feel worth it (the comparison was between two customizations I was thinking about mostly because of the vram)

Will go for the 128MB one when the time comes (soon!)