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    Macbook Pro for engineering, which is better?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by wonton25, Mar 4, 2008.

  1. wonton25

    wonton25 Notebook Consultant

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    Right now I have a Dell XPS m1330, and the 8400gs simply is not good enough for my autocad and solidworks needs. Would the ATI x1600 or the 8600m GT be better for me? I won't be playing games, save for maybe counter strike source...
     
    wonton25, Mar 4, 2008
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  2. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

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    8600GT ftw

    Its nearly twice as better than 8400m GS apparently.
     
    flipfire, Mar 4, 2008
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  3. wonton25

    wonton25 Notebook Consultant

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    oh I knew that. I was wondering which was better between the X1600 and the 8600m GT. I thought that ATI had better OpenGL support
     
    wonton25, Mar 4, 2008
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  4. ltcommander_data

    ltcommander_data Notebook Deity

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    I'm pretty sure it's the other way around, at least in Windows. nVidia has always had better OpenGL performance and ATI only started to catch up with the X1800 and it's siblings since it's programmable memory controller allowed ATI to optimize for each individual programs memory patterns through driver updates. ATI's recent FireGL OpenGL workstation cards now seem faster than nVidia's Quadro, but I'm pretty sure that for desktop GPUs, nVidia still has the lead in OpenGL performance. And the 8600M GT would be faster than the X1600 anyways since it's a generation ahead.
     
    ltcommander_data, Mar 4, 2008
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  5. Awesome laptops

    Awesome laptops Notebook Evangelist

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    agrreed go with the 8600gt it is much better
     
    Awesome laptops, Mar 4, 2008
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  6. wonton25

    wonton25 Notebook Consultant

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    Thats what I thought.... Now I have to sack up for the extra money... Thanks for the help!
     
    wonton25, Mar 4, 2008
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  7. wonton25

    wonton25 Notebook Consultant

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    another question, will the 128mb 8600m gt be enough for my needs? Right now the 8400gs is just choppy, even when I am doing simple autocad stuff.
     
    wonton25, Mar 5, 2008
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  8. Budding

    Budding Notebook Virtuoso

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    The 128MB 8600GT will bring a noticable performance increase for you, but only you will know whether the increase is sufficient. Although the 8600GT is noticeably better than the 8400, from the sound of it, you would be better off with a notebook that has Quadro or FireGL graphics.

    Of course, if you've got your heart set on a MBP, then I would recommend you purchase one of the new Peryn MBPs with a minimum of 256MB dedicated graphics memory.
     
    Budding, Mar 5, 2008
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  9. hollownail

    hollownail Individual 11

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    Yup, get a new one with the 256mb vid card. Many people on here say that the card can't take advantage of the extra 256mb on teh 512 card.

    But yeah, the x1600 sucks man... it really does :p good enough for WoW and a bit of Oblivion, but blegh... it's underclocked.
     
    hollownail, Mar 5, 2008
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  10. WilliamG

    WilliamG Notebook Deity

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    I used to have an XPS M1330 with the 8400GS, and yes, the MBP is a significant upgrade in speed, video-wise.
     
    WilliamG, Mar 5, 2008
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