The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    the VRAM and the cache...

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by count_schemula, Feb 29, 2008.

  1. count_schemula

    count_schemula Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    331
    Messages:
    1,445
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Does the 512MB ram help when using 3d modeling programs? Does it help when an external monitor? I game on my desktop PC, so, I don't care about the game performance.

    With the cpu, I know the 100MHz difference is pretty much negligible, but what about the 6MB cache with the 2.5GHz?

    I still doubt the $2499 MBP is worth it, but sometimes, I do irrational things... :rolleyes:
     
    count_schemula, Feb 29, 2008
    #1
  2. Lithus

    Lithus NBR Janitor

    Reputations:
    5,504
    Messages:
    9,788
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    The 512 VRAM helps sell the laptop to people who have no clue about GPUs. A Penryn CPU should run faster and more energy efficiently.
     
    Lithus, Feb 29, 2008
    #2
  3. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    7,857
    Messages:
    16,212
    Likes Received:
    59
    Trophy Points:
    466
    All but the most powerful GPUs top out at needing 256MB. Only the top few cards would ever use more than 256MB, so you don't need to pay extra for 512MB as it is essentially worthless.

    Which 2.4GHz processor? Which 2.5GHz processor? Penryn should run better yes, but only under specific circumstances would the $100 be worth it (and I'm guessing it would not be worth it for you).
     
    Greg, Feb 29, 2008
    #3
  4. system_159

    system_159 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    363
    Messages:
    794
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    You'll notice the 100mhz boost way more than the cache, and you probably wont ever notice the 100mhz.

    That is assuming you're not doing huge number crunching, cause you're buying a laptop.
     
    system_159, Feb 29, 2008
    #4
  5. thecommish16

    thecommish16 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    23
    Messages:
    485
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    256 is perfect for a laptop graphics card.
     
    thecommish16, Feb 29, 2008
    #5
  6. masterchef341

    masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook

    Reputations:
    3,047
    Messages:
    8,636
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    206
    people always get caught up in the cache. the clock increase matters more, and, as stated, you most likely won't even notice that.

    lets put it this way, anandtech did a series of benchmarks and found a 4.8% avg improvement of the 2.5ghz penryn over the 2.4 ghz penryn, (6 megs vs 3 megs of cache) However, the clock speed is 4.167% faster in the 2.5ghz model over the 2.4. I'll leave it up to you to decide how important the extra cache is.
     
    masterchef341, Mar 1, 2008
    #6
  7. wrightc23

    wrightc23 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    25
    Messages:
    131
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Yeah I'm surprised people are getting hung up on the 1mb cache. I'm not sure people are comparing the correct model cpu.

    The 2.4 is a replacement for the old 2.2
    2.5 replaces the 2.4 etc.

    So you'll see a small but welcome bump in processor speed. I doubt unless you were encoding all the time you'd notice the difference though. Each Intel bump is a small step.

    I've just bought heavily discounted 2.6 Merom 17" which has about the same grunt as a new 2.5.

    FSB is still a major bottleneck. We should see a bigger step up when Montevina appears with 800/1066 FSB's
     
    wrightc23, Mar 1, 2008
    #7