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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Mac Powerbook 2.2Ghz v 2.4Ghz
Steve Boyle, Photographer
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Philadelphia | PA | USA | Posted: 4:41 PM on 06.12.07 |
->> I'm looking for some feedback related to the differences between the two Mac Powerbooks that just came out. I want to know how the differences in specs on the 2 15-inch models would affect a photographer running photographic programs (ie - Photoshop, Photo Mechanic, Aperature, etc)
Is .2GHz and twice the SDRAM in a graphic card worth $500 to a photographer?
2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1440 x 900 resolution
2GB memory
120GB hard drive1
8x double-layer SuperDrive
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with 128MB SDRAM
vs
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1440 x 900 resolution
2GB memory
160GB hard drive1
8x double-layer SuperDrive
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with 256MB SDRAM |
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Steve Boyle, Photographer
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Philadelphia | PA | USA | Posted: 4:42 PM on 06.12.07 |
| ->> That title should read MacBook Pro, sorry. |
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Robert Vreeland, Photographer
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San Jose | CA | USA | Posted: 4:45 PM on 06.12.07 |
| ->> If you plan on running Aperture it is. |
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Slobodan Juric, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Saint Petersburg | FL | USA | Posted: 5:18 PM on 06.12.07 |
->> Running aperture on my newly bought 2.2 macbook pro. It's running fine - I'm not sure I personally need it to run any faster then it does now. But if you need the top notch, its the 4gb's of memory that will make a difference in memory instead of standard 2gb's. I'm not too sure I'd like to spend 675 more for 4gbs though.
Student discount helps a lot - 200 off the macbook pros. |
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Steve Boyle, Photographer
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Philadelphia | PA | USA | Posted: 5:50 PM on 06.12.07 |
->> Say I max out the RAM to 4GB, what does the .2GHz extra in the 2.4GHz do for me? I'm looking for an example of the difference, whether real or hypothetical.
What's the better graphic card going to do for me? |
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Kirby Yau, Photographer, Assistant
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San Diego | CA | USA | Posted: 6:23 PM on 06.12.07 |
| ->> Steve, the more VRAM there is would help a little bit with getting previews up in Aperture |
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Robert Vreeland, Photographer
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San Jose | CA | USA | Posted: 6:36 PM on 06.12.07 |
->> Aperture has extensive use of Core Graphics which offloads much of the image processing to the graphics processor (your video card). Doubling the RAM in the graphics card and the small processor speed jump (.2GHz per core) will definitely show improvements in Aperture and other graphics intensive processes.
Is that bump worth the extra cash? That's a personal preference. How long do you plan on using the computer before you upgrade again? How much will you use the computer everyday? If you shave minutes off the time it takes you to get stuff done each day, multiply the time saved over the lifetime of the computer and decide if the extra cost now is worth it down the road.
If you can wait several weeks, I'd also suggest upgrading to the 7200 RPM HD. The HD is generally the weakest link. |
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Avi Gerver, Photographer
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New York | NY | USA | Posted: 8:43 PM on 06.12.07 |
->> I don't think you'd notice a difference in speed between the 2 computers. The processor would only account for a 10% increase in speed if the processor is the bottleneck in any particular task, and even then you wouldn't notice. Can you tell the difference between 10 and 11 seconds? Probably not. And I had thought that the video card only increases performance in video-intensive applications like games, but Robert says that Aperture can take advantage of it. I've never used Aperture, so I have no idea how much it affects performance. Given that, my advice to you would be to save your money and get the cheaper one, and if you'd like you can upgrade your memory from http://www.crucial.com or http://www.transintl.com unless you're going to be using Aperture a lot, and then research the video card - Aperture speed connections further.
Also, it might be worth buying a 7200 RPM hard drive from http://www.transintl.com or http://www.newegg.com or http://www.zipzoomfly.com and install it yourself or have a colleague do it. It's supposedly pretty easy with the Macbook Pro. Keep in mind that, while a 7200 RPM hard drive will increase performance, it will also hurt your battery life somewhat. |
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