ati or nvidia 256mb graphics card on macbook pro 15"?

Question

which graphics card would be better on the macbook pro or would it not make much difference at all!
i have a choice to buy a macbook pro with a 256mb ati radeon x1600 or a nvidia geforce 8600m gt graphics card both machines would have 2gbs of ram, but the machine that comes with the ati graphics card will have 2.33 ghz processor and the nvidia one will come with 2.4, is there much difference? im thinking of just going for the cheaper ati model with 2.33 ghz, im only gonna be using it to do editing and some adobe after effects motion graphics work.
anyone clued up on this sort of thing to give me some advice?

Answer 1

hi there
this is a difficult one as both ati and nvidia manufacter very good notebook graphic cards
however the best way to choose between these cards is to look closer at the specifications and then compare them,a quick guide to check this can be found at http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=534&card2=350
as you can see the main difference between the two cards is the core clock,the nvidia has a 475mhz core clock and the ati x1600 has a 500mhz core clock,the core clock means faster frame rates,however the memory clock(The clock speed of the onboard memory of the video card.)is much faster in the nvidia(390mhz in the a.t.i compared to 700mhz in the nvidia)
this difference equates to a massive difference in bandwidth(The speed at which the card can access memory)with 12.48 GB/sec in the a.t.i and 22.4 GB/sec in the nvidia
the other main factor is the pixel and shader model(This relates to a cards DirectX compliance. DirectX can be divided into two specifications, the Pixel Shader Model, and the Vertex Shader Model. Each model has different hardware requirements, and when you take both into account you can determine the overall DirectX version.),the a.t.i has pixel and shader model 3.0 however the nvidia uses pixel and shader model 4.0 because of its direct x 10 capability
one other interesting specification is the Shader Operations(The number of pixel shader operations that can be performed per second),the ati can do 6000 Operations/sec however the nvidia can blow this away with a massive 30400 Operations/sec
so on the whole the nvidia card wins hands down,but this dosent mean the radeon x1600 is a duff note,its a powerful card and a solid performer,but the nvidia 8600m is a awesome peice of work and is fully future proof with direct x 10 graphics and a awesome bandwidth
any further advice let me know
good luck mate !

Answer 2

The 8600M GT is a little better. I've had both. There isn't much difference between 2.33 and 2.4GHz. Even though the 8600M GT is a little better, the X1600 is still pretty damn good. Either way, you're making a wise choice.

Answer 3

the newer model of the macbook pro. it has a higher clock speed, and a nvidia 8600 which is much better then the older x1600 and dx10 supported with windows vista. it also depends how big the price diffrence is. If it is a big diffrence then get the older model, it is good (my mom has it) and it is just as fast as my newer model mbp . The true diffrence is in the graphics card. The 8600 is better for gaming, and high end video editing, but for what you want to do i suggest the older c2d 2.33ghz. Upgrade to leppard no matter which one you get. it runs faster.