07-27-2005, 05:27 PM

Since the new ibooks are released I was wondering weather or not to get one. I was pretty much set on the 12" powerbook but since the 14" ibook has such a great value I was thinking maybe I should get that. The 64mb card sounds good since I play games once in a while (ut2004, battlefield). Also the look and overall quality of the powerbook seems nice. I was wondering if for my needs the ibook will be enough? I would mainly use it for word proccesing, web browsing, itunes, and playing games. I have been reading that maybe you can overclock the new ibooks video memory and it could perform as well as a 9600. Do you think since the current one can already support core image than maybe can it play like ut2004 and battlefield? Ram and stuff I will upgrade, I just don't want to be very choppy and not playable. I am not a hardcore gamer so a little doesn't matter but completley choppy wouldn't be good. I also do a little bit of photoshop, nothing big. I just want a good laptop that I can keep for at least a year or two. I dont want it to be so outdated in 6 months. I played around with the ibook and powerbook the screen looks nicer on the powerbook. Is it a differnet brand display? So what do you guys think I should do, ibook or powerbook. Any input would be appreciated, thanks.

07-27-2005, 05:47 PM

32MB VRAM is minimum for ut 2004... overclocking is at your own risk but as far as the rest of your tasks the iBook would definitely be adequate. Most Apple products will last you a good couple years and hold their resale value. The powerbooks are still a great buy with 64MB VRAM to start. I've heard people talk about a difference between screens but unsure of the specifics...Anyone else?

07-27-2005, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by MacMyk

The 64mb card sounds good

The new iBooks only have 32mb.

07-27-2005, 06:45 PM

Originally Posted by mynameis

The new iBooks only have 32mb.

Yes I know I was just saying that it sounds good to get the 12" over the 14" becasue of the 64mb.

07-28-2005, 01:02 AM

Any more input?

07-28-2005, 01:05 AM

I'm partial to the powerbooks...IMHO I'd go with the powerbook, if given a choice

07-28-2005, 12:07 PM

Originally Posted by MacMyk

Since the new ibooks are released I was wondering weather or not to get one. I was pretty much set on the 12" powerbook but since the 14" ibook has such a great value I was thinking maybe I should get that. The 64mb card sounds good since I play games once in a while (ut2004, battlefield). Also the look and overall quality of the powerbook seems nice. I was wondering if for my needs the ibook will be enough? I would mainly use it for word proccesing, web browsing, itunes, and playing games. I have been reading that maybe you can overclock the new ibooks video memory and it could perform as well as a 9600. Do you think since the current one can already support core image than maybe can it play like ut2004 and battlefield? Ram and stuff I will upgrade, I just don't want to be very choppy and not playable. I am not a hardcore gamer so a little doesn't matter but completley choppy wouldn't be good. I also do a little bit of photoshop, nothing big. I just want a good laptop that I can keep for at least a year or two. I dont want it to be so outdated in 6 months. I played around with the ibook and powerbook the screen looks nicer on the powerbook. Is it a differnet brand display? So what do you guys think I should do, ibook or powerbook. Any input would be appreciated, thanks.

Don't set yourself up for a let down, the iBooks will NOT be able to play UT2004 adequetely. 32MB of Video Memory is not enough no matter how you slice it.

07-28-2005, 12:28 PM

Originally Posted by bhanson

Don't set yourself up for a let down, the iBooks will NOT be able to play UT2004 adequetely. 32MB of Video Memory is not enough no matter how you slice it.

Seems to run just fine on mine. :shrug:


EDIT: I just checked your avatar specs, bhanson. If you are only running the stock 256MB RAM that came with your iBook, then the problem isn't your VRAM, its your system RAM.

Originally Posted by UT2004 Mac System Requirements

PowerPC G4+, Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later, 256MB RAM, 32MB video card,

I put a 1GB RAM stick in my iBook and UT2004 runs A-OK with the 1.25 GB RAM. The thing with games that most people don't seem to understand is that the RAM requirement means that you need that much system RAM available when you launch the game. If you only have the game's minimun requirement as your entire system RAM, then you will never have enough available to play the game, because the OS will always use part of that. I am not saying that you are going to need a GB, but you might want to consider at least adding another 256 MB before you see improvement in the game's playability.

07-28-2005, 12:44 PM

Originally Posted by D3v1L80Y

Seems to run just fine on mine. :shrug:


EDIT: I just checked your avatar specs, bhanson. If you are only running the stock 256MB RAM that came with your iBook, then the problem isn't your VRAM, its your system RAM.


I put a 1GB RAM stick in my iBook and UT2004 runs A-OK with the 1.25 GB RAM. The thing with games that most people don't seem to understand is that the RAM requirement means that you need that much system RAM available when you launch the game. If you only have the game's minimun requirement as your entire system RAM, then you will never have enough available to play the game, because the OS will always use part of that. I am not saying that you are going to need a GB, but you might want to consider at least adding another 256 MB before you see improvement in the game's playability.

Yeah thats very true because with my old powerbook, even with the 64mb card and 256mb of ram I would be choppy and laggy. Once I installed a gig of ram it was SO much better.

D3v1L80Y have you ran battlefield thats the main game I would like to play, Id for sure add a gig stick.

07-28-2005, 01:26 PM

Originally Posted by MacMyk

Yeah thats very true because with my old powerbook, even with the 64mb card and 256mb of ram I would be choppy and laggy. Once I installed a gig of ram it was SO much better.

D3v1L80Y have you ran battlefield thats the main game I would like to play, Id for sure add a gig stick.

I don't have Battlefield, but I don't see why it wouldn't be fine if you added the 1 GB stick.

07-28-2005, 02:39 PM

Originally Posted by D3v1L80Y

Seems to run just fine on mine. :shrug:


EDIT: I just checked your avatar specs, bhanson. If you are only running the stock 256MB RAM that came with your iBook, then the problem isn't your VRAM, its your system RAM.


I put a 1GB RAM stick in my iBook and UT2004 runs A-OK with the 1.25 GB RAM. The thing with games that most people don't seem to understand is that the RAM requirement means that you need that much system RAM available when you launch the game. If you only have the game's minimun requirement as your entire system RAM, then you will never have enough available to play the game, because the OS will always use part of that. I am not saying that you are going to need a GB, but you might want to consider at least adding another 256 MB before you see improvement in the game's playability.

The iBook has 768MB in it right now, unplayable. UT2004 is a very demanding game, it *barely* runs on my desktop PC adequetly (for which I built the entire system for a year and a half ago). It has a Radeon 9800 128MB GFX card and 1GB of PC3200 RAM.

07-28-2005, 08:04 PM

i have ibook 12" 768mb ram 1.2 ghz, runs fine

07-28-2005, 08:07 PM

Originally Posted by jklfafa

i have ibook 12" 768mb ram 1.2 ghz, runs fine

Our definitions of fine are probably different. I consider "playable" 60FPS, anything less than that and you (by that I mean I) can't see anything. 75FPS is adequate, and 85FPS is optimal. I can definitely notice a difference between 85 and 75, and 75 and 60. It's almost night and day.

07-28-2005, 08:34 PM

I know sometimes what we say on these boards can be good advice for the new buyer, but i do belive that sometimes it is best for the buyer to look and review their own needs for a system since they know themselves best, the users of the forums use their computers for different reasons then what you would use it for, so i am going to recomend to look at this Mac Buyers Guide and decide what you think would be best for your needs, because as much as I would like to help i think you would end up with a better system if you decided what you need using those basic guidelines that were provided by the ever so nice rs2.

07-28-2005, 09:38 PM

Originally Posted by PowerBookG4

I know sometimes what we say on these boards can be good advice for the new buyer, but i do belive that sometimes it is best for the buyer to look and review their own needs for a system since they know themselves best, the users of the forums use their computers for different reasons then what you would use it for, so i am going to recomend to look at this Mac Buyers Guide and decide what you think would be best for your needs, because as much as I would like to help i think you would end up with a better system if you decided what you need using those basic guidelines that were provided by the ever so nice rs2.

Thanks for that link but I'm not new to mac as Ive already had a 15" powerbook. The main question I wanted to get answered was that has anyone ran battlefield on a 32mb video card and how was it. The only reason I'm still leaning powerbook is because of the video memory.