Video cards

I hope this is the right forum...I did a search, but my question was specifically answered.


I am about to switch and there has been huge debate in my PC household about the need for a 128mb video card upgrade to my soon to be powerbook. While there are rumors that Tuesday will mark the day for an upgrade, I'll reserve the right to speak about what is on sale now...

I say 128mb video card is very necessary. Large photo files, digital imaging, illustrator, Doom3....I say yes.

The debate is everyone who owns a PC says no. They say Mac users brag about Macs being about the graphics and you actually can get more out of less. IE: 64mb on a mac performs like 128mb on a PC.

I just can't get a real straight answer.
Does anyone have any feedback?
Thanks!

hey... Well I definatly think the more video ram would make a big difference in gaming etc... as far as photo editing.. I don't think you'd see as big a difference. I have a 12" powerbook, and I can still play the same games I played on my dell (which had a 128 meg. graphics card) the same... However the most taxing games I've played on it have been call of duty, and Americas army. But I have a friend who says world of warcraft runs fine on his 12 inch. But from what I've learned and experienced... Laptop's graphics cards just don't perform as well as desktop versions... They are much smaller and run hotter... So don't expect to run your games on top settings.

Also I'd wait for the upgrade... These models of powerbooks have been out since last April, there are rumors of duel g4's in the new ones as well. So if I were you I'd hold out.

These days the differences between video cards boils down to 3D graphics performance. Do you play 3D games? Are you a 3D animator who needs smooth previews? Do you play 3D games? Are you a scientist who uses 3D visualizations of your datasets? Do you play 3D games?

(Any graphics card made in the last three years or so will do 2D illustration/photography/video just fine. They're so fast you won't notice the difference for those applications.)

Quartz/Quartz Extreme and the upcoming Core Image graphics technologies do make for some cool effects on the Mac, but so far thats just 2D. For 3D, OpenGL on the Mac is about the same as OpenGL on Windows. If you need fast 3D, get a faster card, regardless of which platform you're on. If not, don't bother.

Interesting.
Thanks for the feedback.