NVIDIA GeForce 9400M Question.

Hi.

Currently I have an imac with a ATI X1600 GPU with 128 MB dedicated ram. And I am looking at getting a new Mac one day. And I was thinking of the imac with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256MB of shared DDR3 memory. But is the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M really better then the ATI one I have. Because I would want to game somewhat on the Mac + do some photo and a little video editing.

My main question is would the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M be ok even though it has shared memory or do I need to fork up $400 (Australian) more for the ATI Radeon HD 4670 with 256MB of GDDR3 memory?

I always thought GPUs with shared memory was a bad idea for gaming and video editing. But with the new GPUs I really have no idea.

If you're wanting to do 3D gaming, I'd fork over the extra cash.
For any other type of gaming and most everything else, the 9400M will work just fine.

You can compare benchmarks here. Your ATI is currently in 124th place, the standard 9400M in 142nd (and you'll notice, it has no 3dMark06 score).

The ATI Radeon HD 4670 is it 19th place on that list if I am reading it correctly. Which is a nice place to be.

Eeek $400 is a lot for someone like me. But knowing I can't post upgrade the GPU I might just save up some more for the better graphics card. But I'll really have to read up if I'll be needing the extra GUP power or not. Because for most of what I do honestly I doubt I'll notice a difference when compared ot my current machine.

Thanks for the advice. It does not make my choice easier. But it does tell me if I want 3D gaming on a new machine then cough up $400

You won't be upset that you did. The 9400m is a pretty nice chip for someone like me who is only playing WoW at the moment, but as some cooler new games come out, I'm going to want more. I'm probably going to get a quad core iMac at some point within the next year or so.

The 4670 is actually in 43rd. It's still a nice chip and is DirectX 10.1 capable if you're going to be running windows games.

Think of it this way, by the time you save that $400, there well could be a 5XXX series card and DirectX 11.

Ys that's very true. Apple could refresh the imac line. And that makes me think I play WoW of my old x1600 gpu now and I get pretty decent frame rates for the game at mid settings.

So thanks for all the advice. I read it from the both of you and will save up my $400 and then when I have the money I'll re-assess my situation. because I usually buy a Mac and lasts me for 5+ years. My last one was a the first fruity coloured imac released (got it 2000). And that lasted me till 2006. Heck I still even use it now as a 2nd machine. So that's like 6 years. But my curren't imac is only 4 and a bit years old now.

My whole point is to me a Mac is something I keep for a long time. Mind you I think that's a thing only Apple does. Make computers that can still be very useful and run latest apps 5+ years after it's released. So I want something that'l still be good in 5 years.

Also I think someone needs to post a sticky or FAQ on the forum explaning the latest GPUs. And how good they are etc. A lot of people don't understand which is better and all the finer details. And I didn't know a couple of things till recently.

Thanks a million for your help. So I think it's a waiting game now. Not cause I don't want a Mac now. It's that cause my current Mac still does 100% of what I want to do with it just fine. So no real need to upgrade now.