Is a MacBook Pro With 9400M Enough?

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After a fateful rebooting, my previous generation macbook pro (2.2ghz 120gb, 8600M GT, 2GB) apparently has just recently (and inexplicably) become a "expensive, silver, paperweight" according to the mac genius at the apple store and they refuse to fix it for anything short of $1300-$1500 so with a heavy heart I need to start plotting my next move towards getting a new one since it would be foolish to plunk down that kind of dough to fix something a few years old when a new one is just a few hundred more...

I use Final Cut Studio, Adobe Creative Suite etc all the time and I'm looking to get a new MacBook Pro with enough juice to use these types of programs. Its not like this is my profession to use these programs and what not, or that I even use them every day, but I definitely USE my computer and want to be able to run them without it being a major problem when I need too.

I want a 15" one again...as cheap as possible of course since my current macbook pro has died within a couple weeks of my car being wrecked. Bad things happen in pairs or something I guess...So essentially im torn over what the top priority is to save for, but anyway...

The thing im mainly getting hung up on is the graphics options for the 15"... Is the 9400M going to be enough? I would assume apple wouldn't put something in a laptop and call it "pro" without it being up for professional or at least semi-professional/casual professional type of use but I just want to check and see what you guys think. The other option is the 9400M+9600M GT in some sort of SLI configuration i guess... Im so out of the loop on graphics cards I have no idea what the performance level is of any of these.

Anyway, is the base MacBook Pro (2.53Ghz) a good choice for me? Will it be a good overall performance upgrade from my last MacBook Pro? I generally had NO problems performance-wise with any pro level programs with my last MacBook Pro so im fairly certain this one will be more than enough but I just want to get some opinions.

Thanks
 
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The new computer is better in every way than what you had, and you never had any trouble with those apps with the lesser machine, so...

Ya know.

These days bickering over this video card or that video card is like saying, "Should I use a 500 megaton bomb or a gigaton bomb?"

They'll both cause complete devastation, so why care? The Geforce 9400M will be better than what you had before, so it doesn't matter much! :D
 
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Thats kind of what i figured but i just cant get that stigma of words like "integrated" and "mobile" attached to a graphics card out of my head, haha. A couple years ago that generally meant automatically not capable of anything graphics intensive. Times have changed I guess!
 

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"Should I use a 500 megaton bomb or a gigaton bomb?"

Use the "gigaton" bomb!

We want to make sure we kill the roaches, the rats, and disintegrate the Twinkies!;)

roach.gif


rats-paris.jpg


twinkies-good.jpg
 
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The Twinkies will never die!
 
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Thats kind of what i figured but i just cant get that stigma of words like "integrated" and "mobile" attached to a graphics card out of my head, haha. A couple years ago that generally meant automatically not capable of anything graphics intensive. Times have changed I guess!

Just look at it this way, your previous MacBook also had a mobile video thing in it. This one's numbers are higher. It's 9,200 rather than 8,400. That's gotta count for something.

Sorry, I'm just being really flippant.
 
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If you look at Apple's site they give a minimum spec thats supported and recommended
specs which the entry level MBP more than qualifies the one thing it mentions integrated
Intel graphics not supported.
 
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chas_m

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FWIW, I run Adobe Creative Suite 3 (principally Photoshop and InDesign) on my BlackBook all day ... and it has the GMA950 chipset, a laughable excuse of a graphics set compared to the later x3100 and many times faster than the 9400M.

So my answer regarding CS is "don't worry about it."

I can't speak to Final Cut Studio since of course I don't use it on this thing. :)
 
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Final Cut Studio will have no problems except for a couple of things that you may never even need.

ie:

Color: For rendering of 4K files and DPX: a graphics card with at least 512MB of VRAM

Here's a quote from Apples site about working with 4:4:4 4K color files:
Digital cinema workflows
Digital cinema workflows are used for productions that are shot on film and scanned to a high-resolution 4:4:4 2K or 4K data format. The project is edited digitally for output to film, a file for digital cinema mastering, or high-definition video. Some studios skip the film original by shooting with high-quality digital cameras that produce HD or 4K files.


Final Cut Studio is ideal for digital cinema workflows. Edit in Final Cut Pro using ProRes, then send your project to Color for color grading using the original 2K or 4K DPX media or RED RAW files. When you’re done, use Color to render DPX files for film outs or for mastering to digital cinema — all with full 4:4:4 2K or 4K quality. For broadcast or video release, you can output ProRes 422 (HQ), ProRes 4444, or uncompressed HD.

Unless you need that particular functionality, you should be more then happy with FCS on that MBP. Until I sold it two nights ago, I used FCS on a late '08 aluminum Macbook editing HD footage and it worked wonderfully (it would have worked better if I had firewire, as I had to use a USB drive for scratch which is not the desired media for a scratch folder - but that MacbookPro you referenced has a FW800 interface so you can easily use an external FW800 drive for your scratch disks)
 

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Use the "gigaton" bomb!

We want to make sure we kill the roaches, the rats, and disintegrate the Twinkies!

Wow Nick, for a minute there I thought I was back in the computer room of my old job in Hawaii! :Angry-Tongue: (Really!)

Regards.
 
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I can say that the 9400m with a 2GHz processor has far outperformed my best hopes for it as far as gaming goes, so Final Cut you should be fine with for most things. :)
 

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Wow Nick, for a minute there I thought I was back in the computer room of my old job in Hawaii! :Angry-Tongue: (Really!)

Regards.

That must not have been much fun...roaches, rats, and twinkies!:(

Would any or all of the below complete the picture?;)

- old cigarette butts & ashes
- coffee mugs with stale coffee in them
- old candy bar & potato chip wrappers
- ants & fly's
- partially empty/full bottles of soda

- Nick
 

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I went on a computer call once. Opened the system and 1000's (looked like it, I did not count) of roaches poured out of the poor machine. Made a friend who was with me literally gag! :D Awful experience.

To the OP: That new 9400 will do just fine for what you want to do. It's a lot better than people thing it is.
 

pigoo3

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I went on a computer call once. Opened the system and 1000's (looked like it, I did not count) of roaches poured out of the poor machine. Made a friend who was with me literally gag! :D Awful experience.

Ewww! What the heck were they doing in there? Maybe just liked the heat & dark (if the system was on)...or did somebody spill something on it (something to eat). Or maybe a food source was nearby...and the "system" was home.

It probably stank in there as well! Dead roaches are STINKY!!!:( Anybody want to get something to eat!;)

- Nick
 
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I noticed the mac mini comes standard with the 9400M also...interesting.

Is that to suggest if you added 2gb to a mac mini it would be on par with a MacBook pro?
 
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The base config, no - the base config mini has a slower CPU and (obviously) doesn't have SD card slot. Plus, the mini is limited to 4gig max where the Macbook pro maxes out at 8...
 
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yyeah obviously there is differences like SD card slot and the like but i just means as far as core components its not THAT far off...in relation to the price difference between the two as well...thats all i meant.
 

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