128 MB SDRAM or 256 SDRAM?

I am a pc user who, after doing extensive research, will definitely purchase a 15" macbook pro within the next couple of weeks. I am planning on doing some video streaming and editing among other uses that I will have for this computer. However, I am not big on games so that will not matter to me. Should I go with the 128 SDRAM or 256S DRAM? Will it make a big diffeence in terms of streaming and editing videoclips and movies from education sites as well as watching DVD films?

Thanks in advance for your help

tee917 said:

I am a pc user who, after doing extensive research, will definitely purchase a 15" macbook pro within the next couple of weeks. I am planning on doing some video streaming and editing among other uses that I will have for this computer. However, I am not big on games so that will not matter to me. Should I go with the 128 SDRAM or 256S DRAM? Will it make a big diffeence in terms of streaming and editing videoclips and movies from education sites as well as watching DVD films?

Thanks in advance for your help

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uh...does not compute. They come with 1gb or 2gb already. the new ones may be 2gb, I don't know if they upgraded the base mbp to that. Where did you get 128 and 256 from? Are you talking about the GPU? If so, that's only used for rendering 3d graphics. movies and 2d stuff will be fine with only 128

I have a 128MB iMac (which by the time you read this may have been replaced by newer iMacs :O), and it has an older graphics card that the MacBook Pro, and I can watch Youtube, use Photoshop and iMovie fine.

I don't believe streaming requires the GPU anyways.

Depends on what software you are editing. If it's final cut (basic) you need 2gig, studio version is 4 gig.
Imovie... no idea, but for the best results get the most ram you can. It's a pretty system intensive task, even for a mac.

If you are going to get more ram - personally I recommend going to a 3rd party store rather than getting it from apple, you will save yourself a small fortune.

I take it you're talking about the VRAM.

It depends on your financial situation; if you can comfortably afford the higher spec model then go for it; if you'd rather save the money or put it into software/hardware accessories then do that. Really, the higher model offers a very little performance increase for a lot more money.

I went with the 256, mainly because this will be the first "real" computer I'll get (all my others have been low to mid range models or hand-me-downs) and I wanted to push the boat out and go for the best.

I went with 128 MB as the kids said it would be okay and it's for our son at college anyways. I'm hoping to get a Penryn MacBook Pro early 2008 and will have to think about the video card then as well.

The power envelopes for Penryn desktop chips was released recently and they come in at about 2/3rds the power consumption with about a ten percent performance improvement (or up to 100% for SSE4-enabled applications).