2.0 or 2.16? HELP! =/

okay guys, i'm really looking to buy a brand new macbook.. question is, i really can't decide if i REALLY need the 2.0 or the 2.16 version. i mainly just use my computer for surfing, video chatting, iTunes (for music and burning), downloading mp3s, microsoft word, adobe photoshop, illustrator, and games like doom3. which version should i opt for? and what are the pro's and con's?

there is a very noticeably huge price difference in the two esp. when using my educational discount so saving myself the extra cash would be great. but if i am going to see a big difference processor speed wise (is there THAT much of a difference between the speed of the 2?), i guess i could put out the extra cash if i needed to..

your opinions would be very much appreciated!

i reccomend the 2.16 ghz based on what u sed ud b doin

The only time you would notice a difference is while you are using Photoshop, and even then, the biggest bottleneck is the video card and not the processor.

Go with the 2.0 and spend the leftover cash on added RAM or a 7200RPM hard drive. Either of those would help much more than a few extra mhz you'd never notice missing.

Doom 3 will not run on a MacBook at all, I'm sure. If it does, it will be unplayable. Someone that's tried it may be able to say that I'm wrong, but I'd be shocked if it ran at all.

Geeky1 said:

Doom 3 will not run on a MacBook at all, I'm sure. If it does, it will be unplayable. Someone that's tried it may be able to say that I'm wrong, but I'd be shocked if it ran at all.

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yikes. really? how would i go about this, then?

if you want to game get a macbook pro

Doom 3 will run fine on your Macbook. It's a fairly old game, and it's system requirements are pretty low by today's standards.

Are you sure? The GMA950, when backed up with a C2D, is about on par with a GeForce 3 on an old Thunderbird core Athlon system in DX8 performance, iirc from reading Futuremark's ORB. But the GF3/Athlon pretty well choked on Doom 3.

I'd be very interested to see the timedemo run on a GMA950 system, I really don't think it would stay playable in high action scenes with a lot going on, even at low resolution/detail settings.

I am going to agree with Geeky1 on this. I don't think a MacBook will run Doom 3. The best way is to check the retail box. I know for a fact games like Battelfield 2142, specifically say it requires dedicated graphics memory, which the MacBook DOES NOT have.

With that said, I'm not even sure how nicely the MacBook will run with Photoshop or Illustrator. Depending on what you are doing, certain tasks may run extremely slow without dedicated graphics memory. Which means you are now looking at a MacBook Pro.

According to the Apple Store Website, Doom 3 requires 64 MB of Video RAM. It does not specify dedicated or not, However, you have to remember that 64 Dedicated RAM is NOT equivilent to 64MB shared, which is what the bare minimum that the GMA950 chipset will run at.

Going back to the original post, honestly, 0.16 GHz clock speed difference you aren't really going to notice any change in performance. However, you may benefit from the higher clock speed is when ripping MP3s. That (other than gaming) seems to be the most processor intensive thing you have listed.

well i have never used a 2.0ghz but my 2.16ghz runs like a dream....

My 2.16 macbook with 2gigs ram runs photoshop like a charm. It even runs final cut pro (not as fast as the powermac g5 i was used to in college but far faster than my avid pro hd on my windows system)

The one thing about my macbook is that it can not run my favorite game bf2142. If it did I would go out and buy the mac version.
I didn't feel I needed a MacBook pro at the time.

Bottom line: if you really want to game, get the MacBook pro.