[Thain Esh Kelch]

My current MBP with the x1600 Radeon is having some 'issues' (Trackpad and keyboard not working, known problem in the early models..), and Im trying to decide if I should get it fixed or upgrade.

So, can anyone tell me which of the two cards mentioned is the best?

[The Liberator]

Sorry, I could not find any good graphs or anything on the comparison. If the 9400 is only slightly faster, it would still be better (personally) as the CPU and RAM is faster.

By the way, I am sure you could pick up a refurb'd 9400 model for a good price.

Liberator.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

I'd rather go for a new model, since I can get 12% discount as a university student.

But, I would really love to know how good the GF9400 is. I really have no clue.. O_o

[Janichsan]

By clever comparison of several BareFeats benchmarks, I drew the conclusion that the x1600 and the 9400 are roughly equivalent regarding the achieved frame rates. I think the 9400 has a slight advantage since it's the somewhat more modern GPU and supports DX10 (not that this helps much at the moment under MacOS X).

[teflon]

Don't forget that the 9400 is a much lower powered part and so produces less heat and uses less battery life, which in tandem with the bigger batteries and other architectural improvements in the latest MBs and MBPs mean that comparatively it really kicks butt.

To which you obviously say "uh, kicks but what?"

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Well, in that case I'm pretty much settled. I hope I can get used to a 13" screen over the 15" I use now.

[teflon]

Oh, dont forget that it'll do OpenCL and support video decoding.
Which model are you going to go for? plastic or alu?

[Thain Esh Kelch]

teflon, on June 25th 2009, 04:50 PM, said:

Oh, dont forget that it'll do OpenCL and support video decoding.
Which model are you going to go for? plastic or alu?

Yeah, OpenCL and especially the video decoding part is also something I'm really happy about!

And definately the Pro model.. I don't think I'll ever be able to live without my backlighted keyboard.. And FW800 of course.

[ltcommander.data]

http://www.barefeats.com/imac09d.html

As others have said the X1600 and 9400M are pretty close in performance. The 9400M would pull away in shader heavy games while the X1600 would probably have the advantage at higher resolutions due to dedicated memory. Overall, a modern 13.3" MacBook would be faster due to advances in the CPU and memory. Being newer, the 9400M would probably also be more likely to receive driver optimization effort for newer games working to it's advantage, while the X1600 drivers will probably stagnate moving forward, especially now that ATI has transitioned the X1600 to legacy driver support on Windows.

[Janichsan]

ltcommander.data, on June 26th 2009, 02:41 AM, said:

http://www.barefeats.com/imac09d.html

Oh, I never noticed there was a benchmark were both graphics card are compared directly. But it confirms what I pieced together.

[The Liberator]

hey Thain, this might help you stay with the 15" screen.

Liberator.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

The Liberator, on June 26th 2009, 06:22 PM, said:

hey Thain, this might help you stay with the 15" screen.

Yes it would, if I had the money. And I would like a more portable machine actually.. And then get a gaming iMac when I can afford it, 1,5 year from now.


So, how does the GF9400 fare in Mac games? I can't seem to find any threads on it...

[The Liberator]

What about Snake's post (above) from Barefeats?

Liberator.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

The Liberator, on June 30th 2009, 03:51 AM, said:

What about Snake's post (above) from Barefeats?

Liberator.

Doh. Doh.


Well, that convinced me enough that going to a GF9400 won't affect my current gaming situation, except for the smaller screen. Nice!

[The Liberator]

So, I assume you will be buying an (slightly) older Macbook then?

Liberator.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

No, I just don't want it to deteriorate, so I'll go for a 13" MBP. That should also ease the burden on my bag when I go to university each day.

[The Liberator]

Yeah, well fair enough. I guess they would weight a pretty good amount.

Liberator.