Home » forums » Discussion » Intel Macs

Speed-bumped MBP

Submitted by ravuya on May 26, 2006 - 2:34pm. Intel Macs

As you guys probably know, Apple released a speed-bumped revision of the MBP at the same time as the MB. I have a couple questions, if any of you purchased them (I'm ordering mine at the start/middle of July to give the maximum time for new revisions)...

1. How's the fabled "heat issue"? Is it honestly much worse than my 2003 12" Powerbook?
2. I'm primarily upgrading for graphics performance. How is the card with Pixel Shader 2.0 stuff (Doom 3, Oblivion) in Windows and OS X? My current game under development uses PS 2.0 pretty heavily and lags noticably on my Go5200, but not on my friend's R9700 mobile (in his 15" Powerbook).
3. Does it come with the necessary adaptors, etc. to plug it into a VGA monitor? I see the DVI jack on it but I'll be kind of angry if I have to purchase an additional adaptor.
4. Does anything actually use ExpressCard/34? I'd sure like to get a TV card so I can get rid of my spare PC and go to dual monitors.

I'll probably have more questions later, but these are a good start. As it stands, I really want to buy one but the constant whinings of users on MacRumors and Digg about the heat are somewhat annoying. I pushed a Rev A MBP pretty hard at a Best Buy and it didn't seem to overheat at all.

» login or register to post comments | previous forum topic | next forum topic

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
moosemanmoo's picture

Re: Speed-bumped MBP

Submitted by moosemanmoo on May 26, 2006 - 7:38pm.
ravuya wrote:
As you guys probably know, Apple released a speed-bumped revision of the MBP at the same time as the MB. I have a couple questions, if any of you purchased them (I'm ordering mine at the start/middle of July to give the maximum time for new revisions)...

1. How's the fabled "heat issue"? Is it honestly much worse than my 2003 12" Powerbook?

I doubt it's as bad as the original 12" Powerbooks. Those computers got hot, hot, hot! I've used an infared thermometer, and my friend's 867Mhz 12" Powerbook got to 60 degrees celsius on the bottom. That is far, far too hot. I have a feeling that the heat will be fine most of the time.
Quote:
2. I'm primarily upgrading for graphics performance. How is the card with Pixel Shader 2.0 stuff (Doom 3, Oblivion) in Windows and OS X? My current game under development uses PS 2.0 pretty heavily and lags noticably on my Go5200, but not on my friend's R9700 mobile (in his 15" Powerbook).
The Macbook Pro's x1600 is faster than the Go5200 and the R9700. It's a modern, capable GPU. Apparently you can overclock it in Windows.
Quote:
3. Does it come with the necessary adaptors, etc. to plug it into a VGA monitor? I see the DVI jack on it but I'll be kind of angry if I have to purchase an additional adaptor.
It comes with a DVI dongle, but you'll have to buy a DVI to VGA adapter from Apple for $20. You can also get a DVI to S-Video/Component adapter for $20.
Quote:
4. Does anything actually use ExpressCard/34? I'd sure like to get a TV card so I can get rid of my spare PC and go to dual monitors.
There's a couple card readers and an EVDO card coming out, but no TV tuners. There is a USB 2.0 TV tuner thats about $150, IIRC.
Quote:
I'll probably have more questions later, but these are a good start. As it stands, I really want to buy one but the constant whinings of users on MacRumors and Digg about the heat are somewhat annoying. I pushed a Rev A MBP pretty hard at a Best Buy and it didn't seem to overheat at all.
I'm thinking most of the initial problems were blown out of proportion and are now fixed. Good luck with the purchase; I should be joining the ranks of Macbook Pro owners later this year!

» Join the chat on irc.freenode.com, channel #applefritter.

login or register to post comments
protocol6v's picture

It comes with a DVI-VGA adapt

Submitted by protocol6v on May 26, 2006 - 7:59pm.

It comes with a DVI-VGA adapter.

» MacBook Pro, 2.2GHz SR Core 2 Duo, 120GB HD, 2GB RAM,
PowerMac G5 Dual 2GHz, 3GB RAM, 1x 250GB HD, 4x 500GB HDs(Sonnet Tempo X4P), ATI Radeon 9650 256MB

login or register to post comments

I figured that not much in th

Submitted by ravuya on May 26, 2006 - 9:37pm.

I figured that not much in the world could be hotter than my little 1.33GHz 12" Powerbook. It literally sears the hair off of my legs if I use it in my lap for an extended period of time, even through pants, and has pushed 65'C CPU temp on occasion. I hear the 867MHz machines are even worse. I suspect the problems (if any) are fixed by now, or definitely will be by July.

I figure the X1600 is a lot better than the R9700m and the Go5200 in particular; I was just curious how it compares to the NVidia cards (I have a 6600GT on my Windows box and are.. reasonably pleased with how Oblivion runs). I'm sure I can find some specious benchmarks. I probably won't screw with the card clock, because it's a laptop, dammit. Smiling

I do figure the MBP problems are blown out of proportion; pretty much anything on Digg is.

For TV tuners, I found the AverMedia AverTV ExpressCard TV tuner, though I don't think it's Mac compatible.

Thanks, guys. I'm pretty sure I got a DVI/VGA adaptor with my PC's video card as well. I just wanted to know if the dongle came with it (my Powerbook came with both mini-DVI to DVI and mini-DVI to VGA cables).

»
login or register to post comments
Dr. Webster's picture

Re: Speed-bumped MBP

Submitted by Dr. Webster on May 26, 2006 - 10:15pm.
moosemanmoo wrote:
The Macbook Pro's x1600 is faster than the Go5200 and the R9700. It's a modern, capable GPU. Apparently you can overclock it in Windows.

Actually, you're not overclocking it in Windows, you're setting it to run at its normal speed. People have found that Apple underclocked the GPU under OS X for some reason (probably heat), and that you can set it to run at its correct speed under XP.

» Applefritter Admin
5 stories posted
login or register to post comments
GEOS's picture

Arhgh. What sucks is I just

Submitted by GEOS on May 26, 2006 - 10:26pm.

Arhgh. What sucks is I just got my 1.83GHz about 3 days before they released the new ones. It sucks. I realize the speed difference may not be all that much, but a nice even 2GHz sure would look a lot nicer than this stupid 1.83.

» Oh, Hazel, look. The field! It's covered in blood

MacBook Pro 2.16 Core 2 Duo, 12" Powerbook G4 867MHz, iMac G3 600, Powermac B&W G3 450, iMac g3 400, iBook 366, B&W G3 350, Beige G3 350, Powerbook G3 233. Plus many more..

login or register to post comments
Dr. Webster's picture

Re: Arhgh. What sucks is I just

Submitted by Dr. Webster on May 26, 2006 - 11:15pm.
GEOS wrote:
Arhgh. What sucks is I just got my 1.83GHz about 3 days before they released the new ones. It sucks. I realize the speed difference may not be all that much, but a nice even 2GHz sure would look a lot nicer than this stupid 1.83.

If you bought it from an Apple Store, take the machine back. Apple has a policy where you can return a machine if the model was upgraded within 7 days of when you bought it.

» Applefritter Admin
5 stories posted
login or register to post comments
protocol6v's picture

Geos, same with mine and they

Submitted by protocol6v on May 26, 2006 - 11:28pm.

Geos, same with mine and they said they can't exchange it for me. A$$ holes.

» MacBook Pro, 2.2GHz SR Core 2 Duo, 120GB HD, 2GB RAM,
PowerMac G5 Dual 2GHz, 3GB RAM, 1x 250GB HD, 4x 500GB HDs(Sonnet Tempo X4P), ATI Radeon 9650 256MB

login or register to post comments