128Mb RAM vs. 256 in the graphics card?

I'm going to buy a Macbook when they are released; and initially was definitely going for the 1.8Ghz version. However, I can save a few hundred by going for the 1.67 and losing 512Mb RAM (cheap to upgrade) 20Gb disk-space (not important) and going from 256Mb to 128Mb video RAM on the Radeon X1600.
Does anyone have any idea of the real-world impact the drop in video RAM will have? I will mainly use the MAcbook fro Aperture and Photoshop and some gaming (plus email, web-browsing etc. which I know will see no change).
Thanks,
Steve

Is this a case of 'get the best graphics card' or do you think that the extra 128Mb will be used by Aperture?
If Aperture placed the whole RAW file in the memory of the graphics card; and the GPU then decodes it into a 16-bit image file, that would occupy around 52MB (for my 1D - 8Mb RAW plus 46 Mb 16-bit image).
I can appreciate the speed of the card making a difference, but I'm not so sure about the RAM, and the money saved would go towards a nice monitor.
Steve

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I have a mid 2007 MacBook Pro with 2GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 8600M graphics. Is it possible to upgrade the RAM and the graphics card?

I have a mid 2007 MacBook Pro with 2GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 8600M graphics card. Is it possible to upgrade the RAM and the graphics card?

The RAM can be upgraded as indicated below. The Graphics card can not be upgraded.
Maximum Memory
6.0 GB (Actual) 4.0 GB (Apple)
Memory Slots
2 - 200-pin PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SO-DIMM

Is it possible to upgrade the graphics card on a mid 2012 MacBook Pro? And is it possible to upgrade the RAM without voiding the warranty?

Hi I was wondering if it is possible to upgrade the graphics card on a MacBook Pro and the RAM without voiding the warranty? I have a gt 650m in my MacBook Pro, non retina, and to me, its not enough power for me, so i was looking around, and I found a retailer that would give me a nvidia gtx 660m for a decent price. Also, the ram needs to be at least 12gbs, to ensure that my computer would run fast.
If you can help, please tell me,
Thankyou.

No, the video card cannot be exchanged - you have a pretty decent GPU there; not sure why you'd want to switch it out. You can upgrade the RAM to a maximum of 16GBs. Apple recommends upgrading in matching pairs, so I don't really think I'd try 4GB and 8GB stick.
Both Crucial and OWC have memory available for the new Macs. Both are reputable dealers and know Macs well and I would only buy from these sources (and I would buy Crucial, were it me).
Although your Mac didn't come with a users manual outlining the installation of the additional RAM, you can download the late 2011 model users guide as the models themselves are almost identical.
Good luck - write back with any questions.
Clinton

HT1338 Could I upgrade the Graphic Card to 1GB? my current Graphic is 256.

Could I upgrade the Graphic Card to 1GB? my current Graphic is 256.

You refer to an article about updating software. But the graphics card is hardware.
You can upgrade the graphics card on MacPros but on other Macs the graphics card is part of the processor, so it would be very costly. Also, not exactly a do-it-yourself job.

What's up with the graphics card?

i am looking to get a macbook or macbook pro and i noticed that the graphics cards available weren't as good as comparable pc notebooks, which are generally 128mb or 256mb compared to the macbook's 64mb card, but the prices are similar. why is this?

I have a MacBook with the GMA950.
I heard all this talk about how it was "sufficient" for everyday tasks. And it is good for browsing the web, watching iTunes videos, and even using iMovie and iDVD.
However, you have to keep in mind that for the MacBook with DVD writer, you will be spending around $1400 for a system with an Intel GMA950 and a 13.3" screen. Yes you get Mac OS X and iLife. But it is still $1400 for a system with the lowest end GPU available today.
The GMA950 doesn't even have any kind of video deblocking or anything like integrated ATI and nVidia cards do. So the image quality for video is, in fact, worse than what you get with integrated/shared options from the other two major players in the GPU market.
I had an ATI Xpress 200M w/128MB of dedicated memory (still an integrated GPU) in my HP system before getting my MacBook. The video image quality on any source, DVDs, streaming, xvid, H.264, is completely night and day difference because of the GMA950s lack of deblocking.
Keep in mind that a $1300 Dell Inspiron 1521 will come with a 2GHz Core 2 Duo, 160GB drive, 2GB of RAM, and a 256MB GeForce 8600M GT. A $600 Compaq will come with GeForce 6150 GPU. Still integrated, but much better than the GMA950.
I "switched" back in March. I'm satisfied with OS X and iLife. But the hardware prices are absolutely ridiculous. If I had to choose between OS X and underpowered hardware for the price or Windows and good hardware, I'd choose Windows.

Tecra A6 - Can I upgrade the graphic card?

I have a Tecra A6 A60E (171) with 1Gb memory and the Intel Express 950 video chipset set at max memory useage 128Mb.
Is it possible to either upgrade the memory allocation to 256Mb max or install a graphics card?
Shaun

Hi!
Sorry buddy but here in the forum are so much threads about upgrading the graphic card and CPU so I can prefer this Toshiba document:
http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/TSB9401AX0001R01.htm
And yes, if you have more RAM you will get more video RAM. As far as I know up to 256MB video RAM are possible.
Bye

Is it possible to upgrade the graphics card with my HP Envy DV7 - 7332EA

Hi all,
I was hoping someone on here may be able to answer my question. I recently purchased a refurbished laptop from certain computer retailer, an HP Envy DV7-7332ea, it is an Intel i7, 16GB RAM and was supposed to come with a 2GB Nvidia GT635M. Long story short, said pc retailer did not tell me that the fault/refurbishment was with the graphics card and despite advertising it as being installed with the GT635M, it in fact had a shared Intel graphics card installed. Long story short after some truly horrific customer service - talking to my bedroom wall would have yielded the same level of responses - they have told me that the will not be fitting the correct graphics card - when pressed for an explanation or reason for this they have been unable to give me a technical explanation.
So, I'm assuming possibly the motherboard has been replaced as well which is preventing the graphics card from being upgraded. Now I realise that there could be numerous reasons this has happened, but I was hoping someone could answer me this.
Would the artchitecture of my laptop allow for a graphics card upgrade? If the motherboard has problems and these were resolved are the Envy range generally able to be upgraded?
Thanks guys,

Hi:
Unfortunately, the only way to upgrade the graphics adapter is to replace the motherboard with one that has the better nVidia GPU.
Doing that would cost about as much as buying a new notebook with the graphics solution you wanted in the first place.

Is it possible to upgrade the graphics card in the HP ENVY 17-j053ea?

Hi
I'm considering buying the HP ENVY 17-j053ea for use as a portable workstation for applications such as Max Design, autocad and photoshop as a second system for when I need to be away from the office but still need the ability to work.
This machine seems to have a lot of bang per buck and is more in line with my budget than a full on portable workstation.
As far as upgrade options I presume I could max out the ram at 16GB and put in an SSD as the main OS and application drive and use the main 1TB drive as the mass storage unit.
What I'm wondering is if it possible to upgrade the graphics card in this machine?
I don't imagine I would be attempting such an upgrade myself but assuming I leave it into a professional is this possible.
My worry is that with some of my heavier model files I could feel the limitations of the mid range portable gfx card onboard. I could probably live with it if it is not an option but just putting feelers out.

Thanks for the reply Paul
I see.
That doesn't sound feasible so.
I can manage the other 2 upgrades within my budget but things seem to get quite expensive on the higher end platforms very quickly.
It's my first foray into the laptop/workstation arena so I'm not that familiar yet with clever upgrade strategies.
I did have the use of this model for a few days and It is a really nice overall laptop, both aesthetically and value wise.

Is it possible to upgrade the graphics card in HP DV7-2043CL?

Hi guys,
I would like to upgrade my old laptop specs in order to improve a little bit its overall performance.
The main use is for lite-mid gaming purposes and the first thing that I wish to upgrade is the graphics card of course (currently got HD4650 in it)
The gpu is integrated with the CPU, or can I pull it out and put a new one instead?
The second thing that I'm going to add is a new SSD (129.99 bucks for the Crucial SSD - 240GB)
I don't have a large budget, so I cannot afford right now to buy a new laptop that will fit my requirements.
As for upgrading the ram from 4BG to 8GB - I saw a post here from some of the experts (Paul)
claiming that the performance difference isnt worth 200$
What do you guys think?

Hi,
Basically you can, with a cost and I believe this cost may be more expensive than buying a new computer because you have to take into account:
New card price, and WHERE you can buy it because laptop cards are not the same as desktop cards. You can't buy from any normal shop,
Need new system board (may be),
Need new cooling system because generally speaking more powerfull card pumps out more heat (you want more powerfull card don't you?).
May need new PSU because your current PSU may not suitbale to the card. (I ordered a machine with Nvidia card and I needed to order a 90W charger at the same time, not the normal 65W charger. They simply rejected my order).
Labor cost.
Many, many packets of Asprin.
For SSD, I can't see any problem with this. I actually upgraded 4 of my machines. I bought a Crucial 960Gb for the 5th machine and probably will do sometimes next week.
Hope this helps.
BH
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Make it easier for other people to find solutions by marking a Reply 'Accept as Solution' if it solves your problem.

Is it possible to upgrade the graphics card in my aluminum 13-inch Macbook (Late 2008)?

My 13-inch Macbook (Late 2008) currently uses the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB graphics card, but I want to upgrade it, so that I can play games at a higher quality. Is this possible? If so, what graphics cards are compatible with my Macbook (Late 2008)?
Thank you.

The graphics card on a MacBook is part of the logic board not a separate card so it can't be upgraded.

Qosmio X305 will only boot in safe mode or when the graphics card disabled

Hi All
I am having a very concerning issue with my laptop (Toshiba Qosmio X305). It will only boot in safe mode or if I disable the graphics card.
Awhile back I upgraded the drivers for the nVidia 9800M GTX from the nVidia website, it worked fine for awhile, but then it started crashing randomly by giving me a full screen of random color then switching off. I fixed this by rolling back to the previous version of the drivers (the drivers that came with the laptop software).
After that it working perfectly for months but yesterday my machine started crashing and I could not get it to boot correctly.
I have completely deleted (not just a quick format) both the hard drives that came internally in the laptop and I have installed a clean version (the out of the box option) of the x64 Vista that came with the laptop from the recovery disks I created. After I did the install, it boots fine as only the standard VGA device is used, as soon as I installed the driver off the drivers and applications disk it would not boot correctly:
Just after the status bar comes up and it is about to show the windows logo, just before login, I get a black screen. I can hear that it is booting fine and I can even log in to windows and by memory make things run, but I can't see anything. I then got the latest drivers, again from the nVidia website and they are not helping at all.
My system is as follows (nothing has been added, its is just how I got it):
Vista Ultimate x64
4.00 GB RAM
Intel Core 2 Quad
Like I said previously it is a clean install of the operating system, I have not added any programs, except for installing and then updating the display drivers.
Any help would be much appreciated!

Hi buddy,
It seems that this is a typical example, that only pretested display drivers from Toshiba should be used. Why?
The nVidia drivers are not pretested and they dont have an overheat protection. So for me it sounds like that the nVidia driver has destroyed your graphic card. That means no driver will help you and reinstallation of the whole system too.
I think the only option is replacing the graphic card. Therefore you should contact an authorized service provider in your country. Here you can search:
http://www.csd.toshiba.com
Explain the whole story and then you will see, what the technicians say. If your notebook is under warranty, hopefully this will be covered too. Normally other display drivers you have to install on your own risk
Good luck! :)

Great Problemes after installing Yosemite (10.10.2 ) with Photoshop CS6....The program crashes --last time 10 times during my work session..wacomtable doesnt work..it is slow...and get error messages about the graphic card....It s a Terror to work with my

great Problemes after installing Yosemite (10.10.2 ) with Photoshop CS6....The program crashes --last time 10 times during my work session..wacomtable doesnt work..it is slow...and get error messages about the graphic card....It s a Terror to work with my beloved Photoshop!

The Yosemite upgrade very often damages existing Photoshop installations. Thank Apple for that.
You need to uninstall and re-install Photoshop, then apply all the Photoshop upgrades from scratch.
But first, give us details about your setup:
BOILERPLATE TEXT:
Note that this is boilerplate text.
If you give complete and detailed information about your setup and the issue at hand,
such as your platform (Mac or Win),
exact versions of your OS, of Photoshop (not just "CS6", but something like CS6v.13.0.6) and of Bridge,
your settings in Photoshop > Preference > Performance
the type of file you were working on,
machine specs, such as total installed RAM, scratch file HDs, total available HD space, video card specs, including total VRAM installed,
what troubleshooting steps you have taken so far,
what error message(s) you receive,
if having issues opening raw files also the exact camera make and model that generated them,
if you're having printing issues, indicate the exact make and model of your printer, paper size, image dimensions in pixels (so many pixels wide by so many pixels high). if going through a RIP, specify that too.
A screen shot of your settings or of the image could be very helpful too,
etc.,
someone may be able to help you (not necessarily this poster, who is not a Windows user).
Please read this FAQ for advice on how to ask your questions correctly for quicker and better answers:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/419981?tstart=0
Thanks!

HT2452 Hello... I bough my iMac 2 weeks ago but not happy with the graphic card HD6750M and would like to upgrade to HD6770M wuld it be better for games and in general? Thanks adv brgds Wigor

Hello Would I be able to do myself to change the graphic card. Present one which came with my iMac is Radeon HD6750M but I'm not really happy with it.
What is the advantage to changing to HD6770M?
Many Thanks for an advice.
With Kind regards Wigor

The only way for you to upgrade is to return it and bring it back to Apple in 14 days and get your full money back.
The only way to get a better video card is to order a 27 inch iMac with the custom graphics chip option.
I am not sure if you can order this in an Apple store or not. The iMac options are listed on their online ordering site.
The custom GPU is a 1 or 2 GB VRAM GPU. It is only available in the 27 inch screen models.
If it has really been a full two weeks, you need to return this iMac like tomorrow.
Apple won't do the video upgrade for you as this is a non-upgradeable part by Apple standards.
If you attempt to upgrade/replace this GPU yourself, you void your 1 or 3 year AppleCare warranty with no hope of ever getting any free warranty work ever done on this iMac if anything should go wrong.
If your time for a full refund has passed, you need to sell this iMac so you can purchase an iMac with better specs and options.
Other than RAM, iMacs are not user upgradeable and you need to order the right iMac and combination of options options at actual time of purchase.

Ok, so I have a 1g macbook Pro and I'm having an issue with the graphics card, so I believe.

     I believe I'm having an issue with the graphics card. For one, when I'm using programs like iMovie '11, SPORE, or the Sims 3 for long periods (hours usualy) of time, the computer will be perfectly fine. It gets warmish-hot, like usuall, all of a sudden it will randomly freeze for 5 to 10 seconds, then shut down and reststart. This happens, espically on the Sims 3 I can play for a while, but when I try to save it will shut down on me.
     Also, I got a new iPod touch 4g on the 25th, the first few times I tried syncing and downloading, it started off fine, but after 10 min. it would restart. Now it works ok, but I still monitor it just incase.
     Can anyone help me understand why all of this is happening? I beleve the graphics card isn't good enough, even though it meets the standards for iLife, and The Sims 3. My graphics card is a ATI,RadeonX1600. The laptop has 2 GB RAM runs at 2.16GHz with an Intel Core Duo on OS X Snow Lepard (10.6.8). Thanks everyone.

Threads are just processes that link together like the threads in these discussions, well, maybe that is a bad example given how disjointed these get
It looks like you are not pushing the cpu or hard drive enough to cause your behavior. Not sure what the temperature limit on that cpu is, on the newer models it is around 100-110 °C which is notciabley hot, and the system shutsdown for self protection at the thermal limit.
You could be hitting a thermal limit causing that behavior...so do you see good behavior at lower load levela on the system? Does this only happen with when you are under the high graphic loads?
Trying to zero in on when this occurs to see if we an isolate the problem.

Satellite U500 - Upgrading the graphic card?

Hi,
I'm a serious gamer but unfortunately the laptop I ended up with isnt the best for it. ToshibaSatelite U500 with 4GB RAM and intel Core 2 Duo, 2.53 GHz. the main problem is the graphics card which is as basic as it gets and so I cant play all the good games.
I see the graphics card is attached to the motherboard; if I change the motherboard can I get one with a powerful top of the line graphics card? help!

Hi okoene,
Unfortunately such a graphic card upgrade is not possible and also there are no other mainboards available with more powerful graphic card.
You should check this document:
http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/FAQ35006D000RR01.htm
Sorry but there is nothing what you can do :(

128Mb RAM vs. 256 in the graphics card?

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