Late 07 vs. Early 08: Please help

Question

A friend offered me a pick between a late 07 and early 08 macbook pro. I remember the early 08 has a penryn chip and less cache.
Which one is better to have? Thanks

Answer 1

legaleye300,
Well, I've gone back and looked at the graphics specs for both models, and it does appear that the older 8600Ms also had DDR3 GRAM. At the time of the early '08 release, there was much mention of the newer GPU's better performance, over the earlier version of the same GPU. So, there must be something else about it that boosts its performance. All of the new models (new in early '08) did come with more GRAM, "stock," but it doesn't seem to me that this alone would account for the higher performance.
The benchmarks I saw at the time amounted to around 140% of the graphics performance of the previous generation, and fully 200% of the even older Macbook Pros with the X1600. My own experience, comparing my early '08 to its X1600 predecessor, bore this out.
Regardless of the "little details," there are distinct advantages to the early '08 models, above and beyond the addition of multi-touch capabilities.
Scott