Macbook review

By Dazzla
in Member Reviews

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Grand Master

iconboy

Posted
Posted

Unless your bent on playing Doom 3, I have not noticed a single situation where the Macbook lags on video.

what about watching HD trailers?

what about watching a dvd and switching between a playing dvd and msn messenger?

what about photoshop performance?

and what games will run and look half descent on onboard video?

not trying to knock the macbook here, just dont understand why they couldnt have gone with a descent ati or nvidia card!

how many MB is the intel onboard video?

Mentor

The Angry Bunny

Posted
Posted

Granted, I don't own a Macbook (yet) but I have done some research into it.

As far as the HD Trailers, the macbook supposedly plays them flawlessly

Photoshop performance will be slow until they release the next version (prob. CS3, which will be universal)

Not sure about the watching dvd and switching to messenger

And the games are something I'm wondering too.

And I too don't understand why they couldn't put a dedicated graphics card in... The integrated graphics is what has been holding me back from buying one...

Hope this helps somewhat.

And Dazzla, if you could do some gaming benchmarks if you get the chance that'd be great. If not that's cool too, your review has already helped me alot.

Grand Master

Matt T

Posted
Posted
...the slow loading superdrive...
Don't you mean slot loading SuperDrive? :p

That was honestly the best review I've read on Neowin - the pictures, the videos, the great descriptions - thanks a lot Dazzla. Have you tried using any Adobe apps under Rosetta, like Dreamweaver or Photoshop? I'd really appreciate some comments on them if you don't mind.

Again, great review. (Y)

Grand Master

Evolution

Posted
Posted

And I too don't understand why they couldn't put a dedicated graphics card in... The integrated graphics is what has been holding me back from buying one...

Don't most discrete notebook graphics processors require additional space for the rest of the graphics board and a fan? I suspect that by adding a discrete video card, the thickness would have been increased considerably, percentage wise.

Mentor

Huy

Posted
Posted

It's probably a heat and battery consideration as well, for having integrated graphics.

I own a MacBook and 720p HD content plays just fine. I haven't tried 1080 yet and I don't plan on doing so. 480 is enough for me but I was just mucking around with 720p and it was fine.

It is a 64MB onboard video chip with 16MB buffer I believe, so 80MB but I have heard it can be as high as 224MB, but I think Apple have just left it at 80MB. I don't play games or do anything graphically intensive so it is perfect for my uni needs.

Grand Master

QuarterSwede

Posted
Posted (edited)

Dazzla, I know what you mean about having to use Windows and wanting to use OS X. Thank goodness at work the app I use 90% of the time is IE for the company intranet. The other 10% is an app that takes the form of a DOS menu (ugly! but is extremely efficient I hate to say).

Also, to go back a space like you do on a Windows PC by pressing the backspace, just hold the FN key and press the Del button. See the thing about Apple, is they are all about the consolidation of functions. Just like to go to the end of what you are typing you just hold command and press the right arrow key. Same goes for home (but instead press the left arrow key). And now that the new trackpads have easy right clicking, Windows users have less to complain about in OS X and an easier time transitioning to it.

Also, of note, the integrated graphics in the MacBook are superior to the Nvidia GPU in the 12" PowerBook (which I have). And that chip will run Quartz Extreme just fine and a host of 3D games to boot. But, if you want to run the latest games, buy a MacBook Pro. That's why they made it better and more expensive.

Oh and Dazzla, Thanks for another great review. They are so good I read them even when I don't ever plan on buying what you're reviewing! I Love the pictures and footage which rounds out you're reviews; don't ever stop including them.

I also, wanted to exlaim about the speed at which Safari loads. I can see why you noted and included footage of it. For those who don't know, Safari wasn't already open. What you saw was OS X loading Safari not just a window and that blows me away!

Edited by QuarterSwede
Grand Master

AltecXP

Posted
Posted

Don't most discrete notebook graphics processors require additional space for the rest of the graphics board and a fan? I suspect that by adding a discrete video card, the thickness would have been increased considerably, percentage wise.

my laptop has an onboard 128mb(dedicated) ATi XPRESS200 video card...its not the greatest, but it doenst make the laptop any thicker then say the chipset or CPU require.

Mentor

Huy

Posted
Posted

For me it's not an issue. It's a Core Duo after all! Check this website for some sort of temp. range.

www.intelmactemp.com

From that website, my 2.0GHz averages out to be 60C idle and 83C under load. My own temperatures are about 65 idling and perhaps 75-80C under load. It's not hot in my opinion and I'm fine with it. I don't use it as a laptop though. The fans don't come on until it's about 80C and this hardly happens.

Mentor

Huy

Posted
Posted (edited)

The trackpad doesn't (fully) work in Windows. You're left to use the clicker button and cannot perform two finger scrolling, two finger tapping for right-clicks or single tap, drag/lock, etc. It's pretty annoying. You can only move the mouse around using one finger and click with the button. For right clicks you hold down ctrl like you would on older models of Apple notebooks.

My XP takes 55 seconds from selecting the partition to the login prompt. Most of it is spent at the black loading screen. From selection to finishing loading startup apps etc, it takes about 1.5 minutes including entering password, Norton AV, wireless networking and all of Apple's programs such as brightness, CD eject, Intel GMA etc.

Edited by Huy
Grand Master

Dazzla Veteran

Posted
  • Author
  • Veteran
Posted

Can you Ctrl+Shift+Esc instead? That's how I get C+A+D anyway for Task Manager... I just don't know if it works for logon.

Thanks.

ctrl + shift + esc works for the task manager but not for logon.

what about watching HD trailers?

what about watching a dvd and switching between a playing dvd and msn messenger?

what about photoshop performance?

and what games will run and look half descent on onboard video?

not trying to knock the macbook here, just dont understand why they couldnt have gone with a descent ati or nvidia card!

how many MB is the intel onboard video?

I'm going to add a performance section to the review, mentioning HD video playback, h264 video encoding, general performance, rosetta and maybe games.

Mentor

Huy

Posted
Posted

dL don't forget that it also runs Windows so you're still able to do everything. I used to be in a Computer Science degree (now Engineering and Business) but for everything that needs to be done, it can be done on a Mac - mostly programming in Java, there's a text editor, the terminal/shell, Eclipse IDE, etc. If you're unhappy with OS X, you could use Windows and program in there - I do the same with my MacBook, I prefer using Matlab on Windows which was one of the reasons for getting this notebook. Windows is exclusively used for Matlab and other MS apps like Access, Visio and Project.

I think that the MacBook is suited to Computer Science, because I used to own a 12" PowerBook and there's a lot of UNIX users with PowerBooks who love the Mac hardware/OSX with the ability to do their programming-related tasks on the Mac through the terminal.

Grand Master

Dazzla Veteran

Posted
  • Author
  • Veteran
Posted (edited)

Thanks for all the feedback guys, I've added a "Performance" section which covers quite a few things, as well as touching on the speakers, WiFi and battery life. Has a few graphs and videos too. I added a screenshot of the preference pane where you enable the two fingered tapping for those who can't find it.

I'm gonna try and get some gaming benchmarks done, I'll see if I can grab the 3D Mark demo and I've still got Half Life 2 lying around from when I had my Acer.

Edited by Dazzla
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