I have the dual mode video system in a few of my machines. It makes a difference in some video playback and rendering duties.
Every planet has its own weird customs. About a year before we met, I spent six weeks on a moon where the principal form of recreation was juggling geese. My hand to God. Baby geese. Goslings. They were juggled.
Wash ,'Our Mrs. Reynolds'
Buffistechnology 3: "Press Some Buttons, See What Happens."
Got a question about technology? Ask it here. Discussion of hardware, software, TiVos, multi-region DVDs, Windows, Macs, LINUX, hand-helds, iPods, anything tech related. Better than any helpdesk!
NoiseDesign - Jan 04, 2010 8:01:38 pm PST #12192 of 25501
Our wings are not tired
§ ita § - Jan 04, 2010 8:05:06 pm PST #12193 of 25501
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
The fanciest I get is watching downloaded HD video. Is it worth considering the upgrade?
NoiseDesign - Jan 04, 2010 10:09:21 pm PST #12194 of 25501
Our wings are not tired
I'd take the video upgrade over the processor upgrade. I'm not sure that you'll see a huge difference in current downloaded HD video, but who knows what new video codecs are around the corner that may be helped.
§ ita § - Jan 05, 2010 4:34:31 am PST #12195 of 25501
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
They both come together. I'm wondering if it's worth paying the extra $250 for it or not.
Steph L. - Jan 05, 2010 4:52:00 am PST #12196 of 25501
I look more rad than Lutheranism
Oh god, I'm dropping off my laptop to go to the Computer Hospital today. I'm going to die from the withdrawal.
Jon B. - Jan 05, 2010 6:36:02 am PST #12197 of 25501
A turkey in every toilet -- only in America!
If you can imagine ever doing any video editing, you'll want the video upgrade.
Gudanov - Jan 05, 2010 7:03:34 am PST #12198 of 25501
Coding and Sleeping
What is the video upgrade from? If the GPU doesn't add any extra hardware for decoding HD video, then I don't know what it'll get you for what you're doing.
Can video editing use the dedicated video memory for anything? For 3D rendering, sure, but for basic video editing would it add anything? Maybe it can use it in some way I don't know about. If you don't use the memory for anything but frame buffering, I don't see it making a huge difference for regular usage.
Jon B. - Jan 05, 2010 7:07:53 am PST #12199 of 25501
A turkey in every toilet -- only in America!
Can video editing use the dedicated video memory for anything?
I know Final Cut Studio won't even install unless you have at least 128MB of VRAM, and certain types of rendering require 512MB of VRAM.
§ ita § - Jan 05, 2010 7:12:08 am PST #12200 of 25501
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
It's between "NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics" and "NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 256MB"
I don't aspire to video editing, just copious playback.
Gudanov - Jan 05, 2010 7:24:25 am PST #12201 of 25501
Coding and Sleeping
I know Final Cut Studio won't even install unless you have at least 128MB of VRAM, and certain types of rendering require 512MB of VRAM.
And they require ATI and NVIDIA chipsets too, I guess they must stuff things into that high bandwidth memory. I stand corrected, but I still don't think it'll matter for casual video editing. FCS sounds more like professional stuff.
You're not going to get any extra features going from 9400 to 9600 GT, you're going to get far better 3D performance. You'll use some system memory for video, but in most cases it's not going to be much. You don't need a lot for framebuffering a display, the most common usage is storing textures for 3D where it has to blast textures real-time from that high bandwidth memory.