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I would aim for more RAM. I have a Mac Book Pro 2.33 Core 2 Duo with 3GB of RAM and let Parallels use up to 1.5GB. 99% of the time you can't tell that Windows XP is running.
Any speed increase that you notice is going to be marginal, but you will see that if you run the same load as you do with your current machine, it should run a little bit cooler, lower utilization, etc.
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While I'm not on OSX, I an tell you that the difference between my 3Ghz core 2 duo /4GB desktop and my 1.83Ghz Core Duo/2GB laptop is negligible for normal tasks in Vista. There is a significant, but not massive difference in photoshop, but the only area where it is night and day is playing games, and that is more because of the video card in the PC than the CPU.
IMO, just upgrade to 4GB of RAM. It'll make the computer snappier, and you really don't need a new one so soon.
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January 07, 2009 04:57 AM
What kind of performance increase could I expect from a MacBook Pro w/ Core 2 Duo and faster RAM?
I currently own a 1st-gen MacBook Pro with a 2.0 GHz Core Duo processor, 128MB ATI Radeon X1600 video card, and 2 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. What kind of performance increase could I expect from a current MacBook with a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphic card, and 2 GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM?
I'm not a gamer, but I do like to use Windows XP under VMware Fusion, and tend to have a lot of apps/Firefox tabs open at once.
I'm not a gamer, but I do like to use Windows XP under VMware Fusion, and tend to have a lot of apps/Firefox tabs open at once.
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| January 07, 2009 05:59 AM |
Any speed increase that you notice is going to be marginal, but you will see that if you run the same load as you do with your current machine, it should run a little bit cooler, lower utilization, etc.
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January 07, 2009 07:02 PM
My bet is that the majority of the time you would be completely unable to tell the difference, and when you will be able to, it will not be by very much at all. Instead of waiting 10 seconds, you'll wait 8 or 9. For common tasks that take <3 seconds, I doubt it will do anything. While I'm not on OSX, I an tell you that the difference between my 3Ghz core 2 duo /4GB desktop and my 1.83Ghz Core Duo/2GB laptop is negligible for normal tasks in Vista. There is a significant, but not massive difference in photoshop, but the only area where it is night and day is playing games, and that is more because of the video card in the PC than the CPU.
IMO, just upgrade to 4GB of RAM. It'll make the computer snappier, and you really don't need a new one so soon.
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Unless you're playing games, you won't be able to tell the difference. If you are, the Macbook Pro will be a bit faster. The different kinds of memory won't really affect performance. The CPUs are almost exactly the same, the Core 2 Duo may be 10-15% faster, but it depends on which versions of the CPUs were used... and a 10% difference is negligible, really.
So, if you're looking for something smaller with comparable performance, it will meet your needs, but if you want something faster, it won't do anything for you at all.