Reviewers love Core 2 Duo MacBook for most applications

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 20 November 2006 08:07

Your IT - Entertainment

Apple’s new Core 2 Duo is receiving rave reviews, with the unit outperforming the older Core Duo models. But if you’re a serious gamer or want to run Vista at the same time, you’ll need the MacBook Pro.

Seduced by the thought of getting a brand new portable Mac so you can run Mac OS X and Windows Vista at the same time? Then don’t get a MacBook, get a MacBook Pro.

That’s a shame, because the MacBook is a beautiful machine. But thanks to a 2Gb memory limit, and the use of an integrated graphics system, AKA the Intel GMA 950, serious computer users wanting maximum performance will find a MacBook Pro is better suited to their needs.

This is because the MacBook Pro has an ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics chip with far more graphical grunt than Intel’s integrated solution. They also have their own dedicated memory, rather than ‘sharing’ the 2Gb of memory the MacBook can handle.

The MacBook Pro can also take 3Gb of memory, something you’ll really want to consider for running alternate operating systems at the best performance in conjunction with Mac OS X, especially when using the Parallels virtualisation software.

The MacBook Pro’s also have a higher screen resolution, although this isn’t surprising when you’re talking about 15.4-inch and 17-inch screens compared with the MacBook’s 13.3-inch size.

But for everyday Mac users, wanting the smallest yet still very powerful all-in-one Mac, the MacBook is a shining light for Apple users and for Apple’s balance sheet, despite some users still pining for a smaller 12-inch MacBook to return to the Apple fold.

We’re likely to see new MacBook and MacBook Pro models appear in 2007, as Intel rolls out the Santa Rosa platform for the Core 2 Duo, an improved platform than the one they are selling now to all computer manufacturers, including Apple.

Apple’s fortunes will also have a boost when companies such as Adobe release their Creative Suite 3 in early 2007, possibly during MacWorld, which will be optimised to run on Intel processors. Adobe’s Creative Suite is a collection of their major creative graphics tools, including Photoshop, InDesign and Adobe.

The current Creative Suite 2 is optimised for Apple’s older G4 and G5 processors, and as such, runs very slowly through the Rosetta translation system for old Mac apps as found on Intel-based versions of Mac OS X.

2007 is looking like it will be a very big year for Apple, not only with Mac OS X 10.5 due, but a new 6G iPod, an iPod phone, Apple’s iTV hardware for watching downloaded video on big screen TVs and other surprises that Steve Jobs has hinted at.

It may well be the 'year of Apple' in the biggest way since 1984.