Difference of 512mb and 1gb nVidia GT 650M in Gaming

SegasMedia wrote:

Is it worth getting the 1GB dedicated graphics memory?

Yep, as GPU memory cannot be upgraded later. What you get when you purchase is what you'll always have. So, if you can afford it, go for it.

If you want the best gaming performance possible, in general, you need the best graphics card with the most video RAM built into the card. So you'll want the one with 1 GB of vRAM. Again, though, this is a general statement. If the games you want to play do not need that much vRAM, you don't need to buy it... but it would be a good purchase anyway for future gaming.

I have an NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 512 MB of vRAM in my 2010 MacBook Pro. I am able to play games like the Half-Life series, Portal, Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, BioShock, BioShock 2, etc just fine. (Although, with BioShock 2, I had to lower the resolution setting a bit to get it to run well. But the game still looks good.)

So it's up to you... if you're not a really serious gamer, and are just looking for something that will let you play games and have fun, you can definitely get by without the 1 GB of vRAM.

The choice is yours, but you also get a faster processor for that $400. Just remember, you can never upgrade the GPU, and Adobe recommends all the GPU you can afford running Photoshop.