Intel GMA 950 vs. ATI Radeon X1600

What are you going to be using this iMac for? If it's just light stuff like web browsing, email, itunes, iphoto, ect then the base 17" model should be fine. If you're going to use "Pro" apps and play the latest 3D games then you'd be better off getting the iMac with the separate ATi 1600 card.

lenn

Lenn gave you a good answer. The simplest way to explain it is this - the GMA950 is not as good as the x1600, but only when it comes to high end 3D apps like games and such.

Without knowing exactly what your Mac will be used for, it is hard to make a recommendation between the two. If you live in the iLife apps, the MacBook is perfect. If you plan to play games and want to use professional apps at their best possible performance, get the MacBook Pro.

The Intel GMA950 shares memory with the system memory, so you will have less memory availible to the system when using this graphics card. Seeing as the base model only ships with 512MB of RAM, you will have very little memory availible to the system. The ATI x1600 has its own memory. So all of the 512MB of RAM are used by the system. Hope this somewhat explains it.

Of course I meant base iMac and others, not MacBook and MacBook Pro.

Sorry for the confusion.