iBook - Now or Later?

D

doofy10

Registered
Here is my dillemma -
I am graduating from high school (yes! high school!) and going to summer school at FSU in June. I am getting an iBook as a present and to use for school over the summer and in the Fall. However, I have a feeling that the minute I get my iBook (or the month or two after I get it) there will be a newer, faster, better iBook for sale for the same price. Should I:
A. Get the iBook now and feel sorry for myself when the better iBooks come out.
B. Wait till Macworld and hope a better iBook comes out, and suffer the consequences of not having a computer at school.
What should I do??
-Doofy
 
I think the iBooks will be updated sooner than MWNY, especially given that the newly announced Jaguar upgrade to OS X requires 32 MB of VRAM to run Quartz Extreme; the only piece of hardware that Apple sells that does not live up to this spec is the iBook, and I think Apple will definitely need to rev the graphics subsystem for this feature alone.

Expect a two-tiered jump in the graphics subsystem like the TiBook.

In other words (actually, that should be "word"): wait.
 
Originally posted by simX
I think the iBooks will be updated sooner than MWNY, especially given that the newly announced Jaguar upgrade to OS X requires 32 MB of VRAM to run Quartz Extreme; the only piece of hardware that Apple sells that does not live up to this spec is the iBook, and I think Apple will definitely need to rev the graphics subsystem for this feature alone.
Click to expand...

Quartz Extreme does NOT require 32MB of VRAM. 32MB of VRAM is RECOMMENDED for optimal performance.

What IS required is an NVidia card, or an ATI Radeon AGP card. That is, to say, that a 16MB AGP Radeon card WILL run Quartz Extreme.
 
Another vote for wait. But for another reason. iBooks have G3. Save up for a G4 Powerbook. That is what I would do/ I am doing now.
 
If you can save up, DEFINITELY get a G4 PowerBook. I used to have an iBook/500, but I just updated to the DVI TiBook/667, and the difference is significant.

It's like night and day.

Even though the iBook was a good performer, it really can't compare.

However, if you can only afford an iBook, I would wait until the next refresh. It's unlikely that Apple would put 32MB of VRAM in it, but they should updated it a Radeon with 16MB of VRAM, so you can still use Quartz Extreme, just no optimally.
 
Originally posted by ElDiabloConCaca


Quartz Extreme does NOT require 32MB of VRAM. 32MB of VRAM is RECOMMENDED for optimal performance.

What IS required is an NVidia card, or an ATI Radeon AGP card. That is, to say, that a 16MB AGP Radeon card WILL run Quartz Extreme.
Click to expand...

I don't know. The only place I've heard that 32 MB VRAM is not required is from http://www.apple.com/macosx/newversion/ , and even then it is a debate about semantics.

If you go back to the MacCentral's keynote coverage which has been updated, it says:

The improvement -- which requires AGP 2X graphics cards and 32MB of video RAM -- is a hardware-accelerated graphics and compositing engine.
Click to expand...

I also remember having looked at their keynote coverage before they changed it to be more readable, and Steve Jobs said that it wasn't possible to do Quartz Extreme on older graphics cards.

So there still isn't a definitive answer on this.
 
OK thanks for your help. One more question... do you guys think that the new hardware to debut after MWNY will come with OS 10.2/5 pre-installed??
-Doofy
 
Yeah!! I think they'll ship iBooks after 10.2 / 10.5 introduction with the newest OS.... even if there's no big iBook update - they just install the newer software (provided you get it directly from apple.com or from retailer's new shipments)

-pbmac
 
i wo uldn't count on it. When they say late summer...apple ususally means the last day of summer [as demonstrated with 10.1]. That's almost 2 months after MWNY.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top