12" my true love, why 32mb....WHY?!

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Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I have a 12" PB and I absolutely love it for everything I do...

except for games (halo)



Is there a way I could improve the graphics card capabilities, or upgrade the graphics car in ANY possible way>?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Sorry... you can't do anything to help gaming performance on that PowerBook outside of upgrading the RAM. Graphics and processor are set from when you buy the machine.



    Although, if you wanted to play Halo, you could play it much better with an XBox, which doesn't cost that much either. Macs aren't great for games anyway.
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  • Reply 2 of 10
    no I know i could play it on the X....



    I just like having everything on my comp, and plus the game looks so much fun on my 12".....it just skips way too much....my friends 15" runs it beautifuly with his 64mb gfx card.....





    dang it....are the 64 mb gfx cards completely incompatible







    is there no way to get an upgrade..
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  • Reply 3 of 10
    kanekane Posts: 392member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by blackwind212

    is there no way to get an upgrade..



    What Luca said!
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  • Reply 4 of 10
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by blackwind212

    ....my friends 15" runs it beautifuly with his 64mb gfx card.....





    This is due not only to the 64 MB VRAM, but also to the fact that the Radeon Mobility 9600, found in the 15" Powerbook, is a much more powerful chip than the GeForce FX Go5200 of the 12" Powerbook. The only way to acquire a Radeon, is to buy a 15" or 17" Powerbook (second generation). Sorry.
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  • Reply 5 of 10
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    It might be theoretically possible to replace the motherboard of your 12" PowerBook with that of a newer 12" PowerBook when it eventually gets a 64 MB graphics card. But in that case you may as well just buy a new machine anyway.
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  • Reply 6 of 10
    yea, i guess I will just accept my computers 32mb limitations...



    thanks anyway
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  • Reply 7 of 10
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Luca Rescigno

    It might be theoretically possible to replace the motherboard of your 12" PowerBook with that of a newer 12" PowerBook when it eventually gets a 64 MB graphics card. But in that case you may as well just buy a new machine anyway.



    the Graphics subsystems and its VRAM are soldered to the motherboard



    no physical upgrade is possible



    there are, however, past instances where new GFX card drivers have been posted

    and at least in the case of ATI -based Macs, these software patches have improved performance

    but nothing like the effect of doubling VRAM



    sorry.
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  • Reply 8 of 10
    jobjob Posts: 420member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by curiousuburb

    the Graphics subsystems and its VRAM are soldered to the motherboard



    no physical upgrade is possible




    I think he meant gutting a new 12" (whenever the update occurs) and stuffing the new mobo in his old case. But, as Luca said, you might as well just get a new 12".



    At least I think that's what he meant.
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  • Reply 9 of 10
    particularly if it means spending $2K on a new footlong,

    then destroying it in order to get parts to upgrade an (depreciated=sub$2K) footlong



    and you're left with...

    the $2K voided warranty new miniBook with drives, battery, shell only

    one voided warranty old mobo which may not support firmware for the 'new' 12's remains

    one voided warranty 'new' mobo married to an older footlong



    it would be cheaper to just eBay the old PB and buy a new 64MB one if they ship such a beast,

    to say nothing of the fact that it might include other upgrades



    but maybe I'm missing something,,



    there are some iBook models which can take 'upgraded' mobo replacements,

    so it's not completely illogical to think a small rev might be interchangeable,

    but if the next rev is a G5, for example, it probably wouldn't be backwards compatible due to power(tune?) and heat issues if nothing else.
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  • Reply 10 of 10
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Yeah, it's really not practical to try to change the motherboard. I only said that because it's the only possible way you'd ever be able to change the graphics and processor. But as I said... you'd be better off just buying a replacement computer. Laptops aren't meant for gaming, Macs aren't meant for gaming, and Mac laptops are really, really not intended to run any demanding games. They might run them anyway, but they certainly aren't designed for it.
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