Looking for Apple Laptop for SL

I am looking to switch to Apple. Preferrably a laptop. The most I want to spend on my first Apple computer is around 1,500 just incase I decide this isn't the right thing for me. I'm reall interested in the 14 " iBook but I'm not sure if it can run SL well. Any sugesstion are greatly appreciated.

I have a PowerBook with a 1 GHz G4 processor, 1 GB of memory, and a GeForce4 MX with 64 MB of VRAM. It runs SL surprisingly well although not as good as the family gaming computer. It is definitely very usable, although you'll have to buy yourself a three button USB mouse. Playing SL with a track pad will drive you mad.

I looked at the specs for the new 14" iBooks. It looks like you will have a faster processor than I do but the VRAM is only 32 MB. I don't know what kind of effect that will have on SL. I'm also not sure how the nVidia GeForce4 MX compares to the ATI Mobility Radeon 9200.
One thing I would strongly recommend is purchasing more memory. I've heard that MacOS requires 512 MB in order to run the applications that come with iLife. I personally feel that 756 MB is as low as I could go. If you bump it up to 1 GB, you can do things like run SL, Poser, Photoshop, Safari, Terminal, and iTunes all at the same time without slowdown.

~Ulrika~

A friend of mine has a 12 inch iBook. SL runs very slow. But the graphics quality is amazing, for some reason. I guess I just have a crappy graphics card, along with a really ancient monitor.

I use an original Apple 12" PowerBook (G4 867Mhz 640 Megs RAM nVidia GForce4MX w/32 Megs vRAM) for about 1/2 the time I spend here. The new lowest end iBook is faster than my PowerBook.

I also have noticed slower performance but a better picture (with all my display settings maxed out) on my Powerbook. To get decent performance I turn all the display settings down and set my draw distance to 96 or less. I try to hang out in Rodeo (or another fairly undeveloped area) while I'm on the laptop. The denser the development the lower my FPS rate. I always turn Grass off in the Debug menu which always doubles my frame rate.

It works for me. I can get a lot done and, depending on the activity, change my display and option settings to allow me to fly around, attend more populated areas and do some building and editing if I need to. If I'm going to be working for an extended period on a build I wait until I can do that on my beefier desktop system. There is always some sort of lag to deal with using the less robust laptop I have. Especially when I'm flying or walking... hard to end up exactly wherre I mean to.

I would only receommend a laptop for the mobility factor or as a supplemantal way to experience Second Life. I would not recommend using one like mine for one's primary SL experience. The newest iBooks are more powerful than my older PowerBook so you will get better perfomance than what I have related here. Get as much RAM as you can, doubling the RAM makes a BIG difference. More vRAM on your video card make a differrence as well.

Unfourtunately I cant upgrade the vram, can I upgrade the ram myself? Apple seems to want to charge alot just for a ram upgrade.

also I plan on mainly using SL on my desktop PC. I just think this will be a bridge for me to see if I want to conver to Mac, they seem very cool.

I'm sure it would be cheaper for you to upgrade your RAM yourself but I'm not sure by how much. Before you do this, you should know how many memory-module slots your iBook has and how many modules they will ship you in your iBook. If your iBook only has two memory module slots and they ship you an iBook with two 256 MB modules, you'll have to pay for two 512 MB modules to upgrade to 1 GB. If they ship the computer with one 512 MB module, you'll only have to pay for one 512 MB module to upgrade to 1 GB.

I have to say that MacOS is truly exceptional. It takes a while to get used to it but once you do it's like driving a luxury car.

~Ulrika~

Jim, my experience of SL on an Apple laptop may help.

I have a 15" G4 powerbook, 1.25GHz 512MB, 64K graphics card. MacOsX 10.3.6 (the latest)

Although of course it varies depending on where I am, I generally find it only just good enough for SL, though this may well be my fault for nt adding enough memory.

To get an acceptable experience (ie not falling below say 9fps except very rarely) I have to keep just about all graphics options off. No local lighting, no shinyness etc etc. I keep the draw distance at about 100m (so I can see as far as llSensor). Much more is too slow.

I am usually around 13-14fps which for me is luxury (pathetic isnt it). But quite frequently fall way down on this. I am not including what happens when flying thru a built up area when lots of textures are all downloading.

I have a friend with the 1.5Ghz version of the same machine, otherwise identical but with a 128MB graphics card - twice as big. Fps differences so slight as to be absolutely insignificant (maybe 1 part in 12?) which surprised me. Measured when hovering right next to each other and looking in the same direction. Suggests the bigger graphics card is doing nothing. Ktriangles/sec virtually the same.

You should also know that this machine has a serious sound problem with SL. I hear wind, and sometimes music, but never anything else. I don't know how generally this applies - all Apples, just me, or somewhere in between

Having converted from PC's I am completely hooked on Apples as what seems to me hugely superior for most of my purposes, except it seems perhaps this one..

Don't know if a similar PC laptop would do any better. Maybe I shouldn't like to do all this bed-surfing!

Here are the details of my ATI Graphics Card. I understand laptops usually have a special (crippled) version because of size and power constraints:

ATY,RV350M10:

Type: display
Bus: AGP
VRAM (Total): 64 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x4e50
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-xxxxx-117

Display:

Type: display
Display Type: LCD
VRAM (In Use): 64 MB
Resolution: 1280 x 854
Depth: 32-bit Color
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes