I'm on a new new quad core and it is super nice. Get the extra ram and you should never see an issue.

Video-SL hasn't been updated in awhile and most def doesn't utilize all cores. even if it was updated it wouldn't utilize all cores. actually there are only a few apps that utilize multi-core and those are heavy duty specific apps like Nuke, Maya, After Effects, etc.

if the price is only $40 you should def go with the i7. The i7 will have you future proof longer than the i5 will.

get the quad core, but I think it's only 256MB vram. It's still plenty, but the higher end ones have a 1gb video card, not sure if it's needed or not.

i'd get a quad core.

always better to have more than less.
learned that when the first Crysis came out.

I recently bought the Macbook pro Quad Core 2.2 with The Radeon 6750 1-Gig video card. It has 8 gigs of ram DDR3 1333 mhz & a 256 Gig Soldid state HD. I can play 720p & 1080p H.264 Music videos settings is set to " Best " and the buffer is set to 2 Gigs. I used to have a Macbook pro 2.66 Core 2 Duo with 8 gigs of ram and it plays good but i had to set it to " High " because at Best, It starts to show some Video strain. I am able to play video formats like Avi, Mkv, Flv, Mp4 etc.

Quad.

SL uses multiple cores, VSL/ME too.

just scored an i7 2.2ghz quad on ebay for buku savings.

How muchos?

I love ebay
www.ebay.com

:)

I almost bought a 2.2 refurb (no hi res anti glare) for $1699.

nice deal. i will be buying another mbp quad core of ebay in the next month or so

Obviously not as qc'd as apple refurb, but still under the 1 year warranty so you can stress test it and take it in if it breaksdown.

Do you really find the need for running your videos at High or better? Do the venues you play at even have there screens hooked up via Hi def cable's? Do you think "people" even notice or care? I just cant see the point. A "person" says they care, but "people" in general dont i find. Also I have yet to see a club spend the money on HD matrix switches to upgrade there systems just so an HD signal can be run to there tv's. Though there is a club 1 city over that had HDMI run to there TV's but this clubs was just rebuilt after a fire.

I was looking up the video cards in the two devices I started this thread for. The baseline i7 (2.0 ghz) which I was going to buy has the ati 6490 vs the nvidia 330m (2.53 ghz i5) which runs better on bench marks. No one was that impressed when looking around the net at the 6490 card. Would you guys still recommend the quad core with this card over the nvidia? Pulling the trigger today so just seeing if anyone has any last minute advice

i would go with the quad.

Is the general consensus that quad = better than dual? In looking at all aspects of the computer and searching the net that would be true, except for running video. I need to find the site again but in running their tests the 2.0 i7 with it's 6490 graphics ran 11 fps lower on their gaming/video tests than the 2.53 i5 with the 330m. It encoded faster and did most other things faster but what we do is play videos first and edit second (atleast I do). I do understand the next video card up is better but I can't afford the extra 350ish for that.

This is the last time I'll bring this up but would you still recommend the i7 over it now?

i would go with the quad. you'll never know when you'll need the extra steam. it's better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it.

also it will increase re-sale value.

Went with the quad, kept looking into it and the specs I was comparing was for the 330m with 512 vram so in this case the 6490 would run faster and I'll have the extra cores :)