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Intel Mac Mini Graphics Surprise

The change from ATI Radeon 9200 graphics card to integrated Intel Graphics is more than a bit puzzling to me.

Ok, so the integrated Intel has 64MB as opposed to the Radeon’s 32MB. But Apple has thrown us a curve. Not only is the Intel Graphics “shared”, Apple states “1. Memory available to Mac OS X may vary depending on graphics needs. Minimum graphics memory usage is 80MB, resulting in 432MB of system memory available.”.

Am I reading this right? Minimum graphics usage requires more than Apple has provided for with their Intel integrated graphics? So, the most system memory you will ever have available is 432MB instead of the 512MB advertised.

Can someone explain to me how this is an improvement and why the same Mac OS X that worked with a 32MB graphics card now requires at least 80MB?

The change from ATI Radeon 9200 graphics card to integrated Intel Graphics is more than a bit puzzling to me.

Ok, so the integrated Intel has 64MB as opposed to the Radeon’s 32MB. But Apple has thrown us a curve. Not only is the Intel Graphics “shared”, Apple states “1. Memory available to Mac OS X may vary depending on graphics needs. Minimum graphics memory usage is 80MB, resulting in 432MB of system memory available.”.

Am I reading this right? Minimum graphics usage requires more than Apple has provided for with their Intel integrated graphics? So, the most system memory you will ever have available is 432MB instead of the 512MB advertised.

Can someone explain to me how this is an improvement and why the same Mac OS X that worked with a 32MB graphics card now requires at least 80MB?

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.