<p>The Radeon 6490M will be fine. Any modern video card will run 3-D modeling in Autocad. I don’t know how much of a speed difference it will make and I don’t know the price difference between the cards, but unless your playing some graphic intensive games the cheaper one will be enough.</p>
<p>Alright. I don’t play any games. I’ll go with the cheaper one and upgrade the ram</p>
<p>Was it a choice between the graphics card and RAM? Sorry, I’m not familiar with the costs of different customizations of Macbook Pro.
Anything over 4GB of RAM, even if you are doing 3D modeling, it is most likely you will not notice any difference in performance.</p>
<p>Well, I’m probably going to upgrade ram either way. Will the better graphics card be that much of difference where i will want to get it?</p>
<p>Not for what you will be using it for. </p>
<p>Really all you need is the 2ghz processsor, the 6490M, and 4gb of ram, but it all depends on how much you want to spend. I wouldn’t get more then what you need.</p>
<p>If you plan to upgrade RAM from the base 4 GB to 8 GB, you may want to get the RAM from a third-party vendor and install it yourself. Apple will charge $200 for the upgrade, but a company like [url=<a href=“http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3_1333MHz_SDRAM]OWC[/url”>Memory/ RAM Upgrades For Apple MacBook Pro 2011 from OWC]OWC[/url</a>] will sell you the RAM for just $80 (not including a potential $14 [url=<a href=“http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/support/rebates/memory.cfm]rebate[/url”>Apple Mac Upgrades - RAM, SSD Flash, External Drives and More]rebate[/url</a>] if you “trade in” your original Apple RAM). </p>
<p>The memory is intended by Apple to be user-servicable, so the RAM replacement [url=<a href=“MacBook Pro: How to remove or install memory - Apple Support”>MacBook Pro: How to remove or install memory - Apple Support]procedure[/url</a>] is relatively simple, and does not affect the Apple warranty.</p>
<p>$200 to upgrade??? Wow this is why I hate Apple.An upgrade should be $50 at the most. Like Corbett said 8gb can be bought for around $80 and it will probably be better quality too.</p>
<p>
I wouldn’t expect better quality. Apple hardware is typically high quality, and their RAM is no exception. For example, the third-party vendor that I suggested above will give you a rebate if you choose to “trade-in” your old RAM – but the rebate is larger for Apple RAM. </p>
<p>Is 8 GB of Apple RAM worth $200? Well, maybe not, which I why I suggested an alternative. But Apple isn’t forcing anyone to pay $200 for the RAM upgrade. They are simply offering the choice; buyers are free to decline it and install their own RAM if they wish. </p>
<p>
I recently upgraded an XP box to Windows 7 Professional. Ironically, my thoughts were:</p>
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</p>
<p>Good point, but software is so easily pirated that it forces them to charge more. They probably make the majority of the money off schools and companies who have to pay and it’s just expected a large percentage of individuals are going to get it for free.</p>
<p>Why not get a lenovo thinkpad w520 with 2.2 ghz, 8gbs of ram, 500gb hardrdrive, 1920 by 1080 hd screeen and with NVIDIA Quadro 1000M Graphics with 2GB DDR3 Memory? For about $1470 with no tax?</p>