hardware h.264 decode on macbook (non-pro)

[Essence_of_War]

I'm trying to figure out which macbook's with Nvidia GPUs support hardware h.264 decode. It looks like anything with GeForce 9400M or 320M should support it, so that means macbooks: (5,1) (5,2) (6,1) or (7,1)?

Does that sound about right?

 

[Eug]

Yes.

2008 aluminum unibody MacBook
2009 white MacBook or later

2008 and earlier white MacBooks do not support hardware H.264.

Makes a humungous difference too. Just watching even 480p H.264 on a 2008 white MacBook 2.4 GHz with GMA X3100 (MacBook 4,1) ramps up the fan, and 1080p H.264 stresses it out. It can play 1080p back basically smoothly, but it can't do anything else at the same time, and the fan is in vacuum cleaner mode.

My 2009 MacBook Pro 2.26 GHz (MacBook 5,5) with GeForce 9400M is happy as a clam, and stays quiet.

 

[Essence_of_War]

My 2009 MacBook Pro 2.26 GHz (MacBook 5,5) with GeForce 9400M is happy as a clam, and stays quiet.

This is really good to know! I have a friend with a well-taken care of 2009 MB that they are thinking of replacing, so I was considering buying it from them and giving it to my fiance to replace her chromebook. She's run into some situations where it was really great that the chromebook was so light and compact, but really annoying that it couldn't do some basic work related things she needed it to do, and hardware h.264 could be a deal maker/breaker.

 

[Eug]

I believe all of those machines listed that support hardware H.264 decode are also Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite capable. This is important too, since older machines only support up to Lion 10.7, and software support for 10.7 is becoming a bit spotty, esp. from Apple.

 

[Essence_of_War]

I was checking on that too, and came to the same conclusions re: yosemite. It looks like this could be a very tidy little hardware move!

 

[Koing]

Put an SSD in it and it will feel super responsive.

Koing

 

[mmntech]

Put an SSD in it and it will feel super responsive.

Koing

SSDs make a huge difference in those things. You can also get kits to replace the optical drive with an HDD if you want/need bulk storage.

 

[Koing]

SSDs make a huge difference in those things. You can also get kits to replace the optical drive with an HDD if you want/need bulk storage.

I have a 256GB 830 Pro in my now 2008 macbook that I don't use anymore 🙁. The trackpad is really funny how a days but I can't bare to sell it. I'll get around to putting the old HD back in it and use the SSD for something else.

Koing