G4 Powerbooks and Quartz Ex

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Hi Guys I need a little help



I may be able to get a good deal on a second hand G4 Powerbook.



I already have a PowerBook G3 (FireWire) which I love, the only real reason to go for the Ti would be to get the Quartz Ex graphics.



Am I right in thinking not all the G4 Powerbooks can deliver it, if so which models will not so i can check if it is that model



thanks



j.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    ones with radeon mobilities apparently
  • Reply 2 of 14
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Anything 550 MHz or higher has the graphics card to handle Quartz Extreme. The 400 and 500 MHz ones use the exact same graphics card as your PowerBook G3 does, so there's really no point in getting one of those. Also, a number of 550 MHz units (and up) have Combo drives, which let you burn CDs and watch DVDs, which would be an improvement over the DVD drive in your G3.



    The real sweet spot for the PowerBook G4, though, is in the DVI models. Starting with the 667 and 800 MHz DVI ones released in April of 2002, all PowerBooks have had high resolution screens (1280x854 instead of 1152x768), combo drives (only some models previously had combo drives, others had DVD-ROM and occasionally a CD-RW), DVI output (for powering an external digital monitor), and 32 MB of VRAM or more which is optimal for Quartz Extreme. I'd suggest getting either a DVI PowerBook G4 or a new iBook if you want something cheaper... if you get an earlier PowerBook, you'll generally pay a lot for worse performance. Sure, you'll have a G4, but it'll be a slow G4, and it'll have a worse graphics card than the current iBooks, as well as a screen that barely provides any extra space compared to the iBooks.
  • Reply 3 of 14
    Johnrp....here is an excellent link to help you tell all the TiG4s apart:

    <a href="http://www.macopinion.com/columns/roadwarrior/02/12/10/index.html"; target="_blank">http://www.macopinion.com/columns/roadwarrior/02/12/10/index.html</a>;



    I too upgraded from a pismo500 to a used TiG4-800mhzDVI machine and TOTALLY recommend it.



    Good hunting.
  • Reply 4 of 14
    johnrpjohnrp Posts: 357member
    Thanks



    You have all been very helpfull. Armed with my new found knowledge I'm off to see it today.



    thanks again



    j.
  • Reply 5 of 14
    If you can get an 867 or a 1GHz, it's worth it. The Radeon 9000 is NICE.
  • Reply 6 of 14
    bodhibodhi Posts: 1,424member
    Has anyone really noticed ANY difference with "Quartz Extreme"? I mean really I have not noticed a damn thing...I think this is the best Marketing smoke screen Jobs has ever pulled. Aside from a slight increase in performance on an iBook with Radeon which you would notice anyway with a better graphics card I see no difference between my Dual 867 that had a GeForceTi card to my Powerbook that has 64MB Radeon to my friends 500MHz Powerbook with an 8mb Rage...
  • Reply 7 of 14
    cosmocosmo Posts: 662member
    disclaimer: i don't have a machine that supports QE



    i think what you do with your machine determines the amount of benefit taht QE provies.



    If you play multiple quicktime movies at once and minimize, resize, etc often then QE will help



    but if u don't use a lot of transparent windows, etc etc you won't see a differance
  • Reply 8 of 14
    bodhibodhi Posts: 1,424member
    Before QE: Resizing windows on OSX sucks.



    After QE: Resizing windows on OSX still sucks
  • Reply 9 of 14
    With Quartz Extreme the CPU monitor is steadily low even when I stress the hell out of the screen display. (Moving lots of windows around, etc.) It makes an especially big difference in my 3D modeling apps, when i'm dealing with lots of windows & beziers. granted the bezier calculations are done on chip, but the display of all the control points to the screen is done via QE.
  • Reply 10 of 14
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    [quote]Originally posted by Bodhi:

    <strong>Before QE: Resizing windows on OSX sucks.



    After QE: Resizing windows on OSX still sucks</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Live resizing is up to the application, not Quartz. If the app can't do it gracefully or quickly, all the graphics acceleration in the world won't help.



    I noticed a lot of things become much smoother with QE on my Cube w/RADEON. In particular, the Genie effect was jittery in 10.1 if I had a lot going on. It's silk-smooth now.



    It's important to remember that QE is not so much acceleration as added capability - some of which is acceleration. What it does is hugely increase the capabilities of the compositing layer. If you aren't using its capabilities much, you won't notice much difference.
  • Reply 11 of 14
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    For me, menu response is noticeably quicker with QE. Justification: The translucent overlay is off loaded to your GPU. This allows the CPU to chug away at whatever else you have running. Large menus, like safari's history menu, appear with much less delay.



    It appears as if the QE acceleration is perceived as significant by some users and only marginal by others.



    In my opinion, definately buy a QE capable machine.
  • Reply 12 of 14
    If you're looking at used PowerBooks, the other thing to consider is that the DVI models (667/800 and 867/1000) had significantly improved cooling. A friend of mine has one of the earlier 667s; the fan is on constantly (and noisily) and the case gets very hot. My 667DVI gets warm but never uncomfortable, and the fan almost never comes on.
  • Reply 13 of 14
    [QUOTE]Originally posted by Bodhi:

    [QB]Has anyone really noticed ANY difference with "Quartz Extreme"? I mean really I have not noticed a damn thing...I think this is the best Marketing smoke screen Jobs has ever pulled.



    A few things are a little smoother with QE, I think. But overall, you are right.
  • Reply 14 of 14
    I recently upgraded to a used 800mhzDVi-TiG4 from a Pismo and am liking it.



    I have been debating heavily between that, or the new 12"...but it came down to the wicked deal I got for the DVI-machine. (mint condition, warranty still good to sept2003...some girl bought it, and didnt like the design, so she bought an ibook800 instead.) I paid 200,000yen/$1500US for it. <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />



    Observations (compared to pismo500)...this thing is quite, fast, beautiful bright/sharp display, and I dont notice the heat. Most of the heat is on the bottom of the machine, not the top/keyboard area. When the fan on the Pismo came on it sounded like a siren compared to this beauty! From what I hear about the new 12" there is a lot of heat under the left wrist...not so on the Ti800.

    Too bad this badass Titanium is not a pocketable as the 12"...oh well can't have everything... <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[oyvey]" />
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