Enabling Quartz 2-D Extreme in Tiger

lundylundy
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
All of you folks with a Radeon 9600 or better, or nVidia 5200 go or better, don't forget to turn on Quartz 2-D Extreme. The following is copied from John Siracusa's fantastic Tiger review on Ars Technica:











Right click this link to download, unzip and run the Quartz Debug application at



http://www.johnnylundy.com/Quartz%20Debug.zip



Choose "Enable Quartz 2-D Extreme" from the menu and leave Quartz Debug open. RE-LAUNCH all apps that you want to take advantage of it.



I will put this post in a sticky at the top of Mac OS.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 79
    hobbeshobbes Posts: 1,252member
    You can also edit the plist com.apple.windowserver.plist located in /Library/Preferences/; change Quartz2DExtremeEnabled to YES.



    Note too that there's very likely a reason why Apple deemed Q2DE not quite ready for prime time in 10.4.0. That said, enjoy!
  • Reply 2 of 79
    algolalgol Posts: 833member
    It doesn't make sense to me why apple would have it turned off sense it should increase performance of the OS on computer with newer GPUs.
  • Reply 3 of 79
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,425member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Algol

    It doesn't make sense to me why apple would have it turned off sense it should increase performance of the OS on computer with newer GPUs.





    It's probably buggy.
  • Reply 4 of 79
    not unlike myselfnot unlike myself Posts: 2,037member
    They have to save something to 'turn on' for Leopard 10.5



  • Reply 5 of 79
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    Not to mention when more graphics chips are available for Q2D extreme to be BTO options then people will be pleased.
  • Reply 6 of 79
    s.metcalfs.metcalf Posts: 972member
    So has anyone that's enabled Q2DE noticed any bugs or their system becoming more unstable? I should be picking up my copy of Tiger today, would be interested to know whether there's any problems leaving it enabled.
  • Reply 7 of 79
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    Will it work with a Radeon 8500 with 64MB VRAM?
  • Reply 8 of 79
    dave marshdave marsh Posts: 349member
    I don't believe the Radeon 8500 (64MB) card has Pixel/Vertex Shader version 2.0, so the answer is no. The oldest card meeting this requirement is the Radeon 9500. See the below link for cards that are compatible:

    http://www.neeyik.info/3dspecs/
  • Reply 9 of 79
    yuyyuy Posts: 11member
    any bug?



    or Apple just turn it off to avoid clash with low-end graphic cards?
  • Reply 10 of 79
    danmacmandanmacman Posts: 773member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Hobbes

    You can also edit the plist com.apple.windowserver.plist located in /Library/Preferences/; change Quartz2DExtremeEnabled to YES.



    Does this mod require that you re-enable it after a restart, or is it a lasting change?
  • Reply 11 of 79
    hobbeshobbes Posts: 1,252member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by DanMacMan

    Does this mod require that you re-enable it after a restart, or is it a lasting change?



    I believe it's lasting, until the plist attribute is changed back to NO.
  • Reply 12 of 79
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    It should be noted that com.apple.windowserver.plist does not exist in a system without Q2D Extreme graphics capabilities (iBook 1Ghz G4 as an example).



    Secondly, after testing it on a Powerbook 15.2" 1.5Ghz system with:



    ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 with 64MB of DDR SDRAM



    com.apple.windowserver.plist property list is there but no reference to Q2D Extreme.



    Downloading the Debug Utility and enabling it indeed shows improvement in Tiger.
  • Reply 13 of 79
    ipodandimacipodandimac Posts: 3,273member
    how safe is all of this? i don't want my card getting overheated or voiding some warranty.
  • Reply 14 of 79
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ipodandimac

    how safe is all of this? i don't want my card getting overheated or voiding some warranty.



    Works just fine. In debug mode, if anything you might be able to discover some reproducible bugs that you can submit to Apple and have it role into 10.4.1.



    I filed several yesterday on Preview.app and its PDFX-3 flaws among other issues. I gave them the various scenarios and steps to reproduce and encouraged them to tag it against Appkit and where else necessary.



    Bugs will be found and should be found--we are the best testers Apple can afford.
  • Reply 15 of 79
    greeneggsaregoodgreeneggsaregood Posts: 32member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by mdriftmeyer

    It should be noted that com.apple.windowserver.plist does not exist in a system without Q2D Extreme graphics capabilities (iBook 1Ghz G4 as an example).



    Secondly, after testing it on a Powerbook 15.2" 1.5Ghz system with:



    ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 with 64MB of DDR SDRAM



    com.apple.windowserver.plist property list is there but no reference to Q2D Extreme.



    Downloading the Debug Utility and enabling it indeed shows improvement in Tiger.



    Hey Mdriftmeyer,



    I have the same powerbook but i do not have the com.apple.windowserver.plist on my system. Any suggestions?



    Thanks.
  • Reply 16 of 79
    hobbeshobbes Posts: 1,252member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by mdriftmeyer

    com.apple.windowserver.plist property list is there but no reference to Q2D Extreme.



    Oh, is that so? I'm quoting someone else here, don't have Tiger yet. Plists are now binary by default, unfortunately, so you'd have to edit/convert them using plutil.
  • Reply 17 of 79
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ipodandimac

    how safe is all of this? i don't want my card getting overheated or voiding some warranty.



    I've been running it for at least six months and my Radeon 9600 is fine.
  • Reply 18 of 79
    icfireballicfireball Posts: 2,594member
    I enabled it in the debug utilt. but it dosnt stay enabled.
  • Reply 19 of 79
    gregmightdothatgregmightdothat Posts: 1,709member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by icfireball

    I enabled it in the debug utilt. but it dosnt stay enabled.



    it only stays enabled while the debug is open.
  • Reply 20 of 79
    hitbyhitby Posts: 38member
    Hi all, Could someone confirm how to make this change permanent? Is it something along the lines of



    plutil 1 /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist



    ?? Not knowing anything about terminal at all?



    Cheers

    Dan
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