I hope Apple's Radeon Drivers are [i]half[/i] as rad...
... as the new shiny linux radeon drivers!!
I just got DRM (Direct Rendering, for 3D) working on my Xfree86 4.3 Gentoo linux partition on a TiBook 867mhz w/ Radeon 9000.
It RoxXors like you wouldn't believe!!!
Check these screenshots out: http://stimuli.ca/linux/images/screenshot.png http://stimuli.ca/linux/images/screenshot1.png
both images approx. 70KB
That's right: 1% of my cpu is being used to play mp3s using xmms w/ iris GL visual plugin! You can see the CPU usage on the left side of the screen under the '+7' (it's an app called GKrellM, a system monitor that uses like 0.001% cpu usage to monitor everything). Try that with iTunes and Geforce visuals, baby! Fullscreen, makes no difference.
Armagetron at 1280x854 resolution uses a piggish 10-20% of my processing power... which means I can play Armagetron while compiling software with no performance loss!
GL screensavers like superquadrics (available for OSX as well) use 0% CPU.
OMFG, this is too rad!1!2#@!!
So I propose
a) Apple seriously figure why iTunes is such a cpu pig at simple mp3 playback (which I've wondered from day #1) and
b) Apple get their hands on ATI's latest and greatest radeon driver source code, because it's quite simply the sweetest software I've used ever. OpenGL flies on this 'book like I never thought possible. WITHOUT touching the CPU!
If Linux can do it, so can OSX (and probly will w/ 10.2.5)
Unreal.
Had to share.
bye!
I just got DRM (Direct Rendering, for 3D) working on my Xfree86 4.3 Gentoo linux partition on a TiBook 867mhz w/ Radeon 9000.
It RoxXors like you wouldn't believe!!!
Check these screenshots out: http://stimuli.ca/linux/images/screenshot.png http://stimuli.ca/linux/images/screenshot1.png
both images approx. 70KB
That's right: 1% of my cpu is being used to play mp3s using xmms w/ iris GL visual plugin! You can see the CPU usage on the left side of the screen under the '+7' (it's an app called GKrellM, a system monitor that uses like 0.001% cpu usage to monitor everything). Try that with iTunes and Geforce visuals, baby! Fullscreen, makes no difference.
Armagetron at 1280x854 resolution uses a piggish 10-20% of my processing power... which means I can play Armagetron while compiling software with no performance loss!
GL screensavers like superquadrics (available for OSX as well) use 0% CPU.
OMFG, this is too rad!1!2#@!!
So I propose
a) Apple seriously figure why iTunes is such a cpu pig at simple mp3 playback (which I've wondered from day #1) and
b) Apple get their hands on ATI's latest and greatest radeon driver source code, because it's quite simply the sweetest software I've used ever. OpenGL flies on this 'book like I never thought possible. WITHOUT touching the CPU!
If Linux can do it, so can OSX (and probly will w/ 10.2.5)
Unreal.
Had to share.
bye!
Comments
I think Apple's display drivers and such are quite impressive, actually. Just take VLC and play a DVD. Minimize it, drag it around, make it and stack of windows transparent, etc.
Most of the software DVD players I've seen in Windows and in Linux/BSD/UNIX use crappy overlays and you can see the windows and images separate when dragged.
Drag any window fast enough in Windows even with the nicest video cards and you get tearing as well.
Originally posted by 1337_5L4Xx0R
Check these screenshots out: http://stimuli.ca/linux/images/screenshot.png http://stimuli.ca/linux/images/screenshot1.png
both images approx. 70KB
That's right: 1% of my cpu is being used to play mp3s using xmms w/ iris GL visual plugin! You can see the CPU usage on the left side of the screen under the '+7' (it's an app called GKrellM, a system monitor that uses like 0.001% cpu usage to monitor everything). Try that with iTunes and Geforce visuals, baby! Fullscreen, makes no difference.
Those visuals are nothing compared to Apple's.
I don't know about Iris GL, but Apple's iTunes visuals aren't just G-Force.
Correct. It is G-Force with an Apple logo over it
Trust me, Eug, I've been using GF since it first came out (it was originally a Macast plugin back in the day, before being ported to every player/platform known to man). They've maybe added some more config files for visuals (which you could write yourself for the orig. GF), but yep, its G-Force (written by a straight-edge bible thumper named Andy O'Meara).
But we digress. The point was the crazy efficiency of resources, particularly while doing moderate OpenGL (actually, Mesa GL) realtime 3d goodness. I found this remarkable, as I've never seen such efficiency on any OS before.
No question though, that Quartz Extreme roxXors my boXxors.
CubeDude: See the line about G-Force being ported to every player/platform known to man. I'm not slagging iTunes, just amazed at what a CPU hog it is (As compared to all players I've used except maybe Audion). Even minimized, in the dock, no visuals at all it uses at least 12% (averaged) CPU time on a TiBook 867mhz. Xmms + 3d GFX + gkrellm + networking (that's streaming MP3, baby) etc in background weighs in at a whopping 1% cpu usage. That's pretty darn cool.
Think of it as a goal for iTunes. It can be done. You just saw it.
Anyway, I expect the next Radeon drivers for Mac will roxor, as I'm sure they use the same codebase as the X11 drivers for other *nixes.
Every visual looks good, everything is polished. Moreso with every release.
But nothing beats JESS!
Barto
Originally posted by 1337_5L4Xx0R
CubeDude: See the line about G-Force being ported to every player/platform known to man. I'm not slagging iTunes, just amazed at what a CPU hog it is (As compared to all players I've used except maybe Audion). Even minimized, in the dock, no visuals at all it uses at least 12% (averaged) CPU time on a TiBook 867mhz. Xmms + 3d GFX + gkrellm + networking (that's streaming MP3, baby) etc in background weighs in at a whopping 1% cpu usage. That's pretty darn cool.
Think of it as a goal for iTunes. It can be done. You just saw it.
You're right. iTunes is a CPU hog. But do you really sit at your computer and watch MP3 visuals for a very long time? I only use them to impress my friends(computer illiterates). I'd like to see Apple get CPU usage down to <5%, and I think they will in the next 3.x version of iTunes.
But do you really sit at your computer and watch MP3 visuals for a very long time?
True enough. You'd have to be either a) hella bored or b) high, to stare for longer than two minutes. The appeal does wear thin.
I've no idea what sort of overhead core audio has on OSX, maybe it's part of iTunes hoggishness? I doubt it though. I'd like to try console mp3 player such as mplayer3 or ksmp3 but have yet to peep such a port to osx. I doubt it's as simple as a recompile (core audio and all).
One other area where CPU spikes surprise me in OSX is networking. Downloading the 170MB Gentoo disc image yesterday, i was surprised to see my CPU using about 50% for that and not much else. Why on earth would retrieving a file (and maxxing my bandwidth, more or less) use so much processing power? what's to process? Weird. Maybe it's a Camino thing, specifically.
Originally posted by 1337_5L4Xx0R
I've no idea what sort of overhead core audio has on OSX, maybe it's part of iTunes hoggishness? I doubt it though. I'd like to try console mp3 player such as mplayer3 or ksmp3 but have yet to peep such a port to osx. I doubt it's as simple as a recompile (core audio and all).
http://www.apple.com/macosx/technologies/audio.html