A little snappiness/speed test

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Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Simple test. Get out your second hand. Right now, push your F5 (volume up) button. Now wait. How many seconds before you get the "bwap" sound and the little speaker icon shows up on the screen? And post your machine.



iBook G4 1 ghz OS 10.4. It took 4 seconds.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22
    meelashmeelash Posts: 1,045member
    It would depend on how many/what programs are running in the background...
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  • Reply 2 of 22
    progmacprogmac Posts: 1,850member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by meelash


    It would depend on how many/what programs are running in the background...



    it would depend on a lot of stuff. i'm not researching a thesis here.
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  • Reply 3 of 22
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    That pisses me off especially that the volume change doesn't occur immediately.
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  • Reply 4 of 22
    meelashmeelash Posts: 1,045member
    Yeah, it is weird. Once it starts changing then it's snappy (TM) but it seems to have to "start up." It's kind of like Dashboard. ? The menu bar doesn't do it I believe. By the way, Progmac, I'll be posting my time when I get home tonight.
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  • Reply 5 of 22
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by meelash


    Yeah, it is weird. Once it starts changing then it's snappy (TM) but it seems to have to "start up." It's kind of like Dashboard. ? The menu bar doesn't do it I believe. By the way, Progmac, I'll be posting my time when I get home tonight.





    That's because it does have to start up. All of this is handled by the BezelUIServer process. It is launched on-demand. To see for yourself, just start Activity Monitor, enter "Bezel" into the search field, then quickly change your volume or display brightness repeatedly for few seconds.



    The images it uses reside in /System/Library/LoginPlugins/BezelServices.loginPlugin/Contents/Resources/BezelUI. If you go up two levels in the directory hierarchy, you will also find the sound used when changing the volume.
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  • Reply 6 of 22
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Happens almost instantaneously on iMac G5. I'm wondering if on your iBook the disk has to spin up. That the only part I can think of that's going to cause a 4 second pause. Why the disk needs to spin up is another issue.
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  • Reply 7 of 22
    thegarthegar Posts: 92member
    Almost 2 seconds on a 2x2.7 G5, at least the first time after startup. Once cached, it's immediate.
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  • Reply 8 of 22
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    almost instantly on an iMac G3 350. (Mac OS 10.3.9)
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  • Reply 9 of 22
    meelashmeelash Posts: 1,045member
    Well, I just tried it and it was almost immediate (<.5 sec). However, I've noticed other times that there is considerable lag.



    EDIT: Just put it to sleep and woke up and tried it and it was maybe a second....
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  • Reply 10 of 22
    fooeyfooey Posts: 52member
    mine came up before i even pushed it. These macs are getting smarter and smarter..
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  • Reply 11 of 22
    This is something I wish Apple would have simply placed a 'volume' knob on the keyboard or screen. There's something very gratifying about immediate feedback, and nothing beats the knob... with apologies to our British friends.
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  • Reply 12 of 22
    It's my understanding that as a powersaving thing, Apple have made it so that the audio kernel extensions are unloaded after a period of no use. Perhaps the 4 second lag on the iBook has to do with this. Keep audio playing when doing this test.
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  • Reply 13 of 22
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by 1337_5L4Xx0R


    It's my understanding that as a powersaving thing, Apple have made it so that the audio kernel extensions are unloaded after a period of no use. Perhaps the 4 second lag on the iBook has to do with this. Keep audio playing when doing this test.



    No, audio playing or not has nothin to do with this, the problem is as [alloc init] said, in caching. Those audio components aren't kept in permanent memory, but instead they are swapped out of memory after a while when they are not needed. When needed they need to get swapped back. Loading videos or other memory intensive tasks lengthen the load time even more. For people with lots of memory it would be nice if apple enabled keeping these components in permanent memory. Same goes with dashboard widgets.
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  • Reply 14 of 22
    cosmonutcosmonut Posts: 4,872member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Project2501


    For people with lots of memory it would be nice if apple enabled keeping these components in permanent memory. Same goes with dashboard widgets.



    Yeah, I know. It's absolute hell to wait 2.5 seconds for the current temperature to pop up.
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  • Reply 15 of 22
    meelashmeelash Posts: 1,045member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by CosmoNut


    Yeah, I know. It's absolute hell to wait 2.5 seconds for the current temperature to pop up.



    It's a lot longer than 2.5 seconds for dashboard to pop up on my machine, especially with a ton of widgets. More like thirty to a minute. Defeats the whole point of Dashboard.
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  • Reply 16 of 22
    meelashmeelash Posts: 1,045member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Project2501


    No, audio playing or not has nothin to do with this, the problem is as [alloc init] said, in caching. Those audio components aren't kept in permanent memory, but instead they are swapped out of memory after a while when they are not needed. When needed they need to get swapped back. Loading videos or other memory intensive tasks lengthen the load time even more. For people with lots of memory it would be nice if apple enabled keeping these components in permanent memory. Same goes with dashboard widgets.



    There is something with audio playing, too at least on my PB although it is probably unrelated. When something is played, even a system sound, there is a slight pop as if the audio is turning on. This happens even if the volume is all the way down.
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  • Reply 17 of 22
    progmacprogmac Posts: 1,850member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by meelash


    There is something with audio playing, too at least on my PB although it is probably unrelated. When something is played, even a system sound, there is a slight pop as if the audio is turning on. This happens even if the volume is all the way down.



    funny, i just noticed that same thing on my ibook. kind of a distant low-frequency pop and then the real pop comes up with the screen graphic.
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  • Reply 18 of 22
    meelashmeelash Posts: 1,045member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by progmac


    funny, i just noticed that same thing on my ibook. kind of a distant low-frequency pop and then the real pop comes up with the screen graphic.



    Correction: I meant, "even if the volume is muted." Play any sound and you'll hear it. You also hear it at startup which is something I've noticed on Dell's too. However, it seems once it's on on a Dell it stays on, but Apple powers down the sound circuit or something. Maybe it's just on laptops?
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  • Reply 19 of 22
    cosmonutcosmonut Posts: 4,872member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by meelash


    It's a lot longer than 2.5 seconds for dashboard to pop up on my machine, especially with a ton of widgets. More like thirty to a minute. Defeats the whole point of Dashboard.



    Then methinks you have too many widgets.
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  • Reply 20 of 22
    meelashmeelash Posts: 1,045member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by CosmoNut


    Then methinks you have too many widgets.



    psshhh! What are you, some kind of widget nazi?
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