The Quartz Savior?
I have just read the following at the launch of the new Nvidia GeForce 4 GPU:-
"In a question and answer session following the presentation, Huang noted Apple's early adoption of the technology. Apple engineers are working very fast on implementing the features of the new technology in their own hardware and operating system software, he said."
Could this resolve sluggishness of quartz interface? It sounds to me like that is what the Apple engineers are doing.
[ 02-06-2002: Message edited by: JW Pepper ]</p>
"In a question and answer session following the presentation, Huang noted Apple's early adoption of the technology. Apple engineers are working very fast on implementing the features of the new technology in their own hardware and operating system software, he said."
Could this resolve sluggishness of quartz interface? It sounds to me like that is what the Apple engineers are doing.
[ 02-06-2002: Message edited by: JW Pepper ]</p>
Comments
It could also refer to Apple hustling to get the new OpenGL features implemented.
ibook needs g4, new gpu, thats about all it needs, i'm not gunna talk about ddr in an ibook
why is this title the quartz killer? wont it be the quartz savior?
[ 02-05-2002: Message edited by: janitor ]</p>
PowerMac G5...
GeForce 4 Ti standard (at least on top 2 models)....
64-bit OS X 10.2 to take advantage of GF4 and fully optimized.....
[quote]NVIDIA was also able to see that the majority of people are unwilling to pay huge sums for this new level of 3D-realism. Those people know that they can have fun even with games that are more than a year old. For those guys, NVIDIA is introducing GeForce4 MX, a product that is a derivative of GeForce2 and missing the funky features of GeForce3 or GeForce4 Ti. <hr></blockquote>
So those of you who are underwhelmed by the performance of the GeForce4 MX in the new PowerMac towers now know why -- it is closer to a GeForce2 than anything else (though still a quite capable card).
The good news is that the real deal, the GeForce4 Ti is available for G4 Tower PowerMacs now, and it seems extremely possible that it will accelerate Quartz in new and interesting ways, if Apple takes advantage of the features it offers.
For a full writeup on the GeForce4 Ti, I suggest going here:
<a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/02q1/020206/index.html"; target="_blank">http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/02q1/020206/index.html</a>;
As others have noted, the spec sheet for the Mac version does say Full acceleration for Mac® OS X Aqua Interface:
<a href="http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=macintosh"; target="_blank">http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=macintosh</a>;
Things could get interesting...
<strong>From Tom's Hardware:
So those of you who are underwhelmed by the performance of the GeForce4 MX in the new PowerMac towers now know why -- it is closer to a GeForce2 than anything else (though still a quite capable card).
The good news is that the real deal, the GeForce4 Ti is available for G4 Tower PowerMacs now, and it seems extremely possible that it will accelerate Quartz in new and interesting ways, if Apple takes advantage of the features it offers.
..</strong><hr></blockquote>
here an interesting link from agent 302 : <a href="http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/geforce4/default.a"; target="_blank">http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/geforce4/default.a</a>;
This section may be interesting :
While the GeForce4 MX sports the "4" designation taken from the GeForce family, the GeForce4 MX isn't a stripped down GeForce4 Ti board. Instead it's more of a hybrid GeForce2/4 board, incorporating a few of the features present in the GeForce4 and running the GPU/memory at a higher clock speed.
An important technology that has been incorporated into GeForce4 MX is NVIDIA's Accuview antialiasing. This brings AA modes Quincux and 4xs to the mainstream market, and like the GeForce4 Ti, Quincux AA is essentially free. As a result, the GeForce4 MX can give the Ti 500 a run for its money with Quincux, making it a powerful AA card for the consumer on a tight budget. Unfortunately, the quad memory controllers present on the GeForce3 and GeForce4 Ti boards didn't make their way to GeForce4 MX, the GPU sports dual memory controllers instead. In a similar fashion, vertex and pixel shaders are also lacking, leaving the host CPU to perform these calculations.
One unique feature that isn't present on the GeForce4 Ti boards however is NVIDIA's video processing engine. The video processing engine is equipped with an onboard MPEG2 decoder, resulting in smooth DVD playback performance. And with personal video recording functionality built-in, a GeForce4 MX-equipped PC has definite potential as a low-cost PC for general entertainment.
[ 02-06-2002: Message edited by: powerdoc ]</p>
<strong>
As others have noted, the spec sheet for the Mac version does say Full acceleration for Mac® OS X Aqua Interface:
<a href="http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=macintosh"; target="_blank">http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=macintosh</a>;
Things could get interesting...</strong><hr></blockquote>
Not to rain on the parade, but this statement could be taken to mean "we've accelerated everything that Apple lets us accelerate, which isn't much". I hope that the situation is better than that though...
<strong>There is no raycer chip, nor is there any Apple graphics card. What we're talking about hereis merely Apple putting some talent and networking to work on a nice tight integration of the next OpenGL update with OSX.</strong><hr></blockquote>
thats what i said <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
[quote]Originally posted by janitor:<strong>not their own or some raycer rumor</strong><hr></blockquote>
[ 02-07-2002: Message edited by: Moogs ? ]</p>
<a href="http://forums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=46&t=003478"; target="_blank">GeForce 4 Accelerates Aqua</a>
Though the people at MacNN are no more experts on the matter than we are, it sounds like there is verifiable evidence (from developer newsgroup threads and Apple comments) that they have indeed been working on improvements to OS X (hopefully 10.2?) that will allow Quartz to be accerlerated by the GPU. Further it sounds like anyone who uses a:
Radeon Mac Edition
Radeon 7500
or Any GeForce card
should be able to take advantage of this to some extent, which makes perfect sense. Apple would be nuts to only offer GPU acceleration for one or two cards.
Time will tell I guess. On a tangent, I've often heard comments to the effect that Radeon cards handle DVD playback better than competing NVidia cards - any truth to this, and if so any indication from the specs that the GeForce 4 will put an end to same?
I read in <a href="http://xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/Radeon7500_vs_geforce4mx/index.html"; target="_blank">this</a> article over at xlr8yourmac that the ATI cards do indeed handle DVD playing better than the NVidia cards. A 'report' from an ATI engineer explains why.