oh i found a very strange bug, don't know if anyone else is experiencing this one: in the power settings if you set the processor behavoir to the maximum and close preferences it resets itself to minimum...
I thought I saw someone comment though on a way to force it on even with less than the optimal VRAM, so it would work with 32?
I think that can be done to force Quartz Extreme to kick in on machines that it isn't "supposed: to run on, BUt I haven't seen any things to tweak to make Quartz 2-D Extreme run outside of its specs.
If the problem is low VRAM, enabling Quartz 2-D Extreme will make the GPU page itself to death trying to keep all that data on the card. It would probably make performance worse.
For everybody who doesn't see a difference, I see a marked smoothing of window resizing in just about all apps, especially Safari, when Q2DE is enabled and the app is restarted.
Ah I see, it is for QE, not QE2D. Sigh. Oh well hopefully I'll be able to pawn off my PB for enough to get a Mini or lowend iMac G5, refurb or something, in a few months.
Ah I see, it is for QE, not QE2D. Sigh. Oh well hopefully I'll be able to pawn off my PB for enough to get a Mini or lowend iMac G5, refurb or something, in a few months.
Careful here, since the Radeon 9200 in the current mini is too non-programmable. The next mini update will bring for sure a programmable GPU though (or so I think).
If I enable it so that the Finder uses the GPU, will that mean less memory available for other applications like games? Or, is Tiger "smart enough" to offload the GPU ram its using and let a game (or other program) use it?
I have a PB 1.33GHz with 64MB VRAM 5200 nVidia. So, every KB of memory counts for gaming.
Or, on the other hand, will enabling Q2DE help in gaming?
If I enable it so that the Finder uses the GPU, will that mean less memory available for other applications like games? Or, is Tiger "smart enough" to offload the GPU ram its using and let a game (or other program) use it?
You can try the ATI NVIDIA GET RAM utility. It would be very interesting to see if it can give us some idea about this.
If I enable it so that the Finder uses the GPU, will that mean less memory available for other applications like games? Or, is Tiger "smart enough" to offload the GPU ram its using and let a game (or other program) use it?
Apple hasn't said if there is an API to lock the video card to a particular app - but I wouldn't be surprised if there were.
But even if there isn't, the GPU will page out old video pages as new ones need to be saved - and after running the game for a few minutes without switching to anything else, it would be likely that the whole 64MB would be cached game graphics, minus what the card needs for Quartz Extreme.
I wonder what happens if we turn off QE but leave Q2-DE on? Hmm...
Strange... the Quartz Debug app lists my video card as unsupported, yet I have a brand-new G5 1.8 with a GeForceFX 5200. I though Apple had listed it as supported on their Tiger page.
what are you guys trying to prove with all these numbers? we know quartz 2d extreme improves graphics. who cares if your number is .02 away from someone else's?
Comments
tiger really disappointed me...
oh i found a very strange bug, don't know if anyone else is experiencing this one: in the power settings if you set the processor behavoir to the maximum and close preferences it resets itself to minimum...
Originally posted by Aquatic
I thought I saw someone comment though on a way to force it on even with less than the optimal VRAM, so it would work with 32?
I think that can be done to force Quartz Extreme to kick in on machines that it isn't "supposed: to run on, BUt I haven't seen any things to tweak to make Quartz 2-D Extreme run outside of its specs.
If the problem is low VRAM, enabling Quartz 2-D Extreme will make the GPU page itself to death trying to keep all that data on the card. It would probably make performance worse.
For everybody who doesn't see a difference, I see a marked smoothing of window resizing in just about all apps, especially Safari, when Q2DE is enabled and the app is restarted.
Originally posted by Aquatic
I thought I saw someone comment though on a way to force it on even with less than the optimal VRAM, so it would work with 32?
Don't keep hope. Core I/V and Quartz2D REQUIRE a programmable GPU. If this technology is not there, the VRAM alone cannot make it work.
Originally posted by Aquatic
Ah I see, it is for QE, not QE2D. Sigh. Oh well hopefully I'll be able to pawn off my PB for enough to get a Mini or lowend iMac G5, refurb or something, in a few months.
Careful here, since the Radeon 9200 in the current mini is too non-programmable. The next mini update will bring for sure a programmable GPU though (or so I think).
And I mean in a negative way.
If I enable it so that the Finder uses the GPU, will that mean less memory available for other applications like games? Or, is Tiger "smart enough" to offload the GPU ram its using and let a game (or other program) use it?
I have a PB 1.33GHz with 64MB VRAM 5200 nVidia. So, every KB of memory counts for gaming.
Or, on the other hand, will enabling Q2DE help in gaming?
I just ran Xbench. First of all, without Quartz Extreme 2D running. Here were the scores:
Quartz Graphics Test\t143.61\t
\tLine\t115.27\t2.93 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
\tRectangle\t121.83\t8.57 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
\tCircle\t135.61\t3.13 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
\tBezier\t160.24\t1.74 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
\tText\t 231.62\t3.78 Kchars/sec
Then I quit Xbench and used the Quartz Debug app. I enabled Q 2D Extreme. Here are the results:
Quartz Graphics Test\t205.91\t
\tLine\t204.25\t5.20 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
\tRectangle\t223.46\t15.72 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
\tCircle\t259.95\t5.99 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
\tBezier\t160.61\t1.75 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
\tText\t 206.72\t3.37 Kchars/sec
So it appears it works for at least some of the tests in Xbench. I think the differences are too much for a "re-run bonus" but who knows.
Originally posted by ZO
If I enable it so that the Finder uses the GPU, will that mean less memory available for other applications like games? Or, is Tiger "smart enough" to offload the GPU ram its using and let a game (or other program) use it?
You can try the ATI NVIDIA GET RAM utility. It would be very interesting to see if it can give us some idea about this.
Originally posted by ZO
If I enable it so that the Finder uses the GPU, will that mean less memory available for other applications like games? Or, is Tiger "smart enough" to offload the GPU ram its using and let a game (or other program) use it?
Apple hasn't said if there is an API to lock the video card to a particular app - but I wouldn't be surprised if there were.
But even if there isn't, the GPU will page out old video pages as new ones need to be saved - and after running the game for a few minutes without switching to anything else, it would be likely that the whole 64MB would be cached game graphics, minus what the card needs for Quartz Extreme.
I wonder what happens if we turn off QE but leave Q2-DE on? Hmm...
Go to this site and run the test with Q2DE enabled/disabled.
I get 60/4 sec for test 6
Originally posted by mattyj
I complete the test in 9.06 seconds.
Did you restart Safari after en-/disabling Q2DE?
Firefox takes 23.09 seconds
Opera takes 11.78 seconds (interestingly its fast than Safari in every test except Test 4).
Camino takes 12.1 seconds.
Without Quartz 2D Extreme enabled, I got 9.06 seconds with safari.
With it enabled...
95.96 seconds!
I wonder why it isn't enabled yet...