iBook running Tiger: Good? Bad? Ugly?
long-time reader ... first-time poster.
I've done my share of surfing 'round these forums, and I still can't find a definitive answer for the following:
What is it exactly about Tiger that doesn't work right because of the iBook's video card?
I'm looking into getting an iBook (probably a 14"), and will be using it for (in order of importance, natch):
1) browsing the 'Net
2) word processing
3) iTunes/iPhoto
4) iMovie (every once in a while)
Is it honestly better to spend more money (than I have, really) on a PowerBook just for it's souped-up video card? I see that as being the only reason I'd "need" a PB, y'know? I'm not a gamer, nor am I looking to do a lot of video editing or anything graphics-heavy.
I do want to be able to use most of the cool things about Tiger (i.e. Widgets), seeing as how they're a big reason for upgrading.
ETA: I have a somewhat upgraded PowerMac G4 right now (just don't ask me what it's got inside -- my friend installed everything, he's the Mac genius), running Panther. I plan to upgrade to Tiger soon on this computer, as well as get it pre-installed on my future iBook.
Thanks in advance.
I've done my share of surfing 'round these forums, and I still can't find a definitive answer for the following:
What is it exactly about Tiger that doesn't work right because of the iBook's video card?
I'm looking into getting an iBook (probably a 14"), and will be using it for (in order of importance, natch):
1) browsing the 'Net
2) word processing
3) iTunes/iPhoto
4) iMovie (every once in a while)
Is it honestly better to spend more money (than I have, really) on a PowerBook just for it's souped-up video card? I see that as being the only reason I'd "need" a PB, y'know? I'm not a gamer, nor am I looking to do a lot of video editing or anything graphics-heavy.
I do want to be able to use most of the cool things about Tiger (i.e. Widgets), seeing as how they're a big reason for upgrading.
ETA: I have a somewhat upgraded PowerMac G4 right now (just don't ask me what it's got inside -- my friend installed everything, he's the Mac genius), running Panther. I plan to upgrade to Tiger soon on this computer, as well as get it pre-installed on my future iBook.
Thanks in advance.
Comments
I don't use iMovie, but I do have FCE HD on this machine and although render times are long (as you would expect with a 1GHZ cpu) it really runs great.
The iBook is a great performer - just load it up with RAM and you'll love it.
It runs fine for all those things you want to do...it also runs fine for photoshop and iMovie (ok it takes ages on HUGE projects but for 5-7 min videos its fine) struggles a little on iDVD though, but eventually gets the job done. So you can imageine what the 1.2GHz model will do, with decent RAM.
The only differences that will be APPARENT to you with a better graphics card are:
1. It will undoubtedly be a bit faster at everything (not such a big deal for the things you wanna do)
2.Better graphics cards will support Core Image , which apart from making things more efficient and faster (I presume), the only thing you will physically see is the "droplet ripple" effect that you get when you open widgets on dashboards.
Be aware though Tiger does feed on RAM, so squeeze in as much as you can afford.
The only thing it does not do is the Ripple in Dashboard.
I was actually incredibly impressed with how it ran. I also have a dual 533 with 1.5GB of RAM and a Radeon 8500. It runs on average as fast or faster depending on what I am doing.
Just remember get as much RAM as you possibly can. especially in a laptop with a slow HD.
1.33ghz, 14", 768mb, all is well.
personally, i would recommend you BTO to get the extra 512mb of RAM from apple if you can afford it. otherwise crucial.com for cheaper 512mb if you want to tinker a bit and feel like you had some fun.
After you've got the hang of it if you and your genius friend want to have some more fun, put in a 7200rpm notebook drive in it, possibly risking your warranty.
At the risk of buying something that'll be updated relatively soon, I'm probably going to go ahead and get my iBook in the next couple weeks.
As others have described in these forums, playing the waiting game just drives you CRAZY -- and, like y'all have said here, I don't need anything fancy on my iBook to do the work I'd like to do with it.
Thanks again! 8)
Originally posted by divaliving
At the risk of buying something that'll be updated relatively soon, I'm probably going to go ahead and get my iBook in the next couple weeks.
As others have described in these forums, playing the waiting game just drives you CRAZY -- and, like y'all have said here, I don't need anything fancy on my iBook to do the work I'd like to do with it.
OK, if you really want to stay away from this indeed torturing waiting game, then go ahead.
I would like only tell a few words to answer your initial question: "What is it exactly about Tiger that doesn't work right because of the iBook's video card?".
An iBook will run Tiger just fine, and thanks to several optimizations, you can expect that it will run it at least as well as it runs Panther, if not better. There is however one thing that will not work: anything that has to do with Core Image/Video and Quartz 2D Extreme (Quartz Extreme on the other hand runs perfectly well). The reason is that the iBook video chip (Radeon Mobility 9200) is not programmable. The good news is that Core Image is an API that will let developers write easily applications accessing directly the graphics hardware and there are very few, if any, such applications for the moment (the ripple dashboard effect is an example). So, you won't notice anyway for some time. More on Core Image here.
The only thing that you would notice, is the speed boost from Quartz 2D Extreme, but this is still disabled by default even on supported systems.