In the new Mini they seem to be using Dual channel DDR2 667Mhz RAM giving 10.6GB/s bandwidth. Now, if the system is using the same RAM for both VRAM and system RAM, do they still need to copy between system RAM and VRAM? Does it just bypass the Q2DE issues? Any graphics gurus know how this might work?
No copying from system RAM --> to VRAM would be necessary. The CPU can access the VRAM area directly. So the difference this makes to Quartz 2D Extreme is that the pipe from VRAM cache to the Quartz Compositor is reduced from around 30 GB/s in the case of dedicated VRAM, to around 10 GB/s. The GPU will still be doing the "Quartz 2D" job of accepting drawing commands and modifying the bitmaps cached in VRAM, reducing CPU usage relative to standard Quartz 2D.
Apple's own page describing the graphics of the former PowerPC based Mac mini..
"Go ahead, just try to play Halo on a budget PC. Most say they?re good for 2D games only. That?s because an ?integrated Intel graphics? chip steals power from the CPU and siphons off memory from system-level RAM. You?d have to buy an extra card to get the graphics performance of Mac mini, and some cheaper PCs don?t even have an open slot to let you add one."
exactly what I was thinking of. While I don't think to any extent the Mac Mini needs dedicated graphics, I think four things.
1. This is VERY un-Apple.
2. The price is too high
3. I do think the GMA950 will outperform the Radeon 9200, running on the PCI-e bus and using DDR2 memory.
4. However, I was counting on a Mac Mini with some kind of dedicated GPU. I was going to buy the Intel Mac Mini as an economy game machine, I could just run mac games / run windows and play windows games on a sleek mac machine.
Not sure if this was answered.. but, does the built in video support 1080p?
Well, the GPU doesn't decode H.264, if that's what you mean. It can easily output 1080p, but to do that it would have to be fed the data fast enough by the CPU.
The Solo version probably won't be able to do 1080p H.264, whilst the Duo shouldn't have a problem. Both will do 720p no probs.
Also, as someone else pointed out, DVI doesn't have copy protection, so don't expect this box to ever output anything feature length in either 720p or 1080p (including the Duo), unless the media is pirated or the DRM cracked.
Gigabit- Do you know what happens when your NAS is connected via 100T? You get a max of 12MBps throughput theoretically and less in real world. The network is the limiting factor here. Gigabit gets rid of that and other network line bottlenecks.
2 memory slots- Finally you can upgrade the memory without removing the orginal memory.
Duo Core processing- Nuff said. You all would have loved a Dual G5 Mac mini. I see nothing negative here at all.
Graphics- I don't plan to game with a sub $800 computer.
Airport/Bluetooth- Wireless support up the yang.
Superdrive- Dual Layer support. What more do I really need?
This is a hot little box for the "right" person. Gamers need not apply. Anyone else can enjoy this box just fine.
I agree..! One thing that nobody is taking in consideration is that there is already a $499 mac mini and that probably it will go down @ least 50 bucks.. About the integrated graphics.. what do you people want? These minis are just the first in the transition, wait a bit & new offering will come.. I do think that there is a need for a Mac in between the mini & the power, maybe is already on the pipes, most will say that the imac is the one, but many don't want to buy all in one, that's why I think that a Mac should come along for those who want the power of a headless iMac, but not as expensive as a PowerMac..
Apple is in transition and is not liketly that will shoot one of there foot in it.. They need to sell "all" their PowerPC machines before give us the same options on the Intel side..I'm very optimistic, very positive about what will come ahead.. There are great PowerPC products and soon there will be their Intel replacements..
Apple is already half way there... only the iBook & PowerMacs are yet to be unveiled..
I'm personaly waiting for the 12" MacBook or Pro.. We'll see what comes next!!!
The GMA 950 chipset is designed to deliver absolutely smokin? video playback.
The chipset includes support for regular and HD playback, with the ability to up/down scale video content, as necessary. And it isn?t limited to a single stream of HD as it can simultaneously decode and display two streams. It can also handle pretty much any standard HD resolution in both interlaced and progressive scan mode (including 1080p) and it also natively supports both 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratio displays.
I think apple really needs a cheapter media hub that is not a computer. A lot of people don't want to hook their mini up to a tv because it is a computer. Add an iPod dock, cut down on the CPU and a few other things, add a DVR, a few extra TV ports, and sell it with a very extensive front row and no Mac OS X at all. You don't see the xBox running Windows now do you?
Actually there really is little demand for computer based media centers at all. Microsoft is trying to create a market. Media Center software will be integrated into Vista because other wise it is just losing money.
Tivo is not a very profitable business and is trying to figure out how to stay alive in the long term. Tivo is actually considering giving away its boxes and charging for the service.
Why would Apple jump headlong with dedicated hardware into a market where no one else is making money?
The chipset includes support for regular and HD playback, with the ability to up/down scale video content, as necessary. And it isn?t limited to a single stream of HD as it can simultaneously decode and display two streams. It can also handle pretty much any standard HD resolution in both interlaced and progressive scan mode (including 1080p) and it also natively supports both 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratio displays.
You mean it does decode H.264? Or just that it can scale any video up to 1080? do you have a link?
To all those that did not believe me when I said Apple might use Intel Integrated Graphics, just wanted to say, you can kiss my furry brown behind right here right now. Enjoy your GMA-950 The writing was bloody right there on the wall all this time. I agree though that this means the Mac Mini is not positioned as any sort of gaming device but a living room/ car/ general computing thing. It will not compete against a PS, Xbox, or even a gaming PC... I'm sure Apple has its own ideas what the Mac Mini is supposed to do. Why it isn't a fully fledged DVR in and of itself I have no bloody idea....
2.The DVI-Out-port does not support HDCP Copy Protection. No Hollywood Studio, not even Disney with SJ in the board will allow True HD-Content to get out of any box without Copy-Protection.
That is not true, for sure. A review of the 1.83 model played 1080p just fine.
Not that we will be seeing much 1080p commercial material for a while anyway.
Sony says that they will be encoding Blu-Ray disks with it, but...
Why it isn't a fully fledged DVR in and of itself I have no bloody idea....
Because........
Quote:
Media Center software will be integrated into Vista because other wise it is just loosing money.
Tivo is not a very profitable business and is trying to figure out how to stay alive in the long term. Tivo is actually considering giving away its boxes and charging for the service.
Why would Apple jump headlong with dedicated hardware into a market where no one else is making money?
Apple probably knows if/or when DVR's become mainstream television studios will come down with the full power of the law. Or lobby congress to create the law.
Building a small, (relatively) inexpensive computer is like coming up with a new recipe. You put some things in, and you have to leave some things out. You can't put everything you like in at the same time.
You've never tasted my cooking...
Adding a BTO video card and 7200RPM HDD would elevate this computer into midrange status.
While that is true, check this out, from the MAC MINI G4 WEB SITE
Quote:
Lock the Target
Or one 3D game. Go ahead, just try to play Halo on a budget PC. Most say they?re good for 2D games only. That?s because an ?integrated Intel graphics? chip steals power from the CPU and siphons off memory from system-level RAM. You?d have to buy an extra card to get the graphics performance of Mac mini, and some cheaper PCs don?t even have an open slot to let you add one.
[Side Thought #23] Maybe this means one can pick up a G4 Mac Mini and Elgato EyeTV200 for about US$500 -- Just nice for my dad, he is considering seriously a standalone DVR thingy for about that price point.
Comments
Originally posted by aegisdesign
In the new Mini they seem to be using Dual channel DDR2 667Mhz RAM giving 10.6GB/s bandwidth. Now, if the system is using the same RAM for both VRAM and system RAM, do they still need to copy between system RAM and VRAM? Does it just bypass the Q2DE issues? Any graphics gurus know how this might work?
No copying from system RAM --> to VRAM would be necessary. The CPU can access the VRAM area directly. So the difference this makes to Quartz 2D Extreme is that the pipe from VRAM cache to the Quartz Compositor is reduced from around 30 GB/s in the case of dedicated VRAM, to around 10 GB/s. The GPU will still be doing the "Quartz 2D" job of accepting drawing commands and modifying the bitmaps cached in VRAM, reducing CPU usage relative to standard Quartz 2D.
Originally posted by 1984
Apple's own page describing the graphics of the former PowerPC based Mac mini..
"Go ahead, just try to play Halo on a budget PC. Most say they?re good for 2D games only. That?s because an ?integrated Intel graphics? chip steals power from the CPU and siphons off memory from system-level RAM. You?d have to buy an extra card to get the graphics performance of Mac mini, and some cheaper PCs don?t even have an open slot to let you add one."
exactly what I was thinking of. While I don't think to any extent the Mac Mini needs dedicated graphics, I think four things.
1. This is VERY un-Apple.
2. The price is too high
3. I do think the GMA950 will outperform the Radeon 9200, running on the PCI-e bus and using DDR2 memory.
4. However, I was counting on a Mac Mini with some kind of dedicated GPU. I was going to buy the Intel Mac Mini as an economy game machine, I could just run mac games / run windows and play windows games on a sleek mac machine.
Make grandma cry with photos from graduation.
yep. what a tagline, huh? "apple products - make your grandparents CRY."
Originally posted by OS X Guy
Not sure if this was answered.. but, does the built in video support 1080p?
Well, the GPU doesn't decode H.264, if that's what you mean. It can easily output 1080p, but to do that it would have to be fed the data fast enough by the CPU.
The Solo version probably won't be able to do 1080p H.264, whilst the Duo shouldn't have a problem. Both will do 720p no probs.
Also, as someone else pointed out, DVI doesn't have copy protection, so don't expect this box to ever output anything feature length in either 720p or 1080p (including the Duo), unless the media is pirated or the DRM cracked.
Originally posted by hmurchison
I'm sold. I'm buying the $799 model.
Why
Gigabit- Do you know what happens when your NAS is connected via 100T? You get a max of 12MBps throughput theoretically and less in real world. The network is the limiting factor here. Gigabit gets rid of that and other network line bottlenecks.
2 memory slots- Finally you can upgrade the memory without removing the orginal memory.
Duo Core processing- Nuff said. You all would have loved a Dual G5 Mac mini. I see nothing negative here at all.
Graphics- I don't plan to game with a sub $800 computer.
Airport/Bluetooth- Wireless support up the yang.
Superdrive- Dual Layer support. What more do I really need?
This is a hot little box for the "right" person. Gamers need not apply. Anyone else can enjoy this box just fine.
I agree..! One thing that nobody is taking in consideration is that there is already a $499 mac mini and that probably it will go down @ least 50 bucks.. About the integrated graphics.. what do you people want? These minis are just the first in the transition, wait a bit & new offering will come.. I do think that there is a need for a Mac in between the mini & the power, maybe is already on the pipes, most will say that the imac is the one, but many don't want to buy all in one, that's why I think that a Mac should come along for those who want the power of a headless iMac, but not as expensive as a PowerMac..
Apple is in transition and is not liketly that will shoot one of there foot in it.. They need to sell "all" their PowerPC machines before give us the same options on the Intel side..I'm very optimistic, very positive about what will come ahead.. There are great PowerPC products and soon there will be their Intel replacements..
Apple is already half way there... only the iBook & PowerMacs are yet to be unveiled..
I'm personaly waiting for the 12" MacBook or Pro.. We'll see what comes next!!!
8)
The GMA 950 chipset is designed to deliver absolutely smokin? video playback.
The chipset includes support for regular and HD playback, with the ability to up/down scale video content, as necessary. And it isn?t limited to a single stream of HD as it can simultaneously decode and display two streams. It can also handle pretty much any standard HD resolution in both interlaced and progressive scan mode (including 1080p) and it also natively supports both 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratio displays.
Tivo is not a very profitable business and is trying to figure out how to stay alive in the long term. Tivo is actually considering giving away its boxes and charging for the service.
Why would Apple jump headlong with dedicated hardware into a market where no one else is making money?
Originally posted by TenoBell
The chipset includes support for regular and HD playback, with the ability to up/down scale video content, as necessary. And it isn?t limited to a single stream of HD as it can simultaneously decode and display two streams. It can also handle pretty much any standard HD resolution in both interlaced and progressive scan mode (including 1080p) and it also natively supports both 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratio displays.
You mean it does decode H.264? Or just that it can scale any video up to 1080? do you have a link?
http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/gma950/
Originally posted by oberpongo
BTW, neither Mac Mini will play back Full HD content for two simple reasons:
1. Apple itself says you need at least a 2Ghz Core Duo for 1080p http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide...endations.html
2.The DVI-Out-port does not support HDCP Copy Protection. No Hollywood Studio, not even Disney with SJ in the board will allow True HD-Content to get out of any box without Copy-Protection.
That is not true, for sure. A review of the 1.83 model played 1080p just fine.
Not that we will be seeing much 1080p commercial material for a while anyway.
Sony says that they will be encoding Blu-Ray disks with it, but...
Originally posted by melgross
That is not true, for sure. A review of the 1.83 model played 1080p just fine.
Not that we will be seeing much 1080p commercial material for a while anyway.
Sony says that they will be encoding Blu-Ray disks with it, but...
Cite what was played and link to the source.
Why it isn't a fully fledged DVR in and of itself I have no bloody idea....
Because........
Media Center software will be integrated into Vista because other wise it is just loosing money.
Tivo is not a very profitable business and is trying to figure out how to stay alive in the long term. Tivo is actually considering giving away its boxes and charging for the service.
Why would Apple jump headlong with dedicated hardware into a market where no one else is making money?
Apple probably knows if/or when DVR's become mainstream television studios will come down with the full power of the law. Or lobby congress to create the law.
Originally posted by melgross
Building a small, (relatively) inexpensive computer is like coming up with a new recipe. You put some things in, and you have to leave some things out. You can't put everything you like in at the same time.
You've never tasted my cooking...
Adding a BTO video card and 7200RPM HDD would elevate this computer into midrange status.
Radeon 9200
1.6 Gpixel/sec fill rate
1 Gpixel/sec fill rate
4 pipelines
4 pipelines
667MHz DDR2 memory
200MHz DDR memory
minimum 80 megs RAM
32 or 64 megs RAM
400MHz clock speed
250MHz clock speed
Core Image supported
Core Image not supported
Hmm.
Originally posted by Sladuuch
Intel GMA 950
Radeon 9200
1.6 Gpixel/sec fill rate
1 Gpixel/sec fill rate
4 pipelines
4 pipelines
667MHz DDR2 memory
200MHz DDR memory
minimum 80 megs RAM
32 or 64 megs RAM
400MHz clock speed
250MHz clock speed
Core Image supported
Core Image not supported
Hmm.
While that is true, check this out, from the MAC MINI G4 WEB SITE
Lock the Target
Or one 3D game. Go ahead, just try to play Halo on a budget PC. Most say they?re good for 2D games only. That?s because an ?integrated Intel graphics? chip steals power from the CPU and siphons off memory from system-level RAM. You?d have to buy an extra card to get the graphics performance of Mac mini, and some cheaper PCs don?t even have an open slot to let you add one.
Thank you way back machine