OSX on old powerbook (8meg VRAM)??
Kai MacMahon
Does anyone know if OSX will run with 8meg of Vram? Apple say it needs 16
minimum, but this seems excessive for an OS.
Anyone know? I'm using a broze powerbook.
thanks
kai
Andy
news:20020829151230...@mb-fj.aol.com:
> Hi.
>
> Does anyone know if OSX will run with 8meg of Vram? Apple say
> it needs 16 minimum, but this seems excessive for an OS.
Argh!!! That explains EVERYTHING.... my (dual USB) iBook
only has 8MB of VRAM. Guess I'll have to sell my iBook
and get something else....
Sorry..... just kidding.
The 16MB value is most likely the minimum suggested
for using "Quartz Extreme". 16MB actually isn't excessive
for vram on current systems though it may seem that way if
you have an older Mac that seems to work just fine with a lot
less.
Kyle Brown
Andy <a...@fcgnet.works.net> wrote:
Yes, 16Mb VRAM is required for Quartz Extreme to kick in; it's not
*required* to run Jaguar itself.
Kyle
Kai MacMahon
*required* to run Jaguar itself. >>
Sorry to be so dim.... but what's Quartz Extreme?
Thanks both for your help :-)
kai
Lee Phillips
> Anyone know? I'm using a broze powerbook.
Jaguar (10.2) runs very well on my broze powerbook (Lombard). In 10.1 I
had set the screen depth to "thousands" (and enabled window buffer
compression) to get faster scrolling, etc.; in 10.2 I have set it to the
maximum ("millions") and scrolling and resizing is faster than in 10.1
with the smaller screen depth.
Kyle Brown
kaima...@aol.com (Kai MacMahon) wrote:
It's the fancy new graphics code for the OS that shifts a lot of work
involving screen drawing (windows etc) onto the graphics card, thus
freeing the CPU to do other things. But on an oldish Mac, you'll still
notice speed improvements with Jag even if your GPU doesn't qualify.
HTH
Kyle
OS X Man
Kyle Brown <ky...@warmspam.com> wrote:
> In article <20020830071449...@mb-cp.aol.com>,
> kaima...@aol.com (Kai MacMahon) wrote:
>
> > << Yes, 16Mb VRAM is required for Quartz Extreme to kick in; it's not
> > *required* to run Jaguar itself. >>
> >
> > Sorry to be so dim.... but what's Quartz Extreme?
> >
> > Thanks both for your help :-)
> >
> > kai
> >
>
> It's the fancy new graphics code for the OS that shifts a lot of work
> involving screen drawing (windows etc) onto the graphics card, thus
> freeing the CPU to do other things.
IOW, the video drivers are finally working properly. But "Video
Drivers" isn't sexy enough for marketing droids, so it's "Quartz
Extreme"!
OS X Man
Doug Brown
OS X Man <nu...@business.net> wrote:
> IOW, the video drivers are finally working properly. But "Video
> Drivers" isn't sexy enough for marketing droids, so it's "Quartz
> Extreme"!
"Working properly"? OS 9 didn't have this feature either. Apple says:
"While other operating systems hope to introduce comparable technology
in late 2004..."
OS X has had "video drivers" all along.
Doug
--
IRCandy: Cocoa IRC client project - http://www.ircandy.com/
Idiot's Guide to Mac Cases - open your Mac: http://maccases.cjb.net/
If you want to reply by email, remove "pleasenospam." and ".invalid"
OS X Man
Doug Brown <ma...@pleasenospam.mac.com.invalid> wrote:
> In article <nunya-B15893....@unknown.level3.net>,
> OS X Man <nu...@business.net> wrote:
>
> > IOW, the video drivers are finally working properly. But "Video
> > Drivers" isn't sexy enough for marketing droids, so it's "Quartz
> > Extreme"!
>
> "Working properly"? OS 9 didn't have this feature either. Apple says:
You actually listen to and believe Apple's marketing department?
> "While other operating systems hope to introduce comparable technology
> in late 2004..."
Again, this is marketing speak. Windows has used the video card
processor's hardware for graphics display for years. How do you
suppose they get such stunning game play on Windows computers? It's
all in the video card and drivers.
> OS X has had "video drivers" all along.
Yes, OS X has had "video drivers", they just didn't work properly. Now
they are using the hardware acceleration that all modern video cards
have. It's tricky to write these drivers, however. So the first few
versions of OS X didn't use hardware acceleration.
OS X Man
Doug Brown
OS X Man <nu...@business.net> wrote:
> > "While other operating systems hope to introduce comparable technology
> > in late 2004..."
>
> Again, this is marketing speak. Windows has used the video card
> processor's hardware for graphics display for years. How do you
> suppose they get such stunning game play on Windows computers? It's
> all in the video card and drivers.
I recognize it as marketing speak, but I do not believe Windows
represents app windows as textures in graphics card memory...
Kai MacMahon
Sounds like I'll be ok then, I'll fire away with getting it.
Although of course now I have to get myself a new hard drive. Hmm...
Thanks for heloing :-)
kai
ZnU
OS X Man <nu...@business.net> wrote:
You obviously have no idea what Quartz Extreme actually does.
--
"My trip to Asia begins here in Japan for an important reason. It begins
here because for a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed
one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times. From that
alliance has come an era of peace in the Pacific."
- George W. Bush
Mike Paquette
> > "While other operating systems hope to introduce comparable technology
> > in late 2004..."
>
> Again, this is marketing speak. Windows has used the video card
> processor's hardware for graphics display for years. How do you
> suppose they get such stunning game play on Windows computers? It's
> all in the video card and drivers.
Not quite the same thing. The Quartz Extreme implementation uses the
hardware normally reserved for game use, the 3D engine used for OpenGL
and it's poor cousin DirectX on Wintel, to accelerate the user
interface for all apps, not just games.
> > OS X has had "video drivers" all along.
Quite true. The drivers support a 2D acceleration abstraction layer
via IOKit, and many cards also provide 3D acceleration via OpenGL
driver plug-ins.
> Yes, OS X has had "video drivers", they just didn't work properly.
This turns out not to be the case.
> Now
> they are using the hardware acceleration that all modern video cards
> have. It's tricky to write these drivers, however. So the first few
> versions of OS X didn't use hardware acceleration.
There's a bit more to it than that. The Quartz Extreme mechanism will
switch from using the 2D acceleration path plus software, to using the
OpenGL engine when certain capabilities are present. The engien
treats the desktop as a 3D scene, rendering windows and their content
as textured polygons. Blending (e.g., window transparency effects) is
done via the GL hardware blend and multitexture mechanisms.
Peter put together a nice presentation on how this works for a
SIGGRAPH BOF on OpenGL. You can get it here:
www.opengl.org/developers/code/features/
siggraph2002_bof/sg2002bof_apple.pdf
Microsoft is contemplating introduction of this mechanism in their
Longhorn release, currently scheduled for 2004 shipment.