Slow graphics performance in Leopard

Question

Level 1

14 points

Slow graphics performance in Leopard

So I upgraded to Leopard last night and I love it! I expected a small downgrade in performance (which there is, but it's livable considering applications like Safari 5 run a lot faster than their Tiger counterparts) but I didn't expect such a reduction in graphics performance throughout the OS. Things like minimizing and opening the dashboard show that it's skipping frames when in Tiger they were so smooth and seamless. This is an iBook G4 with a 1.33ghz cpu, 1.5 gigs of RAM and an ATI graphics card with 32 megs of vram.

It also says:

Core Image: Hardware Accelerated

Quartz Extreme: Supported

Is it the hardware accelerated core image that's causing it? It should be plenty powerful to do these simple effects.

iBook, Mac OS X (10.4.11), G4 1.33ghz, 1.5gb RAM

Posted on Oct 27, 2011 7:12 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 27, 2011 7:44 AM in response to tanner1294

You may want to try asking in the Leopard Discussions.

I found my 1.2 GHz iBook G4 too slow for pleasurably watching YouTube (in Tiger), but I only had 768 MB of RAM in it.

When I wanted to move up to Leopard, I bought a MacBook. The performance boost was amazing.

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Answer 2

tanner1294 Author

Level 1

14 points

Oct 27, 2011 3:18 PM in response to Ronda Wilson

I've actually had YouTube okay at 480p (on the site with Safari 4) smoothly with little to no skips in Tiger. The key is to let it buffer all the way, also to install SafariBlock which removes all the moving flash ads in older versions of Safari. I've yet to try Youtube on Leopard though so I'll try soon. I think I'll try in the Leopard discussions too.

Oh and I'd LOVE a MacBook, but I can nowhere near afford one, not even an old one off Ebay.

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Answer 3

Oct 27, 2011 4:51 PM in response to tanner1294

Have you checked? There are some real bargains happening there.

I'd recommend sticking with a Core 2 Duo so that if you ever want to move up to Lion, it would be capable of doing that.

The first Core 2 Duo MacBooks came out almost five years ago, so they're becoming very reasonable. Of course, on eBay, you have to be very careful. Get a seller with a decent feedback rating and never buy one that doesn't have the original system install and restore discs included in your purchase.

Good luck with your iBook.

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Answer 4

tanner1294 Author

Level 1

14 points

Oct 27, 2011 4:56 PM in response to Ronda Wilson

I really can't afford anything over a hundred dollars. I got the iBook for free which is the only reason I have it 🙂

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