[eddiecatflap]

anyone ever heard about this ?

i read on another forum how going into the quartz debug developer utility and turning it off REALLY speeds the intel macs up DRAMATICALLY

http://www.macintouch.com/imacintel/review.html#perf

[eddiecatflap]

from that link

"Xbench 1.2 results are inconclusive. The Core Duo's CPU score is unusually low, considering how well it performed in other benchmarks and real-world use, yet its threading and memory tests thoroughly trounced single G5s. And its user interface scores were abysmal – until we used the Quartz Debug developer utility to turn off "beam sync," upon which it bounded past the Quad G5 Power Mac!"

sounds interesting !!

[CatOne]

Originally Posted by eddiecatflap

anyone ever heard about this ?

i read on another forum how going into the quartz debug developer utility and turning it off REALLY speeds the intel macs up DRAMATICALLY

http://www.macintouch.com/imacintel/review.html#perf

I don't think it speeds anything real-world up at all. My understanding is that beam sync disables UI elements from being refreshed faster than is practical (like, 60x/second). No application in the world other than a UI benchmark test would ever actually do that.

So it makes Xbench run faster on that test. But real-world, the Mini is no slower, unless you spend all day with apps that try and refresh the window > 60 times/second.

[toddtmw]

Originally Posted by CatOne

I don't think it speeds anything real-world up at all. My understanding is that beam sync disables UI elements from being refreshed faster than is practical (like, 60x/second). No application in the world other than a UI benchmark test would ever actually do that.

So it makes Xbench run faster on that test. But real-world, the Mini is no slower, unless you spend all day with apps that try and refresh the window > 60 times/second.

But this WOULD explain why I can't get better than 60 frames per second on WOW on my 20" iMac Core Duo...

[jasong]

It would?

[toddtmw]

Originally Posted by jasong

It would?

Sure, if the OS is throttling the frame rate to no more than 60, then unless I turn off that setting, I'll never get more than 60 FPS from WOW. Just like the benchmarks show bad results with it turned on, the FPS display on WOW would be limited.

-Todd

[jasong]

Hmm, you're right, I read what CatOne was saying as it prevents UI widgets from refreshing more than 60/sec, but you are right, it refers to the entire contents of the window. Has anyone tried it on a game to see if it holds up in reality?

[MaxPower2k3]

Are you sure you don't have VSync turned on in the WoW preferences? This Beam Sync thing is just another name for Vertical Sync in the rest of the OS, but i'm not sure if it'd have an effect on programs that use their own OpenGL calls; those programs have their own settings for that.

[badnewsblair]

Originally Posted by toddtmw

But this WOULD explain why I can't get better than 60 frames per second on WOW on my 20" iMac Core Duo...

No it won't explain it at all. The reason you don't get more than 60 FPS in WoW is because you have Vsync turned off. Vsync limits the refresh rate to that of the monitor so you see significantly less sky tearing.

Go to Video Options and I think it is in the first panel. Uncheck Vsync. You will pull close to 100 if not more FPS in closed in areas.

[badnewsblair]

* Turned ON I meant to say. Make sure it is off for higher than 60 FPS. Sorry.