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A solution to Expose choppiness in Tiger
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Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: France
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Hi !
If like me your Expose got very choppy after the upgrade to Tiger, here's a solution I found on Ars Technica's forums.
You'll need to open the Quartz Debug tool (look in your Developer folder), and disable beam synchronization (Tools->Show Beam Sync Tools). If the setting doesn't stick when you quit the app, just force quit it and it will work.
Expose definitely feels smoother after that on my machine. Please share your results !
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Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
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Ok, I did this on my PB 1.67 128 MB VRAM, and it worked. I had to force quit it to get the settings to stick. All I did was disable beam sync, I did not enable Quartz Extreme 2D.
Now, it looks like it did in Panther! Question is, what exactly did I do? The discussion on the Ars Technica site was a bit over my head, even though I pride myself on being good at this stuff...
I wonder what it was about automatic beam syncronization that caused Expose to be choppy.
Edit: after some use with this altered setting, Expose feels faster now that it's smooth.
(Last edited by El Maestro; May 28, 2005 at 05:27 PM.
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Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: France
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Originally Posted by El Maestro
Question is, what exactly did I do?
I wish I knew too 
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
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This is the first time I have heard about this Tiger issue - thought it would have been mentioned in the bugs thread. I really won't like it if Exposé performance sucks by the time I upgrade.
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"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Oct 2004
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I think it disables a 'vsync like' feature which synchronizes frames with the refresh rate because if Beam Synchronization is disabled, it causes 'tearing' when you move windows.
Hope this helps.
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Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: France
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Originally Posted by Big Mac
This is the first time I have heard about this Tiger issue - thought it would have been mentioned in the bugs thread. I really won't like it if Exposé performance sucks by the time I upgrade.
It's mentioned in a few threads on MacNN and other boards, but doesn't affect all configurations. It's been impossible so far to identify a pattern that would cause the problem : some have reported it on G5/2.0 configs, and some find Expose actually smoother on their powerbooks.
Mine is a TiBook 800/512MB/Radeon7500 (32MB VRAM)
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jan 2003
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Hmmm... first I've heard of it, too. I've seen no such behavior on my rig. Specs in my sig...
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Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
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I am noticing a bit of the tearing, though no artifacting.
I guess we have to decide which we can deal with more. Do you think these issues wil be solved in a subsequent update?
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Oct 2001
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Is it possible the problem involves certain video cards and monitor settings, and disabling beam sync causes problematic code or features of video cards not to be used? I would bet a future update could fix things.
Regarding beam sync set to Automatic, I would not count on Apple ever changing that. There is no officially supported API that a developer can programmatically change things with (although unofficial hacks exist), and Apple has historically tried to do things a "nice" way (ie, no tearing) even at the expense of performance.
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Genius. You know who.
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Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
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I just got back from the mall and I went to the Syracuse, NY Apple store and played with all three models of PBs and they all exhibited the choppy Expose behavior.
Weird!
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Dangling something in the water… of the Arabian Sea
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I have silky smooth Exposé on my iMac G5 2.0 with 1.5 GB RAM, Tiger 10.4.1, and Radeon 9600 128 MB.
Exposé is also smooth on my TiBook 1 GHz with 768 MB RAM, Tiger 10.4.1, and Radeon 9000 64 MB.
It's not as smooth on my Cube 1.7 with 1.0 GB RAM, Tiger 10.4.1, and GeForce 2 MX 32 MB, but it wasn't perfectly smooth in Panther either.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Jan 2004
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Yeah I have a 15" PB 1.5 w/ 512ram and expose is REAL choppy. Which is freaking annoying because dashboard w/ ripple effect is silky smooth....
I am still worried as to the effects of this fix. Will this mess stuff up in the future? What exactly am I doing?
Also, I cant find the developer tools. Where do I find those?
(Last edited by Dark Rob; Jun 2, 2005 at 06:28 PM.
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Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
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While I too am not sure exactly what the super-technical ramifications are of disabling beam-sync, I can tell you that the only adverse effect it has on the system is that windows will "tear" when you move them, meaning it won't look that nice. That's about it. Others may be able to fill you in on the more technical details.
As for the developer tools, they can be installed off of a Tiger DVD or a system restore DVD that has 10.4 on it. Just put the DVD in and follow on-screen instructions and choose the developer tools pacakge. When you install them, the utility can be found in Mactintosh HD/Developer/Applications/Performance Tools/Quartz Debug.app.
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