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mjordan · Jul 6, 2004, 05:53 PM

Short, maybe stupid question.

As I continue working on my brand new Powerbook 12 inch for extended periods of time, like a few hours, it seems like perfomance degrades rapidly, even when plugged into the wall. I can run Halo very smoothly with full nVidia shaders and FSAA, but after extended use, or if I do something else and then come back to the game, performance is extremely sluggish. It takes a full restart to fix, and of course it only lasts for a while. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

Saramin · Jul 6, 2004, 06:30 PM

I'm guessing it's a memory leak of one form or another, but I'm not that tech-savvy. Seems like the most logical thing though.

Incidentally, can you post your memory/OS version? Halo runs like crap on my new 12" PB.

iREZ · Jul 6, 2004, 07:00 PM

Halo has lost lots of playability in powerbooks since the last nvidia upgrade. Try repairing permissions and see what that does for you.

urrl78 · Jul 6, 2004, 07:01 PM

How much memory do you have? Sounds odd if you have at least 512 MB.

mjordan · Jul 6, 2004, 10:05 PM

I have a Powerbook 12 inch 1.33ghz, 768MB Ram, 10.3.3.

Halo runs great as soon as I started up the machine, but like I said, performance deteriorates. Saramin, have you updated Halo to the latest version? Mine ran like crap before I upgraded too. Yeah, it sounded like some kind of memoryy leak to me, too, but with 768 megs of ram, that's probably not the case. What does repairing permissions mean?

Thanks for the help guys!

mjordan · Jul 6, 2004, 10:10 PM

Sorry, I'm running 10.3.4 not 10.3.3

Mike

Saramin · Jul 6, 2004, 10:20 PM

From what I gather having a memory leak stems from a faulty SDRAM module, irregardless of the capacity itself. There are probably diagnostic tools of some sort out there that can help you determine this, but I'm on dialup at the moment (don't ask) so I don't really have the bandwidth to go crawling through google to find something. It shouldn't be that hard though. Again, it could easily be something else. Just saying.

I have the exact same setup as you, with the latest patch downloaded and performance set to high in my OSX settings. This is very odd. I'm gonna run some tests and see what I discover since before I always assumed the video card just couldn't handle the graphics.

rag on a muffin · Jul 6, 2004, 10:24 PM

Originally posted by mjordan:
Sorry, I'm running 10.3.4 not 10.3.3

Mike

go back to 10.3.3. there are major graphics problems for the 5200 in 10.3.4.

this fixed all the issues for me.

mjordan · Jul 7, 2004, 12:05 PM

Thanks for the help.

Saramin, it should be running fine with most of the higher end settings on, or at least mine usually does. I've got full nVidia Shaders, 4x FSAA, Detail objects (no model reflections), low lens flare, and none of the in-game settings on (shadows, and luster, or whatever they are). This setup results in near flawless gameplay, with some mild slowdown if I'm in a large room or if there's a lot of enemies around.

I've heard that 10.3.4 introduced this problem, rag on a muffin, but I don't see any easy way to go back to 10.3.3 since the system shipped with 10.3.4.

mjordan · Jul 7, 2004, 05:28 PM

Random Halo question:

When I turn on FSAA, no matter what level (2x-9x) a big black box shows up in the upper left corner and covers up the weapon indicators. The box appears to mimic the radar at the bottom left, but for what reason I don't know. It only happens when I turn on FSAA. I know this isn't a Halo board, but I just though you guys could help me out.

Thanks

Dr.Michael · Jul 8, 2004, 06:11 AM

You can easily find out a memory leak if you run Memory Monitor (in the Applications/utils folder) in the background and check from time to time if your memory is filled more and more.

Frumpy · Jul 9, 2004, 12:33 AM

Been having the same type of graphics problems since the 10.3.4 upgrade. When I tried to use my Panther disc to reinstall, it's brings up the standard Apple sign over the grey background...but then the Apple splits and overlaps like a graphic glitch...and then freezes. What's going on here?! Are my original Panther discs useless on my new PB? Is there something that I'm missing? I'm so confused about this. How else am I supposed to get back to 10.3.3? Thanks for any input!

Since EBCDIC · Aug 18, 2004, 02:30 AM

Saramin:
From what I gather having a memory leak stems from a faulty SDRAM module, irregardless of the capacity itself...

If you have faulty SDRAM (in my experience) you'll get kernel panics or the damn thing won't boot. You won't get a memory leak.

A "memory leak" is a programming term meaning "the software is not freeing up the memory it's using", and has nothing at all to do with physical RAM.

If a game, for example, creates a 512 byte data structure but frees up 500 each time in loop, the game will use more and more memory. It's leaking. Soon paging and swapping will happen, and your Mac's hard disk will kick in to write out these "used" pages (as the active apps vie to use the SDRAM).

mmmm'kay?

Saramin · Aug 18, 2004, 02:36 AM

Originally posted by Since EBCDIC:
If you have faulty SDRAM (in my experience) you'll get kernel panics or the damn thing won't boot. You won't get a memory leak.

A "memory leak" is a programming term meaning "the software is not freeing up the memory it's using", and has nothing at all to do with physical RAM.

If a game, for example, creates a 512 byte data structure but frees up 500 each time in loop, the game will use more and more memory. It's leaking. Soon paging and swapping will happen, and your Mac's hard disk will kick in to write out these "used" pages (as the active apps vie to use the SDRAM).

mmmm'kay?

Fine, make me feel impotent in my tech knowledge why don't you.

Thanks for the explanation man.

Since EBCDIC · Aug 18, 2004, 03:36 AM

Saramin:
Fine, make me feel impotent ...

That's why they call it a "hard drive" :-)

You're very welcome for the explanation. I'm hoping that it'll help sometime when you actually get hit by a memory leak. It frequently happens.

All the best from San Francisco,

(me)

d.fine · Aug 18, 2004, 03:37 AM

You try 10.3.5 ... Seems there are great performance improvements ...

Saramin · Aug 18, 2004, 12:26 PM

Originally posted by Since EBCDIC:
That's why they call it a "hard drive" :-)

You're very welcome for the explanation. I'm hoping that it'll help sometime when you actually get hit by a memory leak. It frequently happens.

All the best from San Francisco,

(me)

I had a memory leak a few years back on my PC gaming rig, but it was due for an overhaul anyway so I just swapped out the memory and that seemed to solve the problem. Advice duly noted though.

And San Francisco is right up there with London and Amsterdam as the coolest cities in the world. I live about two score miles northward but I swing by whenever possible to get some lobster and walk along the beach. Good stuff.

Since EBCDIC · Aug 18, 2004, 01:04 PM

Saramin:
I had a memory leak a few years back on my PC gaming rig, but it was due for an overhaul anyway so I just swapped out the memory and that seemed to solve the problem.

No, no, no! Swapping the RAM chips won't do anything for a memory leak. The next time you run the software it'll start out small and use more and more memory as the game continues. When you quit the software all the memory is given back, and your problem is over. Until you run the game again.

And San Francisco is right up there with London and Amsterdam as the coolest cities in the world. I live about two score miles northward but I swing by whenever possible to get some lobster and walk along the beach. Good stuff.

Yes, I'm a fan of London and Amsterdam as well. Saramin, the next time you're coming to SF drop me an email and we'll get together.

Saramin · Aug 18, 2004, 03:38 PM

Originally posted by Since EBCDIC:
No, no, no! Swapping the RAM chips won't do anything for a memory leak. The next time you run the software it'll start out small and use more and more memory as the game continues. When you quit the software all the memory is given back, and your problem is over. Until you run the game again.

Dunno, worked for me. I was in the midst of a major computer overhaul at the time though and quite a lot of hardware was swapped in and out, formatting went on, reinstallation of Windows, etc. I imagine one factor or another helped solve the problem.

Yes, I'm a fan of London and Amsterdam as well. Saramin, the next time you're coming to SF drop me an email and we'll get together.

It will probably be quite a while, unfortunately. I start college this fall in Seattle and with my plan to double-major I doubt I'll have the free time to spend the summers home either. Thanks for the offer though. Many years from now when I once more have an opportunity to walk the gray beaches of San Francisco I'll eat some lobster just for you.

cold aspiration · Aug 18, 2004, 04:10 PM

Originally posted by Dr.Michael:
You can easily find out a memory leak if you run Memory Monitor (in the Applications/utils folder) in the background and check from time to time if your memory is filled more and more.

did you mean activity monitor

Dr.Michael · Aug 19, 2004, 03:39 AM

Originally posted by cold aspiration:
did you mean activity monitor

Yes sure , I wrote this out of my memory. sorry