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  • munky

    Multi-threaded OpenGL Coming...

    By munky, in OSx86,

    Mac Gaming and Multithreaded OpenGL


    According to the articles, the new Mac Pro already incorporates the new multi-threaded OpenGL in the pre-installed version of Mac OS X (10.4.7). The official release of the new version of OpenGL for existing Mac owners remains uncertain.
     
    According to some people I've talked to, multi-threaded OpenGL games will see huge gains in performance. With multi-threaded OpenGL, the game, for example, can run off one core/CPU, while OpenGL can work on the second core/processor for its processing. So they work in concurrent fashion instead of co-habitating one CPU.
     
    One demo reportedly had a doubling of frame rate when taking advantage of the multi-threaded OpenGL. And with dual and multi-core processors becoming commonplace, many customers will be able to take advantage of these optimizations.
  • Swad
    No word strikes fear in the heart of a MacBook owner like "random shutdown." (That's technically two words, but we're going for drama here...)
     
    Equally as dramatic is a potential cure for this shutdown problem from the folks over at MacFixIt. One of their readers decided to take matters into his own hands and fix the problem himself. The result? No more shutdowns.


    I found that if I take off the top case, the problem never happens. So I tried to see if it's related to the top case by loosen the screws to see if that fix the problem. At first it seems so random that I was unable to be certain which screw is causing the issue. Later I found out if I tighten the bottom, it sure to happen. So now I put a spacer (usually found in those stand-offs of those no name brand PCs, red in color, round, hard paper type) around the center post of the top case, tape it so it won't come loose.
     
    After placing the Kapton Tape, I pushed the CPU to 100%. When the temperature reaches 85 degree, the fan will turn on at high speed and the temperature will lower back to about 77 degree. Tried many times, the computer did not cut off at all. Please note the red spacer on the Centre Post of the top case, the Kapton Tape on the edge of the top case where it touches the heat sink. I also taped the Trackpad/Keyboard cable just in case. We've heard from several of you that you've been dealing with this exact problem. If you try this, let us know your results.
  • Swad

    SlimBatteryMonitor now Universal

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    For those of you who relish in giving Apple's battery icon the boot, run - don't walk - to the latest version of SlimBatteryMonitor, which has just joined the Universal club. It allows you to tweak the menubar battery icon and "takes up to 70% less space" than the Apple version.
     
    If pimpin' the UI be your thang, this free little utility is just for you. As always, impressions and pithy comments welcome.
  • Swad

    Merom vs. Yonah

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    If you are or have been considering a MacBook (Pro) recently, you’ve probably asked yourself, “Do I need this now or should I wait for Merom?” It’s always tough with Apple to remain content with your last generation hardware, but there is some good news. While Merom is indeed an improvement over Yonah, it’s not enough to make you throw yourself from a Cupertino building for buying the older hardware. Anandtech slapped a Core 2 Duo (Merom) chip inside a Core Duo (Yonah) based ASUS Z96Js and analyzed the results. The verdict?


    While Core 2 Duo does look nice, as long as you've got a good notebook today you'll probably want to wait until Santa Rosa before upgrading (at the earliest). With Santa Rosa, clock speeds will go up slightly but more importantly we'll get access to a faster FSB. Unfortunately a side-effect of keeping Core 2 Duo fed with a faster FSB is that while performance may go up, battery life may go down. It'll be interesting to see what Intel can pull off with the new platform; one of the funny things about performance and battery life is that if you can complete a task quickly enough thus returning your CPU to an idle state faster, battery life will grow even though instantaneous power consumption may be higher.
     
    For Apple users this means that early adopters of the new MacBook or MacBook Pro won't be too pressured to upgrade again by the end of this year. Of course Apple has this way of making incremental changes irresistible.
     
    Overall, Merom may not be as big of an upgrade to Yonah as Conroe was to NetBurst, but the bottom line is that you get equal or better performance in every test without increasing cost or decreasing battery life. Owners of Core Duo laptops really have no reason to worry about upgrading for now, and waiting for the Santa Rosa platform before your next laptop upgrade seems reasonable. Those looking to purchase a new notebook on the other hand have no reason to avoid Core 2 Duo models, assuming pricing is consistent with what Intel is promising. There will be a delay of at least a few more weeks as we await availability, and testing and validation by laptop manufacturers may delay things a bit more, but within the next month or so you should be able to get a Core 2 laptop.

  • REVENGE
    Reliable sources have disclosed that ATI's next generation high end GPU, the R600, will in fact have 64 physical pipelines. This, coupled with a 512 bit GDDR4 memory interface, a unified shader architecture, and high clock frequencies could put NVIDIA's G80 [a "dis-unified" GPU] in some big trouble. To put this into perspective, the R600 is expected to be an advanced version of the Xbox360's R500 Xenos GPU, which only has 48 physical pipelines. In addition, the R600 will be fully DirectX 10 compatible, meaning it will include Shader Model 4.0 support and run all of the best looking next generation video games as well as run DirectX 9.0 video games faster.
     
    On a side note, these developments bring back the doubts I have about the new Intel Macs becoming a great gaming platform. Sure, transferring to the x86 architecture might make developing/porting games to Macs more feasible, but what happens when your platform cannot support the latest developments in graphics technology standards?
     
    Upcoming games will soon begin taking advantage of the latest capabilities DirectX 10 hardware has to offer, but while DirectX development has been making leaps and bounds, what about OpenGL? OpenGL was originally intended for CAD applications only, and even with the latest OpenGL 2.0 and available add-on extensions, OpenGL has yet to implement a DirectX 10 / Shader Model 4.0 equivalent instruction-set. In addition, next generation games are expected to start using physics acceleration, and while Microsoft has already announced plans to develop a “DirectPhysX” type of library, I’ve yet to hear of a “OpenPL” project.
     
    So unless Microsoft decides to port DirectWhatever to OS X, it seems that Mac gaming has just been out-monopolized once again.
  • kevin_4e
    If you use Anchor Free (one of the most popular free hotspot finders), check out wipod, which allows users to “look up free hotspots quickly and easily right from your iPod”... Google has relaunched its own web-based word processor, writely, which is currently under beta (and doesn't support Safari)... Familiar with the popular messaging client Adium? Then you may be excited to hear the latest news about Foom. Foom is currently under early development by Chris Forsythe and Evan Schoenberg (Adium Lead and Project Managers). Although there is absolutely no information on what they may creating, TUAW claims to keep an eye out for it.
     
    By now you may or may not have found Insanely Mac’s official music and movie recommendation thread. There you can find what other forum members are listening and watching... Want to know what our latest moderator, DaxTsurugi is up to? Check out his frequently updated blog... And finally, definitive proof of why you should never pick on a Flash animation.
  • Swad

    Google Notifier released

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    If you use Gmail or Google Calendar, don't miss the new Google Notifier.


    The Google Notifier is an application that shows you alerts in your menu bar, so you can see when you have new Gmail messages or upcoming Google Calendar events without having to open a web browser. Don't you just love (beta) free stuff?
  • REVENGE
    A MacDailyNews reader noticed on Tuesday that Microsoft's Security webpage showed a picture of a happy PowerBook user captioned with the phrase "Click. You're Clean." [from "malicious software"] as the title banner.
     
    In light of this "blunder", the site's authors have promptly corrected their mistake by replacing the old picture with a new one, this time of a mother and son using what appears to be yet again, a PowerBook (sans Apple logo, of course).
     
    Microsoft is indeed the authority on security and insecurity... right?
  • Swad
    Just when you thought that life couldn't get much better than two dual-core Xeons packaged together in a Mac Pro, Intel releases more details on their upcoming quad-core processor, code named "Kentsfield." Anandtech reports:

    Intel's newest roadmap started making the rounds last week, and the headline title across the roadmap was absolutely Kentsfield, Intel's upcoming quad-core processor. During last month's investor call, Intel CEO Paul Otellini announced the chips would be shipping this year, as opposed to Q1'07 that was originally slated on the roadmap.
     
    Now a few additional details of Kentsfield have slipped out. Intel's most recent roadmap claims Kentsfield, which will ship as a Core 2 Extreme branded processor, will run each core at 2.66GHz and a 1066MHz front-side bus. Essentially, the processor is two Core 2 Duo E6700 processors packaged onto a single CPU.
     
    There is no announced ship date of Kentsfield yet, though Intel has announced that the processor will ship for $999 -- the same as every other "Extreme" processor the company has announced. Intel has no price cuts for the E6700 processor planned until after the quad-core Kentsfield launch as well. Since the E6700 has a distributor price of $530, the Kentsfield actually offers some discount for the second core. It seems that Intel has vastly increased the speed of its processor production schedule, now releasing major upgrades only months apart. 2006 will have seen the jump from a single core processor in January to a quad-core processor in December. This (so far) equates to faster Mac updates as well.
     
    The frequency of the upgrades, however, leaves consumers in a quandary. Should I buy a Mac Pro now or wait 3-4 months when I can get 2x the core power for the same price (for an excellent treatise on the benefits of a multi-core Mac Pro, you absolutely must read Anandtech's MP review, parts 1 and 2)? Will the resale value of a Macintosh, traditionally higher than its Wintel counterpart, diminish as a result of these developments? Are you concerned that your cutting edge computer will be made obsolete in a matter of weeks rather than months?
  • Colonel
    Many Intel Mac owners use Parallels to run Windows and OS X side-by-side on their Macs. It's a great tool for those of us that need our Windows programs but want to use the Mac OS. Due to a bug in the Parallels software, however, new Mac Pro owners might not be able to use the VM software. A poster on Parallels' Forum has the scoop:


    I just bought a new Mac Pro (Intel tower) this morning. I installed Parallels (I tried both the 1848 build and the latest beta)... The installation went fine, I was able to create the virtual machine just fine... However, as soon as I go to "Power On" the virtual machine for the first time, it crashes my computer (I get the translucent grey Apple screen that locks up my computer and says that I need to reboot my computer). Every once and a while, it won't crash my computer, but I will get a Parallels error dialogue that says "Unable to connect to hypervision".
    So what does this mean for Mac Pro owners who want to run Windows? Boot Camp isn't working too well, and now we find out that Parallels isn't an option. Hopefully Parallels will fix this bug so Mac Pro owners can enjoy running Windows on their Intel Macs too.
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