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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Slow Emac After Tiger Installation

kordellimac - Aug 5, 2005 - 9:03 pm

How can I get the performance of my eMac to return? I loaded Tiger 10.4 recently (Upgrade preference) and now I'm experiencing slow system performance. This is especially noticeable when the kids attempt to play their games that are graphically intensive.

jghaffner - Aug 8, 2005 - 3:12 pm

Hi Geoffrey,

I can sympathize with you, as I'm running Tiger on a G4/400 tower. I wish I could give you a quick-hit, zap to make it work faster. Unfortunately, you may have reached the limit of your built-in video card when installing Tiger.

It seems to me that each version of OS X has become more graphically demanding as it has been introduced.

You can find out which video card is installed in your eMac by choosing About This Mac from the Apple menu, and then clicking the More Info... button from the resulting dialog box. That might give us a little more information on the sluggishness.

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John H.
MacOSX.com Volunteer

kordellimac - Aug 9, 2005 - 4:13 pm

John:

Thanks for responding! I checked and here's the information (I think).
The computer contains a:

ATI Radeon 9200:

Chipset Model: ATY,RV280
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
VRAM (Total): 32 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x5962
Revision ID: 0x0001
ROM Revision: 113-xxxxx-102
Displays:
Display:
Type: Display
Display Type: CRT
Resolution: 1280 x 960 @ 72 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Not Supported
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported

Does that help with your diagnosis. The thing is, we're not just experiencing stuttering and stalling with the graphic intensive games like Tony Hawk and Star Wars Jedi Knight, Jedi Academy, we're also seeing the same thing with the older less demanding games. Also, there is skipping in the audio with the Star Wars game. I have not downloaded the 10.4.2 upgrade from Apple yet (have to wait until my cable modem is installed) so maybe that'll fix things up. What do you think?

jghaffner - Aug 9, 2005 - 6:16 pm

Hi Geoffrey,

Yep, this is the information we'll need.

It appears that you have an ATI Radeon 9200 with 32MB RAM installed. It does say that Quartz Extreme is supported. Hmmmm....

I believe that part of the 10.4.2 update includes improved drivers for ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards. You may very well find that your performance improves with the update.

I'd say, let's try the update, and see how it works. Did the games run smoothly before moving to Tiger? If so, the update may help.


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John H.
MacOSX.com Volunteer

kordellimac - Aug 9, 2005 - 9:16 pm

John:

The games did run smoothly prior to the "upgrade" to Tiger 10.4. Let's hope the upgrade works. Cable modem will be installed Thrusday PM and I'll probably get a chance to download and install on Friday sometime. I'll write to let you know how it goes. The kids just spent $30 + of their own money on the Star Wars game ( a lot for kids) so they are probably even more anxious than I am.

Again, thanks for the information so far. Sounds promising though it's going to be hard typing with my fingers crossed.

Regards,

Geoffrey

jghaffner - Aug 10, 2005 - 12:13 am

Hi Geoffrey,

One of the other techs suggested that you fire up DiskUtility and Repair Permissions. It's something to do while you wait for the Cable guy, and it certainly won't hurt! :-)

Give it a shot, and I'll wait to hear your report on the 10.4.2 update.



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John H.
MacOSX.com Volunteer