More Evidence for Slowness of X

Arguing the technical reasons why 10.1.1 is less responsive than 9 is futile.

1) 9 style programming (like not using carbon events)
2) Burdened OS. This OS is doing SOOOO much more behind the scenes - even a lot more than XP.
3) Not fully optimized. Nearly every release has been faster than the previous.
4) Architected for future hardware

But the fact remains that on a not-so-old machine X is irritating customers because it just does not feel snappy; although it saves time in operation.

***Perception is reality.***
 
mindbend -

I'm using AI10 on various machines (see tagline). Right now, on a TiBook 500 w/384MB RAM - and the live distortion tools are just as fast under X as they are under 9.

I'm not doubting that some are having problems with speed issues under X. I'm not claiming X is as fast as 9 in every task. But either the people who are complaining are expecting too much, or there are legitimate reasons why their machines are slower than others.

The first thing I'd do if I was having speed issues - get as much ram as I can afford/fit in my mac. I'd like to up my TiBook with another 512, bringing it to 768MB. 384MB allows me to run most of my apps with no problems, but commpared to my other two Macs which have 1GB and 896MB of RAM, I see the SCUD more frequently than I do on my desktop Macs (which I hardly ever see it on).

That said, I also understand that OS X is ahead of the hardware curve right now. I don't fault Apple for that. Every few years, the software gets ahead of the hardware, and then the hardware gets ahead of the software. I'd rather have the software pieces in place (Quartz, Cocoa, Java, Aqua), that prepare the platform for the future. with a small speed hit now, because I know that in the very near future the 1) hardware will get faster, and 2) the OS will continue to be optimized allowing it to run faster on my current hardware.

That said, if I felt for any reason that OS X wasn't cutting the mustard, I'd fall back to 'ol faithful OS 9 and the job done.

Nuff said. Back to work...
 
Serp,


Thanks for the AI10 info. That is stunning to me that you're able to get OS9 level performance with the live distortion tools. I will continue to pursue this. I have gobs of RAM (1 gig), so that's not the issue. I'm glad to hear that there are people who are getting quality performance, so maybe I just need to reinstall or something.
 
Mindbend,

Before you reinstall just either create a new primary user or

sudo rm -rf ~username/Library

Twice I have had user libraries go bad and SLOW my machine down.
 
OK, so I gave AI10 a go on my iMac at home and sure enough, it works reasonably well under X. WAY faster than my G4 at work, so clearly I have something messed up.

I'll try some cleaning up and/or reinstalling froma clean partition. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
mindbend -

You may want to take a look at www.macosxhints.com for some clues to speed up your G4. If your iMac is running faster under X than your G4, than something is definitely wrong...

Here's some things I've noticed from difffering users that can slow down X...

1) RAM. Sometimes, if you have RAM of differring speeds it can put a hit on performance. Sometimes it's insignificant, other times it's severe. If you can return your Mac to it's factory configuration and see how responsive it is.

2) Hard Cabling. Not only is X real finicky about RAM, but it's even more finicky about the IDE chain. If you have anything added to the IDE chain that wasn't factory installed by Apple, remove it and see if performance increases. I had a wacky problem where Classic (which was on my main 40GB partition, the factory installed one), wouldn't run with my new 60GB partition hooked up. Classic would launch, but the Window would just be white and sit there. After playing with the jumpers awhile, I discovered that for some reason, X & Classic weren't keen on the drives being set to Cable Select, and needed to be changed to a Master/Slave order. That did the trick for that...

3) If you can, do a reformat of your hard drive, zeroing all the data. Then run Norton Disk Doctor to see if after the wipe there are any problems. You might have bad sectors that are seriuosly affecting your data.

4) Try installing 10/10.1 without installing 9 first. Maybe something in the OS 9 installation is affecting your HD.

Let me know if you need any additional help. I hate to see someone struggling with something that should be a benefit to them, not a hassle.
 
mindbend, could I buy your old G4 if you get a new one?

:) dont have too much money, all i want is everything except the ram and hard drive. I can just take those out of my iMac. :cool:

email me: spencer@txk.net
 
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