OS X Jaguar on a new(ish) iBook???

bobbyfett

Registered
I heard a rumour that the new OS X (Jaguar) will not run on my year old dual usb iBook because the vram chip (ATI) isn't supported is that true.

I had a look on the apple site and you get this discalimer at the bottom regarding quartz extreme;

*nVidia: GeForce2MX, GeForce3, GeForce4 Ti, GeForce4 or GeForce4MX. ATI: any AGP Radeon card. 32MB VRAM recommended for optimum performance.

What does all this mean???

Chimps
 
You got it completely wrong. And you can be HAPPY about that fact. :)

Jaguar will not only run on your computer, it'll rule. It's much faster in most aspects, feels smoother at the same time. What your iBook *won't* do, however, is Quartz Extreme. QE means that most of the Aqua effects are laid upon the graphics engine to be accomplished. Your iBook will still have to do some of them in the G3 processor. But that one isn't THAT slow, either.

I've tried Jaguar on some configurations and I can tell you: Your iBook WILL run Jaguar, and you'll be happy with it.
 
fryke,

Does Mac OS 10.2 6C48 detect the disc drive in your PB 500? I had the oppourtunity to play with that build a bit on someone's PB last weekend but the combo drive wouldn't work with it. What gives?

Other than that and a few other things it was relatively stable. It seemed to have a lot of visual glitches and IE 5.2 didn't work with it very well.

I like how it can minimize windows into the Sea, rather than the Dock. That is more NeXT like.

It boots a lot faster and over all everything seems a lot snapier. Is Quartz Extreme implemented in that build? I didn't see an option for it.

It would be cool if iChat was a universal IM client as well.

I think that build was released in May. It would seem if they were planning on a August-September release, things would be more along. I'm just going by the refinement of Windows Release Candidates I've seen in the past.
 
Cheers Fryke,

Cool thats a relief, I love os X, its very stable and the multitasking is a dream come true.

I'm a bit dissappointed that quartz extreme won't work though, cause screen render can be a bit sluggish at times, windows certainly don't pop up as quick as they did in 9.

Its only just under a year old, i'm surprised the vram has become unsupported so quickly.

Can I upgrade the vram chips in my ibook?
 
Can I upgrade the vram chips in my ibook?

Sorry, us iBook/500 users are stuck with the palty 8MB we started with. No way to upgrade. BUT...

I still think any iceBook, even with 8MB of VRAM, will be just great on 10.2. Right now, even on 10.1.5, performance is just fine. It may not be as snappy as in 9.2.2, but I'll wager your productivity is WAY up. Window resizing and app launching are a little slower, but your work gets done fast because you arent rebooting every couple of hours (or every 30 minutes, if you use Win95/98/ME).

Your iBook will be a nice OS X computer for a while. There will be a point where it cant handle all the new stuff, but that day isnt here yet.
 
Does Mac OS 10.2 6C48 detect the disc drive in your PB 500? I had the oppourtunity to play with that build a bit on someone's PB last weekend but the combo drive wouldn't work with it. What gives?

It did detect my DVD-ROM (TiBook 500), but I couldn't watch DVDs. Guess that support will come later. Remember: It's not a release.

It boots a lot faster and over all everything seems a lot snapier. Is Quartz Extreme implemented in that build? I didn't see an option for it.

And there never *will* be an option. Quartz Extreme is turned on, if your graphics card has the minimum requirements. As far as I can see, even my graphics card is better supported than in 10.1.x builds so far.

I think that build was released in May. It would seem if they were planning on a August-September release, things would be more along. I'm just going by the refinement of Windows Release Candidates I've seen in the past.

Don't. :)

Apple has a very normal development cycle. Several teams work on several features/bugs. There's a bug list with every build. First it's growing and after a while it's shrinking again. The latest build I've seen was 6C54, which was already much more useable than even 6C48. I'm still thinking a late July, early August release is not only possible, but in the best interest of Apple, as that's when the new machines will be available in stores around the world.
 
*nVidia: GeForce2MX, GeForce3, GeForce4 Ti, GeForce4 or GeForce4MX. ATI: any AGP Radeon card. 32MB VRAM recommended for optimum performance.

I get the impression that quartz extreme will use any ati card and that means that the first ibook will be supported. The only thing is that you won't get optimum performance from the 8mb or 16mb graphics card, but they will still lower the load that your cpu uses on graphics.
 
I get the impression that quartz extreme will use any ati card and that means that the first ibook will be supported. The only thing is that you won't get optimum performance from the 8mb or 16mb graphics card, but they will still lower the load that your cpu uses on graphics.

I doubt this. The ATi RAGE 128 Mobility in the iBook will most likely not understand the processor calls made by Quartz Extreme. The system will sense the video card installed in your system, then decide whether or not to make the calls to the GPU, or direct them to the CPU.

That is, the Quartz instructions sent by Jaguar will only be "processable" by the G3/G4/(G5???) and/or the supported GPUs. The code will simply be incompatible with older GPUs.

Of course, I could be completely wrong. For my sake, I hope I am. I am the proud owner of 2 pre-radeon Ati card-containing computers (Rage 128 Mobility in my iceBook and RAGE 128 Pro in my iMac/600)
 
*nVidia: GeForce2MX, GeForce3, GeForce4 Ti, GeForce4 or GeForce4MX. ATI: any AGP Radeon card. 32MB VRAM recommended for optimum performance.

Radeon is the keyword there, 16MB or not. 32MB is recommended but as long as it is a Radeon card with 3D hardware acceleration, like those in the new iBooks and 2nd generation PB, it should work fine and see a lot of improvement. The 8MB ATI cards are RAGE PRO 128 and do not have 3D hardware acceleration so your first generation iBook and PB will not be taking advantage of Quartz Extreme.

They should still see huge speed increases, but not necessarily in the same way.
 
The 8MB ATI cards are RAGE PRO 128 and do not have 3D hardware acceleration so your first generation iBook and PB will not be taking advantage of Quartz Extreme.

I dont think this is necessarily true. There IS 3D acceleration in these cards (Rage 128 Pro/Mobility), but the GPU that does the acceleration will not be supported by Quartz Extreme.
 
I'm stuck with PCI graphics. You hear me?!?! PCI GRAPHICS! i have a Radeon 32MB video card in my B&W, and I STILL don't get Quartz Extreme :( So it could be a lot worse folks ... all you 8MB Radeon mobility owners will see a lot more improvement than I will simply because your video subsystem is on the order of magnitudes faster AND has direct RAM access. Eat it up, and realize that some of us will need to replace our motherboards before we can gobble up the QE goodness.
 
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