Mac OS X: Optimizing for Earlier ATI Graphics Accelerators

  • Last Modified: September 18, 2003
  • Article: TA20364
  • Old Article: 106154
Movies and 2D graphics perform better at lower color depths when using Power Macintosh computers with earlier ATI graphics chipsets.

Products Affected

Mac OS X 10.0

Symptom

QuickTime movies may play with a lower frame rate than expected. Games and other software that utilize hardware graphics acceleration or OpenGL may perform more slowly than expected.


These computers include one of these graphics accelerators:
  • ATI RAGE II+
  • ATI RAGE IIc
  • ATI RAGE Pro
  • ATI RAGE Pro Turbo
  • ATI RAGE LT Pro
  • ATI RAGE Mobility

Solution

Mac OS X 10.1.5 improves support for 2D and QuickTime acceleration for Rage Pro, Rage Pro Turbo and Rage Mobility. See technical document 106888, "Mac OS X Update 10.1.5: Enhancements and 'Before You Install' Information".

Lowering the display color bit depth to thousands improves performance of some movies and applications.
    1. Choose System Preferences from the Apple Menu.
    2. Click Displays .
    3. Click the Display tab.
    4. Choose Thousands from the Colors pop-up menu.

Use the latest version of Mac OS X for best overall performance and feature set. Further support for the graphic accelerator chipsets listed above is being investigated for a future version of Mac OS X.
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