# I just enabled Quartz 2D extreme, everythings seems



## smellybook (Aug 31, 2006)

faster, anyone have experience with this, I read that Tiger ship out with this feature disabled but it seems so much faster with it on, will I start to get kernel panics now?

I enabled it permanently by editing the plist and changing the value to YES, does doing this have any disadvantages, so far every thing's faster for me,,,


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## Heart (Jan 16, 2001)

I would like to try this out.

Do you have a how-to or a link to how-to?

What plist and what line do I change.
Backing up first of course... 





.


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

Heart said:


> I would like to try this out.
> 
> Do you have a how-to or a link to how-to?
> 
> ...


Here's a good how-to article (Mac OS X Hints):
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2005050121260474


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## smellybook (Aug 31, 2006)

*Lars, that exactly the site I used as a reference, lol*

I needed a plist editor which I found here:
http://homepage.mac.com/bwebster/plisteditpro.html


also I ran xbench before and after and the results were almost double in many areas.


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## smellybook (Aug 31, 2006)

*It is so simple it's funny,*

open the plist file with plist edit pro and change the 2d quartz setting from no to yes.


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## fozy (Jul 18, 2006)

So why does Apple have it off?


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

So when they turn it back on in Leopard people will be dazzled with the increase in graphics performance?


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## zen.state (Nov 29, 2005)

fozy said:


> So why does Apple have it off?



I would imagine its because so many osx capable macs don't have enough gpu power. this feature needs at least a radeon 9600 or geforce fx.


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## smellybook (Aug 31, 2006)

*I just noticed it goes back to disabled after reboot, hmmm*

how can I fix that, I click on save after I edited the plist...


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## Heart (Jan 16, 2001)

Enabled, no problems so far....


Mine was OFF by default : 12" G4 1.5GHz Combo w/ 64MB nVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 - lots'a RAM

After I enabled I did a restart, the setting is sticking and things feel snappier.
I did not run an xbench tests.

When editing the plist I used the PlistEdit Pro program that you linked and yes it is very easy. I made a copy of the com.apple.windowserver.plist file on the desktop, edited it and then dragged the file back to the preferences folder and overwrote the older file. The setting is sticking. We'll see what happens in the next day or so.




.


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## Heart (Jan 16, 2001)

Here is another little tidbit from the system profiler.

Was that there before?
Can someone verify if the *Quartz 2D Extreme: Supported* was there to begin with?



> GeForce FX Go5200:
> 
> Chipset Model:	GeForce FX Go5200
> Type:	Display
> ...





.


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

The "Quartz 2D Extreme: Supported," is not in my System Profiler, and I don't have Q2DE enabled (running a RADEON 9200 AGP 4x).


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## harzack86 (Jan 30, 2005)

I turned it on on my G4 MDD with a Radeon 9600, and ran Xbench:

The only notable improvement was for the Quartz 2D test, where I had roughly 30% improvement, making the overall xbench score slightly better (140 -> 145).
There was also a slight improvement for the UI test.

Now the question is: "which application are making intensive use of Quark 2D Extreme?"

Alphababy?


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## jdurston (Jan 28, 2005)

It seems to work on my MacBook and Quicksilver with a GeForce 4MX

Don't notice a difference though.


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## darkscot (Nov 13, 2003)

Heart, Quartz 2D Extreme:	Supported only showed up in Profiler after I enabled it on my PPC Mini 1.25 w 10.4.8. 

What does Rotation in Displays signify? I can't remember if that was there before.


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## jdurston (Jan 28, 2005)

I had to restart my computer before it showed up in the profiler.


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

> What does Rotation in Displays signify? I can't remember if that was there before.


Some video cards will allow you to rotate the display image at 90/180 degree angles. The PPC-based Mac mini units allow this (unsure of the Intel-based units, as they do not sport dedicated video chips).


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## tedj (Sep 9, 2004)

darkscot said:


> Heart, Quartz 2D Extreme:	Supported only showed up in Profiler after I enabled it on my PPC Mini 1.25 w 10.4.8.


Same here, I have a 1.42 mini (radeon 9200). Don't remember seeing it there before.


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## zen.state (Nov 29, 2005)

mine says nothing about quartz 2D


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## Vexel (Jan 30, 2005)

Lars said:


> Some video cards will allow you to rotate the display image at 90/180 degree angles. The PPC-based Mac mini units allow this (unsure of the Intel-based units, as they do not sport dedicated video chips).


Yep, they do.


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## jdurston (Jan 28, 2005)

zen.state said:


> mine says nothing about quartz 2D


It won't until you enable it, or so it seems from mine and a few other's experiences. I've got the same graphics card in my G4 and it shows as supported after enabling and restarting.


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## zen.state (Nov 29, 2005)

I have it enabled now. amazing it works on a card that is not supposed to be supported. the UI seems a bit faster now. i'm sure it would seem faster after I put a better video card in. I have seen mac edition 9800's on ebay as low as 120.


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## smellybook (Aug 31, 2006)

*I forgot to save the change after I edited, it's permanently enbled*

now. That option in profiler was definitely not there before, 

I don't know if I'm imagining it, but certain sites seems to load a tiny bit faster,,,
Red Flag Deals forums especially,,,


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## Heart (Jan 16, 2001)

darkscot said:


> What does Rotation in Displays signify? I can't remember if that was there before.


If my system profiler would say this, where would it say it?
I have not found it on my system, I believe that my graphics card does not support it. 
The 24" Dell does. hmp!


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## harzack86 (Jan 30, 2005)

FYI,
I just rolled back to the "no" option, after 4 kernel panic in a row, and when I (finally) was able to get it back (using the terminal while booting on the Tiger DVD and some backup of my system to copy a fresh com.apple.windows(...) file  ) the kernel panics are now apparently gone, which make me think Quartz 2D Extreme enabled was causing them...
I guess this option doesn't work well with my Radeon 9600 Mac & PC edition, and my 2 screens connected to it, and I now understand why Apple didn't turn it on by default


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## jdurston (Jan 28, 2005)

Smellybook, your right about Safari being quicker. Pages pop up a little quicker. It is subtle, but noticeable.


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## jdurston (Jan 28, 2005)

harzack86 said:


> FYI,
> I just rolled back to the "no" option, after 4 kernel panic in a row, and when I (finally) was able to get it back (using the terminal while booting on the Tiger DVD and some backup of my system to copy a fresh com.apple.windows(...) file  ) the kernel panics are now apparently gone, which make me think Quartz 2D Extreme enabled was causing them...
> I guess this option doesn't work well with my Radeon 9600 Mac & PC edition, and my 2 screens connected to it, and I now understand why Apple didn't turn it on by default


Good to know, I'll have to try it out while running multiple screens.


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## smellybook (Aug 31, 2006)

*Harzach86, sorry to hear that, I'm glad you were able to fix it*

I guess we should all keep that in mind, 

noticed once small thing, when I reboot there are a few horizontal lines on my display for about 2 seconds before the apple comes up, but it's a small price to pay for a little more speed,,,


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## Heart (Jan 16, 2001)

When playing a QT Movie (AVI) and surfing with Safari I notice that using the scroll wheel will interfere with the movie (QT scrolls the playhead forward and back) and Safari stutters up and down.

fine when viewing AVI via VLC.

No crashes or Kernel Panics.... yet.


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## Vexel (Jan 30, 2005)

Heart said:


> When playing a QT Movie (AVI) and surfing with Safari I notice that using the scroll wheel will interfere with the movie (QT scrolls the playhead forward and back) and Safari stutters up and down.


I think this is a feature of OS X since Tiger was released. My iMac has always done it.


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## darkscot (Nov 13, 2003)

Heart, says it in Graphics/Displays under Displays:

Displays:
VE700:
Resolution:	1280 x 960 @ 75 Hz
Depth:	32-bit Color
Core Image:	Not Supported
Main Display:	Yes
Mirror:	Off
Online:	Yes
Quartz 2D Extreme:	Supported
Quartz Extreme:	Supported
Rotation:	Supported


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## bmovie (Jan 18, 2003)

I have found that on my G4 Sawtooth 1.25ghz upgrade with a 32mg vid card, that the processor was running a lot. more than without it on.

and at work on a G5 dual 1.8 it actually made my machine run slower.

I didn't like the fact that at home on my G4 the processor was working harder than normal.


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## jdurston (Jan 28, 2005)

I've heard it said that in some Apple applications like Aperture that if your Graphics card isn't up for it, then a lot of the graphics load gets transfer back to the processor. Maybe your 32MB card isn't fully supported.

I'll have to compare my processor loading with and without 2D extreme.


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## Heart (Jan 16, 2001)

Vexel said:


> I think this is a *feature* of OS X since Tiger was released. My iMac has always done it.


:lmao: . feature . :lmao:


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## bmovie (Jan 18, 2003)

jdurston said:


> I've heard it said that in some Apple applications like Aperture that if your Graphics card isn't up for it, then a lot of the graphics load gets transfer back to the processor. Maybe your 32MB card isn't fully supported.
> 
> I'll have to compare my processor loading with and without 2D extreme.



Oh really? I never thought about that. I guess that's what was happening.

This is one tweek I can live without.


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## Fink-Nottle (Feb 25, 2001)

Tried it on my Power Mac G5 1.8 with ATI 9600. Got kernel panics within a minute of starting up. Play at your own risk...


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## Gerbill (Jul 1, 2003)

OK so far with a 1 GHz eMac.

By the way, you can do the editing directly with BBEdit 8.6.


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## zen.state (Nov 29, 2005)

Gerbill said:


> OK so far with a 1 GHz eMac.
> 
> By the way, you can do the editing directly with BBEdit 8.6.


good call on BBedit!

its been so long since I used it that I had forgotten about it. I used it a lot in the late 90's.


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## harzack86 (Jan 30, 2005)

Fink-Nottle said:


> Tried it on my Power Mac G5 1.8 with ATI 9600. Got kernel panics within a minute of starting up. Play at your own risk...


Not that it makes me glad, but at least I'm not the only one!


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## jdurston (Jan 28, 2005)

No problems yet on either the MacBook or G4 with the Geforce 4mx (after 24 hours and about 2hrs on each computer)


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## zen.state (Nov 29, 2005)

I have been running this for a full day now and I only have one very small and very odd issue.. my chess app.

other than this issue its running great for me on my MDD with a Geforce 4 MX 32MB AGP


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## tedj (Sep 9, 2004)

No problems yet, after over 24 hrs-- mini ppc 1.42. 

There's always the possibility, however, of this not taking effect (even though "enabled") on G4's. Since the perceived problems seem to occur mostly on G5's, it would seem that the tech is a.) not ready for those machines intended for the tech, and b.) not potentially enabled on those machines it was not even engineered for.

I see no difference in any way on my machine.... please prove me wrong


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## Chealion (Jan 16, 2001)

While the technology was introduced in Tiger (can be turned off and on quite easily using Quartz Debug - an application that comes with the Developer Tools) it was disabled by default because they hadn't got all the bugs worked out.

IIRC, it's enabled in Leopard by default now and they may have changed the name (I don't right remember). Like Quartz Extreme, the feature improves 2D performance through the UI of Mac OS X by offloading calculations to the GPU.



> In Mac OS X v10.4, Apple introduced Quartz 2D Extreme (Q2DE), increasing the speed of the actual drawing operations as well, so that as much of the compositing and drawing was taken over by the graphics card as possible. Note that Q2DE is not enabled by default due to bugs in a number of the graphic card drivers for Mac OS X. In order to enable Q2DE, one may use the Quartz Debug tool included with Apple's Xcode 2.0 developer tools, however, the change will not survive a reboot. To make the change permanent across reboots, one must edit the plist file that controls this feature directly. This file is located in /Library/Preferences, and it's named com.apple.windowserver.plist. Change the Quartz2DExtremeEnabled value to YES. If the Macintosh doesn't contain a GPU that supports Quartz 2D Extreme, the file will not exist.


Source: Wikipedia's entry on Quartz Extreme


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## jdurston (Jan 28, 2005)

I wonder how this is going to affect battery life? (is it effect or affect? )


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## Chealion (Jan 16, 2001)

jdurston - I doubt it will change battery life too much although it stands to reason it might decrease slightly because the GPU usually has a bigger power drain than the CPU.

That said, effect is the result, while affect is the cause.
eg. The effect of water and oxygen on steel is rust.
vs.
Water affects steel by creating rust when combined with oxygen.


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