Snow Leopard H.264 Hardware Acceleration and OpenCL Requirements

[MacRumors]

Apple's Mac OS X Snow Leopard specs page also reveals a number of other details about hardware support for both H.264 acceleration and OpenCL.

MacRumors had previously reported that the latest MacBook Pros offered hardware acceleration for H.264 video playback. While Apple has previously included graphics cards that have contained hardware support for H.264 decoding, the company has only recently taken advantage of this hardware acceleration. Mac OS X Snow Leopard's specs officially acknowledge this support but it appears to be limted to the NVIDIA 9400M graphics processors found in recent Apple laptops and desktops. Unfortunately, it does not appear that this support will extend to older video cards. Hardware decoding of H.264 video improves the performance of video playback while leaving your computer's CPU free for other tasks.

Meanwhile, Apple also details which GPUs will be supported for their upcoming OpenCL API. OpenCL will allow developers to easily offload additional processing tasks to the computer's GPU. Some tasks may find greater benefit from this than others, but could potentially offer substantial performance boosts. The list of supported GPUs include:

- NVIDIA Geforce 8600M GT, GeForce 8800 GT, GeForce 8800 GTS, Geforce 9400M, GeForce 9600M GT, GeForce GT 120, GeForce GT 130.
- ATI Radeon 4850, Radeon 4870

In one specific example, one company found a 5-fold increase in video encoding when using OpenCL-like technology on the PC.

Article Link: Snow Leopard H.264 Hardware Acceleration and OpenCL Requirements

[superted666]

Hmm does this mean my recent purchase of a iMac 2.8ghz core 2 extreme does not support the new CL API?

Bit gutted

[wetrix]

The Rev B and C MacBook Air's have NVIDIA 9400Ms, not just MBPs.

[talkingfuture]

H.264 Hardware acceleration - Cringely was right!

[iDarbert]

Aww, looks like my 7600 is not supported...

Originally Posted by Merkuryy

Glad I bought a Santa Rosa MBP with dedicated GPU. The integrated GPU　ｊｕｓｔ　ｐｒｏｖｅｄ　ｔｏ　ｂｅ　ｔｒａｓｈ　ｏｖｅｒ　ｔｈｅ　ｔｉｍｅ　ａｎｄ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｔｈｅ　ｈｕｇｅ　ｒｅｖｏｌｕｔｉｏｎ　ｔｏ　ｇｅｔ　ｇｒａｐｈｉｃｓ　ｂｅｔｔｅｒ

The GeForce 9400M is integrated, too.

[big_malk]

Glad to see my GeForce 8800 is supported
I wonder if we'll see a folding@home client for graphics cards now, like they've had on windows for a while.

[youyesyou]

I'm afraid

What about the GeForce 9400M of the 2009 iMac and uMacbook 2008 ?

[oingoboingo]

Originally Posted by youyesyou

I'm afraid

What about the GeForce 9400M of the 2009 iMac and uMacbook 2008 ?

From the summary on the front page:

The list of supported GPUs include:

- NVIDIA Geforce 8600M GT, GeForce 8800 GT, GeForce 8800 GTS, Geforce 9400M, GeForce 9600M GT, GeForce GT 120, GeForce GT 130.
- ATI Radeon 4850, Radeon 4870

[wrldwzrd89]

Yarg, no support for the Radeon HD 2600 Pro?! This is in a previous-generation Intel iMac... sigh.

[milk242]

Originally Posted by youyesyou

I'm afraid

What about the GeForce 9400M of the 2009 iMac and uMacbook 2008 ?

it said 9400m up there...

[eXan]

Sheet. I was hoping my 2400 would be supported...

Time to get a new MBP I guess

[bluedoggiant]

Originally Posted by superted666

Hmm does this mean my recent purchase of a iMac 2.8ghz core 2 extreme does not support the new CL API?

Bit gutted

Does this seriously mean that my 24" 2.8GHz imac running ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro will not work? Can it still run Snow Leopard though?

This is a real put off, this was released summer 2007 and its already becoming outdated...

[Merkuryy]

Glad I bought a Santa Rosa MBP with dedicated GPU. The integrated GPU　ｊｕｓｔ　ｐｒｏｖｅｄ　ｔｏ　ｂｅ　ｔｒａｓｈ　ｏｖｅｒ　ｔｈｅ　ｔｉｍｅ　ａｎｄ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｔｈｅ　ｈｕｇｅ　ｒｅｖｏｌｕｔｉｏｎ　ｔｏ　ｇｅｔ　ｇｒａｐｈｉｃｓ　ｂｅｔｔｅｒ

[twoodcc]

sound good to me. looking forward to snow leopard. even though none of my current macs support this, maybe i'll have a new one by then

[Andrew Henry]

Sure glad I just placed that order for a XFX Radeon 4870 1gb graphics card!

[TheNorthWaves]

what does this mean for average joe user such as myself? Should I upgrade before the masses find out that my white macbook with the intel X3100 graphics doesn't cut it? Or is this really not a big deal
edit: I use my macbook for the stuff that 90% of people out there use a computer for. I'm not a video editor/etc.

[wizard]

Originally Posted by TheNorthWaves

what does this mean for average joe user such as myself? Should I upgrade before the masses find out that my white macbook with the intel X3100 graphics doesn't cut it? Or is this really not a big deal

For Joe Average it isn't a huge issue in and of itself. There are far better reasons to upgrade in my opinion. The new machines are actualll very impressive based on a number of measures. Your machine will start to look long in the tooth relatively quickly.

edit: I use my macbook for the stuff that 90% of people out there use a computer for. I'm not a video editor/etc.

The problem with that of course is that 90% of the users don't use their machines for the same thing. The combo of a new machine and Snow Leopard should provide you with one very nice speed up no matter what you do.

Still in my mind there are only two really good reasons to buy a replacement machine. One is that the current machine is functionally faulty. The other reason is that the machine no longer has the speed to behave correctly and responsively to the software you run.


Dave

[TheNorthWaves]

Originally Posted by wizard

For Joe Average it isn't a huge issue in and of itself. There are far better reasons to upgrade in my opinion. The new machines are actualll very impressive based on a number of measures. Your machine will start to look long in the tooth relatively quickly.

The problem with that of course is that 90% of the users don't use their machines for the same thing. The combo of a new machine and Snow Leopard should provide you with one very nice speed up no matter what you do.

Still in my mind there are only two really good reasons to buy a replacement machine. One is that the current machine is functionally faulty. The other reason is that the machine no longer has the speed to behave correctly and responsively to the software you run.


Dave

Dave, your point is excellent. My macbook is great for what I need. Even at $29 I'm not thinking that 10.6 would be worth the upgrade if my video card isn't supported (at least for openCL). After all, it seems like even with a complete erase and install that OS 10.x.4 needs to roll around before the bugs are out. Without an upgrade in functionality, it's not worth even $29 to have trouble with my otherwise perfect machine currently running 10.5.7.

[Moo-Boo]

Originally Posted by TheNorthWaves

what does this mean for average joe user such as myself? Should I upgrade before the masses find out that my white macbook with the intel X3100 graphics doesn't cut it? Or is this really not a big deal
edit: I use my macbook for the stuff that 90% of people out there use a computer for. I'm not a video editor/etc.

I'm pretty sure then, that you'd be right. You have a recent, excellent machine and it should do what you want it to do even with Snow Leopard.

[donbadman]

Excellent news, I hear this will sort out lots of problems in post when dealing with footage from the 5D MKII and avoid transcoding to other codecs. Well done Apple. Should look great on a new 17" MBP!

[HyperZboy]

As a PowerPC user left out in the cold by Apple on $10k worth of equipment, most of which purchased within 3 years and often being ridiculed on this site for whining about no Snow Leopard PowerPC support & the fact that's its mostly just bug fixes and optimizations, I have to admit I'm enjoying this thread of INTEL users all complaining about their INTEL Mac not being supported for OpenCL.

Karma?

[Benthic]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

The list of supported GPUs include:

- NVIDIA Geforce 8600M GT, GeForce 8800 GT, GeForce 8800 GTS, Geforce 9400M, GeForce 9600M GT, GeForce GT 120, GeForce GT 130.
- ATI Radeon 4850, Radeon 4870

What the heck is a GT130? I don't see that anywhere in the Apple Store. I have a GT120 and an XT2600 in my Mac Pro...

[jhsfosho]

Snow leopard sounds like a really good thing for speed. I can't wait for it to come out to see the improvement.

[kaworu1986]

In addition to being quite enraged by learning that the GPU for which I spent an additional 600+ EUR (8600M GT) isn't going to support hardware h264 decoding (EVEN THOUGH NVIDIA'S 9xxx SERIES IS BASICALLY A RE-BRANDING OF THE 8xxx ONE FROM AN ARCHITECTURE STANDPOINT), I wonder if Apple's implementation of the h264 codec is going to get any improvement. As it stands, it is quite pathetic: no support for high profile AND sub par video quality mean I always have to reboot into Windows to watch movies and anime.

[bobnugget]

Originally Posted by kaworu1986

In addition to being quite enraged by learning that the GPU for which I spent an additional 600+ EUR (8600M GT) isn't going to support hardware h264 decoding (EVEN THOUGH NVIDIA'S 9xxx SERIES IS BASICALLY A RE-BRANDING OF THE 8xxx ONE FROM AN ARCHITECTURE STANDPOINT), I wonder if Apple's implementation of the h264 codec is going to get any improvement. As it stands, it is quite pathetic: no support for high profile AND sub par video quality mean I always have to reboot into Windows to watch movies and anime.

Seeing as the 8xxx series are all quite similar, hopefully someone will bring out a patch that will enable it on your mac.