iTunes visualizer FPS

[Mechcozmo]

I'm curious to see what people are getting for their FPS in iTunes. My [guide]PowerBook G4 12[/guide]" laptop (Rev. C) hits ~20 FPS with Open GL enabled and the Smoother but Rougher display option unchecked. Frankly, I'd like to see better. (and support for dual-screen visualization OR one screen visualized, one screen for work)

Here's how to check it: Open iTunes and choose a song. Then go to the Visualizer menu in iTunes and make sure the "Large" setting is enabled. Also enable full screen. Now, play the song. Command+T will start the visualizer. If everything goes as it should, your screen will fade to black and then start to display pretty colors. Press the "F" key to display the FPS (will appear in the top left). If your computer shows 30 up there pretty consistently, congratulations. Your computer is able to pump out 30 frames each second. Press the "T" key to disable capping and it should go up higher but not stay as consistent.

(remember, in the options thingy in iTunes keep Open GL on, cap if under 30, display frame rate, and leave the Faster but rougher option off)

PowerBook 12" Rev. C: ~20 FPS

 

[mad jew]

My iMac G5 (Rev B) gets about 30 to 31 FPS uncapped FWIW.

 

[frankblundt]

not sure where yer finding the smoother but rougher option, but my OCed G3 400 (350) pumps it out at a blinding 12-13fps. 15 if i turn the music off. 18!! in the blackouts between themes..

 

[homerjward]

hmm...how are we measuring this? full-screen? in that case it's only running at 640x480, but if you're running it in a large window on a cinema display, that's going to be a lot higher resolution. on windows (yes, "between macs...") i get aroung 70 full-screen, around 35 maximized on my 1024x768 secondary display and 25ish on my 1280x1024 primary display, "faster but rougher" UNchecked. unfortunately it's not open gl accelerated on windows, so the cpu does all the crunching, making it impossible to do photoshop work or w/e with the visualizer on (among other deficits).
3500+ a64 at 2.4ghz, 2gb ram, x800 pci-e (not that it matters on windows ) and itunes 6.0.1

edit: saw that it's full-screen. either those people have awful video cards or in os x it uses full screen res, ie 1024x768 on a 12" pb.

 

[homerjward]

not sure where yer finding the smoother but rougher option, but my OCed G3 400 (350) pumps it out at a blinding 12-13fps. 15 if i turn the music off. 18!! in the blackouts between themes..

"faster but rougher" is in the visualizer options. turn on the visualizer and where "browse" or "burn cd" would be is a multi-colored icon with the word "options" click that. it's right where the options for open gl acceleration, display song info, etc. are.

o by the way doing full screen seems to mess things up...my google desktop toolbar thing gets all reordered and such, and my aim triton buddy list window moves to the other screen.

 

[faintember]

Wow, i am getting around 13fps (large setting) and 20fps (full screen) on my 1ghz Ti PB with 1 gig of RAM.
(i need a new laptop)

 

[frankblundt]

woohoo - drops to about 10 at full screen and 3!!! at large - fantastic, just like the old days when they showed the coloured oil splots moving around on the screen before the movie started.. the anticipation, the unexpected gravitas..

 

[Mechcozmo]

Wow... much worse results than I thought... but we haven't had any PowerMacs report yet, and I'd like to see what those are able to hit.

 

[haiggy]

My iBook G4 Rev. A gets between 25-35 fps. I was quite impressed. This was also with Safari and Adium running if that matters.

 

[AvSRoCkCO1067]

My iBook G4 1.25 GHz with 512 MB of Ram got about 25 when connected to an external 19" widescreen LCD. I doubt that matters; but yeah, 25 was what I got...

Chris

 

[frankblundt]

Wow... much worse results than I thought... but we haven't had any PowerMacs report yet, and I'd like to see what those are able to hit.

I hope you're not saying my B&W doesn't count as a powermac
My 1.25 mini gets around 25 on large (1600x1200) and around 40, between 18-49, at fullscreen (probably a better comparison, being a set resolution)

 

[Mechcozmo]

I hope you're not saying my B&W doesn't count as a powermac
My 1.25 mini gets around 25 on large (1600x1200) and around 40, between 18-49, at fullscreen (probably a better comparison, being a set resolution)

You never mentioned that your G3 was a B&W. You just said that it was overclocked. It could have been a G3 All-In-One, an iBook, a PowerBook, a clone with an upgrade in it, etc.

I hope everyone's been reporting as fullscreen. That's what I asked for originally. In any case, the visualizer seems to be running rather badly on most of the computers so far. (Below 24 fps and it bugs me with a noticeable chop. 30 fps and above, and I see no difference.)

 

[betbest1]

I get 22-25 FPS on my Windows PC (Win XP Home SP2, AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.08 GHz), 512 MiB RAM).

 

[tangerineyum]

with safari ichat and mail open i get between 23-27 on the g4 ibook in my sig, im somewhat disappointed.

 

[TheMonarch]

Don't any of you find it a little sad that a simple visualizer from Apple requires so many resources? For example, my Windows machine running WMP displays the visualizer extremely smoothly while running at the screen's native resolution [Mine being 1280x1024] (I can't tell you what FPS though, since I see no such option)... But that same windows machine running iTunes can't top 20fps [Windowed]

Something is wrong...

Anywho, to answer the question, my PB 1.67 [1440x900] averages 53fps full screen, occasionally 59. 17fps windowed ["Maximized"]...

 

[mrhoggy]

My iMac G5 (20") isight gets about 60 to 63 FPS uncapped
Cpu: Auto, Safari, Quicktime open. 1.5gb ram

 

[BlizzardBomb]

61FPS here fullscreen (which looks quite pixellated) and 23FPS with window covering whole screen.

 

[Mechcozmo]

Don't any of you find it a little sad that a simple visualizer from Apple requires so many resources? For example, my Windows machine running WMP displays the visualizer extremely smoothly while running at the screen's native resolution [Mine being 1280x1024] (I can't tell you what FPS though, since I see no such option)... But that same windows machine running iTunes can't top 20fps [Windowed]

Something is wrong...

Anywho, to answer the question, my PB 1.67 [1440x900] averages 53fps full screen, occasionally 59. 17fps windowed ["Maximized"]...

Yeah, I find it sad. I hope it is because it is CPU-bound and not GPU-bound. Otherwise, iTunes needs behind the scenes updates... not a Mini-Store.

 

[beatring13]

itunes visualizer blank screen 12 inch G4

I, now for a couple of days, have been trying to figure out why my itunes visualizer "doesnt work" (the screen goes black, and the name of the song shows, even the white apple pops up in the middle of the screen... NO PRETTY COLORS though) i have up recently updated my itunes and then it stoped working. This is the first time i have found anything that makes sence... FPS... the only issue now is it doesnt matter if i cap off the FPS at 30 or put it on a small screen (altough i am partial to the full screen). I jsut really dont like that my visualizer doesnt work the way it did before... can anyone help??? thanks in advance!

 

[beatring13]

Problem Solved

well looks like i helped myself... after this thread i found another that gave me an answer for my problem.

control and a number (1-9), now not only do i see the apple, the song thats playing, the FPS .... I SEE PRETTY COLORS!!!

i also discovered that control and any one of those numbers change the effects, holding to a color, changing a design etc... have fun.

FPS was not the problem, not only does it stay between 25-30 FPS, the image and movement is perfact! thanks anyway

 

[betbest1]

well looks like i helped myself... after this thread i found another that gave me an answer for my problem.

control and a number (1-9), now not only do i see the apple, the song thats playing, the FPS .... I SEE PRETTY COLORS!!!

i also discovered that control and any one of those numbers change the effects, holding to a color, changing a design etc... have fun.

FPS was not the problem, not only does it stay between 25-30 FPS, the image and movement is perfact! thanks anyway

This site tells you all about the visualizer options in iTunes. Warning: DO NOT VISIT if you want to figure the visualizer out all on your own.

 

[combatcolin]

NO support for widescreen res, come on Apple!

 

[djbrain747]

Wow

My Laptop (as described in signature) hit 45 - 50 FPS Nothing was running in background (Norton 360 3.0 - Turned everything off) Settings were: Display FPS (yes), Cap @ 30 FPS (no), Always display song info (no), Use DirectX (yes)[BTW running DirectX 9.0c], Faster but rougher display (yes)