oingoboingo said:
Sorry. Maybe time to shift the Core Image-related stuff and GPU support/VRAM requirements to a different thread.
Okay I will make it short and sweet, I know a couple of Apple Techs, they get the latest "Tiger" seeds and test it out just to keep themselves up to date.
They also have a price list of what Apple parts cost and putting the components together the 12" iBook has very very little profit margin for Apple, believe it.
I also asked them to if they had a chance to test out the build of "Tiger" that was given at WWDC 2004 and right down to the latest build and it does seem that though Core Image is scalable for the things that were shown at WWDC and Expo Paris (where the iMac G5 was released) that Core Image will run slow on 64MB of GPU ram. Even if you go to an Expo and poke around (and the Apple employees do not like when you hang around the one system for too long) anyhow carrying on you will see that the system even the PMG5 are running on 512 and up worth of ram, even the 5400 is not present on those machines they are using 128MB ram GPU.
If you honestly believe that during the keynotes that Apple or whom ever is doing a demo of QuickTime, FCP, etc... that they are using Stock models you are kidding yourself, They are using max ram 8GB and using the fastest GPU they can get they hands on (since companies such as ATI and NVIDIA give Apple demo GPU cards for testing and Expo Floor models and Keynote Demos).
Again if you believe that your 64MB GPU is going to have the same Core Image editing speed that was demonstrated you are living in a dream world, you will need at minimum a 128MB a 64MB will be like running OS X with 128MB of ram. Think about it Apple is in this business to make money if they sell you a STOCK machine that can demonstrate speeds of editing, rendering that is demoed in the Keynotes they might as well charge you more than what they are now or put a "Out of Business" sign on they front door.
The iMac G5 is only "Tiger" compliant because its the "IN" Product and Apple needs it to support they new OS as well its a new model all together. The iBook and eMac on the other hand are not making a processor jump only updates so until there is an eMac G5 or an iBook G5 that was going to be released then you would see a similar situation as the iMac G5 had with "Tiger" support.
Anyhow believe what you want I already spoke to 2 different Apple Tech's in regards to it and they both will tell you pretty much what I said, heck I hate to say this however one of they even said the iMac G5 is not worth it and laughed when I even mentioned Core Image.
Mac OS X.3 minimum ram requirements 128MB
Core Image minimum GPU ram requirements 64MB
Do the match and see past the smoke and mirrors or the RDF of Steve Jobs.
I like Apple products however I also know better than to believe that OS X will run fine on 128MB of ram. As Quartz Extreme had a 16MB minimum of GPU ram.
Anyhow I didn't say all the PowerBooks are a rotten deal if you want the large screen the 15 and 17" ones are alright however don't expect Core image to fly on those system unless you upgraded the GPU to 128MB and I highly recommend that you do, any PB system that does not offer this is pointless you might as well buy an 12" iBook instead.
🙂
P.S. The only reason Apple even included the 5200 was because its the bottom end GPU card installed in the iMac G5 and the low end PMG5 along with the GO chips in the PB line so they don't have a lawsuit when "Tiger" is released.
🙂 They were smart enough that people actually bought into this, heck they are still selling the PB and low end PM with those 5200 GPU card, ROTF.
🙂
Also of note the 12" iBook that I just did a whole check and installed max ram for a teacher who teaches with Apple PRO apps the system has no problems considering its a portable and not a 2.5GHz dual G5 its very decent at what it does. Motion is slow as expected since motion loads a lot in RAM and is recommended that one has 2GB of it, the iBook will only take 1280 to date so its slow on it as expected.
🙂
