Apple Seeds 'Snow Leopard Graphics Update' to Developers

[jeanlain]

While I'm excited by all these reports, I wonder how much of the improvements over the standard 10.6.4. drivers reflect real optimizations, since 10.6.4 screw gaming performance with some GPUs.
I better comparison would be against 10.6.3.

 

[jeanlain]

You can play around with Kext editing. Maybe you should head over to insanely mac and ask for some help?

After I screwed my system by installing the Nvidia kexts included in the iMac graphics update (kernel panics while booting my MBP 5,1), I'm not going to install anything that doesn't pop-up in Sofware Update.

 

[aiqw9182]

While I'm excited by all these reports, I wonder how much of the improvements over the standard 10.6.4. drivers reflect real optimizations, since 10.6.4 screw gaming performance with some GPUs.
I better comparison would be against 10.6.3.

The majority of users posting massive claims in performance are ATI users. ATI drivers had no negative change going from 10.6.3 to 10.6.4 like some NVIDIA drivers did.

 

[joelovesapple]

Well I hope this does improve the performance of The Sims 3. I did a reinstall of all the games and I have every single one up to Ambitions. It runs like crap and it's almost unplayable which is a shame as I haven't had the game or this computer for long.

We live in hope! Keep checking Software Update guys and gals!

 

[allfunandgames]

Anyone tried the 2600? Much improvement?
This is definitely good news, though!

 

[Ninja Dom]

Hi guys,

Any reports on how Team Fortress 2 runs? The native Mac version of course.

MacBook with a 9400M?? Thanks.

 

[wankey]

My GLViewer went from 1200+ to 800-900. Bummer. Time to downgrade drivers

 

[sch8mid]

crossed my fingers and installed whole package
on my hack with the HD 5770
Worked , but

all the same : besides a hefty acceleration in Cinebench 11.5
from 24,4 > 25,1 fr.

 

[wankey]

I installed the SL Graphics update. Performance is back to 1200. No new things though, that's a big disappointment. I was hoping it boosted my performance to 1500 or something.

 

[vslo]

I got a 2010 macmini. I run int @ 1080p and I have some glitches in Snow Leopard. The dock gets sluggish sometimes, spaces transitions, dashboard and expose also get slugish sometimes. Is this OpenGL relationed ? Do you guys have the same problem ? And will this update solve my problems ?

 

[wankey]

I got a 2010 macmini. I run int @ 1080p and I have some glitches in Snow Leopard. The dock gets sluggish sometimes, spaces transitions, dashboard and expose also get slugish sometimes. Is this OpenGL relationed ? Do you guys have the same problem ? And will this update solve my problems ?

Most likely yes

 

[Dookieman]

Has anyone tried this on a 8600M GT? Has there been any improvements? I know the card is a little old but it seems to still be a decent card and can hold its own in some areas. Thanks. Anyone have an ETA on the release of this?

 

[arkmannj]

Has anyone tried this on a 8600M GT? Has there been any improvements? I know the card is a little old but it seems to still be a decent card and can hold its own in some areas. Thanks. Anyone have an ETA on the release of this?

<---- Very interested in the 8600M GT also.

 

[ASquared]

Testing graphics update build 10f2074 now on a Core i7 MBP with the 330m. Will report back soon.

Will post back with screenshots of OpenGL extensions viewer, Starcraft II FPS, Starcraft II settings.

The above screenshots will be taken in 10.6.3, 10.6.4, and finally 10.6.4 + graphics update. I will post them all for your viewing pleasure.

Going to test now...

*edit*
Testing is done I'm pretty disappointed with the results, 10.6.3 provided the best FPS of any of them in Starcraft 2, the graphics update provided better framerate than 10.6.4 on it's own but none of these are giving me the framerate I should be getting out of this machine. I hope Apple fixes this soon. In the meantime I think I am going to revert back to 10.6.3.


Not sure why but Skitch decided to show the settings box in SC2 as very bright... it was not actually like this in game. Screenshots are not full quality, they have been resized.
10.6.3

10.6.4

10.6.4 with snow leopard graphics update build 10f2074

 

[Inferno313]

Testing graphics update build 10f2074 now on a Core i7 MBP with the 330m. Will report back soon.

Will post back with screenshots of OpenGL extensions viewer, Starcraft II FPS, Starcraft II settings.

The above screenshosts will be taken in 10.6.3, 10.6.4, and finally 10.6.4 + graphics update. I will post them all for your viewing pleasure.

Going to test now...

Let us know what you come up with! That's the exact system I'm using.

 

[ASquared]

I edited my original post with my results.

 

[macfanboy]

supposedly there was an update to the graphcis beta update, but no blogs covered it. is this true?

 

[Plasmastrike]

As a 330M user and after reading what ASquared reported, I'm thoroughly dissappointed. Notice he's getting 16-18 FPS on default and recommended settings by Blizzard. Our hardware is so capable that it makes me sick.

****ing fix this, Apple.

 

[philjf1]

Hey - first post!

I have just made the move from windows to mac and im loving it so far!

I have brought a new iMac (last week) with a 512mb ATI Radeon HD 5670 with an i3 processor. The performance in games however has been weak. I've tried doing a little search to find if this update will make a difference on the new iMac's?

I have attached a screenshot of my opengl tests - less than impressive. Is it worth me trying this update to help performace?

 

[sch8mid]

Hey - first post!


I have brought a new iMac (last week) with a 512mb ATI Radeon HD 5670 with an i3 processor. The performance in games however has been weak. I've tried doing a little search to find if this update will make a difference on the new iMac's?

I have attached a screenshot of my opengl tests - less than impressive. Is it worth me trying this update to help performace?

there is something wrong
you should see scores in the 2000 range with your resolution and the 5670
I attached a screenshot with an ATI HD 5770 @1920x1200

EDIT: Sorry overlooked the high resolution

should be more in the 1000 range with his setup

 

[analog guy]

there is something wrong
you should see scores in the 2000 range with your resolution and the 5670
I attached a screenshot with an ATI HD 5770 @1920x1200

the guy's running @ 2560x1440 vs your 1920x1200. by my calculations, that's 60% more pixels. seems like he should have higher performance than the ~700fps he's getting, but reducing your scores (~2500fps) by that same factor predicts scores ~1500fps. i can't comment whether increasing resolution by 60% would tend to reduce performance by more or less than 60%, though. 2000 seems a little ambitious.

 

[demonguard]

Keep in mind the 5670 is a MUCH less powerful card than the 5770.

 

[analog guy]

Keep in mind the 5670 is a MUCH less powerful card than the 5770.

^^^ YES!

That, and the fact that he's pushing 60% more pixels.

 

[sch8mid]

the guy's running @ 2560x1440 vs your 1920x1200. by my calculations, that's 60% more pixels. seems like he should have higher performance than the ~700fps he's getting, but reducing your scores (~2500fps) by that same factor predicts scores ~1500fps. i can't comment whether increasing resolution by 60% would tend to reduce performance by more or less than 60%, though. 2000 seems a little ambitious.

right * overlooked his resolution
but he should see frames > 1000 with his 5670 , isn´t it ..

b.t.w. we should really bench with the new version 3.3.1 of openglextensionsviewer

as more and more people have pointed out that you get weird results with
old versions .

if you bench in benchmarkmode with the new version and 4x AA all
scores go down under 300 fr.

 

[analog guy]

right * overlooked his resolution
but he should see frames > 1000 with his 5670 , isn´t it ..

not sure if it's fair to make any assumption given that he has a different graphics chipset. best to wait until someone else with a 5670 and similar specs posts their results?

b.t.w. we should really bench with the new version 3.3.1 of openglextensionsviewer

as more and more people have pointed out that you get weird results with
old versions .

if you bench in benchmarkmode with the new version and 4x AA all
scores go down under 300 fr.

for what it's worth, i'm getting upper 4,000's on my Mac Pro (3,1 Octocore 2x2.8 w/ GTX 285)...with 10.6.3.