Flash 10.1 updated with hardware acceleration support, codenamed "Gala"

[davecnet]

I made a quick YouTube video to show the difference between with hardware acceleration and without under CPU stress. Not exactly a scientific experiment, so take it for what it's worth...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWxsjcsDp-Y

 

[aiqw9182]

Quietly lost in the shuffle... the LAST PowerPC version of Flashplayer!

And I hardly knew ye, errr, a working version of Flash I meant. LOL

I think it's a safe bet that Adobe will leave PowerPC users with a lasting version that crashes Safari daily just to remind us of why we hate them so much.

Actually it says after 10.1 is released only PowerPC G3 processors will no longer be supported, so not all hope is lost.

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/releasenotes.pdf
"Note: The Adobe Flash Player 10.1 release, expected in the first half of 2010, will be the last version to support Macintosh PowerPC-based G3 computers. Adobe will be discontinuing support of PowerPC- based G3 computers and will no longer provide security updates after the Flash Player 10.1 release. This unavailability is due to performance enhancements that cannot be supported on the older PowerPC architecture."

 

[imaginex20]

Unibody Macbook with 9400m GPU from late 2008 here.

Cpu usage is roughly 20%. Prior to this update it was well above 50%.

CPU temps is leveraging around 65-69 degrees Celsius. Perior to this update, it can reach 75-80 degrees Celsius.

My census is that this update is two thumbs up! much improved from my observations.!

 

[Craiglorocks]

But can it play Farmville at full speed?

 

[jav6454]

But can it play Farmville at full speed?

I see what you did there! I see it!!!

 

[God of Biscuits]

In order words, Apple only had itself to blame for poor flash performance all along.

Go figure.

Only for h.264 playback.

Don't be disingenuous.

And there's still the overhead of going through the spaghetti code of Flash just to have Flash pass off the decoding to the hardware just to play video, instead of Quicktime X's optimized architecture.

The rest of Flash....animations, ads, games, EVERYTHING EXCEPT PLAYING BACK H.264 ENCODED VIDEO, including playing back FLV, including SWF files, all that, are still sucky and powerhungry and won't benefit at all from this update.

Same old crappy C/C++ code that's been patched a bazillion times that Adobe never invested in revamping and modernizing.

So be careful what you say, mmmkay?

 

[God of Biscuits]

What??? You thought Jobs was telling the truth? This is the same guy that let Apple slip to they the current desktop market share the own today. History is repeating itself with mobile phones with Android being the Windows... and Apple... well... being Apple.

Don't be an ass. Flash is still a pig. only the decoding of h.264 encoded video gets a benefit. NOTHING ELSE ABOUT FLASH GETS ANY ACCELERATION OR RELIEF FROM THIS.

It's still a pig comprised of sloppy legacy code that will suck your battery dead.

So save your glib, smarmy crap.

 

[Chadder]

Works on 9600m

I don't know about this word that it doesn't work with the 9600m as i tested it out watching the latest video of House on Hulu using the 9400m and then watched V using the 9600m and both were using the gpu acceleration and the fact is that my fans using either card were never higher than 3200 rpm. Plus in this article this person has a 285GTX and it works just fine. http://www.anandtech.com/show/3682/adobe-enables-gpu-flash-acceleration-in-os-x-we-test-it

 

[Stridder44]

It's a preview release and I expect that support for more GPUs will come later. Personally I want HD4870 support

They bloody well better. There's no excuse to limit it only to GPU's made from that point.

 

[VicMacs]

thank god I upgraded my laptop…. I would HATE to have an old mac right now...

 

[bed]

I don't know about this word that it doesn't work with the 9600m as i tested it out watching the latest video of House on Hulu using the 9400m and then watched V using the 9600m and both were using the gpu acceleration and the fact is that my fans using either card were never higher than 3200 rpm. Plus in this article this person has a 285GTX and it works just fine. http://www.anandtech.com/show/3682/adobe-enables-gpu-flash-acceleration-in-os-x-we-test-it

Do any machines have JUST the 9600mGT? Because even when using the 9600 for graphics, the 9400 is still powered and available for use with OpenCL - and presumably also available for H264 decoding. Thus 9600 drivers aren't required.

 

[GFLPraxis]

In order words, Apple only had itself to blame for poor flash performance all along.

Go figure.

What??? You thought Jobs was telling the truth? This is the same guy that let Apple slip to they the current desktop market share the own today. History is repeating itself with mobile phones with Android being the Windows... and Apple... well... being Apple.

Not true at all. Hardware acceleration is new to Windows in Flash 10 as well. What was the excuse for the poor performance before?

 

[Chadder]

Do any machines have JUST the 9600mGT? Because even when using the 9600 for graphics, the 9400 is still powered and available for use with OpenCL - and presumably also available for H264 decoding. Thus 9600 drivers aren't required.

no most macbook pro 15" have the 9600m except a few of the lowest end that have only the 9400m but it is guaranteed that if you have the 9600m you also have the 9400m. to see if you have the 9600m go to System Preferences->Energy Saver and if you have the two GPUs on the top there should be an option for Higher Performance and Better Battery Life. But the fact is that when the 9600m is powered on (When your on Higher Performance) your 9400m is powered off.

 

[bmb012]

But can it play Farmville at full speed?

Nope, Flash still uses the browser's timing, which for some reason doesn't allow Flash to run at 30 fps, which most games use. Unless you re-time the thing manually like I do, but that eats up idle cycles (which, who cares, if you're playing a Flash game it should take up as much CPU as it needs to for a smooth game). Far as I know, I'm the only one who does this, though.

Oh, and support isn't coming for any other GPUs, because the API isn't OpenCL, it's an API for special hardware accelerators only on Nvidia GPUs.

Which, personally, I believe is the exact opposite of what Apple is trying to accomplish with OpenCL.

So basically, Flash is always going to run terribly, unless Adobe starts rendering the vectors with OpenCL, or buys Scaleform to get all the code and graphics to run natively (and anyone who complains how ugly anything made with Flash is should probably look into Scaleform and see where Flash interfaces have been used).

 

[badNameErr]

It's a preview release and I expect that support for more GPUs will come later. Personally I want HD4870 support

+1 - Bring on the '4870!

 

[Piggie]

Whoa there just a moment.

Why are you all saying positive things about this ans installing in onto Macs?

Whenever there has been any talk about Flash on MacRumous all the talk have been "I HATE FLASH IT MUST DIE" with posters saying they hate it so much they turn flash off in the browser, never miss it and never want it.

Now all of a sudden it's Yay, Great news and lets download the update now.

Errrrr?

 

[aiqw9182]

Nope, Flash still uses the browser's timing, which for some reason doesn't allow Flash to run at 30 fps, which most games use. Unless you re-time the thing manually like I do, but that eats up idle cycles (which, who cares, if you're playing a Flash game it should take up as much CPU as it needs to for a smooth game). Far as I know, I'm the only one who does this, though.

Oh, and support isn't coming for any other GPUs, because the API isn't OpenCL, it's an API for special hardware accelerators only on Nvidia GPUs.

Which, personally, I believe is the exact opposite of what Apple is trying to accomplish with OpenCL.

So basically, Flash is always going to run terribly, unless Adobe starts rendering the vectors with OpenCL, or buys Scaleform to get all the code and graphics to run natively (and anyone who complains how ugly anything made with Flash is should probably look into Scaleform and see where Flash interfaces have been used).

Wrong. Every GPU in Apple's current lineup has the ability to hardware accelerate playback. Every GPU in Apple's current line has hardware acceleration support under Windows. Apple just isn't providing the drivers.

 

[Chadder]

Whoa there just a moment.

Why are you all saying positive things about this ans installing in onto Macs?

Whenever there has been any talk about Flash on MacRumous all the talk have been "I HATE FLASH IT MUST DIE" with posters saying they hate it so much they turn flash off in the browser, never miss it and never want it.

Now all of a sudden it's Yay, Great news and lets download the update now.

Errrrr?

Unfortunately it is here and if there is a way to make it more livable i'm all for it.

 

[bed]

But the fact is that when the 9600m is powered on (When your on Higher Performance) your 9400m is powered off.

Nope you're wrong. When you're on Higher Performance and using the 9600m, the 9400m is still available for use with OpenCL.

see http://blog.cudachess.org/2010/03/opencl-performance-surprise-on-macbook-pro/

So given there are no machines with ONLY a 9600m, a 9600m h264 decoder is never required, as the 9400 will ALWAYS do the work.

 

[JohnDoe98]

It's nice to see Apple stopped being so obtuse about this. Now if they could only do the right thing and enable H.264 Hardware Acceleration to all the GPUs they sold that support it...

 

[Cerda]

what is hardware decoding?

 

[ltldrummerboy]

I'm not noticing a huge difference on my 9400m between 10.1 RC2 and Gala. Both seem to be a huge improvement over 10.0.

 

[telecomm]

Oh, and support isn't coming for any other GPUs, because the API isn't OpenCL, it's an API for special hardware accelerators only on Nvidia GPUs.

Support isn't coming to other GPUs that have built-in h.264 acceleration because Apple is too lazy to write the necessary code for cards like the 8600M GT.

 

[Chadder]

Nope you're wrong. When you're on Higher Performance and using the 9600m, the 9400m is still available for use with OpenCL.

see http://blog.cudachess.org/2010/03/opencl-performance-surprise-on-macbook-pro/

So given there are no machines with ONLY a 9600m, a 9600m h264 decoder is never required, as the 9400 will ALWAYS do the work.

good point it could be using the 9400m in the background according to that article but i also felt the hot areas on the macbook pro and when i was using the 9400m it was warm above the F5 and F6 keys, but when i was using the 9600m it was warmer around the TAB key area. But like i linked above a guy tested it out on the Nvidia 285GTX and it was using the GPU acceleration just fine. I think that i the cards that adobe posted are the minimum requirements. Here is the link again:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3682/adobe-enables-gpu-flash-acceleration-in-os-x-we-test-it

 

[JohnDoe98]

Support isn't coming to other GPUs that have built-in h.264 acceleration because Apple is too lazy to write the necessary code for cards like the 8600M GT.

Yeah they want you to upgrade to their new hardware. But honestly, who is dumb enough to invest (again) in upgrading to a product line when it is quite obvious the company is not willing to support the hardware to the extent that it is possible (you call that good customer service?). Apple's pathetic driver support is making me consider whether or not I should remain an Apple consumer. Love or hate the windows platform, the fact that it allows for the manufacturers of the hardware to write their drivers ensures some responsibility. Apple really needs to get their act together. Nickel and Diming their consumer base isn't the way to go. Offering the best products, the best support, etc. is a viable long-term strategy.