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I installed the update, restarted, and ran Ghost Recon, and I couldn't notice any difference at all.

P.S. Eidorian, you're being a bit officious. :)
 
Looking at my before and after Xbench scores, the update considerably boosted performance on the Quartz Graphics Test and the User Interface Test and slightly degraded performance on the Open GL Graphics Test.

Overall score increased from 123 to 140.

Make if this what you will.
 
The "Aluminum" iMac Update 1.1 installs a later version of the Radeon HD 2400/2600 driver (1.5.8.9), but it is NOT faster. We just reran all our 3D game tests. Doom 3 is 8% faster, Quake 4 is 9% faster, and Prey is 18% faster under the OLD driver (1.5.6.12) compared to the newer driver. This update may include bug fixes but it is obviously NOT the performance optimized version that is supposedly being developed by AMD.

That's rather disappointing. On the other hand, if you don't know what the margin of error in your tests are, percentage differences can be meaningless.
 
Added note: We found out that the old driver ignored Anisotropic Shading settings in Prey. If you turn off Anisotropic shading under both drivers, the framerate difference drops from 18% to 1%.
 
That's rather disappointing. On the other hand, if you don't know what the margin of error in your tests are, percentage differences can be meaningless.

The real news here is that AMD has confirmed to me that this Radeon 2xxx driver version/build is NOT optimized for performance. It is a bug fix release.

My testing is only meant to confirm that.
 
The real news here is that AMD has confirmed to me that this Radeon 2xxx driver version/build in NOT optimized for performance. It is a bug fix release.

My testing is only meant to confirm that.

That's great but don't you think that without margins of error, its difficult to determine whether anything has improved or not? Furthermore, comparing results with different graphics cards is similarly difficult.
 
still doesn't fix profiles/gradient issue

My iMac is definitely more snappy after installing this. Highly recommended.
To those wondering if this update will fix the "washed out profile problem" though you should know that it doesn't.

The closest fix I have found is that just bumping the gamma ten points in the profile returns the dock to a more normal appearance, but since the real problem is the strong gradient from the bottom to the top of the screen, this really screws up the top half. So you have a choice between "mostly normal" screen with a washed out dock, or "mostly normal" dock with over-saturated middle and a very dark top.

Vastly under-whelmed by the quality of this screen and very glad I still have my ACD at home. :(
 
Could you perhaps ask them why they're releasing less than beta quality drivers?

Why AREN'T the drivers optimized for performance? Were they not given enough time to test and optimize? Are they being told to concentrate on leopard drivers?

Nvidia has been releasing shoddy drivers too (Macbook Pro santa rosa) and I'm just wondering why they seem incapable of getting them right before release.

The real news here is that AMD has confirmed to me that this Radeon 2xxx driver version/build in NOT optimized for performance. It is a bug fix release.

My testing is only meant to confirm that.
 
anybody else have some weird box on their screen after coming back up from sleep mode ? i use a password to come out of sleep mode also. only way to get rid of it is to use another a window to wipe it off the screen. kinda like erasing it.
 
Just like the barefeats tests, my tests shows a 5% fps drop in quake 4 and doom 3 time demo AFTER applying the update on a 24" iMac. Lame.

Apple updates it's flagship consumer PC with a graphic card that is SLOWER than the previous iMac's card, and then updates it with slower drivers. Awesome.
 
What do you mean exactly?

It's a minor software update limited to only one model. Even Pro Applications updates make it here onto Page 2.

I think any software update from Apple should make first page, this one in particular addresses a lot of the chatter on the forum. Though it may not have sufficiently improved the problems it does address the display issues and the graphics drivers. I am sure that there is more discussion on these issues then say, "Exclusive Preview: Ambrosia Software's WireTap Studio" or "HD Radio: iTunes 'Tagging' Feature Announced".
 
It fixed the iTunes freezing problem allot of the iMac where having. The bug was when you go to the tv shows, or movies in iTunes and scrolled up and down it would freeze the hole computer up. It doesnt do it anymore with the fix. What else it fixed I dont know.
 
The real news here is that AMD has confirmed to me that this Radeon 2xxx driver version/build is NOT optimized for performance. It is a bug fix release.

My testing is only meant to confirm that.

So does Apple actually write the video drivers or does AMD? When do you think a performance optimized driver will be released? You seem to be more on the inside here than the rest of us.
 
My imac would crash a lot before the update, and it still crashes after the update. And I now get weird screen artefacts into the bargain.
Its a disaster.
 
Am I the only one with a new color profile?

Ran the update on my 20 inch. The old iMac profile is gone from my list of color profiles in display preferences. There is now a "color LCD" profile, which mine started up with. A little lighter than 2.2 gamma, 6500 white point. Looks pretty good to me. Still not good enough for the "pros" out there? Surprised that I'm the first to comment on this.
 
So does Apple actually write the video drivers or does AMD? When do you think a performance optimized driver will be released? You seem to be more on the inside here than the rest of us.

AMD writes and updates the driver and sends it to Apple for "qualification" before release. I know AMD is working feverishly to optimize the driver but don't know when it will make it to the end users. Hopefully soon.
 
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