Optimizations for Tiger iBook G3?

[iModFrenzy]

I reinstalled Tiger on my iBook G3, 576 ram, ATI Rage M3(Snow iBook) a few days ago. Its pretty good but feels a bit sluggish. Any tips?

On a unrelated note, anyone know why 3D OS 9 games don't play through classic mode? Quake for example, will open and play but the screen is black. It also seems Tiger makes Dark Forces laggy. Which is disappointing.

Thanks!

-Posted from iBook G3

 

[Dronecatcher]

Install Onyx and accelerate sheet display speed, turn off all Finder animations, turn off Beam Sync, disable Spotlight and Dashboard.

Turn off webpage previews if you use Safari:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSnapshotsUpdatePolicy -int 2

Install Shadowkiller to remove window shadows.

Turn off font smoothing in System Preferences/Appearance.

Disable any login items.

Don't use any Menu Bar system monitors.

 

[happyfrappy]

On a unrelated note, anyone know why 3D OS 9 games don't play through classic mode? Quake for example, will open and play but the screen is black. It also seems Tiger makes Dark Forces laggy. Which is disappointing.

Certain games like programs may do low-level CPU/GPU calls which might not work on Classic, if you drop your resolution/screen bit-rate down sometimes it'll fix the black screen or lag issue but it doesn't work for everything.

If you're obsessed with retro gaming it'll be a better idea to stick with dual-booting.

 

[Altemose]

@Dronecatcher I would not recommend disabling BeamSync on Tiger as it has not been widely tested as well as the fact that it offers little performance gain unlike Leopard.

 

[Dronecatcher]

@Dronecatcher I would not recommend disabling BeamSync on Tiger as it has not been widely tested as well as the fact that it offers little performance gain unlike Leopard.

Fair point - it's not even an option in Onyx - must have imagined it

 

[tevion5]

Install Onyx and accelerate sheet display speed, turn off all Finder animations, turn off Beam Sync, disable Spotlight and Dashboard.

Turn off webpage previews if you use Safari:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSnapshotsUpdatePolicy -int 2

Install Shadowkiller to remove window shadows.

Turn off font smoothing in System Preferences/Appearance.

Disable any login items.

Don't use any Menu Bar system monitors.

Damn I didn't think of all that for my moms iBook. I'll add these to the optimisations next time I'm in the house.

 

[Altemose]

Fair point - it's not even an option in Onyx - must have imagined it

On OS X Leopard, disabling BeamSync on low end PowerPC machines offers a significant benefit in performance.

 

[jbarley]

On my G4 MDD
create and dispose 1000 windows using test app found here
beamsync enabled - 11897513 microseconds
beamsync disabled - 11551029 microseconds

not really anything you'd notice without the use of test software.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Hmmm...on my Quad running Leopard:

Beamsync off
Total time to create and dispose 1000 windows: 8 seconds (8422967 microseconds)
Total time to create and dispose 1000 windows: 8 seconds (8413364 microseconds)
Total time to create and dispose 1000 windows: 8 seconds (8405650 microseconds)

Beamsync on
Total time to create and dispose 1000 windows: 5 seconds (5958135 microseconds)
Total time to create and dispose 1000 windows: 5 seconds (5900427 microseconds)
Total time to create and dispose 1000 windows: 5 seconds (5925683 microseconds)

Maybe turning off not such a good idea?

 

[Altemose]

BeamSync performance varies greatly upon the machine and GPU it is being used on.