PowerBook G4 1.5GHz Not Allowing Translucent Menu Bar

[tayloralmond]

After I purchased this PowerBook (see signature) off Craigslist, I wiped the hard drive and installed Leopard. This computer is Core Image supported and yet does not allow the translucent menu bar. Any ideas anyone?

 

[Nameci]

I have the same issue with my original iMac G5 with nVidia FX5200. No translucent menu bar...

 

[Intell]

My PowerMac G5 with the FX5200 card has the same problem. I remember reading somewhere that the FX5200 is one of the slowest/bottom line cards that can do Core Image. Maybe it's too slow for Apple's liking so they disabled that feature.

 

[eyoungren]

Same here. I've never been able to get this to work on my two PowerBooks and the G5 I have at work.

 

[ThunderSnake]

My PowerMac G5 with the FX5200 card has the same problem. I remember reading somewhere that the FX5200 is one of the slowest/bottom line cards that can do Core Image. Maybe it's too slow for Apple's liking so they disabled that feature.

Hardware acceleration is disabled in Aperture (and I think some other Apple applications) with a FX5200.

 

[QuarterSwede]

The GPU it uses doesn't support a specific shader that is required for the translucent menu bar. It's a hardware issue. You'll never get it to work natively.

 

[mabaker]

Some graphics cards, such as NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 or ATI X800 and X850 cards, may not have the necessary OpenGL capabilities to display a translucent menu bar even though they are compatible with Core Image. Those cards should render most effects, but not the translucent menu bar. (ATI X800 and X850 cards display a translucent menu bar if the resolution is set below 2560-by-1600 pixels.)

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1729?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

 

[Zwhaler]

Definitely a GPU and not CPU related bottleneck as others have said. I wouldn't worry about it I'm using a Mac Pro with HD5870 and have translucent menu bar disabled.

 

[vohdoun]

Definitely a GPU and not CPU related bottleneck as others have said. I wouldn't worry about it I'm using a Mac Pro with HD5870 and have translucent menu bar disabled.

It can be annoying on certain backgrounds.

 

[MAC MAN JW]

I have the same PowerBook as you and the translucent menu bar does not work as well(As others said it is because of the GPU). It's not that great anyway, when i use my MacBook i disable it because if you have a colorful Desktop it can get distracting when your trying to read something on a website or typing a Word document.

 

[tayloralmond]

Yeah I guess it's not that big of a deal. At least I know now that it's not a problem with my OS X install or PowerBook, and just a GPU deficiency .