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Quartz 2D Extreme disabled by default

broken_keyboard

broken_keyboard

macrumors 65816
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Apr 19, 2004
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Secret Moon base
I just read on ThinkSecret that Quartz 2D Extreme is disabled by default in Tiger. http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0505q310q.html

This is major. It means Tiger has a whole lot of graphics performance that is hidden.

You can enable it by installing the developer tools and running the program /Developer/Applications/Performance Tools/Quartz Debug. It is in the Tools menu.

I have an NVidia 6800, and it makes a big difference when e.g. resizing a Quicktime window.
 
There's already a couple threads on this. There's also a way of turning this feature on without Quartz debug:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver Quartz2DExtremeEnabled -boolean YES

^^ one line in terminal.
 
I am sure this all imaginary...but it appears as if my iMac is coping a lot better all round. 720p HD H.264 material plays at the full 24fps and even 1080p averages at 13-14fps. I am very impressed, it also appears as if resizing windows, especially in Safari, is a lot smoother and quicker. I copied and pasted that in Terminal, how can i tell if it went through or if Quartz 2 is enabled?
thanks
 
As a matter of interest, in this Quartz Debug app, the option to enable Quartz 2d Extreme isn't available to me. I was under the impression that QE enabled cards would also have Q2DE available - is anyone able to fill me in? (My card is the Radeon Mobility 9200 with 32MB).

Ta. :)
 

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thequicksilver said:
As a matter of interest, in this Quartz Debug app, the option to enable Quartz 2d Extreme isn't available to me. I was under the impression that QE enabled cards would also have Q2DE available - is anyone able to fill me in? (My card is the Radeon Mobility 9200 with 32MB).

Ta. :)
Click to expand...

I think the Q2DE has a higher requirement than than QE, around pixel shaders. Essentialy its the same as the core image requirement, so an iBook doesn't quite have it.
 
Tiger's going to get definitely faster and faster as Apple works to iron out the remaining bugs in Quartz 2D Extreme. Could we see it as soon as 10.4.1? I hope so. I might just have to upgrade my dual G5's 5200fx video card to a Nvidia 6800.
 
Fredstar said:
I am sure this all imaginary...but it appears as if my iMac is coping a lot better all round. 720p HD H.264 material plays at the full 24fps and even 1080p averages at 13-14fps. I am very impressed, it also appears as if resizing windows, especially in Safari, is a lot smoother and quicker. I copied and pasted that in Terminal, how can i tell if it went through or if Quartz 2 is enabled?
thanks
Click to expand...
In terminal:

defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver Quartz2DExtremeEnabled

Should return a "1". Note, you don't need sudo to read defaults.
 
daveL said:
In terminal:

defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver Quartz2DExtremeEnabled

Should return a "1". Note, you don't need sudo to read defaults.
Click to expand...

Yup got feedback of 1 so it is all enabled, cheers. It is quite exciting about how Tiger will be further enhanced and optimized, such as Panther went through till .3.9. Looking forward till 10.4.5 onwards and later versions of Quicktime and even perhaps Open GL 2.0, should be awesome. All this before Longhorn has reached a release worthy stage
 
Hm that's interesting!

What's the low down on Quartz 2D Extreme? How does it differ from Quartz Extreme? I've just checked on my system and it's off. Don't think I dare turn it on, Apple must think it's too buggy to enable by default and I don't want to hose my freshly installed Tiger.
 
TMA said:
Hm that's interesting!

What's the low down on Quartz 2D Extreme? How does it differ from Quartz Extreme? I've just checked on my system and it's off. Don't think I dare turn it on, Apple must think it's too buggy to enable by default and I don't want to hose my freshly installed Tiger.
Click to expand...
The other MR thread has a good description of the QE/Q2DE distinctions.
 
daveL said:
The other MR thread has a good description of the QE/Q2DE distinctions.
Click to expand...

Could you point me in the right direction please? A search for QE and Quartz 2D didn't turn up anything useful.

Cheers,
 
Brilliant article on arstechnica about Quartz 2D Extreme. Summary:

Quartz summary
The Quartz display layer has made radical improvements in hardware acceleration in every even-numbered release (Quartz Extreme in 10.2 and now Quartz 2D Extreme in 10.4), with software-only optimizations in the odd-numbered releases. Tiger is unique in that it provides tremendous software optimization in addition to a new level of hardware-acceleration.

Quartz 2D Extreme is impressive already, but it has the potential to become even faster and more powerful. (The first step is for it to be enabled by default, of course.) Video cards are evolving much more rapidly than the other major hardware components of the modern PC (CPU, RAM, disks) in terms of both performance and capabilities. Getting (nearly) all drawing functionality off the CPU and onto the GPU sets up Mac OS X nicely to reap the benefits of future video card innovations. As we'll see in the next section, Quartz 2D isn't the only API that wants to get in on the GPU gravy train. The video card is getting pretty crowded these days...
Click to expand...
Other APIs wanting to "get in on the GPU gravy train" are CoreImage and CoreVideo. A brief statement about CoreVideo and Quicktime 7:

Since Core Video is useless if it does not execute in real time, it requires a programmable GPU. Core Video leverages the GPU via OpenGL, just like Core Image and Quartz Extreme and Quartz 2D Extreme...noticing a trend here?
...
It [Quicktime 7] represents the final unification of QuickTime and OpenGL. Since every other technology that displays or manipulates images is already running on the GPU in Tiger, it only makes sense for QuickTime to move there too. In fact, this change is essential if any other part of the display system wants fast access to QuickTime video frames.

With QuickTime 7 in Tiger, every QuickTime movie is being displayed on an OpenGL surface. It just so happens that the surface is perfectly parallel to the display.

But there's more to QuickTime 7's modernization than just moving the video display onto the GPU via OpenGL. A lot of old, crufty parts of QuickTime's implementation have been superseded by more modern equivalents.
Click to expand...
Nice to see Mac OS increasingly exploiting the potential of powerful GPUs.
 
ksz said:
Brilliant article on arstechnica about Quartz 2D Extreme. Summary:


Other APIs wanting to "get in on the GPU gravy train" are CoreImage and CoreVideo. A brief statement about CoreVideo and Quicktime 7:


Nice to see Mac OS increasingly exploiting the potential of powerful GPUs.
Click to expand...

The difference that core image and core video makes is amazing.

Even my poor little Rev A PB with a 1.25GHz G4 and 32MB 9600 is playing 720p h.264 at 12-18 FPS.
 
I noticed that when I quit the Quartz Debug app, it disables Quartz 2D Extreme, how do I turn it on permanently?
 
nightdweller25 said:
I noticed that when I quit the Quartz Debug app, it disables Quartz 2D Extreme, how do I turn it on permanently?
Click to expand...
You could start by reading the thread.
 
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