Why is OSX with rotated display slow on Mini?

[kraftzwerg]

I like to use the rotate display option in "Display preferences" under Tiger (comes in handy to display whole pages while keeping them readable on a 17 inch screen). However, once I turn on this setting, OSX becomes suddenly terribly slow, e.g. when I move a window the movement lags behind the cursor and is very choppy etc.

My question: is this an issue that's specific to the Mac Mini ? Is it a harware or a software problem? [Maybe the graphics card is somehow optimized for landscape mode and can't handle portrait mode?] Is there something one can do to fix this?

Thanks for any hints!

 

[jayscheuerle]

I'd be guessing to say that it's a limitation of the graphics card in the mini and the iBook, which does not support Core Image. Perhaps this effect is achieved through the use of Core Image?

 

[Veldek]

Though I also think that this is a limitation of the graphics card, I would expect Mac OS X to not show this preference unless it could handle it.

 

[kraftzwerg]

I am surprised though that OSX should need CoreImage for this effect. One would think that it merely needs to exchange the x- and y- coordinates of its display coordinate system, which doesn't sound like it should require a lot of processing power.

 

[MacsRgr8]

I am surprised though that OSX should need CoreImage for this effect. One would think that it merely needs to exchange the x- and y- coordinates of its display coordinate system, which doesn't sound like it should require a lot of processing power.

I don't think it needs Core Image.
You could enable this feature in Panther aswell, using the ATi Radeon Utilities.

Install the ATi Display Utilities . It will install drivers, and add a System Pref.
Maybe that will help.

 

[kraftzwerg]

I don't think it needs Core Image.
You could enable this feature in Panther aswell, using the ATi Radeon Utilities.

Install the ATi Display Utilities . It will install drivers, and add a System Pref.
Maybe that will help.

That was an interesting hint - thanks! I did install the ATI utilities and it did indeed offer another way to rotate the screen. Unfortunately it doesn't seem much quicker than the feature built into Tiger.