Reviews & Daily News with a Difference!
= View Recent Site Features List = - Freq. Asked Questions (FAQ) - - Systems Features - - CPU Card Articles - - SCSI/Disk Articles - - Video Card Articles - - Audio Articles - - Game Related Articles - - Tips & Misc Articles - - L2 Cache Articles -	Need Help? Ask the Men in Mac! First 400MHz ZIF Upgrade Review for G3 Macs! World's first 400MHz G3 Upgrade Review Visit the G3-ZONE for G3 Specific info! Bring in the Noise! (Mac Audio) Complete Site Contents Send News items, Tips and Guest Reviews Advertise here! - Help support Accelerate Your Mac!
11/13/98 - Friday's News:	Click for Current News Page
In response to today's earlier post on 8.5's Built-in Graphics Accelerator extension and Speed doubler posts several readers replied with their results: " I saw the comments and I can report the following. I have loaded system 8.5 on a 6500/300 and a PB G3/266/14.1. No graphics problems at all. In fact some have cleared up. I have an ATI VR 4mg Rage Pro card in the 6500 along with the onboard Rage II. I use two monitors and have the ATI TV Tuner as well. I always had a sound problem with the TV. When you activated the video player window, quicktime reset the sound. Under 8.5 with the new version of QT - 3.02, this has gone away and the picture and sound are rock solid. I used the ATI universal installer to force installation of the Rage II extensions and every works fine. I use speed doubler on both machines and have no crashes. I have turned off "faster file copying". Life is good. John Cleary " This reader reports the opposite, agreeing with the earlier post on better performance with the extension disabled (Note both systems used PF G3 cards and Norton Sys Info as a benchmark). " I have a 7500 with a PowerLogix 220/110 card installed. After reading your note about the graphics, I tested my machine with Norton System Info 4.0 (part of Norton Disk Doctor). Video score was 177. After disabling Built-In Graphics Accelerator, the score jumped to 230. An added benefit is that these little lines on the right side of graphics loading in Netscape Navigator are no longer there. Thanks for the great page! Dale Emery " Another reader said that Macbench 5.0 showed literally identical performance in the graphics primitives tests but a few specific functions scored much better with the extension enabled on his system. (I suspect these are the same functions that showed a boost in my OS 8.1 vs 8.5 Graphics Tests). It may depend on the benchmark, but the notes on reduction of video artifacts may be reason enough for some to disable the extension. The Tips/Misc Articles page also has a link to a complete Macbench 5.0 test series on the same computer with OS 8.1 vs 8.5. Eric Carr sent a follow-up to his earlier post answering some of the questions I had: " I am using the latest ixMicro drivers. I have clean installed MacOS 8.5 and the ixMicro drivers a few times with the same results. I spent some time yesterday with ixMicro tech support and they suggested mailing the card to then to check to see if it is hardware related. I don't know. I think it is just odd it is the exact behavior people are saying happens with pre 1.05.100 drivers. I have cleared every preference that might be conflicting as well. I am mailing it back and seeing what they do. Misc note, my general graphics correctness has been "fuzzy" with Appearance Manager MacOS 8.5/ATM/Kaleidoscope. Greg et al say a new version of Kaleidoscope is coming out over the weekend to address whatever incompatibilities they have found this this combination. No crashing but weird preference tab transparency where especially the Appearance control panel tabs where text from the oother tabs is seen on opening. ixMicro drivers display weird behavior with just base MacOS 8.5 extensions and ixMicro drivers or JUST ixMicro drivers loaded. The just part is the weird one for me since nothing else is getting loaded. Oh well. Maybe it is hardware... Eric" Latest in the Price Wars: MacGurus fires a return volley: " Mike: in reply to [Recent Site post] Bottom Line sent word they will beat MacGuru's price on MacTell's graphics cards by $10. Sounds like another price war brewing. please note that Gurus will always oversell BLOL by $10 due to their restocking policies and the superiority of our tech support. We call this the "Wipe Our Bottomline" program. :) Also, all readers of Accelerate Your Mac who request the Acceleration Discount get FREE 2nd day FEDEX shipping. Note that we reserve the right to "price-match" with BLOL if we're in a good mood. :) " = 4:30 PM Update = Bruce Modell of CDW wrote with a special offers on the PB G3/300 (DVD or non-DVD) (free VST ZIP drive and Apple floppy drive) and G3/300 or 333 Minitowers (free 15-inch CTX PL5 monitor). This may be a limited time offer, call Bruce at 800-400-4239 ext 8219 or visit CDW's web site for more details. Dan Kuraisa sent a snippet of a reply from Conix3D to his question of Mac OpenGL support that has a interesting comment regarding MicroConversion's Voodoo II (see my Preview of their Game Wizard). " We are working with MicroConversions to support the Voodo2. [sic] Drivers for this will be available in about a month. Another nice card is the soon to be released ATI Rage 128. It boosts performance comparable to that of the Voodo2 [sic]. " I wonder if ID Software would port Quake II (and III) if there was OpenGL support via Conix for the Mac Voodoo 2 cards. [Note - Quake2 and Quake3 were later available for the Mac, but not at the time (1998) this was originally written.] The ATI Rage 128 is said to be much faster than the RageII/RagePro current chips, with single pass multitexturing and up to 32MB of VRAM. ATI has led the Mac vendors with OpenGL support I think, as it was in ATI beta drivers for X-Plane awhile back. Newer Tech's Renderpix also has OpenGL support I think, but readers have told me lately that it is being discontinued. I don't have verification from Newer Tech on this however, and they may be merely replacing it with a updated version of the Glint chipset. [Note: Newer Tech went out of business in early 2001.] MacGurus wrote to say they were running Speed Doubler 8.1.1 (latest version) with OS 8.5 without the problems noted below (again not sure he had the latest version). They commented they were running 'lean and mean' on extensions, always recommended to reduce compatibility issues that can result for a large mix of 3rd party extensions, esp. with a new OS version. MacGurus has also posted an article titled "Fishing with Grenades" that replies to a MacCPU article awhile back on the potential problems with 400MHz G3 CPU Upgrades. Speed Doubler/OS 8.5 Feedback: Fred Tedsen sends a follow-up to his previous OS 8.5 disappearing icons problem report: " Hi Mike, I sent you a report a couple of weeks ago about a strange problem I was having after upgrading to OS 8.5. Once in a while, when moving or copying an item on the desktop, all of the icons would disappear and the disk drive would begin a rhythmic clicking, requiring a restart. I suspected Speed Doubler of causing a different problem, so for the last ten days I have been running with it disabled. During that time I experienced _no_ crashes or problems of any kind, running many different programs, including Netscape 4.5! Today I reactivated Speed Doubler, and within an hour crashed with the icon disappearing problem once more. So back to the disabled folder for Speed Doubler until Connectix fixes it. Everything else I've tried with OS 8.5 is rock solid. Best regards, Fred Tedsen " I've asked him to verify he's running the latest version 8.1.1 of Speed Doubler. For updaters see Connectix's web site. They list v8.1.1 as compatible with OS 8.5. IXMicro Ult. Rez Drivers/OS 8.5 Issues: Eric Carr reported problems with this combo. " Hey Mike. I installed 8.5 on Sat and have had nothing but graphics problems with it. I have a 8500 G3/292 with a UltimateRez 1.05.1 drivers. I have narrowed my problems to the ixMicro drivers. I have nothing but CC8, MacBugs 6.5.4a6, MacOS 8.5 base and ixMicro drivers and my machine hard crashes (doesn't even kick me into MacBugs) after awhile of use (primarily Civilization II and Myth for this weekend :). Three things: menu background redraws are not working correctly, if I pull down a menu in the finder, the background behind the menu outline changes and stays some (in general) lighter color, background pics just turn white. Every once and awhile only with the ixMicro drivers enabled, QuickTime extensions crash on startup, kind of random but pretty frequent. Third, hangs after random amount of time, memory bug or ?? problem with the ixMicro drivers. The first thing I did to trouble shoot was remove the Built-In Graphics Accelerator. No change in the any of the three above connections. I really don't have anything else running that isn't part of 8.5 install. Solution: pull out the monitor cord from UltimateRez and stick it back into the motherboard. None of the above problems have shown up yet. Oh well. I'll wait for some people to troubleshoot this one. Eric " Eric later sent an update (see above) that indicated he was running the latest IXMicro drivers. (IXmicro later went out of business - for the last source of their drivers, see the FAQ's video card topic area.) Insider UpdateAgent 3.0 is available immediately from Insider Software at www.insidersoftware.com. The new release adds many unique features and sports a new interface for better control of the updater selection and downloading process. OS 8.5 Built-in Graphics Extension: A reader reported that in his system (7300/180 w/PowerForce G3/233/512 CPU card, 48 mb of ram, stock video with 2 mb of vram) that disabling the "Built-In Graphics Accelerator" installed by OS 8.5 nearly doubled his graphics performance in Norton's System Info tests. In the past, the OS 8.5 Feedback page had listed comments that disabling this extension helped reduce some video artifacts, with no apparent loss of performance but no tests were done. I welcome additional testing reports from Mac owners with onboard video (75/76/85/8600 owners). If you have tested with and without the extension active, please contact me. XLR8 has posted a official reply to the MacWeek G3 Upgrade stability article (as I've commented on here several times in the last week - see Monday's news for the most recent comments and links to site pages covering the issue). I have been impressed with the last two G3 cards I reviewed of theirs, as noted in my XLR8 G3/266/177 and G3/400/200 reviews. For reviews of other G3 and 640E cards, see my CPU Cards page. Carmine's (MIM) News Feed AppleTIL Updates (Friday:11/13/98)  PowerBook G3 Series: How to Reset the Modem  AppleShare IP 6.0: AppleShare Client FAQ  AppleShare File Sharing: Chart of All Limitations  iMac: Farallon's iPrint SL Adapters: How do they work?  Mac OS 8.5: Utilities Report Errors on Mac OS 8.5 CD  Williams-Sonoma Guide to Good Cooking CD: Freeze/Type 10 Errors  Mac OS 8.5: Starting Up From Mac OS 8.5 CD  WebObjects Database Access under Solaris and HP-UX  Apple Support Information: Hot Service & Support News  iMac: iMac Update 1.0 Software  Network Assistant 3.0, 3.5: Increasing Performance  Macintosh: Monitor and Video Chart (4 of 4) Today's MacFixit page has a note on a serious file security bug in Excel 98. Apparently if you save a file from Excel with the same filename as any existing file (app or data file) it will be overwritten without warning. They also list other warnings on disk names and the fact that At Ease security settings seem to be ignored. 3Dfx Petition: Xlr8yourmac reader Arthur Maddalena has started a petition asking 3dfx to post Mac reference drivers for PC Voodoo2 cards. [Update - 3dfx in 1999 released Voodoo2 and Voodoo3 drivers (Voodoo3 required a flash rom update also). See the Video articles page, Graphics card section or my www.mac3dfx.com sidebar site for reviews/links.] Virex 5.9/Stuffit 5.0 Incompatible?: Frank Bernier forwarded over a report of incompatibility. " I had freezing problems when booting after installing Stuffit deluxe 5.0 and Virex 5.9. I ran Conflict Catcher and it found they are incompatible [it listed virex extension, stuffit 5.0 and true finder integration (OS 8.5)] . I then installed Norton antivirus 5.0 and turned on Stuffit Engine and True Finder Integration. The problem is gone. " Jon Sugai reported that the CDT 3.02 Tip in Monday's News ('Your reader should make sure the mounting options are properly set, in particular the "Search every track for possible data to mount" check box.) solved the multisessions mounting problem he was having. Today's Unreal Tips page has a possible fix for the LAN issues in Unreal, notes on Unreal servers and another installment of Frank's daily Monster tips. The Quake 1.09 tip mentioned yesterday was a misunderstanding. A 2nd mail from the reader indicated it was RAVE Quake 1.09 that was running, not 3Dfx Quake. The Generic Voodoo II drivers feedback page has been updated. Yesterday it was overwritten by accident with an older version. If you missed yesterday's afternoon post I've added a review of the Stealth Voodoo II card cooler from TennMax. Note: Before sending tech support related questions please check the Freq. Asked Questions, Site Contents, CPU Card reviews/articles, SCSI reviews articles, Graphics card reviews, Tips/Misc, Message Boards and Help pages - in many cases the answers to your questions are there and they have far more detail than I can list in an email. For Apple G3 system info - see the G3-ZONE. News and guest reviews that don't require a reply are always welcome. I hope to catch up in the next few weeks. Thanks. Looking for past articles? Check the menu frame topics links (CPU Cards, SCSI, Graphics Cards, Systems) under the logo above or in the menu frame below or check the Recent Features page. Make a Difference: Be the Difference Randy Mita, Brad Lau and I came up with a new slogan and theme for Mac advocacy - "Make a Difference: Be the Difference". We're asking that all Mac owners take advantage of every opportunity to let others know the Mac advantage. It's a grass-roots approach that will surely help. You might save someone from a lifetime of Windows in the bargain.