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286
 
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Last Login: 29/12/2008 23:19:49
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Have just read an interesting article that the MacBook Pro ATI X1600 graphics set has been underclocked by Apple. The GPU runs at 310MHz and the RAM at 278MHz. They are apparently both capable of running at around 470MHz. It appears to have been done to improve battery life.
Trouble is, this was only found out after some users had installed XP and ran a utility called ATITool. They then used this to up the clock speed to 'normal'.
I think I'd be a bit miffed at finding out this had been done at manufacture. It appears there is no way to tell how fast the chips are with Apple's own System Profiler app or anything else in OS X. Nothing from them whether they will give a utility to up this performance. If you are using one for graphics (like my brother) it could be slowing workflow down considerably. Be nice if you had the option to accelerate or slow down such things from the desktop. There is such a thing for the G4 & G5 processors (choice of reduced, highest or auto in Energy Saver prefs), not sure if its there for Intel macs.
Better give Our Kid the good news then........
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Octo-core Atom @ 233GHz (ES)
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Is it possible that the measured speeds were those for desktop and not for 3D? It's quite common, especially for mobile-based setups, to run graphics cards at lower speeds unless the demand (that is, games) is there. The real test would be to benchmark the card using 3DMark0x or something similar and compare the scores to a "known-good" card. I expect there's nothing to worry about.
Some mobile setups also have different profiles depending on whether the power is coming from the battery or the mains.
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286
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 29/12/2008 23:19:49
Posts: 287,
Visits: 1,581
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I suppose it could be. Am not sure how advanced OS X is for throttling back graphics cards depending on the app you are running. It does with the main processor when a laptop is on battery the same as XP.
Will keep my eyes pealed to see if owt else comes out about it.
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Octo-core Atom @ 233GHz (ES)
Group: Moderators
Last Login: Today @ 10:00:45
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It's really the graphics driver and the ability of the GPU that revs the speed up and down, not the OS.
Sometimes the only difference between different graphics cards in different ranges is the clocks of the GPU and RAM. Therefore, to permanently underclock a card would effectively strip it of its right to be called what it is. On that basis alone I don't think Apple would be calling it an X1600 if it wasn't up to speed -- ATI would have something to say about it, certainly.
Classic PCs
Original IBM PC (4.77MHz 8088, 256KB RAM, monochrome) · Original IBM PC XT (4.77MHz 8088, 512KB, 10MB HDD, monochrome) · Original Compaq Deskpro (7.14MHz 8086, 640KB, 20MB HDD, CGA graphics)
Home Computers
Commodore VIC-20 · C64 original · C64 Terminator edition · C16 · Amiga 500 · Amiga 600 · Amiga 600 HD · Amiga 1200 Acorn Electron · A3010 (Archimedes) · A4000 (Archimedes) Others Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K · Dragon 32
Consoles
Nintendo Wii · GameCube purple (x 2) · GameCube black · N64 black (x 2) · N64 clear blue · SNES (x 2) · NES (x 2) · DS silver (x 3) · GBA SP silver · GBA purple · GBA clear · Game Boy Color clear · Game Boy Sega Dreamcast x 3 · Saturn · Mega Drive II · Mega Drive · Master System Atari 10-in-1 · Jaguar (x 2) · 7800 · 2600 wood-grain Microsoft Xbox 360 · Xbox Others Mattel Intellivision · MB Vectrex · GoldStar 3DO · Sony PlayStation (original)
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