Difference between revisions of "Talk:Choosing a computer"
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''Context:'' In response to "Does the Viewer run faster on Mac OS X or Windows?", I knew one way of getting close is to have a similar setup on the same Mac hardware, then use Boot Camp. I had previously done anecdotal comparisons, but decided to followup with something more in-depth. Usual disclaimer applies that this is only ''my'' experience, YMMV but I've observed similar results on four Macs now. Keep in mind Second Life is ever-evolving and my conditions can't exactly be replicated because of how content will change and avatars will move in and out of a scene, but between reboots, I got similar enough situations to make this a more worthwhile comparison than nothing at all. | ''Context:'' In response to "Does the Viewer run faster on Mac OS X or Windows?", I knew one way of getting close is to have a similar setup on the same Mac hardware, then use Boot Camp. I had previously done anecdotal comparisons, but decided to followup with something more in-depth. Usual disclaimer applies that this is only ''my'' experience, YMMV but I've observed similar results on four Macs now. Keep in mind Second Life is ever-evolving and my conditions can't exactly be replicated because of how content will change and avatars will move in and out of a scene, but between reboots, I got similar enough situations to make this a more worthwhile comparison than nothing at all. | ||
=== Benchmarks === | |||
==== Background === | |||
Config: | Config: | ||
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* Screen resolution is 2560x1440, iMac running in a maximized window. | * Screen resolution is 2560x1440, iMac running in a maximized window. | ||
* Tests done using fresh [[user settings]]. | |||
* In {{winlink|Preferences - Graphics}}, '''Quality and speed''' slider set to '''Ultra'''. | |||
* '''Anisotropic Filtering''' enabled, '''Antialiasing''' set to '''4x'''. These have a noticeable effect on performance. | |||
* '''Maximum bandwidth''' set to <code>10000</code> kbps for faster rezzing. | |||
* On Windows 7, I installed Catalyst 10.7 drivers but had to roll back the Boot Camp 3.1 graphics drivers due to a color banding issue. | * On Windows 7, I installed Catalyst 10.7 drivers but had to roll back the Boot Camp 3.1 graphics drivers due to a color banding issue. | ||
* The iMac is still on 10.6.2 because 10.6.4 has known, sporadic freezing issues. | * The iMac is still on 10.6.2 because 10.6.4 has known, sporadic freezing issues. | ||
* I chose the City Female Avatar from the Library. | * I chose the City Female Avatar from the Library. | ||
* I waited 5-10 min. for a scene to rez and the {{win|Statistics}} to stabilize. There's the known issue that textures don't always rez unless you move your cursor over them, but | * I waited 5-10 min. for a scene to rez and the {{win|Statistics}} to stabilize. There's the known issue that textures don't always rez unless you move your cursor over them, but | ||
* | * Camera view always reset ({{k|Esc}}) in a scene. | ||
== Graphics Hardware == | == Graphics Hardware == |
Revision as of 13:24, 26 July 2010
Share your experiences with various system configs here! - on 2010-07-19 @ 9:58 AM Pacific
Torley's benchmarks
Context: In response to "Does the Viewer run faster on Mac OS X or Windows?", I knew one way of getting close is to have a similar setup on the same Mac hardware, then use Boot Camp. I had previously done anecdotal comparisons, but decided to followup with something more in-depth. Usual disclaimer applies that this is only my experience, YMMV but I've observed similar results on four Macs now. Keep in mind Second Life is ever-evolving and my conditions can't exactly be replicated because of how content will change and avatars will move in and out of a scene, but between reboots, I got similar enough situations to make this a more worthwhile comparison than nothing at all.
Benchmarks
= Background
Config:
- Second Life 2.1.0 (207030) Jul 16 2010 12:08:58 (Second Life Release)
- CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz (2793.03 MHz)
- Memory: 8182 MB
- OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit (Build 7600) and
- OS Version: Darwin 10.2.0 Darwin Kernel Version 10.2.0: Tue Nov 3 23:08:29 PST 2009; root:xnu-1486.2.11~3/RELEASE_I386 i386
- Graphics Card Vendor: ATI Technologies Inc.
- Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 4850
- Windows Graphics Driver Version: 8.14.0010.0700
- OpenGL Version: 2.1.9026
- On Mac, OpenGL Version: 2.1 ATI-1.6.6
Setup notes:
- Screen resolution is 2560x1440, iMac running in a maximized window.
- Tests done using fresh user settings.
- In Preferences - Graphics, Quality and speed slider set to Ultra.
- Anisotropic Filtering enabled, Antialiasing set to 4x. These have a noticeable effect on performance.
- Maximum bandwidth set to
10000
kbps for faster rezzing. - On Windows 7, I installed Catalyst 10.7 drivers but had to roll back the Boot Camp 3.1 graphics drivers due to a color banding issue.
- The iMac is still on 10.6.2 because 10.6.4 has known, sporadic freezing issues.
- I chose the City Female Avatar from the Library.
- I waited 5-10 min. for a scene to rez and the Statistics to stabilize. There's the known issue that textures don't always rez unless you move your cursor over them, but
- Camera view always reset (Esc) in a scene.
Graphics Hardware
The usual recommendation is to use nVidia hardware for the best OpenGL support. This is a combination of the actual OpenGL functions, and the utilities to adjust the display. The DirectX labelling is mostly a guide to the available GPU power for the purposes of OpenGL use.
Many motherboards have built-in graphics hardware, which is, frankly, barely adequate. If your cash-flow is a problem, it's good enough to run SL, and you can add a graphics card later. Don't expect to get a high frame rate. The Viewer 2.x family seem to be setting graphics to get a higher frame rate, and if you're following this approach, you could find detail settings are low enough to be ugly--circles appearing as hexagons--and trading frame rate for a slightly higher detail setting may be worth it.
WolfBaginski Bearsfoot 07:44, 25 July 2010 (UTC)