Live 8, large window = everything slow

[The Carpet Cleaner]

Hi,
I'm on a white macbook, core2duo 2.4hz with the intel graphic ship.
When I use live 8 on the macbook, fullscreen, everything's fine.
But when I use it on my external screen, 22' and I try to enlarge the window, everything slow down. The more I make it bigger, the slower it is. If I make it full screen (1680x1050), then it's really slow.
So that's sucks cause I'm stuck to something like 1280 resolution, even on my big screen, I can't make Live 8 fullscreen otherwise it's unusable.
Anyone share this problem? Maybe the in-build intel graphic ship is not powerfull enought but still, that's not a 3d game...

[capo-wear-i]

I doubt that it's below the capabilities of the chip in the Macbook to do this. I regularly dual screen my HPNX7400 with an external monitor with no issues , and that uses a lowly intel GMA 950 chip. Like you said - this isn't fancy 3-D rendering.

[The Carpet Cleaner]

sorry, I bump this, cause it's really annoying.
Am I the only one using a macbook with the intel GMA chip with an external screen and who is having this problem?
Any idea how I can fix this problem?
cheers.

[Pasha]

sorry, I bump this, cause it's really annoying.
Am I the only one using a macbook with the intel GMA chip with an external screen and who is having this problem?
Any idea how I can fix this problem?
cheers.

1ino1eum,
I've rummaged through Apple Support pages and found no Macbook matching your specs.
It seems that a 2.4Ghz CPU is always coupled with a X3100 graphic chip.
Are you sure you have GMA950?
Here follows what I think could be applied to a GMA950:
The GMA RAM is shared with main RAM. The max available RAM GMA 950 can use is approximately 96 MB, while ordinarily uses 64-80 MB. This means that @ 1280x800 at millions of colors (32 bit) you are using 31.5 MB or 1280x800x32 bytes and you have enough space for graphic work. Conversely, when running @ 1680x1050 at million of colors you are using 53.5 MB, very close to max memory, when just displaying static 2D graphics. The remaining RAM is used to store graphic pages in advances or keep buffers so not enough space... Sometimes you need as much as double the size of RAM.
So again, simple math, 31.5 x2 is 63MB while 53.5 x2 is 107 MB.
My 2006 Macbook with GMA 950 and 2GB RAM slows down at external resolutions such big especially when watching HDTV video files even at 720p and 1080p jitters even on internal monitor. If you are running on 1GB RAM that might be the problem. Live 8 is demanding on RAM and when graphic card uses system RAM issues might arise. If you are running with 2GB RAM then check the sets you're running, if you are using a lot of RAM (Samples in clip with the RAM option checked, Sampler or other RAM demanding VSTs) - see activity monitor - then it might be that you are very low on RAM resources.

As per APPLE specs for a X3100: Memory available to Mac OS X may vary depending on graphics needs. Minimum graphics memory usage is 144MB. An additional 16MB is required when using an external display.


- Best
- Pasha

[timothyallan]

Try turning off the scrolling while playing functionality, this saved me 30% cpu on my old laptop.

[The Carpet Cleaner]

Hum, ok, tkx for the reply !

After checking, it seems I've got the
Intel GMA X3100:

Chipset Model: GMA X3100
Type: Display
Bus: Built-In
VRAM (Total): 144 MB
Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
Device ID: 0x2a02
Revision ID: 0x0003

And I'm not sure what cause the slowdown, but I dont think it's about the memory, cause I still got slowdown when I got 200Meg free.
But when the CPU goes over 30% and I'm fullscreen on the 22' , then yea, it's going slow. At 50% everything is stuttering...

[alexjholland]

I have a White Macbook with the NVIDIA graphics card (beginning of this year), which I run into a 1080p 22" monitor via VGA.

If I have my Macbook open in dual screen mode it works like a treat - but if I close the lid and it outputs ONLY to the 22" monitor, then it becomes incredibly slow. I do not know why this is, or if this knowledge will help you.

[jer_mcclain]

i have this issue as well on a black mackbook, seems to be worse when i use something like psp nitro but it is annoying enough to not use my new 23"

[dom]

1ino1eum: my guess: OS 10.5.6 or older?

Cheers,
Dom