Is my Rage 128 holding me back?

[SuperCompu2]

I'm an amateur graphics designer, and I model in 3D as well. In particular I use Google SketchUp, and Photoshop CS2. I've noticed a good amount of lag in these programs compared to other unit's I have used, and wonder if it's the graphics card to blame. I recently bumped the memory to 1GB a few weeks ago, but the same lag is there. I know the dual 500MHz G4's arent the best, but It seems like I should still be seeing a better performance out of my computer.

Do you think its the graphics card holding the render speeds back? I know its a measly 16MB of VRAM, but I dont want to pour money into a new card just to have the same amount of lag in the end.

All input appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[wmmk]

that may do a bit to sketch up, but graphics and VRAM shouldn't affect PS. a CPU upgrade or upgrade to 2GB RAM would help you more if PS is your main gig...

 

[ezekielrage_99]

The file swap on most 3D applications out there (Maya, etc) is pretty big and from what I have heard it's the same with PhotoShop CS2. A dual G4 and 1 GB of RAM should be heaps to run these applications half decently but what I would be upgrading is the Hard Disk Drive to a cheap 100GB ATA (for file swaping not so much storage) if you can get your hands on it.


From my experience with imagery (I'm and Imagery Analyst) most lag is from seek time to the Hard Disk Drive when accessing file/application/etc.

 

[chv400]

Quartz Extreme

I want to say your problem is due to a weak gfx card.

I'm not sure how much quartz is needed in those apps but the Rage 128 is incapable of running OS X's Quartz acceleration.

In OS X what Quartz basically does is take a huge load off the cpu by having the video card render onscreen graphics/animations. Everything from the desktop picture cross fade to drawing menus to expose.
OS X's "snappiness" in the GUI comes from having a Quartz enabled video card do all the gfx work. Getting a Quartz enabled gfx card is a possible solution to your "lag."

Here's a card capable of Quartz Extreme
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/ATI Technologies/100435066/

It's a bit overkill and pricey for just Quartz...

I'm fairly sure any Radeon gfx card is capable of Quartz extreme so you could maybe find a used one.

PCI Radeons are also capable of Quartz extreme but they require a hack to enable it.

PCI Extreme
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/16006

It worked for me back when I used a Radeon 7000 in my Blue and White Tower. It was running 10.3.9

Essentially yes, I do believe that your Rage 128 is holding you back.

 

[iGav]

First try changing Photshop's memory requirements. Photoshop>Preference>Memory & Image Cache.

It's been a long time since I've worked on a Mac with only a GB of RAM, so I'm guessing that it'll be defaulted to somewhere between 225-350MB, try whacking that up to 512MB-50%, leaving 512MB for the system, it'll be a nominal increase but you should notice the difference.

Just out of interest when was the last time you flattened it and did a fresh reinstall? clearing out all the crap can usually give a small increase in speed too.

But yeah... try eBay to source some more memory, a better graphics card and if possible the absolute fastest HD you can buy.