Video Performance - Intel Mini v.1

[terracnosaurus]

I would like to open the discussion of the video performance of the Intel Mini vs. the Original PPC Mini.

the intel Mini has integrated intel GMA950 w/64MB
while the PPC Mini had an ATI Radeon 9200 (on it's own AGP bus) w/32 MB of dedicated memory.

Most importantly is how this affects things like DVD, H.264, XviD, & Divx playback.

I am also interested in raw graphics performance, like Quartz Extreme window redrawing (the 9200 in the PPC Mini did not support native quartz extreme).

And then there is the performance of games, 2D (like mame & other emulators) and 3D games using OpenGL.

 

[Max on Macs]

Works beautifully. My girlfriend is watching a DVD on an Intel mini now and it looks as good as it did wiht our old ManHattan DVD players. Also it is fine with HD video too. I have played a few HD trailers through it to test my new TVs' HD performance and they play with no problems at all. I don't know about games though - only ever used the iMac and MBP for those.

 

[Eidorian]

The 9200 did have Quartz Extreme support. It didn't have Core Image support though. The best bet is to get 1 GB of system RAM. The Mac Mini plays DVD, H.264, XviD, and DivX just fine. You're just going to need the proper codecs for them.

Don't expect much 3D performance out of it though.

 

[BlizzardBomb]

A couple of good charts here http://www.barefeats.com/mincd.html

 

[Morn]

DVD, H.264, XviD, & Divx playback.



These things depend mainly on the CPU (at least on OSX, doesn't make much use of the video codec acceleration features on GPU's). And the Core duo will handle them very well. GPU is mainly used for 3D and quartz.

 

[Josias]

I know this eats up a lot of RAM, but for $100, you get 1 gig, and that's about enough to share with the Graphics. I also know, that itegrated graphics usually are bull, but this still supports 20" and 23" ACD, and I don't know if it's better, but it's definietly not worse.

 

[DougTheImpaler]

Well, Bare Feats is just going to shore up whatever side of the argument you're on...if you're a "basher" of the Intel Mini, you can see how the PPC Mini won gaming tests. If you're an "apologist" of the Intel Mini, you can see how it does on "real" apps (non-games).

Either way, it's too bad (in a way) that the Intel Mini can't "do it all" but it's not the machine that Apple produced.