Don wrote:
Jeffrey:
Thank you for your detailed replies, but much of it is beyond me. Do you think you might summarize a bit? I mean what does it mean from a practical standpoint as an ordinary architect trying to use AC11 on a 2-1.8 G5.
Back to one of my points when I originally posted here. Despite utilizing the speed "tweaks" recommended by GS, I have decided to go back to AC10.
Wish someone had told me so that I could have saved the upgrade cost for 2 licenses. Then again others are using AC11 with similar hardware successfully? I really don't know.......
Don Lee
Hi Don
If you didn't custom order your machine it most likely lacks support for 10.4 and AC 11. Even if you opted for the 128 MB GC upgrade it would be (IME) too small to do what you want/need. As for others using similar machines how similar are they? Those who opted for the 256MB graphics card most likely have a quicker visual response. Success is relative. For some, drafting with AC is successful. You will get many people saying 128 will work and it will, just not as fast or efficient as a larger one and because of the way Apple implemented the use of OpenGL you won't notice mush difference going from 64 to 128 if any at all. A Trabant will get you from point A to B but a BMW will do it quicker and a bit more comfortably at lower rpms.
So check your graphics card and upgrade it if necessary. Make sure the new GC is Quartz Extreme. QE is very important. One symptom of 10.4 I have seen in the G5's are failing graphics cards.
Are you current with updates? 10.4.8 was/is a nightmare 10.4.10 seems to be a bit more stable but "Rock Solid" isn't the way I'd describe it. It's actually more like a sedimentary rock with layers of Talc and Gypsum crumbling under the Quartz. Apple should have done what AC did and develop the OS's independently.
I refrain from using external devices as these cause a problem these days slowing things down and not appearing in the finder and other applications for what they are. i.e. USB HDDs will sometimes show as a camera and therefore the device is not ready or available to anything.
From a practical standpoint I'd get a new hard drive and graphics card, format the HDD; Apple Partition Scheme > use Non journaled partitions create and organize your partitions according to file/project types. i.e put your iTunes Library on a single partition, put All your ArchiCAD Libraries on it's own separate partition (every library, including textures, you have ever used should be here). ArchiCAD projects on their own Partition as well. My ArchiCAD project folders included all files and documents pertaining to the client and were organized by year. All photo's and images on a single partition though your textures should be in your AC library partition. And so on-..
Note that everything
must be in a folder
somewhere and not on the top level of the HD especially time-stamped files i.e. mov, jpg, mp4, dmg-.., Opening the HD icon in the finder should reveal folders only and no files.
Hide your music and media files from Spotlight. System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy > at the lower left of the container field select the add "+" button. Select your AC partition (not the AC library) music library etc and unless you are going to be looking for system files the OS partitions should be "hidden" as well. The drawback of this is that when (if ever) you do need to search these partitions with spotlight they need to be indexed again and large partitions will take a while. You can even hide or unmount any of these partitions when not in use so they only show up in Disk Utility and don't clutter the DeskTop or Finder.
Wipe the original HDD and partition it the same way only this time create a 5 GB partition for the OS that was shipped with the machine and any OS's you've used successfully for any length of time (or for example the last OS for a version of AC you've used for a lot of projects) and about 30 GB for 10.4 and 30-35 GB for 10.5. I always put boot-able partitions first and the first partition is always the OS that shipped with the machine. Knowing your computer history is somewhat necessary to be more specific.
If you don't use widgets get rid of them. Refrain from using iTunes, Safari or the QT applications when using AC. On my intel I have two 10.4 OS's installed and one is stripped to the bare minimum stripped of apps and system files that are not used or that interfere with the apps or HW I use. Just the removal of Safari, iTunes, iChat and Widgets increased the reliability and speed of this machine while booted into the stripped OS.
I avoid Universal Binary apps as I find they are too slow and create too many problems with other apps and HW.
Note: When using non journaled partitions I recommend the use of a backup battery as journaling is a safety feature. Keep in mind a backup battery is to allow you to shut things down properly and most are not designed to run the machines. You don't want to try to save when your battery is about dead.
Sorry for the slow replies as I am not always connected. What are our full machine specs? HDD size, VRAM, apps, etc. I am real curious as to your graphics card.
Maybe it's my 1.8 GHz single G5 processor?
