2 years of lag - I'm frustrated

CPU: Dual PowerPC 970 (1800 MHz)
Memory: 1024 MB
OS Version: Darwin 8.11.0 Darwin Kernel Version 8.11.0: Wed Oct 10 18:26:00 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.24.17~1/RELEASE_PPC Power Macintosh
Graphics Card Vendor: ATI Technologies Inc.
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon 9800 OpenGL Engine
OpenGL Version: 1.5 ATI-1.4.18

The video card has 128MB VRAM


I experience lag all the time. What should I do with the video card and memory?

If I'm lucky I get 15 fps. It's usually around 10 fps (The RC 1.23 gives 1 frame every 2-3 seconds.)

Is SL only for those who can buy a new $2000 computer every six months?

Get a new computer. You don't need a top-of-the-line computer, at all, but your current computer would've been considered good about 4 years ago. Dell's current $299 model is better than your current computer, so you really don't have to pay much for something better.
( Reference: http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/desktop-inspiron-537?c=us&cs=19&l=en&ref=dthp&s=dhs )

Notice that that system, which is one of the cheapest prebuilt available, has about twice the power of your current system.

Hell, that (The Dell) would actually run SL fine (Though with lower-end settings) if you gave it a dedicated graphics card, which would run you about $50 extra, for a lower end card. (Technically, I believe it would run SL out of the box, but I've been seeing a lot of problems with that graphics chip lately, here on the forums)

Out of the box, this should definitely run it, for $599:
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/desktop-studio-mini?c=us&cs=19&l=en&ref=dthp&s=dhs


If you want to run SL at highest settings, yes, it will cost you a bit. This should do it, for the $899 version (I'm not too familiar with Radeon cards, so I could be wrong in this, but everything else about it would run max settings fine):
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/desktop-xps-625?c=us&cs=19&l=en&ref=dthp&s=dhs

I used Dell because it was the first Desktop manufacturer that I thought of, honestly.

Anywho, with modern technology, a $2,000 computer would be extreme overkill for Second Life. My current system runs SL on max very settings smoothly, and ran me about $1,100, 6 months ago. It runs most high-end games well, though, and SL is a 'weaker' program in comparison. If all you want it for is SL, then a $2,000 system is a waste, and you would never use more than a fraction of it's potential.

ETA:: I honestly wouldn't feel comfortable saying to just upgrade with a graphics card or more memory. You wouldn't see a large enough performance boost from just that with your current system, and you'd probably feel more like it was a waste of money, than anything.

That is a tired computer. Dual 1.8 was the low end G5 in 2004 and a Radeon 9800 is from that time too. 5 years is like eternity for hardware, that rig might sweat to keep up with an up to date mini.

Buy a Mac mini:

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_mini?afid=p202%7CGOUSE107380695&cid=OAS-US-KWG-CPUMini-US

MacMall has them for a discounted rate:


$574.00

http://www.macmall.com/ttsvr/n/macNavLinks-317?q=7758226

MB463LL/A
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
Apple 1GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 1x1GB
120GB Serial ATA drive @ 5400 rpm
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
8x slot-loading SuperDrive


or

$765.00

http://www.macmall.com/ttsvr/n/macNavLinks-317?q=7758228

2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
Apple 2GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x1GB
320GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
8x slot-loading SuperDrive

That computer is a whole lot more than six months old.

Hmmm, my brother's friend is offering me a Mac mini (with Windows Vista, too). And I would much rather stay with a Mac. I've also been considering a Quad 2.5 G5...

Get a PC with a fast Nvidia card. It's going to be much faster than a comparably priced Mac. With a Mac Mini, you'll be stuck with a bottom feeder video card. Apple makes very few computers that will run SL very well, and you will pay through the nose for them.

Quad G5? Just set your money on fire. PowerPC is obsolete junk.

Isn't this the Max Discussion forum? My Dual 1.8 G5 does everything I want except SL and online TV/Movie sites that want intel Macs. It works great with Hulu.com.

I've seen too many Windows headaches to ever buy a PC.

And I've used too many Macs to want one.

Anyhow, just to explain my earlier post, I hadn't realized this was the Mac forum. Macs with equal power in all respects will be more expensive. Period.

Still nowhere near $2,000 though!

Yeah, it's a Mac forum. I use Macs every day and I love 'em. I come here to learn about Macs & SL, and hopefully share some of what I know.

One thing I'm not going to do is give you fanboy advice and tell you a machine Apple discontinued three years ago and is incapable of using a modern 3D video card is the best thing since 64 individually wrapped slices of American cheese.

You want a really good Mac for SL? The previous generation Mac Pro with the Nvidia 8800GT is smokin' fast. The iMac with the 8800GS graphics is really good, too. They'll both run SL at Ultra graphics with anti-aliasing and fast framerates.

Stay away from PowerPCs. Or buy one and come back in here in six months asking why you have to spend $2,000 every six months to run SL at more than a snail's pace.

All the Mac lines were refreshed in March of THIS year -- including the Mac Mini. The new graphics card in it has gotten good reviews -- but it suffers from the same architecture problem that laptops have -- integrated graphics cards as opposed to dedicated graphics cards.

If you want power, go with the big iron and spend the money. Snow Leopard is coming. Check which graphic card is in the Mac Mini your brother offered. Apparently the previous ones sucked SL-wise.

Who sells PowerPC's anymore?

I believe you're talking about the GT 120 and GT 130? What card should I hope for?

there is nothing wrong with integrated video... it has a bad reputation because of Intel, and osme early nvidia and ATI chipsets that lacked features. Intel integrated video still blows chunks, but nvidia and ATI are making some good ones now. the integrated Geforce 9400M in the mini, some iMacs, and the laptops is quite good, it even performs faster than some low end dedicated GPUs still sold in some laptops.

I wish!

Alas, SL is for Windows, period.
See also: http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=53405

SL runs OK on an Intel Mac, but they don't really even support Power PC.

I have a G4, and I got a hand-me-down computer from my kid (he always has a better computer than me, I'm not a gamer) and upgraded it and stuck it on a KVM. I call it my "wintendo".

But the latest Mac mini should finally run SL decently, it's got a real GPU instead of that horrid GMA950 crap. If you do't want to deal with Windows, and I don't blame you, the mini should do you.

BUT...

If it's the latest mini, then it'll be fine. If it's anything but the latest model it has a GMA950 GPU in it that sucks dirty swamp water... slowly.
If you're going to run Windows, get a Wintendo. Running Windows on a Mac means paying more for a slower computer, and not getting any of the advantages of having a Mac. Get a keyboard/video/mouse switch, keep your G5 for real work, and get a cheap HP or Lenovo (not a Dell, never a Dell) with an nVidia GPU and get used to hitting scroll-lock-scroll-lock-up.

I feel your pain.

I am still using a dual G4 867mhz with 1 gig of RAM, myself

Excuse me, this is the Mac forum, I run a 2009 MacBook white, that runs SL very well. Its spec is very similar to the current mini, with the GeForce 9400M graphics card, it is perfectly Windlight capable even on ultra with no noticable lag. I paid less than £700 for it.

And better still I can run my OS of choice, Mac OS X

Complete bollocks. That MIGHT have been the situation in 2005, but 4 years on, the Mac OS X Client is actually comparable to the Windows Client.

I run SL under OS X. I don't have Parallels or VMWare or Boot camp installed.

It runs just fine.

Sorry to jostle you, but for Second Life, I won't recommend someone buy a computer that uses shared graphics memory.

Macbook Pro? Awesome. 24" iMac? Go for it. Mac Mini? Keep shopping.

Four years on, the MacOSX client is still unable to load all the textures in a decent time
(and I wish this was the only problem).

I run SL under Boot Camp.
It runs just fine.

Funny, I just went on the new hunt for guys, and it was an eye-opener. I've never seen so many huge shops with so many textures before. I decided to teleport and go back to reading the forums while the textures loaded... lost track of time, and went back to SL after half an hour... and I was STILL seeing grey textures.

On Windows.

That's not a Mac-only problem.

For the past day or so it's an SL server or network problem. Places that usually load quickly for me regardless of the machine have been awful.

Broadly speaking, I agree that the Windows client is far from perfect too.
However, I can't help but notice that on my MBP 2008 it runs much faster, through Boot Camp, than the Mac client. I often get more than 20 fps with Windows, while I can consider myself lucky if I get 12 fps with MacOSX ('Quality and performance: High' in both cases). Some textures won't be loaded at all, while the Windows client loads all of them (even if not immediately). An analogous situation occurs with my iMac.
It is apparent that the Windows version is, dare I say it, optimized, whereas the Mac one is just a bad conversion, which is a shame.