Question: about Imac

Message boards : Number crunching : Question: about Imac

Author	Message
MusicGod Send message Joined: 7 Dec 02 Posts: 93 Credit: 18,991,491 RAC: 24,335	Message 1131582 - Posted: 25 Jul 2011, 2:50:25 UTC
	I will be getting my new computer this week, Imac2700 I believe it has an ATI card in it. I need it because the graphics are so much better on a mac than windows and I do a lot of photography. My questions is this: Will this mac run Boinc SETI@home, if so is there a certain version I need to crunch? Thanks for any answers. ____________
	ID: 1131582 ·

-BeNt- Send message Joined: 17 Oct 99 Posts: 1234 Credit: 10,116,112 RAC: 0	Message 1131628 - Posted: 25 Jul 2011, 8:08:26 UTC
	Graphics better on a MAC? What is this 1987? lol. Regardless no just get the MAC versions. ____________ Traveling through space at ~67,000mph!
	ID: 1131628 ·

Chris Adamek Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 15 May 99 Posts: 41 Credit: 59,888,506 RAC: 81,802	Message 1131677 - Posted: 25 Jul 2011, 13:39:33 UTC - in response to Message 1131582.
	This website has a nice installer for optimized MB and AP (which doesn't have a stock client) and the installer makes it easy to get them running on the Mac. With an i7-2700 make sure you install the Xeon option when you run the installer. http://www.arkayn.us/forum/index.php?action=downloads;cat=4 Unfortunately there isn't currnetly a GPU client for the Mac, but you should still get a nice RAC with the optimized MB & AP clients. Chris ____________
	ID: 1131677 ·

Chris Adamek Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 15 May 99 Posts: 41 Credit: 59,888,506 RAC: 81,802	Message 1131679 - Posted: 25 Jul 2011, 13:43:03 UTC - in response to Message 1131582.
	And I noticed you are not running the optimized clients on your other computers either. You can make a significant improvement in your overall RAC by installing these as well. For your Windows machines the installer can be found here: http://lunatics.kwsn.net/index.php?module=Downloads;catd=9 Chris ____________
	ID: 1131679 ·

MusicGod Send message Joined: 7 Dec 02 Posts: 93 Credit: 18,991,491 RAC: 24,335	Message 1131800 - Posted: 25 Jul 2011, 17:33:17 UTC
	Thanks, I appreciate it. The reason I have not used the optimized apps is because I am leary of messing things up on my machines. I have a curent situation that won`t let me install the updated version of boinc and I have to keep the old version. Do I have to uninstall and boinc stuff before downloading opt. app? .and yes the graphics are much highr on th eImac.....I use one at school .and I have photoshop cs5 on it and the windows version on my win7 pc. the win7 pc has ragged lines, not clean in the pixels re as the imac is extemely clean. ____________
	ID: 1131800 ·

Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 9 Apr 02 Posts: 11987 Credit: 18,005,510 RAC: 56,087	Message 1131844 - Posted: 25 Jul 2011, 18:34:59 UTC - in response to Message 1131800.
	Do I have to uninstall and boinc stuff before downloading opt. app? No. You only need to shut down BOINC and all it's running processes before installing the optimized apps. In most cases, the installer package that comes with the optimized apps will do this for you. .and yes the graphics are much highr on th eImac.....I use one at school .and I have photoshop cs5 on it and the windows version on my win7 pc. the win7 pc has ragged lines, not clean in the pixels re as the imac is extemely clean. Sounds like an unscientific conclusion. Are you sure it isn't the difference in monitors used? The software is exactly the same, just re-compiled for the different OSes. They should be very comparable. Not that I really care one way or the other. Use whatever you're comfortable with.
	ID: 1131844 ·

Link Send message Joined: 18 Sep 03 Posts: 671 Credit: 1,184,157 RAC: 666	Message 1131850 - Posted: 25 Jul 2011, 18:51:13 UTC - in response to Message 1131800.
	the win7 pc has ragged lines, not clean in the pixels Maybe wrong desktop resolution? ____________ .
	ID: 1131850 ·

MusicGod Send message Joined: 7 Dec 02 Posts: 93 Credit: 18,991,491 RAC: 24,335	Message 1131853 - Posted: 25 Jul 2011, 18:56:47 UTC
	I am using an HDMI monitor 24" 1920x1200 resolution.....geforce gtx 550fermi. No, trust me when I say the Imac has better graphics..I am a Windows man, but have used the Imac enough to know the diff. ____________
	ID: 1131853 ·

MusicGod Send message Joined: 7 Dec 02 Posts: 93 Credit: 18,991,491 RAC: 24,335	Message 1131855 - Posted: 25 Jul 2011, 18:59:46 UTC - in response to Message 1131853.
	yes it is the monitors. Imac has a different setup in pixels...don`t remember what it is , but my professor explained it to me because I brought the subject up to him also. ____________
	ID: 1131855 ·

Chris Adamek Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 15 May 99 Posts: 41 Credit: 59,888,506 RAC: 81,802	Message 1131856 - Posted: 25 Jul 2011, 19:00:18 UTC - in response to Message 1131853.
	FYI, when you install the Mac optimized apps you may get the message the the permissions are not correct when you try to launch Boinc. The easiest way to fix that is to just reinstall boinc manager. That will fix that issue and everything will run smoothly then. The Windows version won't force you to do that. Chris ____________
	ID: 1131856 ·

CryptokiD Send message Joined: 2 Dec 00 Posts: 134 Credit: 2,814,936 RAC: 0	Message 1131860 - Posted: 25 Jul 2011, 19:05:42 UTC
	macs now days come with intel processors and they are basically just windows computers that are running on mac software. you can even convert one to the other. so may be there is some software difference between windows apps and mac apps that you notice, but i doubt it. yeah it isnt 1987 anymore.
	ID: 1131860 ·

Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 9 Apr 02 Posts: 11987 Credit: 18,005,510 RAC: 56,087	Message 1131899 - Posted: 25 Jul 2011, 20:19:06 UTC - in response to Message 1131855. Last modified: 25 Jul 2011, 20:21:05 UTC
	yes it is the monitors. Imac has a different setup in pixels...don`t remember what it is , but my professor explained it to me because I brought the subject up to him also. Can't be true. A monitor is a monitor whether it's connected to a PC or Mac. "Pixel" is actually a portmanteau of "Picture Element", and a picture element is the same no matter what, so there is no way a pixel is different on a Mac than on a PC. It almost sounds like your professor gave you a line of BS because he might be a Mac fanboi himself. Again, not that I really care, but it sounds like fact and truth might be two different things here. I'm willing to bet the Macs at school are using professional grade monitors as demanded by graphics professionals, whereas your PC is probably using whatever was affordable, came with the PC, or was purchased based upon price vs. size and not for the job. Or the difference might be in the graphics card. Workstation type graphics cards are designed to display specific elements of graphics for content creation rather than games, and can appear to look better when using certain software suites. Workstation graphics cards can often be $1000+ which is easy for education facilities to spend for their students. As already stated, as far as hardware is concerned, there is no difference between a Mac and a PC, and there's no way the OS is making the difference here. But I'm afraid that this discussion is far off the topic of discussion and the original question which seems to have already been answered.
	ID: 1131899 ·

Link Send message Joined: 18 Sep 03 Posts: 671 Credit: 1,184,157 RAC: 666	Message 1131938 - Posted: 25 Jul 2011, 21:26:32 UTC - in response to Message 1131899.
	Or the difference might be in the graphics card. Workstation type graphics cards are designed to display specific elements of graphics for content creation rather than games, and can appear to look better when using certain software suites. I doubt that the graphics card can make such a difference and the Mac he wants to buy will have an ATI card in it anyway. The workstation graphics cards are designed for different things, so they might be more suitable for working with CAD or other professional programs (mainly because those programs are designed/optimized for those cards) and also they offered much earlier the possibility to attach more monitors, but the often claimed (noticeably) better picture quality is nothing I could see, when I had once the opportunity to test one Matrox card, the picture on desktop and other "office type" programs including Photoshop, was the same like with my GF2 I had that time, there was no difference (yes, I have good eyes), but it sucked in games although it was waaay more expensive than the GF2. ... yes, we are far off topic. ____________ .
	ID: 1131938 ·

Richard Haselgrove Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 4 Jul 99 Posts: 7458 Credit: 39,645,234 RAC: 33,237	Message 1131942 - Posted: 25 Jul 2011, 21:32:33 UTC
	Another difference from my limited experience of Macs ten years or so ago. Official Mac monitor leads had 'sense pins' which indicated the monitor's size. It was hard to get a Mac to generate a display at anything other than the optimal resolution for the Mac monitor it was attached to. Getting a usable display on a 'generic' (i.e. PC-style) monitor involved getting out a soldering iron and hooking up a likely set of sense pins. All but the smallest and cheapest of PC monitors are 'multi-sync' - they are capable of displaying images at a variety of resolutions. And the graphics cards in most PCs, when properly driven by a compatible driver, are likewise multi-sync and can generate that variety of resolutions. The usual assumption - i.e. the assumption of most general users, not necessarily the assumption here - is that 'plug and play' will negotiate the best available resolution and set the PC's output accordingly. But that doesn't always work, and even if it does, PC users have the freedom to set different display resolutions to suit their needs and eyesight, with a tradeoff between size and quantity of data displayed. Unfortunately, with LCD displays the norm nowadays, any display reolution other than the screen's native manufactured resolution is a compromise, and less than ideally sharp. I wonder whether MusicGod has only ever seen Mac monitors running at native resolution (because they can't be set to anything else), and Windows monitors set to something horrible because of the deliberate or unconscious choice of a previous user.
	ID: 1131942 ·

JLConawayII Send message Joined: 2 Apr 02 Posts: 181 Credit: 2,630,328 RAC: 268	Message 1132111 - Posted: 26 Jul 2011, 4:35:30 UTC - in response to Message 1131582.
	the graphics are so much better thanks for any answers No. You're welcome. ____________
	ID: 1132111 ·

BMH Send message Joined: 27 May 99 Posts: 258 Credit: 60,225,541 RAC: 60,056	Message 1132270 - Posted: 26 Jul 2011, 20:33:32 UTC - in response to Message 1131855.
	yes it is the monitors. Imac has a different setup in pixels...don`t remember what it is , but my professor explained it to me because I brought the subject up to him also. Possibly a higher dpi and more accurate colour representation by default? Especially with the latter compared to all the PC screen variations. Not to say it's not possible to have a PC with good visuals, but you have to choose your components wisely and maybe do some calibration if such things are important to you. ____________ Brian.
	ID: 1132270 ·

Message boards : Number crunching : Question: about Imac