FS: Morphos Macmini G4

[mindprober]

How much does the extra VRAM help MorphOS? In general or do specific programs benefit from it?

[mindprober]

Thanks for all the info. That explains some of the strange behavior I have seen sometimes with my 32MB VRAM mini.

It mostly matters in general. Especially if you want to use new 3D accelerated layers (Enhanced mode), and especially with modern resolutions. Multiple screens also consume memory.

With Enhanced mode you get some eyecandy (window shadows and other transparency effects) and smoothness to window moving (no tearing, no slowdowns with many overlapping windows), but it consumes quite much graphics memory. 32MB could be enough only for 1280x1024 or so, but not much higher resolutions many want to use nowadays.

With 32MB you probably have to switch fully to traditional 2D layers, or at least reduce the color depth for screens or something, unless you're using small resolutions.

In my opinion 64MB is the minimum to be able to use the system fluently. You notice it running out occasionally too, but you can live with it. I have 64MB Mac mini with 1920x1080 resolution and I have one Enhanced mode screen (Ambient), but then I have other screens with 2D layers, and I can have two of them simultaneously before it starts to swap to main memory. It's a quite good compromize with eyecandy and usability/speed.