RE: FLASH: PC vs MAC flash speed (in browser)

[Matt Wobensmith]

Hi Matt,


You wrote:


>> all flash movies, play that slow on every mac in the lab, 


<snip>


>> it's something with mac's i'm beginning to beleive.



I can confirm that, in many cases, Flash movies tend to play slower on Macs

vs PCs. Let me explain why we might experience this.


1. CPU speed is not the only determining factor in FPS. A big one is also

video card power. Most PCs I use have better video cards than the standard

ones that come with Macs. This, I believe, has a lot to do with better

performance.


2. CPU megahertz numbers are not the sole factor in determining how "fast" a

machine is. I should say - coming from a Mac user's perspective - that much

has been ballyhooed about Macs w/ lower CPU speeds being faster than Pentium

machines of higher megahertz. I guess what this means ultimately is that CPU

speed is overrated, and that two machines that may seem "comparable" may not

be on all accounts.


The "experts" and their tests supposedly prove that one is faster than the

other, but they don't necessarily mirror real-world situations.


Additionally, a chip may be faster in regards to things like file I/O, but

slower in regards to vector processing. 


3. The operating system has a lot to do with Flash movie speed. My NT box is

much better than an equivalent Win98 box I have at work. 


4. I suspect RAM speed may also affect this.


5. The amount of background processes can greatly affect speed as well.

Anti-virus software, hard drive utilities and other similar apps take up

lots of system resources. Of particular mention - Norton Utilities and their

suite of programs are *really* busy little apps. Personally, I find them

better used only on occasion, and not constantly running in the background.


6. Some Mac system specifics cause overall performance problems. Some people

have slower speeds when file sharing and/or AppleTalk is turned on. 


7. I have seen situations where Zip drives can cause performance hiccups, if

no disk is inserted. This is especially true if you have an older Mac with

SCSI ports. SCSI is a chatty protocol, and it constantly checks the bus for

devices. When I do video capture, I find much greater success when I fill

the drives with media (CD, Zip, etc). I have no scientific data on this, but

it's as if having no media inserted actually slows the system down.


8. We've had reports of Adaptec SCSI cards w/ older drivers causing slow

performance. I would make sure you have the latest drivers.


I hope this doesn't sour you on Macs, but sheds some more light on why you

may see a performance discrepancy.


JD made a great TechNote that also sheds some light on why Flash frame rates

can fluctuate so greatly - I really feel that the more people read it, the

better:


http://www.macromedia.com/support/general/ts/documents/sw_flash_speed.htm


Also, there is a performance problem on some G4's that have "processor

switching" enabled. See this TechNote for more info:


http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/mac_slowmouse.htm


Matt


---------------

Matt Wobensmith

Macromedia Tech Support

Flash Team Lead


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