Mac performance boost with intel inbuilt hd3000 hd4000 graphics cards
May 6, 2019 12:07:32 #
Hi all the HD 3000 and HD4000 graphics built into the CPU are limited to around 384MB on a Mac with 4GB Ram and 512MB on a mac with 8GB or more.
However its an artificial limit, as i've just discovered. It's possible to change a few bytes of the driver to allow much more VRAM up to 4GB although 1GB of vram seems to be the sweet spot.
What changes if you use photoshop for example it doesn't use the GPU for processing and its quite sluggish because you only have 512MB Vram
with 1024MB of ram, photoshop will let you use the GPU and there is a massive improvement in performance. I would give a link to a handy video but its easy to find just google e.g hd 3000 1024MB vram and you should find its pretty easy to do.
Has to be one of the best upgrades you can do and it doesn't cost a cent.
However its an artificial limit, as i've just discovered. It's possible to change a few bytes of the driver to allow much more VRAM up to 4GB although 1GB of vram seems to be the sweet spot.
What changes if you use photoshop for example it doesn't use the GPU for processing and its quite sluggish because you only have 512MB Vram
with 1024MB of ram, photoshop will let you use the GPU and there is a massive improvement in performance. I would give a link to a handy video but its easy to find just google e.g hd 3000 1024MB vram and you should find its pretty easy to do.
Has to be one of the best upgrades you can do and it doesn't cost a cent.
May 6, 2019 12:40:37 #
May 6, 2019 14:36:33 #
That could save you from having to buy a graphics card, but be warned - I've just had an installation of editing software (On1) refuse to run because HD3000 doesn't support OpenGL 3.3 - it only supports up to version 3.1. (HD4000 supports up to OpenGL 4.6). There may be other editors with similar requirements.
May 6, 2019 19:43:31 #
R.G. wrote:
That could save you from having to buy a graphics card, but be warned - I've just had an installation of editing software (On1) refuse to run because HD3000 doesn't support OpenGL 3.3 - it only supports up to version 3.1. (HD4000 supports up to OpenGL 4.6). There may be other editors with similar requirements.
True enough, but so far I have only seen positives. Maybe one day Apple will realise that upgradable hard drives and RAM and a keyboard that works are requirements to buy a new Mac. This hack helps keep my Mac useable.
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