Official CustoMac Mini 2011 Guide and Notes (in progress)

[Mate94]

Is the Asus Radeon HD 6570 1gb Graphics Card supported by Chimera? Im sick of those artifacts, I'm buying a new GPU.

Nope.

 

[Paul]

Is the Asus Radeon HD 6570 1gb Graphics Card supported by Chimera? Im sick of those artifacts, I'm buying a new GPU.

Nope.

Okay, then i am leaning towards the 5570, is the powercolor 5570 supported? or only the sapphire 5570 is?

 

[Mate94]

Is the Asus Radeon HD 6570 1gb Graphics Card supported by Chimera? Im sick of those artifacts, I'm buying a new GPU.

Nope.

Okay, then i am leaning towards the 5570, is the powercolor 5570 supported? or only the sapphire 5570 is?

Don't trying with other brands, if something works, don't choose another.

 

[Montmac]

Yes the Sapphire works OOB with Graphics Enabler=No and it's whisper quiet.

 

[toleda]

Yes the Sapphire works OOB with Graphics Enabler=No and it's whisper quiet.

With AtiConfig=Eulemur, GraphicsEnabler=Yes works on the Sapphire HD 5570.

 

[Mate94]

Yes the Sapphire works OOB with Graphics Enabler=No and it's whisper quiet.

With AtiConfig=Eulemur, GraphicsEnabler=Yes works on the Sapphire HD 5570.

toleda, any comment on flickering issue? Or I have to forget to it would be solved?

 

[toleda]

toleda, any comment on flickering issue? Or I have to forget to it would be solved?

What do you mean by flickering? Vis a vis artifacts?

 

[Mate94]

toleda, any comment on flickering issue? Or I have to forget to it would be solved?

What do you mean by flickering? Vis a vis artifacts?

I mean the "artifacts", yes. Sorry, I 'm not familiar with this word.
I think the CMini is cursed with the HD3000. Maybe I give up soon, but a lot of people buy a videocard, because of the grachic problems. A bit depressing. Or I'm just too negative?

 

[toleda]

I think the CMini is cursed with the HD3000. Maybe I give up soon, but a lot of people buy a videocard, because of the grachic problems. A bit depressing. Or I'm just too negative?

Artifacts, occasionally. They don't bother me because I use the machine for testing. For graphics, I use a 6870 or a GTX 570. You are not too pessimistic, you're the opposite. You expect too much from HD3000. Look at the specs, there isn't enough there to be a viable desktop. You can have the CMini, add discrete graphics and you'll be very happy.

 

[dmreddy]

So I reread most of this thread (up to page 45 or so) and saw some suggestions around pages 36 to 39 talking about settings, and setting the graphics core to 1000..

In one post it said:
1) Lower graphics core frequency to 1000.
2) Change graphics core voltage from "Auto" to whatever value displayed under the "normal" column! If it is said that your normal graphics core voltage is 1.080 you should choose 1.080, not 1.050 or whatever else.

It went on to say that you should set the graphics core to one unit below what is shown in the normal column.

So I changed the graphics core, my normal voltage was 0.975 which seems low?? But it was steady (Unlike the others who said it fluctuated), maybe cause of the 300w psu? So I decided to leave the voltage on auto and see what happens?? So far things are looking good! But it's to soon to tell



UPDATE
Well artifacts appeared with graphics core at 1000 and voltage on auto. but it took a while and there wasn't to many.
Other things I tried with the graphics core staying at 1000
1) set voltage to match my normal voltage at 0.975 = artifacts right away, system seemed slower, little unstable
2) voltage set to 1.000 = artifacts right away, system seemed slower
3) voltage set one unit below normal = .095 = system was unstable and slower
4) voltage set to 1.05 & 1.04 = artifacts, system speed seems normal,
5) voltage @ 1.03 = less artifacts, took a while to appear. System speed seems normal,

I stopped after that. haven't tried between 1.00 & 1.03. Not sure I like how changing the voltage effects system performance. I think spending the 50-75 bucks for a GPU is probably worth it.