shader locking up

[Rick]

Hi Eric, I have a shader from glslsandbox that locks up my machine and was hoping for a solution, I had it playing through syphon using Coge and had it working initially but it eventually stopped there also. Any ideas on this is much appreciated.

edit: I should have stated first that the file does play well but locks up when trying to load a new file or switch to another similar shader.

edit 2: This shader is rather intense for my old machine and it could be that, as it locks up QC and Coge when switching, so if anyone has success with it please share your results.

[Magic]

Hmm, that shader works fine on my MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012), and switching to other shaders works fine too. If it locks up on your machine in multiple applications, it might well be too intense. What kind of machine do you have? The performance of shaders is highly dependent on the graphics card, and old graphics cards sometimes can't handle heavy-duty shaders too well. Syphon could also be problematic since it would add to the graphics card's load.

[Rick]

I have a mid 2011 MBP with AMD Radeon 6490M which seems to handle much thrown at it. Even when only running Magic switching between the first shader and this one attached, locks up and requires a hard reboot.
I really enjoy this software, Coge has been my goto for shader fun but Magic is really dynamic and fluid in its response and ability.
I have not had this much fun visually since the Amiga/Mindlight/Live!/Invision combo 25 years ago. Thanks.

[Magic]

Ok thanks, the only thing that comes to mind immediately is that AMD processors and graphics cards seem to have more problems than Intel or Nvidia, both on Macs and PCs. They don't seem to be 100% compatible. And, when people write shaders, chances are they are writing them on an Intel or Nvidia machine, just because of the market dominance.

I'll try the shaders on my other Mac which has a Radeon and see what happens . What OS version are you running by the way?

[Rick]

OS X 10.6.8

[Magic]

Hmm, I see. Well, I would strongly recommend that you upgrade your OS X version, or at least do a dual-boot if you want to keep your existing one. Unlike Windows, the graphics card drivers are built-in to OS X, so you need to upgrade the whole OS to get updates unfortunately. I have personally seen quite different graphics behavior with the same Magic version on different OS X versions. If your whole computer is locking up just from certain shader code, it's probably an OS-level issue rather than any application-specific issue.

[Rick]

Hmmm, I have to ask... If you were going to buy a new Macbook Pro which one would you buy today?

edit: An older one with a Nvidia card, or are there any new options?

edit 2: I'm realizing mid 2014 with Nvidia GeForce GT 750 (2GB) may be the best option for now.

[Magic]

Honestly I haven't tested the new Macbook Pros so I'm not sure. But usually I recommend PCs over Macs because I think they are a better value, especially because of the graphics card options.

[Rick]

Thanks, I'll check some out.