Apple tweaks NVIDIA graphics software

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 28 January 2009 02:47

Opinion and Analysis

Some Mac Pro owners say Software Update is offering them the NVIDIA Graphics Update 2009 even though their computers are fitted with ATI graphics chips.

And some owners of late 2006 24in iMacs have downloaded and run the update only to be told that it is not required.

You can see why they are confused.

But at least one user has confirmed that the update does indeed improve HD video playback on a unibody MacBook Pro that's set to use the (notionally higher performing) 9600M.

An Apple Discussions user going by 'Provid' reports getting a full 24 fps when playing a HD movie after installing the update, rather than the previous 17-22 fps.

The bad news is that other users say an existing problem with external displays is made worse by installing the update.

So perhaps the often-seen advice to make a full backup before installing a system-level update could usefully be heeded in this case. A restore is probably the simplest way of reversing the update.