Hi Bob,
I did not change the resolution of my whole screen. I only told Mac OS
to start Kicad.app in low resolution mode. (it makes all the children
start in that mode too)
This is how I solved it, see section "Retina display slow”
http://www.kicad-pcb.org/display/DEV/Known+System+Related+Issues
Obviously this can be also achieved by telling the OS to decrease the
resolution of the Retina display but then all applications will run at
lower resolution. This is not a good solution to the problem. I also
have an external screen which is not HiDPI and moving the window over
there makes it also run faster.
Also this has nothing to do with thunderbolt speed. Apple is usually
not selling stuff they can not drive. This is why the 5k iMac display
can not be used from an external computer but only from the built in
one. The speed issues are related to KiCad not being able to render so
many pixels not that the machine can not control the display. As I
assume the default and cairo views don’t use any hardware acceleration
and have to render all those pixels in software.
The OpenGL graphics mode is the only mode that has no issues rendering
on that display and is totally fine with the resolution. For default
view and even worse cairo I have to start in the “Low Resolution mode”
this way the software thinks the display is low resolution and has to
render much fewer pixels. The operating system then scales it up,
probably using hardware, so that it is not so tiny on the screen.
Also the only application I use that has speed issues on this display
is KiCad at the moment. I can’t wait to see OpenGL canvas be used
throughout KiCad so I can take advantage of the nice screen. :D But I
am totally fine with the lowres mode for now, just sharing the current
state of affairs. :)
I hope this clarifies the situation.
Cheers,
Piotr
--
Piotr Esden-Tempski
Founder, Embedded Systems Engineer
1 Bit Squared 'Professional Nano UAV Systems'
http://1bitsquared.com
On Apr 2, 2015, at 12:28 PM, Bob Gustafson <bobgus@xxxxxxx
<mailto:bobgus@xxxxxxx>> wrote:
Begin forwarded message:
Date: April 2, 2015 at 03:58:18 CDT
From: Bob Gustafson <bobgus@xxxxxxxxxx <mailto:bobgus@xxxxxxxxxx>>
To: Piotr Esden-Tempski <piotr@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:piotr@xxxxxxxxx>>,
Maciej Sumiński <maciej.suminski@xxxxxxx
<mailto:maciej.suminski@xxxxxxx>>
Cc: Adam Wolf <adamwolf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:adamwolf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>, "kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>"
<kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
Subject: Re: [Kicad-developers] Bob's Mac Usability Problems
Super - I will go out and get a standard PC logitech mouse.
According to the reports on the 5k iMac, you have 14.7 million
pixels with a resolution of 5,120x2,880 - very impressive. Bandwidth
to the screen is beyond Thunderbolt 2, so no wonder you have some
slowness moving pixels.
There may be an adjustment for resolution - so you can trade off
speed vs pixels.
The Preferences our Mac mini include an item for screen resolution.
It seems reasonable that if you cut the resolution, your screen
render time should speed up.
See attached tiff of preferences window.
<DisplayResolutionPrefs.tiff>
