I hope we get all the functionality of the PC version of these drivers and similar performance.

<-- optimist.

^
| uninformed

When Windows has the same amount of computing happening in the graphics system, then you can complain about lack of performance. It's easy to be fast when you're not doing much.

Which features do you see missing?

Let me see, I have no control over things like FSAA. It is supported by my card, but OS doesn't let me configure it.

I am not complaining about the performance of the GUI. I am complaining about full screen gaming performance. *cough* WoW *cough*

Kickaha are you kidding. OS X can't do basic things like rotate the screen (NV Rotate.) And we all know the performance has a huge gap.

No, not in the least bit. Performance? Of what? The GUI in general? Fact: Windows asks very little of its GPU for the general GUI. MacOS X puts it through its paces, even with Terminal. It's going to seem slower simply because it's doing more. This falls under the 'duh' category.

Full screen games? Well, how are they rendered? OpenGL? CoreGraphics? QuickDraw(shudder)? OGL will see the best performance in most cases. What's the bus bandwidth for the GPU? How much RAM does that bad boy have? etc, etc, etc

I'm not claiming that MacOS X drivers are 100% on par with their Windows counterparts... only that the average load on the GPU is much higher under MacOS X, and the graphics card more highly tasked as a result. Claiming that performance sucks, or is badly lagging, without taking this into account is just lunacy.

(And really - care to explain why rotating the entire display 90deg is a *BASIC* feature??? I mean, WTH? It's a gee-whiz neato trick, and braindead simple with OGL, but... 1) why? 2) who the hell would do this?)

Kickaha, can you please explain something to me in regard to GPU performance of the Mac being that you seem to know so much about it? I have 1.25 GHz PB with 1GB ram. I bought the professional line because I believed (mistakenly so) that the professional line would offer professional performance. While I do not work for CNN or some graphics company, I do enjoy making small movies for the family and the occasional game now and then when I'm bored. Why is it, that a low-tech game like Age of Empires 2, with all the updates installed, lags when I try to use the Regular sized map and 100 people? Why is it that Real Myst is so choppy that it's unplayable? Why is it when I use iDVD that motion menues become choppy when I add a few small videos as motion menus? Even during this reply, in this little window, the fan turns on and the cursor can't follow my typing (lags) and I'm not a fast typer like you.

I understand that the GPU is doing more in Mac's than PC's, but is it too much to ask that a professional model computer be able to do such simple tasks? It feels to me that Apple is letting me down by selling me a professional laptop that doesn't perform in a professional manner. The games I listed above are hardly the most hardcore, even iDVD written by Apple doesn't impress me because it's so choppy. Please explain how their little rewrites are going to help me enjoy my computing experience.