PCI Extreme!
zacks@snet.net

What is it?
PCI Extreme! enables machines with PCI graphics and a compatible graphics card to use hardware acceleration in Quartz Extreme, the new compsoting engine in Mac OS 10.2, Jaguar.  It can enable the 8 MB chipsets in certain portables to work with Quartz Extreme as well.  This hack even allows both AGP and PCI busses to accelerate Quartz at the same time, giving an edge to those with dual monitor setups.  This install WILL require a restart.

What cards does it support?
PCI Radeon users rejoice! This hack will allow any PCI video card that is a counterpart to one that can utilize Quartz Extreme from the AGP bus.  Easy, eh? The hack PCI Extreme! performs will not allow older cards, such as the Rage II, Rage 128 Pro, Nexus, or any Voodoo or nVidia cards to utilize Quartz Extreme.

How to Install and use PCI Extreme!
The PCI Extreme! folder contains 7 items: this Readme, AGP and PCI Install, Radeon (8 MB) Install, the Restore package, the source, the Custom Install program and the Damage Control folder.  If you have a tower with a PCI Radeon card, install AGP and PCI Install.  If you have a portable Mac with a Radeon chipset with 8 MB of VRAM, install Radeon (8 MB) Install.  If you don't like the results of any hack, use the Restore package. If you have serious problems and cannot even boot into Mac OS X, use Damage Control, which you can read more about below.  The rest of the contents you'll find out more about later in this readme.

This here thang don't werk none!
First of all, if you see no marked improvement after installing a hack you should consider one of the following point.  You may not have a supported card.  Only monitors driven by PCI Radeons will see any improvement (well, and 8 MB Radeon portables too).  The hack might have worked just fine but you were looking for more.  I can't help you there.  If you're not sure if this hack worked, you can check out Quartz Extreme Check 1.1 to see if QE is working on your system.  You can find it here: http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=15911&db=mac

What's New in 1.3?
PCI Extreme! has reached its final release.  This download includes the patched easy install packages as well as the custom editing application.  I've tried to chase out all of the bugs in the program but it seems quite impossible.  Luckily the only remaining bug is intermittent.  Relaunching the program will be enough to temporarily defeat it.  I've also included the source of the program for you to use freely.  I'd love if you at least dropped me an email if you use it though.

Using the Custom Install
PCI Extreme! now has a fully functional application to customize any setting within Quartz Extreme's property list!  For those souls who are brave enough, try changing these settings to your heart's content.  You'll be fine if you keep an OS 9 CD handy to run Damage Control.  I'll quickly run through all of the UI elements.  The menu at the top contains a few defaults for you to play with.  The supported cards area contains three check boxes.  One for enabling AGP Cards, one for PCI, and another for the onboard graphics in portable systems.  Below are four options: Minimum VRAM, Minimum Depth, Tile Height, and Tile Width. The Minimum VRAM value determines how much Video Memory a card must have to work with Quartz Extreme. The Minimum Depth determines the fewest amount of colors you can set your display at and still have Quartz Extreme work. 1, 4, 16, and 32 bits are black and white, 16 colors, thousands of colors, and millions of colors respectively.  Tile Height and Width are still a mystery to me.  Just as a guess I would say that they determine the number of pixels Quartz processes at a time.  For improving performance through this feature, if it can be done, I would stick to square numbers like 64, 128, 256, 512, and 1024 if I were you.  Below that is the Apply and Restart button.  I don't know why I should bother explaining how to do this but here goes.  To apply you changes and restart, press Apply and Restart, press ok, type in your password, wait for the terminal to pop up, wait for a good 5 seconds and press restart again. Not too hard The Mac OS X developer tools are required to run PCI Extreme's Custom Install Application.

If that doesn't sound good, just stick with the good old easy packages :-)

Possible Problems
Hardware acceleration for Quartz Extreme on PCI machines has proven to boost performance by 5-15% when performing light tasks such as web browsing, e-mail, and word processing. However, it slows down heavy tasks such as encoding or decoding video, especially DVDs by up to 50%. This results in dropped frames, studdering audio, and video falling out of sync with audio. 

Bottom line: When the GUI is piped through the slower PCI bus it tends to choke up other tasks that require heavy processing.

In addition to this, many users have reported this hack ruining their video setting or even causing X to become unstable or unusable.  If this happens to you, use damage control and steer clear of PCI Extreme in the future.  Also, don't give me a poor review on Version Tracker if it refuses to work for you.  I've refined this process for a while now and at this point it isn't my fault.  Blame your dog or parents or something.

Damage Control
If you don't like the results of PCI Extreme's hack, just install the package to remove the hack.  If it completely hoses your system, you'll be glad to know that Damage Control is here. Inside the PCI Extreme! folder you'll find another folder called Damage Control.  Inside is a little Applescript that can be easily launched from MacOS 9 or even an OS 9 boot CD.  To use it, boot into OS 9, copy the "Damage Control" folder to your MacOS 9 desktop, open the folder and launch the script from there.  You'll be prompted to type the drive name that Mac OS X is on.  After it finishes you should be able to boot back into X, no problem.  If something is still wrong with X, it isn't my fault.  You cannot run Damage Control from OS X!  If Mac OS X is still working you should use the Restore package.

Have fun!

Original credit for this hack goes to IIci in this thread: http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=8300945231&m=7390915135

More credit goes to the MacAddict forum goers who contributed to this thread: http://www.macaddict.com/forums/Forum31/HTML/006376.html

Thanks T.J. Mahaffey from Spork Software for giving a non-programmer a shove in the right direction.

Thanks THEM from the MacAddict forums for your help with authentication.