Any Advice For Max Performance?

About SheepShaver, a PPC Mac emulator for Windows, MacOS X, and Linux that can run System 7.5.3 to MacOS 9.0.4.

Moderators: Cat_7, Ronald P. Regensburg, ClockWise

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MrMacintosh
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Joined: Mon Jan 27, 2020 6:10 am

Any Advice For Max Performance?

Post by MrMacintosh »

Hello folks. New fellow on board, and Please let me just say thank you to the folks behind SheepShaver. I'd heard of it for years but never tried it as I run my beloved classic Mac OS and software on real hardware, and it had never occurred to me that it could work well on my present stuff. I am running the latest release of SheepShaver on a 2010 MacBook Pro. All in all, I'm impressed and without shame, I almost cried when I realized I could have Appleworks and other stuff I use heavily now with me on the go. Seriously, I love all of you for the work and dedication this project has clearly taken.

I would like to know of any advice anyone may have for getting the optimal performance out of SheepShaver. I have learned for example that setting the RAM above 1200mb instantly crashes the application, whereas I was going for the maximum OS 9 could handle which was 2gb no?

Secondly, the "highest" (for lack of a better term) ROM that worked for me with SheepShaver displays under system profiler as a 100mhz PowerPC. Do we know of anything better that is still a compatible ROM?

Finally, would anyone care to share any suggested tweaks or the like to the configuration file that seem to help?

Personally, I've been running full screen at my display's max resolution, dynamic refresh rate, and it's somewhat smooth but then again, it isn't. I also notice that running meatier software is a challenge (I tried for example to run Myst and Doom as an experiment, and that was not a good experience.) Lighter stuff like Appleworks 6 runs really well however.

Cheers folks, very glad to be here.
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Cat_7
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Re: Any Advice For Max Performance?

Post by Cat_7 »

Hi, and welcome!

SheepShaver always runs as fast as it can on your hardware. So the 100 mhz information is only cosmetic. There is no rom making it faster.
As it has to "translate" everything that happens into Intel code, a way to speed it up is to make less happen.
If you can lower the resolution and/or color depth, that can help.

Best,
Cat_7
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Any Advice For Max Performance?

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

Also, setting RAM at very high values does not improve performance per se. It only allows more applications to run at the same time. 512MB is usually plenty.
MrMacintosh
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Re: Any Advice For Max Performance?

Post by MrMacintosh »

Hello fellows, thanks for the info.

I really hadn’t thought about the RAM thing too much. My system has 8gb so maxing it out was something I just did right away. So maybe it’s not perfect, but emulation via SheepShaver is really good. I even made a howto vid on my YouTube channel because why not?

Appreciate your time folks,’thank you.
Cheers.
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